Good for me.
This post is not going to be the most noble of returns, but it's something that's annoying enough for me to get off my metaphorical arse and write something.
It's the Telstra NextG/GPRS Mobile broadband card I use for work. Or, to be more precise, the software for it. I love mobile broadband, but the connection monitoring software this thing uses is more painful than the BigPond website. And don't get me started on that.
First, the progress bar on the installation package (which is fullscreen and flashy) does not measure progress. The caption says 'Registering on the network', the bar goes up every few seconds in 5% increments (it shows the figures) and when it hits 100%...
"This page cannot be displayed".
Seriously.
It's counting down until the timeout runs out.
And there's no 'retry' button. Going back takes you back to selecting your card type so it can install the drivers. And if you go through that again, it stops responding. It took several painful minutes of restarting the install, interspersed with pulling out and replacing the card, to get the damn thing to work.
Then, once it's installed, things don't get better.
The connection tends to drop out a lot, and not tell you about it. It says it's still connected, but web pages don't load. So you click the 'disconnect' button, and it says 'Please wait...'
So you wait.
And wait.
And get frustrated enough to close the program, because it looks like it's stopped responding.
So you select 'Exit and turn off mobile card'.
It still says 'Please wait...'
You now have a choice. You can use task manager to kill the program, which may or may not result in you being able to reconnect when you restart it, or you can pull the card out and take your chances that way. This sometimes results in the program waking up, sometimes not. Sometimes when it wakes up, it will be able to reconnect, sometimes not.
Oh, and occasionally the program disconnects, but does nothing at all when you click 'connect' again. And then windows somehow forgets completely that the card is installed, and re-loads the drivers for it.
Now, it could be that it's all my fault because the I just haven't given the program enough time to shut down the card before I get impatient. But I ask you, how long is a reasonable time to turn off what is essentially a cut-down mobile phone with a PCMCIA interface? Phones can turn off in under a second. More than a minute is ridiculous.
Okay I've timed it. 41 seconds to disconnect, and another 91 seconds to quit the program.
A minute and a half to close the program. With no feedback.
Telstra UX designers out there, take note.
Hah! I've just re-opened the program so I can post this, and it says "Please re-insert your Next G device".
This is beta quality software at best, and yet it's version 2.10.6.
The installer and the program itself are very pretty, fairly well-designed, and would be great if they worked properly. But they don't. Get your act together, Telstra.
