Huawei needs a punch in the face

huawei-ad

How? by not buying a Huawei EC121, of course!

Seriously Huawei.  Your firmware engineers need a huge punch in the face. And then some re-education.  With firmware version 11.100.17.00.114 at least, there are two complete stupidities that deserve a huge public mocking.

First, the response to AT+GCAP is simply “+CIS707-A, +MS, +ES, +DS, +FCLASS”.  No, it’s not prefixed with “+GCAP: ” like every other modem on the planet that I’m pretty sure the relevant standards (TIA/EIA/IS-131, TIA/EIA-602, and V.250) require:

Extended syntax result codes shall be prefixed by the “+” character to avoid duplication of basic format result codes specified in TIA-602 and by manufacturers. Following the “+” character, the name of the result code appears; result code names shall follow the same rules as command names (see 5.4.1).

The EC121 engineers apparently decided they couldn’t even follow their own documented responses for the CM300/CM320/CM350 for example.  I’m assuming they don’t rewrite the firmware every time they make a new part, but I never underestimate the capacity for stupidity.

Second, when it encounters a command it doesn’t like, it sometimes returns “COMMAND NOT SUPPORT”.  Seriously.  Not “ERROR” or “ERR” like every other modem on the planet.  Maybe they were so high on crack they forgot the “ED” too.

Seriously, what the fuck? Stop it.  No really, stop being dumb.

You will upgrade to NetworkManager 0.7.1

DO IT NOW
DO IT NOW

It’s awesome.  This guy loves it.  So does your mom since I installed it on her laptop last night.  That means you’ll love it too.

NetworkManager nm-applet NetworkManager-vpnc NetworkManager-openvpn NetworkManager-pptp NetworkManager-openconnect

Tons of bugs fixed and new features implemented due to popular demand.

  • Support for more mobile broadband devices and phones
  • Plays better with stupid wifi and ethernet drivers
  • Support for rfc3442 classless static routes
  • The default “Auto eth0” connection is now read/write
  • Compatibility fixes for 802.1x PEAP authentication and 3G/PPP connections
  • Reduced wakeups for power saving awesomeness
  • Ability to deny specific devices the default route
  • More correct display of wifi signal strength
  • Custom IPv4 settings for mobile broadband connections
  • More informative display of network device state
  • Less annoying password behavior in the vpnc plugin
  • OpenVPN HMAC authentication and IP configuration fixes

This release fixes more than 50 bugs, including 17 from Fedora, 22 from GNOME, 6 from Ubuntu, and 3 from Debian.  Packages are already in updates-testing for Fedora.  If you don’t use Fedora, and your distro doesn’t have 0.7.1 soon, then you need to harrass them until they get it 🙂