New MacBook- teething trouble?

rhapsody

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere- I've done some searches and can't find anything specifically for me.

I just got my first mac- MacBook. It picked up Wifi fine in my friend's house the night I got it. Have tried using another friend's dongle but to no avail. It's a 3 USB dongle, it works fine on my housemate's new Windows laptop. My laptop does recognise that something's plugged in, it opens a window with 2 files:
1. Mobile Connect
2. Mobile Connect manual for Mac OS X

The manual says to load a CD/DVD & install a new driver - I presume this is a CD/DVD that goes with the dongle. When I try to open the main file (1.) it says it had to shut down unexpectedly and do I want to send a report to Apple (of course I couldn't anyway cos I don't have the internet :mad:) What the hell am I doing wrong? I've looked up my system preferences, read the Everything Mac book, looked up troubleshooting on the 3 site, tried ping tests... nothing works.
Seperate to this, I tried linking my phone to the laptop with Bluetooth but it can't find my phone, it finds my housemate's but not mine. I presume these aren't related but want to throw in all my info!
When I got the laptop, I just set it up with my passwords etc, my friend put Word, Excel etc on it. Am I supposed to install something else? e.g. from the 2 cds that came with it- I thought they were back-ups.

Of course I plan do go into a shop and get a dongle but wanted to try out my friend's one to check the coverage etc. Also want to see if anyone here has some simple thing I've forgotten to do, before I go and look silly in a shop. All help appreciated! I know I'll love Mac like the converted seem to, once given a chance, but this is wrecking my head! :mad:

thecommander

Should be a driver CD that came with the 3 mobile dongle. I had an O2 one and found it a pain to use.

Is your phones bluetooth on?

rhapsody

hello thanks for your reply! Yeah I since realised there should be a cd so will hopefully sort that once I get my own dongle. Just trying to figure out which is best deal & coverage for my area etc.
Re bluetooth, yeah switched it on on my phone & laptop but they cant "see" eachother. Tried sending pic by bluetooth to laptop & it didn't work. V. strange, considering it found my friend's phone no problem. Hers is nokia, mine sony ericcson both new enough so cant see what the problem would be...:(

oh- why did you find the o2 dongle a pain to use? Any recommendations for me?

I've heard of issues with Vodafone modems and Snow Leopard (the current MacOS) so I'd say 3 would be affected if they use the same device. If it's a Huawei modem you may need to update the firmware and dashboard on the modem, this puts new driver software on the device. I'm not sure whether 3 give software updates or not.

Deep Thought

with the blutooh thing....try connect to your mac via the phone rather than the other way around..

I had a lot of problems getting it connected via bluetooth and this is iphone to a mac...

rugbug86

I had the exact same issue as you OP. I spoke to Mac about it and they advised me that it's a software conflict issue. They basically don't support the software and tiniest updates on the mac software cause it to stop working. The mobile broadband companies can't really keep up with it so they're fairly useless for macs, even though the software is meant to work.

They way I got around this was to use the Vodafone broadband mobile internet sharing dock - maybe 3 have something similar or the vodafone one might work with the 3 dongle? It converts the USB into a Wifi and you don't need to install the software. I've had it for a few weeks now and touch wood, no issues.

thecommander

rugbug86 wrote: »

I had the exact same issue as you OP. I spoke to Mac about it and they advised me that it's a software conflict issue. They basically don't support the software and tiniest updates on the mac software cause it to stop working. The mobile broadband companies can't really keep up with it so they're fairly useless for macs, even though the software is meant to work

I had the same problem with an O2 dongle. Ended up dumping the software that came from the phone network and getting the driver direct from the modem manufacturers website. Its lazyness on the phone companies part, 99% of software works after an update, cant see why they cant.

rhapsody

Thanks all for your input

Karsini: Yeah it is a Huawei modem. I dont know what this means though: " update the firmware and dashboard on the modem, this puts new driver software on the device". Could you elaborate? I didn't realise there was a thrid -ware beyond hard & soft

Deep Thought: I think I did try connecting both ways (must've tried it about 5 times because I thought I was going mad ). It's not a huge issue but I would like to have bluetooth available to me. I'll double check later

rugbug86: Sorry to hear you've had this trouble too I hoped that by getting an updated dongle it wouldn't come up again. If its going to be such a problem then I might look into getting wifi for the house. Myself & housemate just thought it'd be handy to get dongles each, so we're covered in case we bring laptops elsewhere. Any idea how much the sharing dock costs?

thecommander: was it tricky dealing with modem manufacturer? In the case of the dongle I'm using at the minute, would the manufacturer be Huawei or 3 or someone else?

The firmware is the internal software that controls the device. The dashboard is (basically) the contents of the virtual CD-ROM drive, the one which installs the 3Connect software.

If you can get hold of a current generic version of Mobile Partner (which is the generic Huawei software; as thecommander suggested) this might also work - it's just a case of finding it.

rugbug86

I think the sharing dock is about €49 on Voda, but you can connect up to 4 devices to it so that might work for you and your housemates?

rhapsody

hi all,

I just want to update my situation. I went for a 3 USB dongle (housemate didn't wanna get wifi in house or use sharing dock), got it the other day- Huawei E122. It installed grand but then wouldn't let me connect to net. After 2h30min on the phone with customer service, I'd uninstalled & reinstalled the software about 6 times and they still don't know whats wrong, only "a driver problem".

Brought it to my techie friend today & he couldn't sort it- he was looking for alternative drivers etc (as suggested here) but couldn't get enough info on the E122.

Went in to the Three shop today at the end of my tether and the girl had it working within 30 seconds. She couldn't explain what she'd done. Anyway, it seems ok now but I would warn any MacBook folk about getting this Huawei E122. Despite everyone's reassurances that there wouldn't be any reason why it wouldn't work for me, I haven't had a good experience with it so far.

Hoping everything's ok now! Thanks again for everyones help

Glad to hear you're up and running.

I agree with rugbug86's suggestion of a sharing dock/UMTS router, it eliminates the need to install any software on the machine and most will even eliminate the need to dial up so the connection should be "always on."