Additionally, some recent dashboards also install a service that starts their dashboard, simply disable thse services to prevent his behaviour. Service names to look out for are 'DCservice.exe',

'Vodafone Mobile Broadband Service' and 'UI Assistant Service'.

Signal group

============

On the left is the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) in dBm, measured between -113dBm and -51dBm.

Next Mobile Country Code (MCC) and Mobile Network Code (MNC) of the operator to which your modem is registered.

Next is the operator's long alphanumeric name. Depending on device and SIM card, this information might not be available.

On the right is the Radio Access Technology; GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, HSUPA or HSD+UPA (High Speed Downlink and Uplink). It is normal for the HSxPA indicators to only appear while data is being transmitted and while the connection is idle, 3G or WCDMA is displayed.

Below this is a bar graph indicating the signal strength. The next line of information is information from the current base station; the Location Area Code, the Radio Network Controller Identifier (RNC ID), the Cell Identifier and checkboxes indicating whether the modem is currently registered and roaming. Recent Huawei modems also provide SNR values but it is not clear what they represent. Further information here:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/389765?p=7437935#post7437935

I now think that these two SNR values are the RSCP and Ec/Io respectively. Further information on signal strength (RSSI):

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/61703

Data Counters group (Huawei devices only)

=========================================

The volume of data transmitted and received in the current and last session is shown here. You can track your total usage here as well. The totals are stored in a file called 'usage.bin' located in the 'Common AppData' folder on your computer (normally C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MDMA in Win2K/XP, or C:\AppData\MDMA in Vista/Win7).

The 'Reset Session' button zeroes the current session data counters and adds to the totals, useful if you want to measure exactly how much bandwidth a particular operation uses. The 'Reset Total' button zeroes the totals, you can use this when you top-up or get a new data bundle or on your contract billing day.

Data Transfer Speed group (Huawei devices only)

===============================================

Here you can see your current upload and download speeds as well as the highest peak recorded. There is also a 10 second moving average which shows the average upload and download speed over the last 10 seconds. There are reset buttons for the peaks and the averages, these do not affect the data counters. If avilable, the negotiated QoS is also indicated here; this can vary according to your data plan, your modem, and even the particular base station you are attached to.

Connection Type group

=====================

Here you can switch your connection type between GPRS/EDGE Only, GPRS/EDGE Preferred, 3G/HSPA Only, or 3G/HSPA Preferred. This does not reset the modem and you can do this and stay online, provided you have coverage of the signal type you requested. For example, you could switch from 3G/HSPA to GPRS/EDGE to capture cellular broadcasts and then switch back to 3G/HSPA. This function works much better on Huawei cards; some older Option and Novatel cards or drivers sometimes require the card and/or your computer to be restarted before you can use them again. LTE modems also have the option of LTE Only and, LTE and 3G/HSPA Only (i.e. no GPRS/EDGE).

APN group

=========

You can view and set your default APN here, much easier than using a modem initialization string. If your modem does not have a default APN configured, it is automatically set to 'internet'. USSD Commands group

===================

You can enter USSD commands here, these are commands in the form *123# that are normally entered on your mobile phones's keypad. Clicking on 'USSD Help' will display a brief listing of some USSD commands offered by your operator (if available).

Sending a USSD command creates a session, some USSD services are billable, when you are finished, click the End Session button. USSD commands that don't require any further input automatically end the session, in which case the End Session remains greyed out.

You can send multiple USSD commands sepeated by commas, for example: *111#,1,6 for Vodacom pre-paid data bundle balance. MDMA will wait for a response before sending the next command.

Cellular Broadcast Messages group

=================================

Received cellular broadcast messages such as cell info, weather reports and base staion info are shown here. Not all operators provide 3G cell broadcasts, you might need to switch your sevice in GPRS/EDGE Only mode to receive them.

Start/Stop Logging

==================

This function logs signal strength, connection type, LAC, Cell ID and cellular broadcast messages to a comma-seperated-values (CSV) file. The signal strength is recorded in its raw format, as a number from 0 to 31 or 99 for no signal. To convert this number to dBm, multiply it by 2 and subract -113. LAC and Cell IDs are recorded in hexadecimal.

