Updates on Globe Visibility

I still can't get a decent connection from my Globe Visibility up to this time of writing. Globe's Corporate Solutions Department which handles the Visibility account still can't find an answer to this problem of mine, and just recently I found out that it was not only me who was having this kind of problem. I am getting frustrated with this kind of service from a company who prides itself of giving quality services to its valued subscribers.

I did my own testing just to find out if the problem was isolated in my area because one of the customer service representative suggested to me that it could be related to the location. I went to Greenbelt 3 to test my Globe Visibility connection using my Huawei E220 modem. I had a 5 bars UMTS signal strength as indicated by Mobile Connect and so when I connected it was HSDPA. Lo and behold I still had the same connection problem. I then went to the Globe Platinum Lounge situated at the Digital Exchange in Glorietta and tried it also there and still the same problem persisted. I then tried using Globequest WIZ and I got a very good and fast connection and no more of those timed-out error messages.

So my last step is to go to their office at Globe Telecoms Tower in Pioneer St., Mandaluyong and have them take a look at it themselves.

Invisible Globe Visibility

To those who are suffering a very slow connection or timed out connection with your Globe Visibility plan, you are not alone! I have been experiencing this problem for three days now and counting. Until now no one can give me a definitive answer on why this is happening or what is causing this or what steps they are doing to remedy this. The best advice they can give me is to switch my Huawei E220 connection from HSPDA to GPRS, well that's one great advice (NOT!). If I wanted to have a slow connection then I would have sticked with a dial-up or at best PLDT's WeRoam. I do get an HSDPA connection which from their ads I should have a download speed of up to 1.4 Mbps, but sadly I don't. What I get are error messages like "Page cannot be displayed, or "Timed Out", or "website taking too long to respond." In other words no data is being downloaded!

Another thing to note to those of you planning to switch or get a Visibility plan is that they don't have a technical support hotline. They have people to answer your call but these people are not trained specifically to answer technical queries regarding their wireless data service. I salute these people for trying their best to give me an answer, but this is not what I expected from Globe. They charged everyone who avail of this service 2,000 pesos for installation fee without installing anything but they should at the very least spent that money to train people to assist us, Visibility subscribers.

I am publishing this to serve as a warning to those who are thinking of switching from their current fix wire broadband connection to Globe Visibility. Don't do it just yet, basing it from my experience with Globe they still are not ready to support this type of service. If having an Internet connection is a necessity for you please veer away from getting this service, stick to fix wire broadband connection.

Still Doesn't Work? Try this!

For those of you out there who read my blog on installing their Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem running on Windows Vista and still can't make it work, this might help.

1. After running the Autorun.exe and having it install Mobile Connect on your PC, and Vista still doesn't install your device, go to the Control Panel, click on Classic View, then click on Device Manager.
   
2. Then have the Device Manager scan your PC for any hardware changes and it will install two devices, one is Huawei USB Mass Storage and it is under DVD/CD-ROM drives and USB Mass Storage device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers. Now don't worry if it still doesn't see it as a 3G modem, it usually doesn't on the first try.
   
3. Now restart your PC but you might need to remove physically your Huawei E22o from the USB port.
4. After restarting your PC, insert your Huawei E220 to the same USB port where you placed it while installing it on Step 2.
5. Go back to the Control Panel and Device Manager and again have it scan your PC for any hardware changes.
   
6. Now look under the group Universal Serial Bus controllers and you will notice that a USB Mass Storage device has a mark/icon indicating that it has a conflict.
7. Right-click on it and choose Uninstall.
8. Now have the Device Manager scan your PC again for any hardware change and for sure it will now detect your Huawei Mobile Connect - 3G Modem. You can see it under the Modems group.
   

Huawei E220 USB modem on Windows Vista

For other Globe Visibility subscribers that would want to upgrade to Windows Vista but where being told that the Huawei E220 USB modem either won't work on Vista or would have conflicts for its drivers, I have a work around for you.

For those of you who tried inserting your Huawei E220 USB modem to the your PC running on Windows Vista and have encountered it being detected as a CD-ROM don't fret. Don't try to open it either as Vista would tell you that it is corrupted.

SOLUTION:

First you will need a removable storage device(portable hard disk, flash drive or sd card) to make this work. After you have secured yourself a removable storage drive insert your Huawei E220 into a PC not running Windows Vista,

Go to My Computer, right click on the drive for your Huawei E220 and click Open.

Copy all files and folder from your Huawei E220 to your removable storage device.

Insert your removable storage device to your PC running on Windows Vista and open it.

Click on the file Autorun.exe (it is seen by Vista as an application) and let it install the Mobile Connect.

Restart your PC. After Windows Vista starts insert your Huawei E220, and Vista will start to install the drivers needed by the device.

If it says that it has successfully installed the device drivers, run Mobile Connect it will detect the wireless device. Now create the profile as per Globe's instructions and click on connect. Note: you might need to restart the PC if your Huawei E220 is still not being seen by Mobile Connect.

Try it. It worked for me, it could worked for you and if it does send me an email and spread the word, information should be free.