Mac users are the odd ones. They are the ones who are different, and more often than not, pay a little price for being different. This little note will hopefully help those Sri Lankan Mac Users who are reluctant to take advantage of Mobitel’s M3 broadband offer. Ask a Mobitel Sales Person if the Huawei E220 HSPDA USB Modem compatible with Mac OSX Leopard and they would draw a blank. The promo-literature does not mention compatibility and the self-intallation disk that’s included in the modem does NOT carry a Mac Installation. The clueless and helpless sales personnel at Mobitel would, at best, ask you to bring your “machine” so that their tech guys could check it out to see if it works. That’s bad news if you are interested in using the modem with your G4 or G5 desktop.
Well, here’s the good news: The Huawei E220 HSPDA USB modem works perfectly well with the Mac. It works like a charm with my Intel-based MacBook pro and it is also compatible with the old Power-PC based Macs – I have connected it to my old G4 tower at home. The only problem is in installation. Since there is no compatible software/drivers offered by Mobitel or Huawei, Mac users have to do a bit of homework themselves searching all over the net. The best place to look for the required installation is here; where you’ll find easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions. Please note that all the parameters remain the same, including the dial-up number – just follow the instructions. I haven’t experienced any notable issues with Mobitel + Huawei E220 combination, except for a time-out error when downloading large streams. That too, I think happens when the browser is idle while downloading, but that’s my guess. Occasionally, you might need to remove and re-connect the USB, if it has terminated due to lack of network activity. Is it as good as SLT fixed-line broadband? Nope. SLT is broadband is marginally better. Given the advantage of being truly mobile (out of home), I would recommend this for Mac users on the go. How does this stand-up against the Dialog offer – I haven’t tried that yet; and I do not think that I would either. Also, Mobitel does not offer an “Unlimited” Package. Well, Good luck and happy “Mobile” surfing!
Thank you for this. I just got off the phone after a fruitless hour with the tech support people at Dialog (who are clearly as clueless as Mobitel).
ReplyDeleteHere's another thing you can do, possibly simpler than the suggestion above: just go to http://www.business.vodafone.com]this Vodafone page and download the Mac driver you find there. It's free.
Double-click the dowloaded file to decompress the VISE installer in the usual way, then double-click the installer. Follow the installaton procedure.
When it installation is complete, go to your Applications folder and there you will find a spiffy new brigh-red folder named Vodafone Mobile Connect. It contains the Vodafone Mobile Connect app. Launch the app. A screen will come up (there was a short delay on my machine) with a button saying 'Activate'. Click it.
The rest is plain sailing.
Good luck,
Palmyrah