A couple of weeks ago, I blogged here about why Carphone Warehouse sucked. The conclusion of that was a refunded sale, and a new account being set up, complete with brand new modem being handed over to me.

Alas, on Monday of this week it still wasn’t working, however something different had happened: 3 Customer Services had sent me an introduction pack, which suggested that I was indeed now on their system and the problem lay somewhere else.

I made a phone call to their customer service team, and through the fact I was:

• Set up on their system so they knew who I was
• An ex-tech support guy who knew how to get them off the script they were reading at me
• The kind of person who had dug out various utilities to play with my Huawei E220 modem in ways they don’t consider sensible for the average customer
• Prepared to go on hold for 10 minutes to get one specific - and critical - piece of knowledge

I was able to get it working on OS X Leopard.

So, time to help the rest of you stumbling here via Google. To confirm, I have:

• OS X Leopard 10.5.2
• Huawei E220 mobile
• A contract with Three

You need two files, neither of which are given to you by Three - the downloads they provide are useless and not drivers. No worry though, because I have what you need.

The first is HuaweiDataCardDriver-2.7.gz So, you should install that now. You’ll need to install the right one in there for your Mac. If you’re on a Macbook, you want the Intel one if you’re not sure, but to check you can go to the Apple logo in the toolbar and click ‘About this Mac’. If it has ‘Intel’ anywhere in the text, you’re Intel. If it says PowerPC anywhere in there, you’re PowerPC. Double-click the one you need and follow the instruction.

Next, connect up the modem.

At this point the official guide goes wrong on two counts. First it tells you to open the HuaweiDataCardApp program - which Three don’t give you - and to then use it to enter an incorrect APN. So, first off here’s HuaweiDataCardApp.zip for you. Unzip it, load it up and in the box type ‘3internet’ without the quotes. Click configure, and it should tell you it’s configured the modem.

Now we’re back into familiar territory - the official guide almost makes sense.

1. Click on the Apple logo, go to System Preferences. Hit the Network pane open

2. Select the HUAWEI Mobile. The only box you want text in is ‘Telephone Number’ which should read *99# (if you’re a completely new to this Apple malarky # is found on UK keyboards by doing Alt-3). Username and Password are both blank. I would advise you ‘Show modem status in menu bar’ as well, simply as it gives you quick access on the desktop to being able to connect/disconnect the thing

3. Click on Advanced…

4. Under the Modem tab, vendor should be ‘Other’, you want to enable error correction and compression, have the dial tone ignored when dialing, tone dialing selected, sound as ‘off’.

5. Click OK, and then back in the basic settings screen hit ‘Apply’ if it isn’t shaded out. Hit ‘Connect’. Voila?

If that’s not working now you have two choices:

• If you drink in the same pub I do, ask me to take a look
• Phone Three on 0870 733 0320 and prepare to be put on hold a fair bit

Hope that helps somebody.