I need my mobile internet. Sometimes I sit at a café and scribble down some stuff, and of course I need to look something up on the Internet. Or just check my mail. Or whatever. It's no secret, that I just want a mobile internet connection that works.

So this issue with the excessive writing to disk from the 3Connect software described in a previous posting really nags me. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable when I'm online, and this frustration prompted me to dig a little further for a solution:

As far as I know and can count, we're more or less at generation three of the modems, that "3" has been selling. They are:

1. 3.6 Mbit modem packaged with HUAWEI Mobile Connect software.
2. 7.2 Mbit modem (actually just a firmware upgrade of the 3.6 Mbit modem) packaged with HUAWEI Mobile Connect software.
3. 7.2 Mbit modem packaged with Birdstep Technology software.

The 3Connect client from Birdstep Technology that I got with my 3. gen. modem looks like this:

It's a rather neat and cool looking client, and does what it's supposed to do in a simple fashion. Nice!

The HUAWEI does the same thing, but maybe lacks a little on the eye candy side... but that's not my focus here:

Now, here's what I did. First I tried to look for other software at "3's" own web site. But when it comes to modems of my generation, it just states that the software is included on the modem, which makes sense since upgrades apparently are made through an upgrade agent inside the software.

So, in the hope that maybe one of the previous clients wouldn't be so rough on my hard disk, I grabbed the software from my sisters gen. 2. modem and tried installing it.

Please, before you consider doing the same thing, remember that you yourself is responsible for you own computer and your broadband modem. Don't come crying to me (or 3, for that matter) if you mess it up.

I copied the software from her modem to a local drive. From there, I ran the Setup.exe file under the Mobile Connect folder.

The install wizard ran for a couple of minutes. After successful installation I started the HUAWEI sotfware. It found my USB modem right away, and within minutes I was online.

Everything was looking fine. I was excited, because maybe this would provide me with an interim solution to circumvent the logging untill "3" evetually would surface with a reply to my feedback. However, just to be sure that this solution was really the success I was hoping for, I started up Process Monitor to check for similar logging from the HUAWEI software.

Unfortunately the HUAWEI also has logging every second, however not with so much in depth information as with the 3Connect software.  The file it writes to can be found in this path (or similar):

C:\Program Files\Huawei technologies\Mobile Connect\scheme.cfg

The content of the scheme.cfg file looks like this:

The whole file is written every second, however, as far as I can see, it's only the last three lines that are updated. You can see the Process Monitor output here: Huawei.CSV (2,4 MB)

So, in conclusion, I still don't really have a solution to the excessive logging issue. What's more scary is that for all the 3 mobile broadband users out there, 2. or 3. gen., their disks are written to 60 times every minute they're online. That's a really scary thought!

Now we're all left to hope for a software update from "3" or that I get a reply to my mail that explains what configuration file I can tamper with to stop it (or that I am mistaken, which would be just as good :)). Be assured, that if "3" returns with such information, I'll post it here on my blog right away. Stay tuned...

Update: Maybe there's hope after all ... read more!

(For all articles related to 3Connect click here.)