Vodacom 3G router woes
I finally got around to poking at my 3G router to figure out why the hell the "Connect" button on the web interface was always greyed out. Here's the email, sent from Vodacom's web interface. Note, in particular, the disclaimer on the top of the page source...
Good day,
When using my vodafone-branded Linksys WRT54G3G router (Firmware Version :
v1.99.8) the "connect" button on the "Setup/Basic Setup" screen is always
disabled. This means I have to push the hardware connect button on the
router every time I want to connect, which is often awkward and
inconvenient. Since I don't run Windows, which is the reason I got the
router instead of just the data card, using Internet Explorer isn't an
option for me.
While trying to diagnose the problem, I had a look at the page source and
was rather disturbed at the unnecessarily heavy reliance on JavaScript,
which makes cross-browser compatibility rather more difficult and makes
client-side scripts to fix this kind of thing almost impossible.
Also disturbing was the disclaimer at the top of the page source,
particularly the "not intended for production use" clause:
I'm not really sure what this actually means, but it implies sloppiness at
best.
I realise that Vodacom has little to do with the router and its firmware,
but I have no easy way to contact either Vodafone, Linksys or CyberTAN about
this.
Thanks,
--
Jeremy Thurgood
Update:
I go a phone call from a Vodacom tech the other day. Turns out the problem's a bug in the data card drivers and/or firmware. It's not returning some information the webapp wants before it enables the connect button.
Good day,
When using my vodafone-branded Linksys WRT54G3G router (Firmware Version :
v1.99.8) the "connect" button on the "Setup/Basic Setup" screen is always
disabled. This means I have to push the hardware connect button on the
router every time I want to connect, which is often awkward and
inconvenient. Since I don't run Windows, which is the reason I got the
router instead of just the data card, using Internet Explorer isn't an
option for me.
While trying to diagnose the problem, I had a look at the page source and
was rather disturbed at the unnecessarily heavy reliance on JavaScript,
which makes cross-browser compatibility rather more difficult and makes
client-side scripts to fix this kind of thing almost impossible.
Also disturbing was the disclaimer at the top of the page source,
particularly the "not intended for production use" clause:
I'm not really sure what this actually means, but it implies sloppiness at
best.
I realise that Vodacom has little to do with the router and its firmware,
but I have no easy way to contact either Vodafone, Linksys or CyberTAN about
this.
Thanks,
--
Jeremy Thurgood
Update:
I go a phone call from a Vodacom tech the other day. Turns out the problem's a bug in the data card drivers and/or firmware. It's not returning some information the webapp wants before it enables the connect button.