Huawei E355 Modem from Dominican Orange

Got the chance to try out a different internet provider over the last month or so. The Dominican internet provider Orange has wireless internet plans at less than half the price of Claro although then have a reputation of having a much more limited coverage. Equipped with the Huawei E355 modem that is offered by Orange I decided to give it a try.

Dominican Orange Upload and Download Speed

When he service is working well (as in low traffic times), there is a much higher cap with Dominican Orange than there is with Claro. My Claro plan said that I should get up to 3.5 meg downloads, during the 4 years I have used Claro I never got more than 2.5 meg. Whoever during my tests with Dominican Orange I very frequently get 5 to even 6 meg downloads with a consistent upload of over 2 meg instead of the .5meg cap that I have always received from Claro.

Remember though, the actual Upload and download speed that you get will vary depending on how close you are to the internet service tower and how many people are trying to access the internet in your area at the same time. If possible it is always a good idea to find someone with the service and try it out in the area that you plan on using it the most before you lock yourself into a 1.5 year plan.

MagicJack on Dominican Orange Internet

One thing that is definitely nicer about using the Dominican Orange internet service over the Claro service is the way MagicJack reacts. Claro caps your upload at a much lower rate, usually about .5 meg while I often get as high as 2.0 meg upload with Dominican Orange. Magicjack seems to like this higher upload and I get far less “skipping” when I am using Orange than I do with Claro.

While Skype seemed to do find on Claro’s low upload speed the upload speed given by Orange might be a deciding factor in your choice of internet provider if you plan on using MagicJack a lot. Likely though these results will vary depending on how close you are to the tower that provides your signal.

Using the Orange Huawei E355

The Huawei E355 can be used a couple of different ways.

• Plugged into the USB: When you plug the Huawei E355 into a computer USB port you can access the internet directly from the modem without using your computers’s WiFi. Other than the fact that this is a convenient way to provide the unit power, I haven’t seen any real speed benefits to the direct method. While plugged in the unit still sends out a WiFi signal so others can use the internet at the same time.
• 

  Huawei e355 Connected to a hub

  Plugged into a power Source (Wifi Only): I often plug my internet modem into a hub or router. This allows me to put the modem in a more centralized location of my house so that everyone can access the WiFi signal. The signal from the Huawei E355 modem isn’t very strong so it really helps to have a line of sight between the modem and any computers connecting to it.

  Usually I like to connect my internet modems into my Cradlepoint MBR1000 Router which has a much stronger Wifi range than these little modems, However there is a limited comparability and the Huawei E55 doesn’t work with the Cradlepoint router. That is why you see the modem plugged into the small powered hub pictured above. I like this solution better than using one of those Wall to USB adapters because the power here tends to vary a lot and this modem tends to overheat using an adapter while this hob appears to filter the power a bit better which keeps the modem from overheating.

Huawei E355 Setup

The Huawei E355 Modem offered by Dominican Orange can connect to up to 5 devices. I’ve personally tried it with an Apple Computer, a windows 7 and windows 8 computer, a Toshiba Tablet and a Kindle Fire HD Tablet. All work very well and connected without any problems.

There are several wireless security modes you can access from the admin section, you just need to set it to the highest setting that all your units can connect to. To get to the admin panel of the Huawei E355 go to this url with your internet modem with the modem connected to your computer with the USB port http://192.168.1.1/, Once you have set up the WiFi you will be able to access admin using the WiFi. When setting up your modem be sure to:

• Turn on WiFi Security (Three Settings WLAN module, 802.11 authentication, and Encryption mode) Login > Settings > WLAN > WLAN Basic Settings
• Change the “WPA pre-shared key”: Login > Settings > WLAN > WLAN Basic Settings
• Change the Admin password from the Default password of Admin to something secure. Login > Settings > System > Modify Password
• Turn on Firewall: Login > Settings > Security > Firewall Switch > Enable Firewall

If you don’t plan on using the WiFi part of the modem and will only be using it by plugging the modem into a USB port of your computer it is a good idea to turn the WiFi off to be sure that no one can get in using the default info in the modem. I recommend also changing the Admin password to ensure no one can get in and lock you out of your modem or steal your modem bandwidth without you knowing about it.

Jailbreak the Orange Huawei E355

One problem that is very common with any of these modems is that they only with with the provider that you bought the modem from. That means if you want to have two chips from different providers (each working better in a different area), that means you have to buy two modems instead of removing the cover and changing the chip.

One solution to this is to change the firmware so that it will work with different providers. This process is called Jailbreaking. You can find quite a fiew sites on the internet that will help you do this and you take the chance of locking up your modem so that it doesn’t work at all. With the price of the modems being as low as they are it might just be better to have two modems if you plan on using multiple services