Dial up Networking Error 678 (Sprint PC-5740)

harlan.koehn · EVDO Newbie Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 5

Recently I had a very bad experience with Sprint and a PC-5740. I'm posting here in case someone else runs into the same problems. This is perhaps more like a story than a request for help, but I hope others find it informative and helpful.

I'm hoping to help anyone that gets the dread error message:
Dial Up Networking Error #678. The remote computer did not respond.

My boss bought a Sprint PC-5740 to use to connect to the network at the office through a VPN. He is somewhat technically savvy, and since these cards aren't that difficult to install, he proceeded to do it himself. He installed it in a PIII Sony Vaio Notebook with 128 MB RAM and Windows XP Home edition.

He successfully unlocked/activated the PC-5740, but as soon as he tried to connect he was met with a Windows dial up networking error, #678. He spent several hours trying to get it to work, uninstalling and reinstalling the connection manager etc. He also spent over an hour on the phone with tech support where they too had him uninstall and reinstall the software. Sprint tech support finally told him that he may have some conflicting hardware/software on his computer.

Since I am currently running my own computer repair business, (and working part time for the above-mentioned), my boss brought the notebook to me with the message from Sprint tech support that there may be a hardware/software conflict on this machine. My boss had noticed that I was running some network programs on his notebook, like DynDNS updater and PCAnywhere Host, and he suggested that maybe something like that could be the problem.

I closed DynDNS updater and PCAnywhere and turned off the anti-virus and the firewall, but the problem continued. I checked the dial-up connection that Sprint's card automatically configures in your Network Connections, and it was trying to dial out on the internal phone modem. I switched the checkbox so it would use the Sprint card. Still, the error continued. At this point I went into the Device Manager and disabled both the phone modem and the built-in ethernet. Still error #678.

At this point I moved outside to a location that had better signal. Still error #678.

Somewhere in here I noticed that the card is registered in the device manager as Curitel, not Sprint PC-5740. The manual that comes with the 5740 states quite clearly that you will see three instances in the control panel, each labeled Sprint PC-5740. At this point I began to wonder if I had the correct installer.

The next step was to talk to tech support. Having troubleshoot most everything that tech support would have me do, I knew I was in for a run-around. Most tech support centers today assume that:
(A) You just completed your first day in first grade
(B) You didn't read the manual
(C) Your problem is actually a simple one
(D) You don't know anything about anything
(E) You didn't troubleshoot the issue at all before calling in
(F) Rebooting is called troubleshooting (sad that with Windows it can be true)
(G) You and your family and your boss and all your friends are jerks
(H) You enjoy speaking to and taking instructions from people that you can't understand and people that can't understand you and that have no humor in their life
(I) You love talking to India (In case you didn't understand H)
(J) In case I didn't mention it, you don't know anything about anything
(K) Last but not least, you have copious amounts of time and love to spend it on tech support phone calls

Because tech support probably does get people calling in that fit all of the above mentioned, they generally assume that everyone is like this.

I attempted several calls to tech support. Each time I was met by two support representative who serve as "doorways" to get to the person you really want to talk to. Having a phone number in hand that was supposed to get me directly to the Advanced Technical support team made no difference.

In the first couple calls I had some personal issues that caused me to drop the call before getting connected. Towards 10PM Eastern I was holding for an agent. After 59 minutes I got transferred to the Advanced Technical Support team. A few moments later I was listening to dial-tone. "Better check out that new VOIP system, Sprint IT!" Patience is a virtue.

So I called in the next morning at about 7:40 Eastern but was told that the office didn't open until 8:00 AM Eastern. Shortly after 8:00 I called again and this time I got to Mike in the Advanced Technical Support department within just a few minutes.

I spent 47 minutes troubleshooting the issue with Mike. He was patient and helpful and he spoke good American English. (I don't discriminate on such issues. I even love listening to British and Australian accents but when it comes to handling technical issues, it's important that both parties understand each other.)

