OPTUS SMS Fix for Australian Users
There appears to be a few people still looking for a solution to this issue with Optus mobile broadband so I'll attempt to put up a solution to this problem specific to the Australian Optus service provider. Many of you may have experienced the same frustration as I when you upgraded to a machine with integrated mobile broadband knowing that the same SIM was SMS enabled and functioning correctly in your older plug in and go mobile broadband device.
These instructions are specific to 64 bit Windows 7 installations and other operating systems may have different locations.
There are two files that Access Connections is using to load it's Optus configuration from that can be found in the following directory:
C:\<Program Files (x86)\Lenovo\Access Connections
Warning #1: Before I go any further can I insist that if you’re going to attempt to tweak these configuration files can you please make backups of them first so in the event of an error occurring you can revert your configuration back to last known good (albeit without SMS) working state.
The two configuration (config) files are as follows:
Sierra_profiles.xml
AC_wanprofiles.xml
Now, whilst only one of these files requires an update I'm stating the error is in these two files because the settings exist for Optus Australia in one file and not the other which is kind of the problem and very easily fixed –hint, hint Lenovo :smileywink: ...and I know what you're going to say but I'd suggest you LEAN on the people that you're buying this hardware from cause they're doing quite well from the whole deal assuming this is their hardware's config. If this IS your software's config then how about you help all the nice people out by getting them a fix so they don't need to update XML files directly. I updated my software last night and I've had my maching for some time now, just haven't been annoyed enough to resolve this until this evening.
Anyway, the resolution to the problem is to create a matching/missing profile entry in the AC_wanprofiles.xml and you should be in business.
Warning #2: Please follow the following steps closely and if you encounter difficulties replace the modified configuration files with the backup files you made before you started. The files you are updating are XML files and the entries you create must be precise in some cases or this tweak won’t work. A good example of this is the following:
<Mcnc>505002</Mcnc> is wrong and won’t work!
<mcnc>505002</mcnc> is correct!
Please note the subtle differences.
1) If you haven’t backed up the two aforementioned config files please do so now - sorry I know I’m being a difficult but if you make a mistake this will save you a lot of time and pain.
2) Open the Sierra_profiles.xml config file in a text editor like Notepad or Textpad (even better) and locate the profile for Optus Australia. We’re just going to confirm a setting in this file and not make any. The Optus Australia profile will look like the following:
<profile>
<id />
<editable>true</editable>
<locked>false</locked>
<mcnc>505002</mcnc>
<setting>
<type>name</type>
<value>Optus Australia</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>apn</type>
<value>connect</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>dns1</type>
<value>0.0.0.0</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>dns2</type>
<value>0.0.0.0</value>
</setting>
</profile>
3) Now the setting we want to note is the setting for mcnc ‘tag’ which is the 505002 bit in the following:
<mcnc>505002</mcnc>
It’s important to note this because your value may be different to mine for what every reason.
4) Now open up the AC_wanprofiles.xml config file and you need to create a new profile for the mcnc you’ve identified above. Start this by finding and entry for the following mcnc 505001 (which identifies Telstra) and at the end of this profile we will create our new profile. The end of the Telstra profile is identified by the following tag:
</profile>
5) Now the next line in the file is follows and this identifies the start of the next profile so we want to insert out new profile between the tag above and this next tag:
<profile>
6) So what we want to insert into the AC_wanprofiles.xml config file is as follows:
<profile>
<mcnc>505002</mcnc>
<carrierid>20</carrierid>
<SMSSupport>true</SMSSupport>
<editable>true</editable>
<locked>false</locked>
<country>Australia</country>
<nwprovider>Optus Australia</nwprovider>
<setting>
<type>name</type>
<value>Optus Australia</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>apn</type>
<value>connect</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>authtype</type>
<value>PAP</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>dns1</type>
<value>0.0.0.0</value>
</setting>
<setting>
<type>dns2</type>
<value>0.0.0.0</value>
</setting>
</profile>
Note the mcnc tag has a value that matches the value we noted in step 3). If this is not the setting you identified at step 3) please update the value for this tag appropriately. This is what makes it all hang together :smileyvery-happy:
Make sure this new profile is surrounded as I described above between a <profile> tag and a </profile> tag. This is very important and failing to do so will corrupt the file.
Note: <carrierid>20</carrierid> is incorrect as this is Telstra but this actually works and I could not find a entry for Optus elsewhere. I will endeavour to keep an eye on this config for updates and update this thread accordingly if an update isn't forthcoming.
7) All good? If so you need to restart Access Connections so it reloads the updated configuration. The simplest way to do this is to reboot you PC.
8) You should have a new Launch SMS... option if you right-click the Access Connections power meter in the Windows task bar and a new SMS option availible via the Access Connections Tools tab.
Now the process that I've followed here should be portable to other providers if you can find enough information about your connection to fill in the blanks but would only suggest you do so if you have a reasonable understanding of XML. I apologise if this is a duplication of other instructions on how to address this issue but I believe this put's a slightly different spin on the fix.
Happy SMS'ing.
billbolton
Jack_Lenovo1
10
MarkRHPearson
8
hausman
7
AtliJarl
3