Comments on: T-Mobile USB Broadband for Mac: Worst Mac App Evar http://paco.to/2009/t-mobile-usb-broadband-for-mac-worst-mac-app-evar My Random Musings and Rants Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:07:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Carl Williams http://paco.to/2009/t-mobile-usb-broadband-for-mac-worst-mac-app-evar/comment-page-1#comment-1811 Carl Williams Wed, 05 May 2010 23:46:28 +0000 http://paco.to/?p=369#comment-1811 Aside from the SMS feature, I don't think you need the manager app at all once you have the drivers installed - you can connect using the modem status icon thing in the OS X top menu bar, once configured. I have the Huawei E160 T-mobile stick, and I never use the manager software for connecting, just for SMS. If you send the bundle-activation SMS by putting the SIM in a regular handset, you can avoid the manager software completely. Apparently you can get suitable modem drivers from Three, from Telstra or presumably from ZTE themselves. The ones from Three look recent, might even be 64bit. You can also look inside the T-mobile installer package and grab just the modem driver part - I had to do that to get the Huawei one working with Snow Leopard. I also had to get an updated manager program from T-Mobile Austria (the UK website doesn't carry it.) T-mobile UK are worse than useless in any of this. (Also note that these sticks are subsidy-locked - you'll need to unlock it before trying to put, say, a German T-mobile SIM in a British stick.) I've yet to try installing drivers for the ZTE stick - I just bought one for my girlfriend and it seems the ZTE is what you get these days, cheaper than the Huawei one I guess. The actual T-mobile (UK) connection, once up and running, works fine and seems good value, good coverage where I've tried it, and so on - it's just the software and support which suck mightily. Aside from the SMS feature, I don’t think you need the manager app at all once you have the drivers installed – you can connect using the modem status icon thing in the OS X top menu bar, once configured. I have the Huawei E160 T-mobile stick, and I never use the manager software for connecting, just for SMS. If you send the bundle-activation SMS by putting the SIM in a regular handset, you can avoid the manager software completely.

Apparently you can get suitable modem drivers from Three, from Telstra or presumably from ZTE themselves. The ones from Three look recent, might even be 64bit. You can also look inside the T-mobile installer package and grab just the modem driver part – I had to do that to get the Huawei one working with Snow Leopard. I also had to get an updated manager program from T-Mobile Austria (the UK website doesn’t carry it.) T-mobile UK are worse than useless in any of this. (Also note that these sticks are subsidy-locked – you’ll need to unlock it before trying to put, say, a German T-mobile SIM in a British stick.)

I’ve yet to try installing drivers for the ZTE stick – I just bought one for my girlfriend and it seems the ZTE is what you get these days, cheaper than the Huawei one I guess.

The actual T-mobile (UK) connection, once up and running, works fine and seems good value, good coverage where I’ve tried it, and so on – it’s just the software and support which suck mightily.

]]> By: How to fix Snow Leopard after T-Mobile mobile broadband has killed it :: Aaron Russell http://paco.to/2009/t-mobile-usb-broadband-for-mac-worst-mac-app-evar/comment-page-1#comment-1769 How to fix Snow Leopard after T-Mobile mobile broadband has killed it :: Aaron Russell Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:01:42 +0000 http://paco.to/?p=369#comment-1769 [...] after you install the required T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Manager software (which sucks by the way), things will be very obviously wrong. Certain tools and software will start throwing error [...] [...] after you install the required T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Manager software (which sucks by the way), things will be very obviously wrong. Certain tools and software will start throwing error [...]

]]> By: David Glover http://paco.to/2009/t-mobile-usb-broadband-for-mac-worst-mac-app-evar/comment-page-1#comment-1767 David Glover Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:04:28 +0000 http://paco.to/?p=369#comment-1767 The SMS feature is there so that you can order the multi-day access bundles from T-Mobile, which can only be ordered by text message. Previous versions of the software lacked this feature, so unbelievably, the multi-day access bundles were restricted to Windows users only, purely based on the fact that the Mac software sucked so much. The SMS feature is there so that you can order the multi-day access bundles from T-Mobile, which can only be ordered by text message.

Previous versions of the software lacked this feature, so unbelievably, the multi-day access bundles were restricted to Windows users only, purely based on the fact that the Mac software sucked so much.

]]> By: T-Mobile USB stick 120 (ZTE MF626) on Snow Leopard « David Glover http://paco.to/2009/t-mobile-usb-broadband-for-mac-worst-mac-app-evar/comment-page-1#comment-1766 T-Mobile USB stick 120 (ZTE MF626) on Snow Leopard « David Glover Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:03:03 +0000 http://paco.to/?p=369#comment-1766 [...] 20/10/09: Paco Hope has done a very good summary of how much the ZTE software sucks, and he’s right. T-Mobile, are you listening? You shouldn’t be allowed to get away with [...] [...] 20/10/09: Paco Hope has done a very good summary of how much the ZTE software sucks, and he’s right. T-Mobile, are you listening? You shouldn’t be allowed to get away with [...]

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