How-To: Connect HUAWEI E220 Modem with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
I’ve been trying to get my USB Broadband Modem to work with Leopard for the past few days. Unfortunately the instructions that come with the modem from 3 (my network provider in australia) are out-of-date and don’t work.
So here are the steps to get the modem working:
1. Ignore the instructions that come with the modem (if you bought the modem from 3 in australia)
2. Download the drivers from here (or if you have a power pc here) and install them onto your Mac (drivers are thanks to Shane from shasam.net who has an excellent guide for Optus users of the Huwaei E220)
3. Plug the modem into your Mac’s USB port and wait until the modem stops flashing green.
4. Open up “Network Preferences” and click the “+” sign in the bottom left of the screen to add a new service:
5. Select the HUAWEI Mobile from the interface list and then give your Service a name:
6. Now setup your service by entering a telephone number of *99# but leave the Account Name and Password blank. Then click the Advanced button:
7. In the Advanced window select Generic as the vendor then GPRS (GSM/3G) as the model. Enter your APN for your provider (for three it is 3netaccess) and leave CID as 1.
8. Click Apply and then click the Connect button back on the Network Preferences window, and you should connect as below:
Another very hand tool is CheetahWatch which allows you to view your usage and is developed specifically for Mac and the HUAWEI modem.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Hi,
I have the exact same challenge. Only thing is, that my green light won’t stop flashing. In my network menu I can’t see a HUAWEI Mobile option.
Any suggestions?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards.
Kim (Denmark)
February 29th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Hi Kim,
I’ll see if I can recreate that problem on a friends Mac and let you know. I have used the process above on 2 different mac’s and they both worked fine. The green light flashes while the modem is trying to get a valid network signal. It might be worth checking that your SIM card is active with your mobile provider.
Ev
March 1st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I have been trying to troubleshoot a similar problem in Oman with Huawei attached to Macbook. The green light indicates GPRS service and the blue light indicates 3G service but the lights keep n switching. When it is green, the speed is very slow but when it is ble, the speed in very fast. Do ou know of any way where you can permanently select the 3G service. In windows, there is an option to select a particular service in the Huawei config window but we don’t get that window in Apple. Any suggestions?
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Kim,
Make sure you have installed the drivers in step 2 above. This may be why you can’t see the Huawei in your Network menu.
Ev
March 5th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I wonder if I could use this sort of setting in Tiger. I too have just got a USB Broadband Modem from 3 Network Australia and was hoping to hook it up with my home network (iMac, Airport Extreme & AppleTV) as I can’t get ADSL in my area. I’m not sure how I will hook up the modem yet as from what I have read the USB plug on the AE hasn’t the drivers for a USB modem.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Evan,
Glad you’ve put a guide together for 3 users of the e220 - be great if you could reference my guide (as you link to my download files).
Thanks,
Shane.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Have added a reference to your blog Shane. Thanks for the drivers!
March 5th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
[...] For “3″ Users, Evan has a great guide (with nice easy to follow graphics) here. [...]
March 8th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Hi Cameron,
I don’t think you will be able to hook up the USB Modem with your Airport Extreme. I believe it needs to be directly connected to your phone line as a ADSL modem. If you find anyway to do it however, let me know!
Ev
March 19th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Kim: If the light flashes green then you have not yet entered your pincode. You must open mobileconnect/huaweiapp first, and then enter (and disable) your pin.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Has anyone managed to get their “BACK TO MY MAC” working though this modedm(E220)? Does this device support UPnP etc: if so, how do I turn it on?
Thank you in advance,
Jake
March 20th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Can you tell me what the APN is . . . I’m trying to use my E220 to connect to Telkomsel in Indonesia without luck. Everything else on this - and Shane’s - instructions works OK. It tries to connect, then authenticate, then it disconnects with the message, “Could not negotiate a connection with the remote PPP server. Please verify your settings and try again”. Any suggestions?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Here’s another curly Leopard problem.
I recently updated my Mac and of course the new one has Leopard (I was running Tiger).
Since I joined 3, I cancelled my ADSL account but I continue to connect to my home network for printing and backing up via a Netgear router. Worked fine on Tiger.
But with Leopard it seems to be an either/or situation. I can be on the net so long as I have the Airport card deactivated but as soon as I want to print the 3 modem drops off as Leopard now insists I use Airport to connect to the internet. I feel like I’m on XP!
