Agile Animal Inc.

Zero-Install Plug and Play Software Doesn’t Mean What You Think…

Okay so before I get to the punchline I am going to rant. Sorry.

I am used to using Novatel Wireless devices and they have great Mac support. Many have drivers bundled with the OS so you just plug them in and type in the settings. Then you are on the web.

Clearly a Microsoft Windows user wrote this statement because on a Mac this means that the driver is bundled with the OS (and not on a hidden read-only flash drive on the device). Really, doesn’t Zero-Install mean you don’t have to install drivers. So when I plugged the Rocket Internet Stick into my MacBook and it didn’t appear in my network settings I was disappointed to say the least.

Making matters worse for some reason the Rocket Stick (ZTE MF668) didn’t even work once I installed the drivers. I had the following symptoms on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard):

• The bundled Rogers App does pretty much nothing. It tries to connect but always fails.
• Once the devices is unplugged it is uninstalled along with any network settings preventing manual configuration.

The Game Plan

Having setup several different Rocket Sticks and similar devices I figured that the best option would be to manually configure the modem. That means we need to accomplish two things - first we need to disable whatever is removing the device from the network settings and then we need to create a manual profile.

To do this we need to get everything installed first then clean it up. First we will install the package that comes on the Stick. Then we will delete the LaunchDaemon that clears the settings and remove the Rogers App. Finally we will add a Modem profile for the Rocket Stick (ZTE MF668) and enter the Rogers network settings.

Installation

The first step is to install the provided drivers. They will mount (showing up as a CD on the desktop) when you first plug the device in.

Once this is done you need to remove the Rogers App (Connection Manager.app) and uninstall the LaunchDaemon that will keep trying to remove any created profiles.

cd /Library/LaunchDaemons/
sudo launchctl unload cn.com.zte.PPPMonitor.plist
sudo rm -rf ./cn.com.zte.PPPMonitor.plist

cd /Applications/
sudo rm -rf ./Connection\ Manager.app

Eventually you should see a popup where you can launch Network Preferences to configure the device.

Configuration

Now you are staring a the Network Preferences Panel. We need to do a couple things here to get things running. You need to setup the newly added ZTEUSBModem (you can safely delete the ZTEUSBATPort if you want - it is just needed for the Rogers Connection Manager).

First we need to type in basic settings:

• Telephone Number: *99#
• Account Name: wapuser1
• Password: wap

The click the “Show modem status in menu bar” so you can easily connect.

The you need to go to Advanced Settings (button in bottom left) and click Advanced. Make sure you are on the Modem tab. Select Generic as the vendor, GPRS (GSM/3G) as the Model and type in internet.com as the APN.

If you want you can rename the USB Modem to something like “Rocket Stick” and you can reorder the service so that when plugged in this takes preference over other connections.

Using the Modem

At this point all you need to do is click connect from the Rocket Stick tab in the Network Preferences.

If you have enabled it you can also do this from the menu bar by clicking connect directly form there.

Final Thoughts.

Well, that might have been a little tricky or hard but, trust me, it will be worth it in the end. Rogers has done a great job of expanding their existing 3G coverage and I am looking forward to HSPA+ in Edmonton.

WebOS

Let’s face it, as cool as it is, the WebOS is really a beta. It has been out for 6 months and has not been thoroughly tested. So things are breaking.

For me there were two major issues that were killing me:

• My hosted Google Apps GMail would just stop working.
• Calendars would just stop syncing.

After searching and hacking and playing I found the following four things fixed just about everything.

Four (plus One) Tips to Keep Your Pre Happy

Until the WebOS is fixed here are four tips that will keep things going with as few issues as possible:

• Setup your GMail account in Calendar, not Email.
• Don’t use ActiveSync - Use IMAP - where possible.
• Archive messages out of your Inbox - keep the total count well below 50.
• Only use LETTERS and NUMBERS in your calendar appointments.
• *bonus:* If sync is not working disable WiFi and reboot.

Google suggests the first tip and they are right. The Pre will fill in the settings for Email when you add the account in Calendar.

While you may be tempted to use Exchange support there are some email bugs with it. I’d steer clear and use IMAP if you can. Hopefully this will be fixed soon - Palm knows about this.

If you hit 50 messages in your Inbox you are dead. No more messages will come. Keep your Inbox clean.

Calendar syncing WILL stop if you add things like a comma or even a question mark. Sad as it is only numbers and letters. This has been reported in Palm’s forums and I know that a bug has been filed as well.

I had trouble again with sync tonight and I found that in addition to all the other steps what really did the trick was a couple reboots with WiFi disabled. Not sure why this worked.

I Don’t Like Magic Fixes…

As annoying as these workarounds are I still like the Pre. It is the best iPhone alternative on the Market right now. I think the competition will be good for Apple.

That is not to say I am ditching my iPhone. But I do like the Pre.

I really like Rogers Mobility products and services - but that is another rant - so when they called me up and offered me a sweet deal on a Mobile Internet Stick I took them up on it. When I went to a local Rogers store and picked one up the sales person said, "this took a Mac expert from Westworld Computers and me four hours to get running on a Mac - you better get their help."

Now we both know that there is no possible way that this is a four hour job. Especially when you think about who makes the "Stick" for Rogers: it is a Novatel Wireless Ovation MC950D. Novatel Wireless has been a Mac-Friendly company for years and they will definitely have drivers. So I took a quick look at their website and not only did they have drivers, but they also have put together a guide on how to get the "Stick" up and running. I grabbed their drivers and was up and running on Leopard in 4 minutes not four hours. 

Painless.

At my house I can get about 3.6Mbps down and 1.2Mbps up. To put that into perspective it is faster than Telus ADSL. It is faster than their so called High Speed Enhanced Internet and when the Rogers network is upgraded to 7.2 Mbps it will be faster than their so called High Speed Extreme Internet.

In case you have never done this before there are a bunch of settings that are required to get things running. You need to type in the Account Name and the Password. You will also need to go into the advanced settings and set your APN.

Account Name: wapuser1

Password: wap

APN: internet.com