
3G Mobile Data Monitoring Application
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Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
MDMA - a Mobile Data Monitoring Application
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Before running MDMA make sure you have no other applications or dashboards open that might be using your data device's communications port.
Many dashboard applications drop the connection when you close them; you can use Ctrl-Alt-Del to pop up the Windows Task Manager, select the dashboard application and click on the End Task button, and your internet connection will remain open. When you are finished with MDMA you can close it without dropping your connection and open your dashboard again. Doing this will keep your data counters running. You can use your dashboard application or MDMA to keep track of your usage, but not both. Be sure to disconnect your internet connection from the program in which you wish to track your usage.
Signal group
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On the left is the received radio signal strength in dBm, measured between -113dBm and -51dBm.
Next is your operator's MCC/MNC.
Next is your operator's long alphanumeric name. Depending on device and SIM card, this information might not be available.
On the right is the connection type; GPRS, EDGE, 3G or HSDPA.
HSDPA only appears when you are actually downloading and when you are idle it drops back to 3G.
Below this is a bar graph indicating the signal strength.
Data Counters group
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The data transmitted and received in the current and last session is shown here.
You can track your total usage here as well. The totals are stored in a file called 'usage.bin' located in the 'Common AppData' folder on your computer (normally C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MDMA).
The 'Reset Session' button zeroes the current session data counters and adds to the totals, useful if you want to see exactly how much bandwidth a particular operation uses. The 'Reset Total' button zeroes the totals, you can use this when you top-up or get a new data bundle or on your contract billing day.
Data Transfer Speed group
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Here you can see your current upload and download speeds as well as the highest peak recorded. There is also a 10 second moving average which shows the average upload and download speed over the last 10 seconds. There are reset buttons for the peaks and the averages, these do not affect the data counters. The profile assigned to you by your operator is also indicated here; this can vary according to your data plan or even according to the tower you are connected to.
Connection Type group
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Here you can switch your connection type between GPRS/EDGE Only, GPRS/EDGE Preferred, 3G Only, or 3G Preferred. This does not reset the card and you can do this and stay online, provided you have coverage of the signal type you requested. For example you could switch from 3G to GPRS/EDGE to capture cellular broadcasts and then switch back to 3G. This function works much better on Huawei cards; some older Option cards and Novatel cards sometimes require the card and/or your computer to be restarted before you can use them again.
APN group
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You can view and set your default APN here, much easier than using a modem initialization string.
USSD Commands group
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You can enter USSD commands here, these are commands in the form *123# that are normally entered on your mobile phones's keypad.
Clicking on 'USSD Help' will display a brief listing of some USSD commands offered by South African operators.
Sending a USSD command creates a session, some USSD services are billable, when you are finished, click the End Session button.
USSD commands that don't require any further input automatically end the session, in which case the End Session remains greyed out.
You can send multiple USSD commands sepeated by commas, for example: *111#,1,6 for Vodacom pre-paid data bundle balance.
MDMA will wait for a response before sending the next command.
Cellular Broadcast Messages group
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Received cellular broadcast messages such as cell info, weather reports and tower info are shown here.
Not all operators provide 3G cell broadcasts, you might need to switch your device in GPRS/EDGE Only mode to receive them.
Start/Stop Logging
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This function logs signal strength, connection type and cellular broadcast messages to a comma-seperated-values (CSV) file. The signal strength is recorded in its raw format, as number from 0 to 31 or 99 for no signal. To convert this number to dBm, multiply it by 2 and subract -113. To convert it to a percentage, multiply it by 100 and divide the result by 31.
Device Info
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This interrogates your data device and SIM card, not all devices and SIM cards provide all the information.
About
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Some information about the program and an SMS form. Sending from the form will send a standard SMS to my data device on the Vodacom network in South Africa, you usual local/international SMS rate will apply.
Reset Device
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This instructs your device to do a full reset, you should notice that the device disappears from your operating system and gets detected again. Some older cards do not recover from a full reset gracefully and require you to restart your computer before they become operational again.
Connect / Disconnect
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This allows you to connect and disconnect from the internet, MDMA executes 'rasphone.exe' which is part of your Windows installation, here you should select the dial-up connection created by your dashboard software, or by yourself. When you are online the button changes to Disconnect which disconnects the card in the proper manner and reset the data counters for the current session and adds to the totals.
Command line options
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/? - Displays command line help
/port:COM
/commandset:
Very useful. Please read the READ ME file its very helpful in understanding your new tool. If you feel you would like to make a donation please click on About for more information.