I told Mike what was wrong and what I had done to troubleshoot the issue. At some point Mike understood that I did know a little something about something and didn't tell me how to get to the device manager or the control panel. Valuable tech support time can be wasted by the tech support people explaining to you how many twips to move the mouse over and then which finger to use to click the key or mouse button and how hard to click it and how fast to click it etc. If they tell me to go to the device manager, I'll be there much faster than they had first imagined, but since I don't know anything about anything...

I told Mike that my device was showing up as Curitel in the device manager. At this point he understood (and I didn't catch on) that I had manually installed the drivers myself and chosen whatever the harry looked like the right ones to me, an incorrect assumption. So, we uninstalled the device drivers and the connection manager and rebooted. I might mention that this computer is a few years old already and speed is not its forte. More time wasted.

Now we proceeded to install the software and drivers again. This time, we downloaded the file from Sprint's download site, www.sprint.com/downloads I never did confirm it, but I believe the file I downloaded to be no different than the one on the CD that came with the PC-5740. When I asked a question about the drivers, Mike informed me that the file I downloaded was "one big driver". I restated this to myself in my own mind, "ONE BIG driver" indeed. I don't understand why manufacturers are isolating their drivers nowadays. Try finding a driver-only for many products, like a PC-5470 or an HP PSC 2210 multi-function, and you'll see what I mean. The HP multi-function requires a 166MB download. "ONE BIG driver". For the PC-5740, the file I dowloaded was an .msi file and I don't know that a person could do a manual install of the device and it's drivers without running the .msi file and installing the connection manager. In this case, your card probably wouldn't work without the connection manager, but the theory of removing control from the user to prevent "dumbness" is one that frustrates me and, in my mind, makes the Mfg's full of "dumbness".

As a side note, I might mention that at this point I still have the modem and Ethernet disabled to prevent any possible conflicts.

Now we installed the connection manager and the drivers, then rebooted. After rebooting, I inserted the PC-5740 into the PC II slot and it registered as a Curitel device. After explaining this to Mike, he now accepted it that the device does have the right drivers installed even though it is called Curitel in the device manager. I might also mention now that I'm fully aware that Curitel does make the PC-5740, but why the conflicting information in the manual?

Next we tried dialing out. And we received the dreaded error #678. At this point we troubleshot a little deeper. We clicked in the area of the connection manager that is usually your information center, saying things like "Connecting" or "Disconnected". After clicking in it, we held down the shift key and pressed 33DATA. That is "##DATA", with now quotes or commas. A window appeared that let us configure our device manually. In here the IP addresses were all 0.0.0.0 and the password fields just contained the word "Set". Mike informed me that this information was incorrect and that the device should have received this information from the towers. We set the bottom two IP addresses to the correct ones, (I have no record of what that was) and then we set up the password. Now we tried again, only to be met with the same error #678. Finally Mike began to check our Roam settings. He (incorrectly?) informed me that Sprint doesn't have any roaming agreements with other companies on their data cards yet and that service in our area (Reading, PA) is very, very spotty. After checking his maps (these maps are not available to the public he said), he confirmed that I am in a roaming area and whenever I'm in Roam, I'll have no service whatsoever. The final analysis on this support call was that the card would be in roam quite often in our area and that we could expect service to be spotty. Move to an area that has service and see if it works then.

We, my boss and I, returned the card to the local shop we had purchased it from, and since we know them well, we told them of all our woes. The lady of the place started to do more research and contacted her sales representative. Later in the day Bill, the sales rep, called me and informed me that I had been misinformed. He says these cards work well all over in our area here. Of course, there is not EVDO coverage everywhere, but I should be able to get on their 3g network most anywhere. After some discussion with Bill, we decided that the card is faulty and we will get another one on order to see how and if it works.

I must mention that I did install this card on another Notebook and had the same error messages.

