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Mac OS Leopard drivers for 3UK USB Modem

Kudos to the Three UK staffer who thought it would be a good idea to publish a link to the Huawei data card drivers for their USB modem online. They’re easily accessible at the mobile broadband page on three.co.uk.

Picture 5.png

My only issue? I can’t get my USB modem to work with the new Apple version of Apple’s Leopard operating system. Arse.

26 COMMENTS

  1. I had fun with the Three USB modem too.. especially as I only discovered it wasn’t going to be plug and play on the train when I really needed it 🙂

    Anyway.. To get it working you install the little applet that lets you set the APN to three.co.uk – then define a modem in Leopard with the Generic GPRS (GSM/3G) modem with the APN set to three.co.uk. Then just set the telephone number to *99# and your good to go.

    Drop me a line and I’ll put a walkthrough on the blog if it helps anyone 🙂

    Cheers,
    Steve.

  2. I tell you I can’t get anything to work with Leopard. It’s been ugly. No Voda USB modem in Europe and no Verizon PCI support in the US. It all just stopped working. Thanks goodness for Boingo and T-Mobile.

  3. Where do you get the little applet to set the APN that Steve mentioned above? I’ve downloaded a .pkg file from the three website (huaweiDataCardDrer(2.7)-intel.pkg ) and double-clicked that. It runs an installer, says that it was sucessful, then shuts down. It doesn’t ask for an APN or anything. Am I missing something?

    Thanks a lot.

  4. THe instructions come with the modem and it all work fine. You download and run the program from the three website. Then you plug in the modem, go into system preferences/network, click on the modem and set the parameters. I don’t think that *99hash is correct – I think there’s a 1 in it somewhere. After that, to connect, you go to the same place and click on ‘connect;;.

    At the moment I’m using the sim card from a year-old three data card in a Nokia 7600 and it’s working fine.

  5. Thanks Tyke. Unfortunatelt Three UK don’t provide an installation CD. Granted you can download the Mac drivers and instructions from their web site but they are out of date and don’r reflect the significant changes to networking in OS X Leopard (all the screenshots are from Tiger). The worst thing is that the little applet that allows you to set the APN on the modem itself isn’t included. I found it elsewhere on the web, but only after a lot of searching forums did I realise that I had a file missing. Anyway, all sorted out now and working properly. After a call to tech support at Three, they discovered that there was no network signal where I was trying to set the device up and, crucially, the instructions don’t mention this but it is very important (and, somewhat obvious after the event): in order to complete the install you must have a signal from your network carrier before trying to set the APN on the modem. After that all went smoothly. Why don’t the instructions mention this? Seems they are (1) out f date and (2) missing crucial information that would make installing on a Mac a lot simpler and less frustrating (and would avoid their tech teams having to deal with calls from people like me!).

  6. Hi Robert. Sorry for delay – have been trying to remember which of the many sites I searched for help had a download. I think it was at http://gotloli.net/?p=7 but there’s a direct link to the download itself below. The Zip file contains the elusive DataCardApp as well as files for PowerPC and Intel based Macs. Remember to run the DataCardApp with the 3 modem connected before doing anything else. Good luck!

    http://gotloli.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/e220_drivers.zip

  7. The original post was about the 3 usb modem but later on the 3 Data card has been mentioned. they are two different products.

  8. USB modem or datacard?
    All my posts (and, so far as I can tell, everybody else’s above) refer only to the USB modem from 3. The applet that has to be used to set the APN on the USB modem is called DataCardApp, but it is for the USB modem, despite the name. Hope this clears up any confusion.

  9. I only used a USB modem from 3 just the once. As I remember, you had to download a small app from the 3 website. When you ran it, it installed an item in system preferences/network. You clicked on this item and set the apn and number to dial. You then went back to this same place to connect and disconnect. As I had a 3 data card with quite a bit of credit (but couldn’t use the data card on my MacBook, of course) I put the data cad sim into a Nokia 7600 and connect to it by bluetooth. The number to enter is different but the apn is the same. It works a treat.

  10. Hi,
    I have just read the above blogs on problems using 3USB modems with Mac computers. I had no problem until I upgraded my system to Leopard.
    Now I have to install the driver each time i want to go online which is getting a tad tedious, time consuming and annoying.
    I have tried to follow the above instructions, installing the power pc driver and the telephone number *99# which enable me to go online, but somehow I still have to load the driver each time I turn my computer off then on.
    Please could someone help me with this problem, hopefully using basic and thorough instructions as i’m not that technical.
    Thanks,
    Sara.

  11. The number above doesn’t look right for the usb modem. I’m sure it had a 1 in it – something like *91hash – but I can’t remember. Once you have downloaded the application, you just go to system preferences/network, click on the option for the usb modem and click connect. See my post above but don’t hesitate to come back if you don’t have success.

  12. No, sorry – you are right with that number. The modem manufacturer’s website gives it – *99#. Are you going into ystem preferences/network to connect?

  13. FYI. Hope this is useful. I got the 3 HUAWEI modem and it worked a treat out of the box. Never had the datacard app. However, it seemed to work fine.
    This morning I installed the latest mac updates for graphics and keyboard and surprise surprise, the 3 modem stopped working.
    Figured it might be coverage but it wasn’t. It complained about not being able to negotiate with the remote PPP server.
    I found this site and downloaded and installed the datacard app, set it to three.co.uk and up it came first time.
    Keep those drivers and app safe, you might just need them after O/S upgrades on your beloved mac.

  14. ive tries sending a sms from my 3 but doesnt send and goes to outbo everytime? what am i doing wrong?

  15. ive tries sending a sms from my 3 but doesnt send and goes to outbo everytime? what am i doing wrong?

    Posted by emily on March 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 am.

    You cannot recieve a password on a mac from MY3 as you do not have an Inbox. When installed on a windows machine the provided software has a physical inbox, which is where your text confirming your password and registration is sent. The way to get around this is to plug the modem into a windows based machine, to set it up and then get the message sent to you, copy the password and then plug the modem back into your mac.

  16. @Michael

    I got around the password problem (i.e. can’t register for My3 online services using a Mac) by trying to register then taking my SIM card to a Three store and asking a member of staff nicely to insert the SIM into their phone to retrieve the text message containing my online password. I was then able to log onto the Three website and access my details etc using the provided password and my “phone number” for the modem.

    Please note though, you cannot send SMS text messages from a Mac – only on a PC – as no software is provided for Apple OS X computers, only Windows PCs.

  17. Thats exactly what I did. Its a pity that three don’t tell you these things when you buy the modem. It would save hours of hassle.

  18. Thanks for the links to the drivers guys, i’ve had real trouble getting my modem to work. The three website certainly seems to be missing at least two crucial downloads for this to work on a mac. Its a bit of a scandal that companies like this just treat mac owners as an afterthought! Anyway, here’s hoping they work and i get connected!

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