Anyone with any suggestions?
Cheers
Shane
March 24th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Thanks that has just saved my bacon works great been pulling me hair out trying to get the bugger to work on 10.5.2
March 25th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I am a e220 user in Aus with 3…i understand from the Modem and Data support at 3 that if i install both the packages from the CD..i.e POwer and intel rather than installing the driver according to the processor, then i would have to uninstall the complete software from Modem scripts,aplications,library and a couple of other locations and reinstall the relevant s/w….is there a way that this process could be shortened and i would not have the uninstall/reinstall the complete thingy??
March 25th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Is the below application good enough and recommendable for usage check:
http://m.ac.nz/cheetahwatch/
March 25th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
hi all, i have exactly the same probleme as kim, the modem keeps flashing nothing happens and in the network setting i don’t see it in the list………pleassssseee hheeeelllppp
March 28th, 2008 at 1:48 am
[...] Comment télécharger et installer le driver sur votre mac (en anglais) [...]
March 31st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
really really useful!!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 am
Thankyou! I wasted too much time on this earlier tonight! This worked first go on my MacBook Air + Leopard 10.5.2
-J
April 5th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Thanks for this useful article. I installed the drivers (v2.7) from a CD suuplied by the Three store in the UK. It worked great and the E220 showed up in the network prefs so I didn’t need to follow the steps above. I couldn’t connect and kept getting a ‘could not negotiate a PP connection’ error. I downloaded the drivers from three.co.uk and this also contained an app called ‘Mobile Connect’ which wasn’t on the CD. It has an option to register with your provider, which I clicked and hey presto, 2 seconds later I could connect.
Been getting 80K download speed which is fine for. Very impressed so far with this device.
Hope this helps someone.
April 6th, 2008 at 7:18 am
I had similar problems with 3 and the UK site files were incomplete the full set were on the .ie site,including the mobile connect.
I can download on from the Internet and READ my mail but despite calling Three many times still cannot send mail from the modem via my PLUSNET smtp or my own SMTP mail server. Any Ideas please. I do not want to struggle with webmail type services.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Hi all,
I didn’t follow the procedure above, but followed the one that came with Three Australia (installing the Intel-specific package), and lucky me the method worked ok.
What I’m having trouble now is Mobile Connect. The package seemed to have installed a PowerPC version of Mobile Connect, and I cant open it with my MacBook. Anyone else has had this problem?
Thanks
April 15th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Worked perfectly, thanks.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Been struggling with this for a while, thanks works perfectly now.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Great How to…worked like a charm.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
In need of some advice - I’m using Leopard on a new Macbook with the Huawei modem and mobile broadband from 3 in Aus. I also use skype but keep getting cut off - 5 or 6 times per conversation. It’s not obvious what’s happening - whether it’s skype or the internet. The net connection sometimes goes but other times we just get disconnected even though the connection to the net is still there. Skype never quits on us. Any ideas? I hear the firewall is a bit weird on Leopard and wondered if that was behind it.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Just wanna say thanks for your tip in changing the network settings. I’ve been having probs connecting to my huawei on my macbook and the local provider here didn’t help much (guessin they were pretty much clueless when it comes to apple).
So thanks for the tips! Cheers.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Thanks a million - been struggling with this in Ireland too until I found your guide - you’re a lifesaver. Now why couldnt three just simplify their installation instructions!?!?
May 1st, 2008 at 12:15 am
i am for UAE and i do every thing but the data download is 0 so what i should to do plz.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
thanks so much - had my 3 modem to work from home, but they forgot to install the drivers before i left!
worked perfectly.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 am
I am using a Huawei E229 modem on my macbook pro with Launch2net app from novamedia.de. Mac OS 10.5.2, narwas oman. Its easy to use
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Typo I it should be E220
May 5th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I tried the above and still not connected. I have a E169G dongle. Should i use a different driver?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Thanks for the guide, works perfectly on a MBA / 10.5.2 / E220.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Worked a treat. Awesome stuff - you’re a lifesaver. The drivers and install guide from three were completely useless, and I didn’t feel like calling the help line.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
[...] big time that i think 56k dial up is faster. so i search myself and got the driver from here, thank you. everything was fine until i forgot the no. to dial, username & password. again i search myself [...]