I'll try to report back here as to how the rest of this "story" goes.

5Bars · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 29

Have your boss request a Merlin S620 card this go-round. This card seems to have greater flexibility and reliability than Sprint's other two offerings. Also, try checking out a great online resource http://modemhelp.net and more specifically http://modemhelp.net/dunerror/dunerrorcodes.shtml for help on DUNRAS errors like 678. The site pertains more to traditional dial up modems, but you might sniff out a clue or two. I work on a military LAN and we have a comprehensive knowledge center, but this site has been a great life saver for me on more than one occasion.

Michael · Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 6:09 pm Post subject:

Yes Curitel is the maker of the PC5740 and that is how Windows will recognize it.

According to the links above, and error #678, indicates there was no answer on the remote end.

Stupid question, how many bars of signal are you getting?
_________________
EVDO :: EVDO News :: EVDO Antennas :: Buy Verizon :: Buy Sprint :: EVDO Amplifier

harlan.koehn · EVDO Newbie Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 5

Generally two to three, sometimes four. I've tested in low-signal and good-signal enviroments and it didn't seem to make any difference. Does "bars" on the indicator tell you that 3g is available? Or does it just mean that GSM/GPRS/CDMA is available? Not sure which data packaging the 5740 uses.

harlan.koehn · EVDO Newbie Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 5

This problem has now been solved. The store we bought the card from gave us a paper with the MID and the MSID. The last 3 digits in the MSID were transposed. After tech support discovered this for me, we fixed the problem and the card works great now.

I'm a little surprised that the software (and tech support) don't at least partially detect or suggest this kind of error. But I guess it is pretty normal for error messages to be very generic, as this one was.

Michael · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks for following up and posting the solution to your problem. I am sure this post will help others that have the same Error 678. If you search in Google for :

PC5740 error 678

This thread comes up first, so thanks!
_________________
EVDO :: EVDO News :: EVDO Antennas :: Buy Verizon :: Buy Sprint :: EVDO Amplifier

Stillfly13 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 6

I too was plagued by this error shortly after playing around with my settings for the first time when I installed the new SCM software.

I spent many hours on the phone with tech support and ATS to no avail.

I have 2 laptops, same error on both.

Card is Pantech PX-500

So i finally wen to a sprint store and they ordered me a new card (at a $55 charge).

Card came in, no dice/same error.

I finally suggested that they try to reprovision my account all together, and as murphy's law would have it, their in-store network goes down on the whole west coast... store sales rep calls in to get account reprovisioned, but they won't do it for him...

I leave my card with the rep, and he is supposed to re-provision it when the network comes up...

A day passes...

I get a call and....

IT WORKS!

No one ever had any idea on the problem, but since it wasn't the card, and it wasn't the computer, story goes.... IT'S THE ACCOUNT!
(although, it could have very well been an HA address or MIP #, that no one thought to check. I was supprised that no one ever just took me through each screen in ##DATA and said fill in these blanks...)

Regardless, it is worth noting that it may be easier to get a store rep to re-provision your account than to get a tech to figure out what setting is incorrect.

I found this other user that has had a similar issue for several months and tried to PM him, but I have not posted enough times to PM anyone, so if you found this helpful and are feeling generous, please PM this guy and tell him to try this:

aiwtech · EVDO Newbie Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all the info posted. I wanted to share my experience I had with a Novatel S720 Sprint card.
I followed all the advice given on this post and called support, but could not resolve problem (error 678 kept showing up). Turns out that the person in charge of the accounts (corporate) with Sprint, had ordered some of the cards to be placed on "standby status". Apparently the wrong number was given to Sprint. Once Sprint was notified of the mistake, in less than 5 minutes they took the card off the "standby status" and all I had to do was close the Connection Manager application and restarted before I could connect again.
Moral of the story, make sure you check with the account administrator that the card account is still active before you go to the trouble of fixing the problem. Also, "standby status will result in error 678 message".