Bung Vodem's

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stevenz

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Topic # 30981 28-Feb-2009 09:18

Yesterday I setup a Vodem for one of the partners at our firm, for him to use on his mac. After a bit of researching on their forums, it appears that Huawei (manufacturers of the Vodem E220) are incapable of writing working drivers for the Mac, and the device is basically useless as it'll hang, randomly disconnect, flood the system-log, won't authenticate etc. etc. They really shouldn't have advertised the things as mac compatible, because they're nigh on useless on one.

I've also got one myself and until I did this research assumed it must've been something wrong with my system as it works reasonably well on a Windows PC (as long as it's in the corner of the house that gets 3G, still nowhere near the speed of the Telecom 525 cards I've tried, but perfectly usable). So currently both I, and the user are stuck with a 2 year data contract and a device that is useless for its intended purpose. (I'd actually wanted to be on the slightly more-per-month plan that didn't have the contract, but someone at VF apparently ticked the wrong box)

Has anyone tried using any of the other Vodem devices with a Mac, and if so, do they work properly? Is there likely to be any hope of me/the user being able to "trade-in" the vodem for one that is actually useful if they do in fact work?

johnr

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Reply # 198488 28-Feb-2009 09:58

The Vodem E220 works great on MAC machines you just have you make sure you install the correct version of software for the MAC OS version

Also with the Vodem E220 make this has the latest software and firmware

www.mobilenetworks.co.nz Vodem 3.3 update there are 2 files that need to run. updater will work on XP or Vista

(Remove SIM while update is running)

Also locking the Vodem to 3G only under tools-- network pref helps if in marginal 3G coverage

John

stevenz

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Reply # 198494 28-Feb-2009 10:32

Firmware is the version from that site. What software should I be using with OS X 10.5? Any variant I've tried exhibits the same issue. The last one I tried was the version on the Vodafone NZ site with OS X 10.5.4. The other lamentations I found are on Huawei's forum here - http://tinyurl.com/av2u5e - I haven't tried the alternate software linked to in that forum yet.

Also, the updater won't work in Vista unless the patch is run beforehand, otherwise it won't even recognise the virtual CD-ROM (unless it's a fairly recent pre-patched unit I guess, which neither of ones I tried were, initially having firmware from 2006). The VMC-Lite software built into the E220 is Windows only also.

stevenz

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Reply # 199157 4-Mar-2009 11:35

Tried 2 different Vodems on 2 different macs, running the updated firmware from the mobilenetworks site, and using the current OS X software from the Vodafone site. All installed as described. One tested on an OS X 10.5.6 system, the other on a fresh 10.5.4 install. Both the same problem, works for a while, then randomly stalls or starts going extremely slowly. There must be some reason it's so flaky, neither machine is running anything unusual. Trying one of them on the other laptop under WinXP gets around 150KB/sec, so it's not the device itself that's at fault but either OS X or the driver.

Judging by the software for the Vodem Stick, it's also a Huawei device so presumably I'll have the same problems using one in OS X?

gehenna

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Reply # 199179 4-Mar-2009 12:54

johnr: The Vodem E220 works great on MAC machines you just have you make sure you install the correct version of software for the MAC OS version

I wouldn't go quite that far John. I've installed several e800 and e220's on MacBook Pro's, MacBook 2.0's and iMacs over the last 6 months or so and I've had a pretty high rate of failure on them. I've experienced the same things as the OP - random disconnections, connection problems, hanging, etc. I've been through literally hours of phone-time with Business Solutions support reps and forum posts. It's come to replacing the cards themselves in several instances.

I'd have to agree that the performance of these Huawei cards is sub-par at best for Mac users on Leopard. I can't comment on Tiger as I don't use it, and I don't even know if the latest versions of the software is Tiger compatible.

By the way I've used both the latest version on the Vodafone NZ site, and also the latest version which is several revisions newer on the international Vodafone site. All problems remain. I've rebuilt user profiles on the Mac, tested left right and centre on the cards....Yep I've basically done it all and yet the problems still remain.

Interestingly enough the Telecom 3G cards work with no problem on the Macs I've tested - but then we suffer roaming issues over technical faults.

gehenna

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Reply # 200005 9-Mar-2009 08:52

johnr: is there any way you could put your feelers out to see if these are known issues with the cards/software/leopard? it'd be nice to know i'm not going crazy - at least not in this regard anyway.