Snow Leopard and GSM Modems (Vodafone)
I'm not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but I'd like to share my experience with GSM (GPRS/3G) modems and Mac OS X. The main reason for doing this is the fact that I wasn't able to find any related information for my issues on the web and I think I'm not the only one with those issues. Feel free to post any feedback here ๐
Few months ago I started using a 3G modem with my Macbook Air. The service provider is Vodafone and the modem is incorrectly marketed by Vodafone on the web as a Huawei device (E169), but it is a ZTE K3656-Z modem (I'm not sure if the companies are different or if the hardware is, in fact, different, but the kernel module is definitely different :D).
The first thing that annoyed me is the Vodafone Mobile Connect application. The 'response time' between plugging in the modem and actually getting online is quite big, and I really wanted to get it out of my way. I'm not using any SMS functionality, so from my point of view, the application was totally pointless. When you plug in the modem, it acts as an external CD Drive. If the Vodafone Mobile Connect application is installed, it will automatically eject (unmount) the drive. Unfortunately,
this usually (not all the time, but quite often) generates a crash in diskutil (quite annoying).
But what annoyed me the most, was the fact that, when online, the Vodafone application was taking at least 35% of my CPU. Now, this is unacceptable ๐ Under normal load (Safari, Adium), this was quite acceptable. But under slightly higher load, the CPU was getting quite hot, causing the kernel_task to try to slow down the system (and cool down the CPU) by taking about 135% of CPU (according to Activity Monitor) and making the system unusable. Of course, another side effect was the cooler running at 6400 RPM, faster battery drain and generally, making the system quite unusable. My 1st Generation Macbook Air wasn't able to deal with all that ๐
When I first saw the high CPU usage by the Vodafone application, I immediately thought of the old 56Kb WinModems ๐ Back then, it was quite a common practice to develop modems that would use the CPU to compress/decompress or process the data/sound in order to make the modem as cheap as possible, but inflicting a huge system slow down - Yes, I'm that old :P
Given that experience with those modems, I figured that the Vodafone application was somehow doing that as a 'user space module' ๐ Boy, was I wrong ๐
So, this is what I did: First of all, you need to properly identify the GSM modem. In order to do this (no Terminal involved) is to set up connection using Vodafone Mobile Connect, then using the System Preferences, head over to Network and check the available interfaces (no, this is not a tutorial, but a guide :P ). You should see either a Huawei Modem or ZTEUSBModem/ZTEUSBATPort. Keep in mind the modem you have, then disconnect. At this point, you need to use the Vodafone application to change the PIN settings on your SIM card. Use the application (Preferences -> PIN) and disable PIN check. Now you can safely remove the Vodafone application ๐
The second step is to install the proper modules/drivers/kexts ๐ for this. You can either get them from the web (at this point, you already know what modem you have) or you can use the packages located inside the Vodafone Mobile Connect application installer. To do this, simply use 'Show Contents' of the installer, then locate the packages (pkg) inside the Resources folder for your modem (the names are quite clear :P). Install that package and you'll have the modem drivers installed on your system.
Once the modem drivers are installed, when you connect the GSM modem, the external CD Drive will 'mount'. Eject it and wait a little bit (few seconds) until the SIM card is initialized and the modem is available. Go to System Preferences -> Network and add a new interface using ZTEUSBModem (not ZTEUSBATPort). Set it up as a Generic Modem, GPRS Modem and configure it with your provider settings (APN, username, password). Set the dial up number as *99# (you can find a lot of tutorials on the web about setting this up - the tricky part was installing the proper modules and disabling the PIN check). You may now connect.
The downside of this is the fact that you need to manually eject the drive when connecting the modem, otherwise you won't get the modem functionality, no SMS functionality and no PIN security.
The upside is a very quiet system (the fan runs at 2400 RPM as opposed to 6400 RPM), a fast one (I can't see any noticeable slow down at all) and better battery life time.
