Windows 8 Access Connect and Broadband

[gcarrle]

Hi - I just purchased an x230 tablet.  it came with Windows 7 and I just upgraded to 8Pro.  I have two issues. 

First, does anyone know when the update for access connect will be released to resolve the compatibility issue with Windows 8Pro? 

Second, I'm not exactly sure how the broadband is intended to work.  When I purchased the machine online from Lenovo, it looked as if the only broadband option was AT&T.  I'm typically a Verizon user.  However, I bought the machine with what I assume is a broadband card.  I am now trying to activate.  Activation says that there is no broadband card detected.  There is a sim card under the battery and so I'm not sure what the cause is.  Also, is it possible to switch to Verizon?  If so, I'd like to do that before I activate the ATT account.  Finally, there appear to be a number of systems listed under broadband - ATT mobile broadband, Lenovo Mobile Access, Lenovo Mobile Access (HSPA Roaming) and Verizon Wireless.  Can someone help me understand what my options are?

Many thanks - Gunther

[billbolton Community Moderator]

---

gcarrle wrote:

First, does anyone know when the update for access connect will be released to resolve the compatibility issue with Windows 8Pro? 

---

Access Connections will not be supported under WIndows 8.  Many of the features of AC are supported in the Lenovo Settings app for Win 8.

Cheers,

Bill

[jdhurst]

Is it possible to provide a link to the settings application?

Access Connections is very unreliable and breakable piece of software (any version in the last 10 years up to V5.97, but it is the only application (other than puredrivers) that I use from Lenovo.

Windows Wireless cannot distinguish between preferred and non-preferred connections (despite any options or settings) and Access Connections can limit wireless connections to the ones I set up. This is the only reason I use it.  This has been true for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 so that is going back 10 years.

Is there any way forward with Windows 8? Or is usefulness a lost cause.

.... JDH

[billbolton Community Moderator]

---

jdhurst wrote:

Is it possible to provide a link to the settings application?

---

Its in the Win 8 apps store, but right now you will need a (very new) Thinkpad that was sold with Win 8 installed to be able to get it, due to the way MS has set up the Win 8 eco-system.

Cheers,

Bill

[henryfell]

Is there any way to get the Mobile Broadband card to work in Windows 8 then? I have a Lenovo x220 with a "Sierra Wireless MC8355 Gobi 3000(TM) Module)" and did a fresh install of Win 8. When I used the Win 8 beta, the solution was to use Access Connect for Win 7 on Win 8. I do not want to install that junk if there is some settings app in the app store for my Lenovo that will pop up shortly?

Can anyone confirm?

Thanks!

[jdhurst]

Its in the Win 8 apps store,

That is interesting. Windows 8 out of the box on a real computer is worthless, useless junk. Yes, I do have it running.

I am going to get a T430s or newer with Windows 8 Pro, get Stardock (Start Button), obliterate Metro and turn the machine into a Windows 7 machine to do real work.

So I will try AC 5.97 and if that does not work, use the regular Windows wireless manager (which is worse than AC).

Software Designers do not have to work for a living, I am most convinced. Otherwise they would not produce what they do.

....JDH

[someotherguy]

---

jdhurst wrote:

I am going to get a T430s or newer with Windows 8 Pro, get Stardock (Start Button), obliterate Metro and turn the machine into a Windows 7 machine to do real work.

---

I'm curious to know what feature of Windows 8 is so critical to you that you are willing to struggle so much with it to give you a Windows 7 experience?  Why not just stick with Win7?

[jdhurst]

Windows 8 forces you to lose your place to go back to the Metro page to start something else. I have Windows 8 and know this to be the case.

In this respect, it is just like a 2 inch iPhone (one loses their screen on an iPhone as well) and just the same as Windows 3.1.

Try this: 

1. Make sure you have no special shortcuts or pinned items in your taskbar.

2. Open www.intodns.com

3. Make a mental record of an IP you wish to tracert.

4. Open an admin command prompt while LOOKING At THE IP on the above screen. Do NOT navigate away from this webpage.

5. Now do the tracert.

Impossible to do in Windows 8. Dead trivial in Windows 7 and everything before it back to and including Windows 95.

Now, it can be done in Windows 8. Write down the IP on a piece of paper, Navigate away. Open an admin command prompt. Navigate back. Read your notes and do the tracert. I can chip the results out of a piece of granite faster.

Windows 8 is a pathetic mess of an operating system on a real computer. I know it works fine on a tablet and on a phone. But I have an iPhone and do not need a tablet.

I am starting to here that Microsoft is feeling the pushback and may possiblly bring out a WIndows 7 classic interface for Windows 8. I cannot point to link but I have heard this from friends in the business.

Supporting old operating systems because you are too stupid to listen to customers is a disease not unique to Microsoft, but they are at last dumb enough to know that enough of their own arrogance will cost them sales.

.... JDH

[dtowsey]

I've upgraded to Win 8 Pro from Win 7 on my X230. Just to check, I've just uninstalled Access Connections 5.97 and mobile broadband (Ericcsson H5321 gw) *does* work via the Win 8 native drivers (I have left Lenovo Mobile Access installed though, and that seems to be playing a part - not brave enough to get rid of that too!) I had to download the Win 8 driver for the broadband card from Lenovo and update the firmware though.

One thing I would like to clear up however. The Ericcsson card has never worked with virtualisation software and this hasn't changed with Windows 8. Whether using Vplayer, Virtualbox or Hyper-V, as soon as the virtual networking adaptor is installed, mobile broadband stops working. The only fix is to disable the device. This is still the case now even without using Access Connections. This seems amazing for a business machine. Does anyone else have this problem?

[jdhurst]

The Ericcsson card has never worked with virtualisation software

If you mean, work inside the VM itself, no, that is not generally possible. At least I have never been able to get hardware devices working inside a VM.

Two things do work.

1. If I have a USB internet connection on the host (Nokia USB in my case), then the Virtual Machine also has internet connectivity if the networking mode is NAT (Bridged is not going to work).

2. If you have hardware that VMware supports (CD, DVD, USB, disk drive, etc) then you can "connect" these services and use them in the VM. Unfortunately USB sticks have never been on this list.

So far as I know, this a virtualization thing, not a Windows 8 (or Windows 7) thing.

.... JDH