[bonniescotland]

I'm in Australia and I bought a 3 (this is the company name) wireless internet key modem. It's a Huawei e160G. I'm running Mac OS X10.4 (I'm guessing that's Tiger?) on my macbook. Have tried to connect with this usb modem and spent an hour with 3's tech support but I can't get it to connect. Everything seems to be installed and the modem I think is working, but it seems to be trying to connect but can't. The tech support got me to change some network settings e.g. select Huawei modem and type phone number *99# and that meant that once I clicked on connect it did at least seem to be trying to connect it but it then disconnects. I get all different error messages but sometimes it even comes up as establishing connection but then it disconnects again.

One thing the tech support told me to do was to change my APN, apparently this is in the advanced tab of the network settings. Problem is I am working on Tiger and I can't find an advanced button or any mention anywhere of APN. I think this is probably only found under leopard? Have googled this problem, it seems other mac users had probs connecting with this modem but they changed their APN and it worked, but of course they were all leopard users. Has anyone any ideas either how to find and change my APN setting in Tiger, or is the APN irrelevant, it's my gut feeling that's why it's not working, but maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, maybe there is some other issue I haven't thought of?

[ghporter]

Let's start at the beginning. Have you followed 3Data's instructions for installing the driver? To the letter?

If the driver is installed properly, you should be able to just use the OS X Internet Connect tool to set it up and make it work for you...

I don't know why they'd be asking you to mess with APN settings. This modem is a 3G wireless device, right? Then using the standard settings for the APN standard should work fine.

You don't say where in Australia you are. Are you reasonably close to an Apple Store? This may take one of their Geniuses to ponder over.

[bonniescotland]

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately that link is no longer working, in any case it takes me to the three UK store so as I'm in Australia I'm not sure if the UK software would be appropriate for me.

I have followed Three's instructions to the letter, I've actually been on their tech support phone line twice now, both times for an hour and I've gone into their shop. They've got me to do numerous things, uninstall/reinstall the software. Change system preferences in the network tab add *99# as a phone number, etc, etc. They've got me to go over and over all this again and again when I call them and I do everything in the exact order that they ask, although this order sometimes changes as they are trying different things. For instance I was initially told to install the software before activating my sim, and another time was told to uninstall everything then activate my sim then install software again.

As far as APN settings go I have no idea what the standard settings would be anyway as I can't find any tab/button anywhere under OSX 10.4 that will even allow me to look at the APN. I only thought that the APN may be an issue because googling I've come across Leopard users who have changed the APN settings and then the modem has worked. So far though no one seems to have advice for Tiger users, or maybe I am the only one with Tiger having probs with this modem?

I am about an hour's drive away from an Apple store, not sure if they help people for free in Australian stores as they might say it's a modem not apple prob, but I guess I can drive in and try my luck! Wanted to avoid that though, but that may be my only option other than refunding this modem, and trying another provider but as the modems all seem to be the same techology I may just go through the same issue again perhaps!

[bonniescotland]

Hey! Hey I got it to work! So here's what I did, well actually I did 3 different things so not sure what worked but will outline them for anyone else who is having the same problem:
I had Mac OS X10.4.9 so I upgraded via software update (so free) to OS X10.4.11
I upgraded the firmware (I think maybe this was the solution)
Before doing all this I unistalled the three software, so I then reinstalled all the three software.
Then I went to network preferences selected Huawei mobile, under PPP then telephone number I put *99# (which I had already done before with my initial install but I had to retype this in once i reinstalled), then I clicked on Dial Now, then instead of straight away clicking on Connect (which is what I had done previously) I went to the configuration drop down menu and chose Edit configurations, I then noticed in the following screen the modem was set to the wrong modem! Even though in every other screen it was set to Huawei on this screen it was set to something else (I think apple's modem can't remember now), I then reset it to Huawei clicked ok which took me back to the connection screen, then clicked connect and voila I got connected!
Happy camper now!

[ghporter]

Congratulations!

[bonniescotland]

Just an update.

To fix this modem I did 3 steps, upgraded to 10.4.11, upgraded the firmware and also changed a setting re the modem name (listed in my above post). Anyway I've since had problems with my computer (Photoshop repeatedly quitting), so I decided to go back to 10.4.9 (as well as reinstalling Photoshop) as I wasn't sure if 10.4.11 was causing this problem, but was worried that by going back to 10.4.9 that I would have problems again with my modem.

Well guess what reinstalled 10.4.9 and my modem still working! (Photoshop working now too!) So anyway seems like my assumption that my modem issue had something to do with OS must have been wrong! I think instead what probably fixed my modem was the setting change I made to the modem name.

So anyway all working right now.