Mobile boadband dongle for Mac?

Carbon125

Hello everyone,

I need to tide over the month or so it takes Vodafone to activate the broadband landline. I had already compared the various offers for mbb dongles on bonkers.ie and was ready to go with an O2 prepay offer. Luckily I looked through the O2 forum here on boards; turns out that the dongle which O2 describes as "PC and MAC compatible" on their website is in fact not Mac compatible:

http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057356821

Is anyone here successfully using an mbb dongle on a Mac?
My system is 10.6.8 on a Mac Pro 1,1

whiterebel

Yes, Three and Vodafone. You may have a bit of trouble using with10.6.8, as it think they support newer versions of Os X. I'm open to correction here, but I think the compatibility only relates to using the MBB dashboard etc. you should be just able to switch on the router and log in and use away without using the software?

eladnova

Hey @Carbon125

I've used the Three dongle for about 18 months and it's been no trouble. Works on Macs and PCs/ iPads etc. Can reccomend it.

But if you only need it for a month, could you just tether your mobile phone and use that instead?

I ditched the dongle recently for a proper UPC broadband plan so I'm not up to date on their limits etc but Three have very generous download limits. Everyone else seemed really tight esp VF.

Carbon125

Tethering an Android phone with a Mac is a royal pain, works on a stone age level though.
But my mobile phone provider is Tesco Mobile. Download speeds are for the very patient only - that's when checking email (text only, no attachments).
Uploading a 20MB file might take a year I guess.

ZENER

If you opt for the USB memory stick style dongle they will break your heart. Go for a MiFi device which is compatible with everything thats using Wifi to connect.

It also means you can place the MiFi unit where ever you get the best signal and have your computer where its more comfortable for you.

Ken

maringo

I have a 3 dongle and find it fairly ok. Easy to set up on the mac - I'm running 10.6.8 costs about 21 a month. Watching Utube etc. isn't a problem with it on my old macbook air.

ZENER

Carbon125 wrote: »

Tethering an Android phone with a Mac is a royal pain, works on a stone age level though.
But my mobile phone provider is Tesco Mobile. Download speeds are for the very patient only - that's when checking email (text only, no attachments).
Uploading a 20MB file might take a year I guess.

Every Mac made has WiFi and all Android phones have WiFi so WiFi tethering a Mac to a smartphone is as simple as joining any computer to an AP.

Ken

Carbon125

ZENER wrote: »

Every Mac made has WiFi and all Android phones have WiFi so WiFi tethering a Mac to a smartphone is as simple as joining any computer to an AP.

Ken

The Mac Pro 1,1 doesn't have WiFi built in. I don't think any of the cheesegraters ever had it except via a WiFi card which was available separately.

Losty Dublin

I used both the O2 and Meteor dongles with no issues at all.

Carbon125

ZENER wrote: »

If you opt for the USB memory stick style dongle they will break your heart. Go for a MiFi device which is compatible with everything thats using Wifi to connect.

It also means you can place the MiFi unit where ever you get the best signal and have your computer where its more comfortable for you.

Ken

MiFi sounds good - hadn't even heard of these devices before *blush*.
Three costs €25 for 7.5GB per month.
Tesco Mobile offers 15GB per month for the same price. Think I'll pay them a visit tomorrow.

54kroc

Carbon125 wrote: »

Tethering an Android phone with a Mac is a royal pain, works on a stone age level though.
But my mobile phone provider is Tesco Mobile. Download speeds are for the very patient only - that's when checking email (text only, no attachments).
Uploading a 20MB file might take a year I guess.

Carbon125 wrote: »

MiFi sounds good - hadn't even heard of these devices before *blush*.
Three costs €25 for 7.5GB per month.
Tesco Mobile offers 15GB per month for the same price. Think I'll pay them a visit tomorrow.

If you get the Tesco mobile MiFi will it not be the same as tethering from your phone?
Out of curiosity what trouble do you have tethering android to mac?

ZENER

Carbon125 wrote: »

The Mac Pro 1,1 doesn't have WiFi built in. I don't think any of the cheesegraters ever had it except via a WiFi card which was available separately.

A lot of the more common wifi chipsets will work out of the box with MacOS these days. Have a look here for advice on "Windows" only devices that have been tried and tested on various versions of MacOS.

If you have an original MacPro there are non Apple PCIe Wifi/BT cards that will work in that machine available.

Ken