Access Connections questions.....

[ChrisG3]

Before I ask the questions, I should explain what I am trying to do a variety of IBM laptops/tablets running Windows XP Pro/Tablet SP3 and using Access Connections:

Connect to aircard wireless via Verizon/US Cellular air card (both Pantech UWM 190's); launch/connect to a network using Cisco's VPN and then login normally.

So far, I have not been able to get Access Connections (5.2 to 5.72) to work with the aircards that we use. With that, here are my questions:

1) Is this even possible using those cards? If so, how?

2) Why are the selections of Mobile Broadband and Wireless USB greyed out, since the cards are techically either?

3) If it is a driver issue for the Pantech's, does anyone know of any plans for IBM/Lenovo to provide drivers for the Pantech or other USB based aircards? If so, when??

NOTE: One can change the Cisco client to do this AND you can trick the Verizon software to do this. However, both are incredibly slow and the later is utterly unreliable (greyed out UserID's/Password, mind-numbing flashes, functionality goes away, etc.)



Chris

[Tõnis]

I use a Sprint Mobile Broadband air card, and my experience with it is that AC will not allow me to treat the usb modem as a "location." I think I remember reading that Lenovo laptops only recognize their own proprietary WWAN cards as locations. Even so, I'm using Access Connections now, and the way I use the air card is I just plug it in and wait for it to connect. Usually when it does, an AC screen will come up asking if I want to set it as a location, or disregard it because "ethernet ports will not be used in location switching" or something to that effect. I've tried to "disregard" it, but AC doesn't remember it next time and asks again, and I've tried to set it as a location, but the air card doesn't allow AC to fully control it; they're somehow incompatible. Therefore, I just click cancel and proceed to use the air card.

I have my air card set up for "NDIS." That means it operates as a network adapter without the need to open the Sprint connection manager program. In the past, I had a problem with AC on occasion spiking the processor to 50% upon unplugging the air card. When that happened, nothing except terminating the process in task manager would fix it. I haven't had it happen since my last OS reload, but I've also been using the "safe to unplug device" feature in the tray ...