Son has a Macbook (running El Capitan)he normally uses the WiFi in the house but thinking of out and about he has gotten himself a PAYG USB dongle
formatting link
so he can get WiFi over the mobile network.
However we cannot seem to get a signal (3G) for it, neither indoors nor taking a walk down to the mobile masts in a nearby car-park. Are there any tips and tricks to setting up one of these dongles or is it a case of no signal no connection to the computer rather than no connection to the computer the Dongle doesn't even bother 'looking' for a signal?
Just tried the Dongle on a Windows machine(No2 son's laptop) and it works. so seems to be a conflict between El Capitan and the Huawei dongle, rather than a problem with this area getting 3G or the actual dongle being a POS.
I would avoid USB dongles for this purpose, if possible.
They usually have some software stored on flash memory. Plug it in, computer sees drive, can install software. Not so easy if the software isn't right for your computer - e.g. which OS, which release and even what patch state.
You might find updated and appropriate software on the dongle maker's or supplier's website and be able to install that instead of what was supplied. Or even just installing it because the computer has not automatically done so itself.
I'd much prefer to use a mifi or phone with personal hotspot capability.
Just spent twenty minutes on that f^&%$*& site, losing it big time, not only is there server slower than a slow thing on a slow day it randomly slips into a strange foreign language and every time I search for E3533s-2 (the actual model of the dongle) it gives me results for mobile phones .
Spent the rest of the time googling issues between this dongle and ElCapitan got one that 'says' the fix is easy disable csutil then install the software from Huawei , "what software"?
Have decided to throw in the towel give the whole shooting match back to son and tell him to go to the "Genius bar" at the local Apple shop.
If he has a mobile then he probably already has a data contract on the phone and may well be able to share it using bluetooth or wifi negating the need for a dongle.
Data add ons tend to be cheaper than a seperate contract anyway.
Yup, he has an iPhone 5 and it was the work of moments to set it up as a hotspot and use that to connect. However he is bloody minded (almost put determined there, but I think it's a case of like father like son. So bloody minded seems more apt)that it will be cheaper to not use the data allowance on his 'phone. The mere fact that it is using his 3G signal not his data is neither here nor there according to him, and to be honest I am not au fait enough to put a decent argument forward.
So will get the dongle set-up then when he has used his allowance (2GB in 30days) on it shall not bother getting any more and will let the whole idea just fade away. In the house he can just use the house WiFi, at his aunt's he can use hers, at his work use theirs any where else he can use his phone and if he needs the big screen he can use his phone as a hotspot . The other use case of, 'in the car' I managed to talk him out off "if you are driving concentrate on that not getting a WiFi signal", else phone or hotspot if big screen needed.
He has a satnav thing so it is not connected to his phone in any way. I would say fiddling with that as he goes along is enough of a distraction[1] without having to deal with a mobile too.
What sim does it use? YYou find it hard often to get the right package as most comewith airtime and text, and very littledata. Its the data you need not the other stuff of course. Brian
Well what does the package with the sim say? Normally from my experience you need a for example gigabag from giff-gaff. I would point out though that its bloody expensive if used on windows as updates and stuff eat up your allowance in a few minutes if you are not very careful. I always unplug ours and leave it charging on a usb supply when not being used on line, then plug it on and make sure everything capabale of a download is turned off first. Brian
Done! Had enough gave him the 'bits' and said "Genius bar might be able to fix this I know next to nothing about Macs (not that hard to know but it is a good excuse).
Bad subject (bank of mum and dad. Works but lots of "can I just...")
3G - that is just shorthand for the generation of the technology built into the phone to handle voice, text and data. 3G phones should be backwards compatible with 2G networks. So the cell phone signal in your particular case would be from a 3G network.
The current fastest networks are 4G and there is much talk of 5G networks. The new generations are very much aimed at faster data links because voice and text work fine on the old 2G networks.
I think you asked elsewhere about data allowances. If you have a modern (smart) phone and you use any of the smart functions you will need a data connection. Web browsing, email, anything that needs data from the Internet. So your phone's monthly allowance will include voice, text and data.
If you tether then you are using the phone to provide a data connection to the Internet. So you are using the phone's data allowance. You have to price the cost of that against the cost of a separate phone account in a dedicated dongle. A dongle is really just a specialised mobile phone without the user interface bits (screen keyboard, speakers etc.) and SIM cards are usually interchangeable between phone handsets and dongles.
I would second the suggestion of a MiFi (although it is too late now) because this is basically a phone dongle which you connect to via WiFi instead of USB. So just like a home network. Much more flexible, doesn't require special drivers, and more than one person can share the link.
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