OK first some background.  I am a bit of a miser so when 2degrees extended the life of the 12GB pack I  dropped our ADSL and going to mobile broadband as we generally only use 1-2GB per month.  I needed a router solution as we have wired and wireless devices that I wanted to connect (and I couldn't be faffed with the 4 hour "on" limit for the 2 degrees mifi type device).  Eventually if this worked reliably I was considering going with vodafone home phone wireless to reduce our landline charge as we wouldn't need a real landline for the ADSL.

First I got a Cradlepoint CTR350.  This seemed to work real well and as a bonus also worked with the XT and vodafone sticks, so that if we travelled outside the 2degrees broadband zones, we could still use the device.  Unfortunately I have found that the device locks up after a random period of time (could be hours or days), requiring a reset to get working again.  This then requires all the settings to be reloaded which is a bit of a PITA so I looked for a more reliable solution.

I saw a cheap vodafone complete HG556 modem on Trademe, so I thought that this would be the go.  It arrived last night, and although it works (kind of) it is like it is on Molasses.  Pages take ages to load - its like it the DNS server is on the moon or something.  Pages eventually load, but it takes ages.  The lights on the USB modem indicate that it is switching to HSDPA so I don't think that is the issue.  I've updated the firmware in the hg556a, and tried both Hauwei E1552 (2degrees) and K3715 (vodafone) modems in the device (both with my 2degrees SIM card though) and it makes no difference.

So my questions;
1.  Has any one got the hg556 working well on 2degrees (or XT for that matter).  If so, what is the trick?

2.  Any other suggestions for what I should try next.  Was thinking about getting a router with USB function and then loading it up with Open WRT or something like that - has anyone tried this with a 2degrees USB modem and can offer some advice?

3. Is it all just too hard and should I just call it quits and go back to ADSL?

Suggestions very welcome.