I'm not sure what is the effect on other systems, but my 1st Generation Macbook Air was totally unusable after few minutes of online time. Now it works perfectly ๐
I really hope that this is useful for other people ๐ Feel free to ask any question, I'm aware that my 'tutorial' skills are quite poor :P
Few months ago I started using a 3G modem with my Macbook Air. The service provider is Vodafone and the modem is incorrectly marketed by Vodafone on the web as a Huawei device (E169), but it is a ZTE K3656-Z modem (I'm not sure if the companies are different or if the hardware is, in fact, different, but the kernel module is definitely different :D).
The first thing that annoyed me is the Vodafone Mobile Connect application. The 'response time' between plugging in the modem and actually getting online is quite big, and I really wanted to get it out of my way. I'm not using any SMS functionality, so from my point of view, the application was totally pointless. When you plug in the modem, it acts as an external CD Drive. If the Vodafone Mobile Connect application is installed, it will automatically eject (unmount) the drive. Unfortunately,
this usually (not all the time, but quite often) generates a crash in diskutil (quite annoying).
But what annoyed me the most, was the fact that, when online, the Vodafone application was taking at least 35% of my CPU. Now, this is unacceptable ๐ Under normal load (Safari, Adium), this was quite acceptable. But under slightly higher load, the CPU was getting quite hot, causing the kernel_task to try to slow down the system (and cool down the CPU) by taking about 135% of CPU (according to Activity Monitor) and making the system unusable. Of course, another side effect was the cooler running at 6400 RPM, faster battery drain and generally, making the system quite unusable. My 1st Generation Macbook Air wasn't able to deal with all that ๐
When I first saw the high CPU usage by the Vodafone application, I immediately thought of the old 56Kb WinModems ๐ Back then, it was quite a common practice to develop modems that would use the CPU to compress/decompress or process the data/sound in order to make the modem as cheap as possible, but inflicting a huge system slow down - Yes, I'm that old :P
Given that experience with those modems, I figured that the Vodafone application was somehow doing that as a 'user space module' ๐ Boy, was I wrong ๐
So, this is what I did: First of all, you need to properly identify the GSM modem. In order to do this (no Terminal involved) is to set up connection using Vodafone Mobile Connect, then using the System Preferences, head over to Network and check the available interfaces (no, this is not a tutorial, but a guide :P ). You should see either a Huawei Modem or ZTEUSBModem/ZTEUSBATPort. Keep in mind the modem you have, then disconnect. At this point, you need to use the Vodafone application to change the PIN settings on your SIM card. Use the application (Preferences -> PIN) and disable PIN check. Now you can safely remove the Vodafone application ๐
The second step is to install the proper modules/drivers/kexts ๐ for this. You can either get them from the web (at this point, you already know what modem you have) or you can use the packages located inside the Vodafone Mobile Connect application installer. To do this, simply use 'Show Contents' of the installer, then locate the packages (pkg) inside the Resources folder for your modem (the names are quite clear :P). Install that package and you'll have the modem drivers installed on your system.
Once the modem drivers are installed, when you connect the GSM modem, the external CD Drive will 'mount'. Eject it and wait a little bit (few seconds) until the SIM card is initialized and the modem is available. Go to System Preferences -> Network and add a new interface using ZTEUSBModem (not ZTEUSBATPort). Set it up as a Generic Modem, GPRS Modem and configure it with your provider settings (APN, username, password). Set the dial up number as *99# (you can find a lot of tutorials on the web about setting this up - the tricky part was installing the proper modules and disabling the PIN check). You may now connect.
The downside of this is the fact that you need to manually eject the drive when connecting the modem, otherwise you won't get the modem functionality, no SMS functionality and no PIN security.
The upside is a very quiet system (the fan runs at 2400 RPM as opposed to 6400 RPM), a fast one (I can't see any noticeable slow down at all) and better battery life time.
I'm not sure what is the effect on other systems, but my 1st Generation Macbook Air was totally unusable after few minutes of online time. Now it works perfectly ๐
I really hope that this is useful for other people ๐ Feel free to ask any question, I'm aware that my 'tutorial' skills are quite poor :P
Macbook Air, 1st Generation, Mac OS X (10.6.1)