May 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Thanks, you’re a lifesaver…I can now use my huawei modem to connect to any network here in Italy after searching for a dummies guide and this one did it, thanks!!! ciao
May 20th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Hi,
I installed a 3 mobile modem (white - green usb modem) with the cd on my imac PPC and it worked in UK well on Tiger 10.11. However, when i installed a new 10.5 Leopard, the modem was not recognised, no matter i try. Anyone able to help. the modem works fine with my PC laptop.
pls help
siby
May 20th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Thank you so much. I’ve been having hassle with this since February. Finally, Three technical support told me it was some compatibility issue with Leopard, but couldn’t tell me how to fix it, of course. Decided to do a little digging myself and I’ve finally got it working. Hallelujah!
For anyone who’s having the problem of the light flashing green, it does seem to be a case of having to input the pin number. Download the driver mentioned above and find the pin number menu and put it in. They’re all set to 0000. That worked for me anyway. Pity Three just can’t tell you that…
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Thank you so much for this guide - I simply couldn’t get it working with the awful software that came with it. Interestingly my fiancee who has the identical machine has no problems… but I prefer this solution!
May 24th, 2008 at 5:38 am
For ‘3′ UK users, I had to set the APN to ‘three.co.uk’ to get it working. A number of (other) sites said it should be set to ‘3internet’ but with that set I could not get past the ‘Authenticating’ message when trying to connect.
Peter
May 25th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Can I check if it is really true that the Hwawei modem is not too compatible with the Leopard 10.5.1? I have been told to bring the modem to the Hwawei technical office to upgrade it. Is there anyway of me downloading the updates instead? Thanks
May 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
THINKS MAN SO SO SO MUCH lllolll
May 27th, 2008 at 7:02 am
I have a macbook running operating system 10.5.2. I cannot get the modem to work at all. I have connected it, reconnected it, installed the drivers mentioned in this blog, read everything above but still nothing. What the hell is going on? The UK three installation guide says “for mac os x software visit three.co.uk/usbmodem to download mac drivers and installation guide”. There are no drivers on that link. Also, the ‘guide’ suggests that i should select Huawei modem from the list. Well guess what - it isnt even there. The Mac just doesnt recognise it! please please please help this is driving me insane! (in non-techy language please)
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Hi, great. I am using 3 in *Sweden* and your instruction worked for me (well, the APN is different). The instructions on the swedish 3 site won’t work, but these instructions worked immediately… Thanks!
June 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hi, does anyone have any ideas about connecting the new MAC PC to a webstar over here in the UAE. The network provider is worse than useless & the MAC shop seems unable to assist in anyway. Would really like to start using my PC properly.
Many thanks in hope!!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Guess what.. the Huawei vendor told me that Huawei doesn’t support Macbooks very well..
After upgrading the software for my Hwawei, I still experience some lapse in connection from time to time.. This is very frustrating…..
June 26th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Hi!
I live in Italy and have the E220 modem supplied by vodafone Italy. It used to work fine on my MacBook Pro laptop, then I got ADSL in the house and didn’t use the modem for a few months (Feb-May 2008). When I went to check it out for use on holiday, it neither worked on my old MacBookPro (TIger 10.4) or my new MacBookPro (Leopard 10.5). The Vodafone MC installer simply quit immediately on starting up and did nothing. No modem configuration. I downloaded the latest Vodafone MC installer (2.08.05.04). I tried uninstalling, restarting, resetting PRAM, removing the modem configuration manually from the networks settings panel, doing all of these things in different orders and repeatedly… Vodafone sent me around the block on two wasted journeys to see if someone could fix the problem, they couldn’t. Vodafone even tried their new USB stick which is supposed to be auto-configuring, but it did nothing.
Your post above solved the problem. With Shane’s drivers and your setup, it works. For Vodafone in Italy, you have to know that the APN address is web.omnitel.it, otherwise proceed as per your instructions.
Thanks a bunch guys!
Ciao,
John.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
HELP.
I am using a Huawei attached to a macbook which is working well…most of the time. I experience the occasional connection drop out, however the biggest problem that i face is that sometimes when it connects it shows a constant green light and operates at dial-up speed. Most of the time I am able to connect to a blue light (and it alternates between a light blue light and a dark blue light) which I understand is the 3 G network. Is there any way to lock the connection to 3 G only, like you can with a PC so that I don’t have to operate at a dial up speed ?? Has anyone one managed to solve a similar problem???
Karen