Question regarding 4G-stick Huawei E3372h-320

Discussion
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Hi all, :wave:

after purchasing the 4G-stick Huawei E3372h-320 I found on

https://www.amazon.de/Huawei-E3372-Surfstick-microSD-weiá/dp/B0104LV06M/ref=sr_1_3?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=4G%2Bumts%2Bstick&qid=1616510041&s=computers&sr=1-3&th=1

a link to a “user´s guide” for the stick. It´s
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81RIP6vKO9S.pdf .

Here I found an interesting remark:

Disconnecting from a Network

Remove the Idea 4G netsetter from the computer.
Note:
If you do not need to connect to a network, it is recommended that you remove the Idea
4G netsetter from your computer to eliminate unwanted data traffic.

That made me wonder: How exactly do you do that? Unfortunately they didn´t elaborate on that. :slightly_frowning_face:

I mean: surely I´m not supposed to shutdown/poweroff the computer in order to remove the stick.
So on a running system I think first of all I disconnect the stick from the internet by using the web-browser (“http://192.168.8.1” is the page for doing that).

The stick uses the HiLink mode, so that´s the only way of doing it I suppose.

Then I disconnect my LAN connection (as the stick created the LAN-interface “enx001e101f0000” on my system).

Now the stick definitively is disconnected from the internet but the LED is still blinking blue.
Referring to the user´s guide:

Blue, blinking once every 2s: The Idea 4G netsetter is registering with a 3G/3G+
network.

I´d say that´s as far as I can get. :thinking:
May I remove the stick now?

As opposed to USB memory sticks there´s no way to “eject” it.

Many thanks in advance for your opinions on the matter.

Many greetings.
Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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The “eject” thing is only important for storage media, because of cache corruption etc. It does not apply to anything pluggable, that does not have any storage.

It’s hardly believable it can blink for much longer without being plugged in. I can’t imagine the reason for putting a battery inside a W-LAN stick.

As the stick just acts similar to a “cable” like a LAN cable, you can just treat like that, i.e. just plug it out. As soon as you plug it out, you won’t have a connection over the stick. As soon as you plug it in, it ideally should immediatelly establish a connection over the stick.

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Hi @Akito, :wave:

thanks so much for you very quick reply. :heart:

Fine, that´s good to know.
But I think there´s at least some storage facility built in :question:
I mean the firmware of the stick and the WEBUI it provides…

But I guess that´s not what you meant.

Sorry, I think I wasn´t too clear about that.

What I meant was:
After shutting down the internet connection (via the browser and the LAN interface) the stick is still physically connected to my computer (a hub in fact).
And as long as it´s connected it keeps blinking.

It´s now that I want to physically disconnect it. :relaxed:

That´s what I wanted to know. So I may disconnect the stick now.

Thanks once again for your kind help. :+1:

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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Indeed, you are correct. If it has a WebUI (I previously wasn’t sure if you really meant that the stick has its own WebUI) then it needs storage to have such a management interface. However, I doubt the storage needed for that is actually “connected” to your computer, when plugged in. It’s most likely the case that the storage is only there for the WebUI and you can access the WebUI only over the provided IP address. This means, the WebUI is accessible through the network connection the stick provides, so the computer never sees the actual storage on the stick. In this case, the stick works like a server. So, in this specific situation, it does not make a difference if the stick with the WebUI is connected to the computer directly or in China for accessing its WebUI. To the computer it seems like a server, so it doesn’t even know that the stick has storage on it.

On Linux it’s even easier to make sure it has no storage, because you would either see it in something like fdisk -l or lsblk or something like that or it would perhaps even auto-mount. However, if nothing can be seen on your computer, then the storage is not “visible”, therefore it cannot be mounted, which in turn means, you shouldn’t worry about “ejecting” as there is nothing to eject from. Its storage is not connected in the first place. (Theoretically, it may not be visible because the storage is broken, however this most likely won’t ever apply to the stick, as there is almost no chance the storage will break accidentally.)

After posting my message, I realised this is the way you meant it in the first place. However, it’s good to have it clarified for good, now.
So, yes, if it is connected it usually keeps blinking to seem “alive”. When something does not blink, people usually think, that it “does not work” and ask the customer support something like “why does it not work” when they actually mean to ask “why does it not blink”. :wink:
(That’s also the reason my room with all the computer stuff always blinks my eyes out, when all the room lights are off…)

Yes, just disconnect it. Additionally, such devices are usually built for stupids. So, just think about what a normal person would do. They wouldn’t care or know nearly as much as you about computers and they would simply remove it from the PC, that’s it. They wouldn’t even think about it. So, the company has to count in such computer-agnostic people. Therefore, it needs to work with just pulling it out, as the instructions are very unclear about that thing and people would plug it out anyway.

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Hi again @Akito, :wave:

thank you so much for this great additional info of yours. :heart:

Yes, quite so.

I see. It makes sense that the stick works like a server. Indeed I only have the LAN interface available when the stick is (physically) connected.

lsblk doesn´t show the stick. You´re perfectly right there as well. :+1:

The stick does have a MIcroSD card slot (for storage) but I didn´t insert such a card so it really doesn´t show up as a storage device.

Great.
In actual fact my scenario is this:

The stick is connected to a hub (which has an on/off-switch). Only the stick is connected to the hub.
Before shutting down the computer in the evening I power down my internet connection via the browser, then close the LAN connection and finally switch off the hub. (So I don´t have to actually detach the stick.)
This is the background of my question.
So basically I´m doing it right. Thanks for confirming that. :wink:

BTW:

Thanks so much for your compliment. I feel honoured indeed. :blush:

Your help - as always - is highly apreciated. Thank you so much.

Many greetings.
Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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