Gobi 1000 what SIM card in British Columbia

Has anybody been able to use the Gobi 1000 WWAN setup in the Toughbooks with SIM cards from British Columbia Canada service providers such as Telus or Cantel. I'm tired of the damn Sierra Stick. They work but why have this thing sticking out if theres a better way? Thanks for your help..........

Frustrated Newbie !

 

Forget BELL or TELUS as they are EVDO , no sim cards are used for EVDO
The only local provider that has Sim cards is Rogers
I think with GOBI it should work
Is your Toughbook a Canadian model ?

 

Alex thanks for the reply but the thing is that I know for sure that Bell has SIM cards because showed me one and I slipped it in but it did nothing. Also Telus tells me that they have them as well now. Yes I beleive my CF30K is Canadian as there's a sticker on the bottom saying CANADA 310. Of course I'm just assuming that this would indicate a Canadian model. I'm not real savy with this stuff and this has got me quite stumped. Do you know of anyone using the Gobi in B.C. on the Rogers network? Anyhow thanks again hope I can figure this out with some help.

 

1-800-263-5008
That is the Canadian number for Panasonic Toughbook support

Best to talk to them directly as Panasonic Canada will know what providers the Gobi wwan works with and what software is needed to get it to work

I am really getting out of date if telus/bell have moved on from EVDO to sim cards

I think it may be time to upgrade my rotary dial cell phone

 

Yup! Bell canada uses a sim card now as a matter of fact I used one before on blackberry storm(locked) from Bell and it has a sim card. But after a couple of months I decided to change to fido and I unlocked the BB storm in order to use on fido .

BC..outpost, I think originally your unit has 5725modem same as the one I bought 6 months ago. The latest modem that I know here in canada is the EU860 from mobilink. I have eu740 that I used in asia(phils.) a month ago using a local sim card there for cellphone and when I want to surf the net. I just pulled it out on a cell..phne and slide it in on the sim slot on my cf-19.


ohlip

 

I'll try that Alex. Thanks
As for I believe it's Teo judging by the user name. (I bought keyboard from you a while back Chris from the Island) How about you? Have you heard of anybody using the Gobi 1000 in B.C. You seem to be right up on thing as well as the Toughbooks.

Chris

 

Oh! Hi Chris..I know that you are looking for a digitizer stylus for cf-19. Are u still hunting? I ask coz one of our friends here and on the other forum give us a link where to find a cheaper stylus not oem by panasonic but it is the exact specs and size that can perfectly slide in on the stylus slot fo cf-19 toughbook. Let us know.

ohlip

 

Thanks Chris for those kind words lol

Were you the fellow I talked to on the phone before , early last spring ?

I would suggest you post your full model # so we can look it up to confirm Gobi and maybe find the part # for the modem

 

No Alex I'm not the dude you spoke with but I am definetely the dude who appreciates any help I can get on this issue and probably others. I tried panasonic support but after listening to just about enough Mozart/Betoven for one day I was passed on to the wrong department then tranferred to the right departments voice mail and waiting for a reply. You know the drill. The model of my CF30 is CF30KTPRQ2M.

Thanks
Chris

 

That CF-30 mk-3 has all the options

Hopefully Gobi will live up to the multi carrier standards that it was supposed to be

Being in Canada you never know what to expect

 

I know of several companies who use Gobi throughout the world, so if you chuck in a Canadian SIM card, surely it's just a case of correctly configuring Windows to dial out using it (forgive my naivety if wrong!).

In Europe, all I have to do is insert the SIM card, then configure Windows DUN to dial out using *99***1# (usually with a user//pass of web//web), and in Device Manager configure the modem to use an extra initialisation string of:

at+cgdcont=1,"ip","<APNHERE>"

If you are using it in Canada with a Canadian SIM, surely it's going to be a pretty similar process to above to connect, and just using the APN for Rogers that you are using?

Using SIM cards in the Toughbooks makes life nice and easy as far as I'm concerned!