Device Info

===========

This interrogates your data device and SIM card, not all devices and SIM cards provide all of the information. 

About

=====

Some information about the program.

Reset Device

============

This instructs your device to do a full reset, you should notice that the device disappears from your operating system and gets detected again. Some older cards or drivers do not recover from a full reset gracefully and require you to restart your computer before they become operational again.

Connect / Disconnect

====================

This allows you to connect and disconnect from the internet using a network device (NDIS) or a dial-up networking (RAS) connection. MDMA will use NDIS if available, otherwise fall back to RAS by executing 'rasphone.exe -d MDMA'. Rasphone is a command line tool for dial-up networking which is part of your Windows installation. You must have a dial-up networking connection named 'MDMA' otherwise you will see the following message: 'Error 623: The system could not find the phone book entry for this connection.'. The behavior can be changed to that of older versions of MDMA (1.0.0.31 and earlier) by using the /dialmode command line switch (see command line options below). When you are online the button changes to Disconnect which disconnects the modem in the proper manner and reset the data counters for the current session and adds to the totals. (Huawei devices only)

Band Config

===========

This allows you finer control of the bands used by the modem than the Connection Type described above. Depending on your modem, you can enable and disable individual or groups of bands, e.g. GSM 900, UMTS 2100. This is currently available for Huawei and Sierra Wireless modems.

Band configuration of ZTE modems is currently disabled due to reports of these modems not enabling UMTS 900 when set to default settings. This can be enabled using a command line switch (at your own risk!).

Support

=======

Community support is available on MyBroadband forum in the following thread:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/59080

Command line options

====================

/? displays command line help

/port:COM<x> skip device autodetection and use the specified port if /commandset is not specified, only 3GPP standard commands are used

/commandset specify which command set to use (overriding the automatically detected command set)

<command set> may be one of: Standard, Huawei, Option, Novatel, Sierra, Nokia, ZTE, Icera or Longcheer

/ussd:<mode> specify the USSD decoding mode, the default is automatic,

<mode> may be: Plain, PDU, Hybrid (send Plain/receive PDU), Packed7 or Unicode

/opsel:<mccmnc> select manual or automatic network operator selection where <mccmnc> is the network operator's MCC/MNC for manual, or 0 for automatic

/sessionlog keeps a log of data used per session

/speedlog keeps a log of signal information and transfer speeds

/diaglog enable diagnostic logging

/hexqos enables display of QoS values in raw hexadecimal format (debug)

/nopollcid disables Cell ID polling (debug)

/nocbm: do not enable CBM reception (debug)

/hwunlock:<code> send 6 or 8-digit network operator unlock code (Huawei only)

/hwstorage:<x> send ^U2DIAG command to control emulated CD-ROM and Micro-SD card (Huawei only) values of <x> for most devices:

0: disable CD-ROM and Micro-SD

1: enable CD-ROM only

255: enable CD-ROM and Micro-SD

256: enable Micro-SD only

/zstorage:<x> send +ZCDRUN command to control emulated CD-ROM and Micro-SD card (ZTE only) some known values of <x>:

8: disable autorun (modem appears when plugged in)

9: enable autorun (only CD-ROM appears when plugged in) 

E: enable download mode (CD-ROM does not appear when plugged in)

F: disable download mode (CD-ROM appears when plugged in)

/zband: enable band configuration dialog (ZTE only)

/swregion:<x> set PRL region for band scanning (Sierra Wireless only) some known values of <x>:

0: All Regions

1: Europe

2: North America

3: Australia

4: Japan

/dialmode:<mode> specify the dial mode, where <mode> may be on of: Auto use NDISDUP if available, or a RAS connection named MDMA (default) RAS pop up a dialog for choosing a RAS connection as in

MDMA 1.0.0.31 and earlier MDMA only use a RAS connection named MDMA NDISDUP only use NDISDUP