 

Thanks for the encouragement. It's better that what PanSupport had to say they don't seem to think that the Gobi 1000 will be supported by Canadian carriers but the Gobi 2000 is unfortunately they don't have the 2000 to fit the CF30. I find this strrange because the modem IMEI # is supported by Telus when I checked on their web site go figure. Well I think the only way to find out is to buy a SIM card have it activated, figure out how to get it to dial up and see what happens. The other option they said is to pull the Gobi and have Panasonic install a HSDPA modem that they claim they may still have for a short time only. Are they stringing me a line or is that what users are doing to have the CF30 use SIM card in Canada? Has anyone installed one of these?

Chris

 

The Gobi 1000 device does support HSDPA (up to 7.2!), as well as GPRS/edge (and evdo I think). It's one of the reasons Panasonic selected the Gobi device I think as it means they can use the same modem globally which obviously reduces a few headaches!

 

Thanks again for the encouraging input. It all makes sense to me, that Panasonic would chose this system for global convenience, this is why I find it so frustrating that there is no definitive answer from Panasonic, Telus, Rogers etc. as well as from other users that have experience using the device in Canada specifically British Columbia. Like I said I will just have to experiment and hope for some results.

 

Again, I'm not sure how mobile network stuff works over in Canada, but if you're not using one of the network connection managers, there is a "Toughbook Connection Manager" (not tied to any specific mobile networks, allows you to enter user/pass/apn settings etc etc) application you should be able to get I think, which makes life a bit easier then messing round with dial up networking settings.

 

BC-Outpost..Don't give up. You've still hope with Gobi 1000. My question is: Did your unit recognize the modem? Let me know coz I received a unit cf-19MK3 unit with dead mbo. and it has a gobi 1000. I pulled it out and installed to my CF-19MK1 of course with necessary switching on the dip switches and it finds the modem. Then I downloaded the CSA ap..from Panny and installed all the necessary software including the AT&T app..(for GSM). What I found out is using the at&t app..cation mgr. you can create from there your own configuration depending on what courier you are in. It only need a sim card and VPN from the courier. There is also Sierra wireless connection manager that you can configure if your courier is CDMA.


ohlip

 

Sorry for not staying on this I've been gone for a few days. To answer Teo question. Yes, the modem does show up in device manager. Also as an update Panasonic support finally did get back to me and said they can help and just need me to give them an account#, carrier and sim card # and they should be able to get things sorted out. Well I went out and got a Bell SIM card activated under a data plan as if it were a stick and sent the info to Panasonic and will wait to see what they come up with. In the meantime I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope I did not waste my $ on the activation fee.

 

Teo I went through the same steps as you did and got the modem working and showing up active in Device Manager. Thats all good next I chose AT&T as the carrier and got to where you can create a custom profile this is where I'm lost my SIM is a Bell network HSDPA the IMEI# of the modem checks out compatible with this network according to the Bell web site.......... So where do I go from here I feel real close but also out of my league and stumpped. Any suggestions out there???????

 

Its only a matter of configuration. Ask Bell your VPN and then edit your own profile.

I've been into this during my travel a month ago. I used a sim card local from where I've been and then they gave me VPN to access. I created my own profile based on mobilink software and after a few adjustment and entering the vpn. I'm on the internet. But its cost me some hair pulling before I figure it out. trial and error is my secret.

ohlip

 

Forgive me for probably splitting hairs...but do you actually get a VPN to use on 3G in US/Canada, or do you mean the APN?

 

My bad, Oh yah! its APN


teo
what the h..l i'm talking about, Lol

 

Teo thats okay all it did was throw a lot of confusion in the Bell tech support dude I was talking to hounding for the darn VPN number. And beleive me I insisted that he had to cough it up but he just did not understand it was quite amusing. The good news is that during the discussion he gave me the APN, the dial up # and the user name I was to enter and while waiting for the poor guy to dig up the VPN info and consulting with his staff about the idiot he had on the line I configured a custom profile using the AT&T connection manager and what do you know it works and it works beautifully!!!!

Well I wish to thank all of you on the forum for the help and encouragement and now we all know the Gobi 1000 DOES WORK in Canada on Bell and probably other networks. As soon as Telus sets up it's HSDPA sites here and has the SIM cards I will try it and see what happens.

Chris

 

Glad to here that, man! I expected that, its only a matter of configuration. For telus, You may use the verizon connection manager and you know what to do next.


ohlip

 

Nice result