Installation of simyo Huawei E220 under MacOSX
I recently subscribed to [[simyo]]’s mobile internet service. I was considering also [[Orange (brand)|Orange]], as explained in a previous post (es), but simyo’s offer is better.
I am writing how to make the modem simyo provides (the commonplace [[Huawei E220]]) on MacOSX first, because apparently the [[Personal identification number|PIN]] has to be deactivated for the modem to work in Linux. I have to admit that in MacOSX installation was a breeze.
Software installation
Start MacOS, then plug the USB modem. A window will open automatically, with two objects inside: “MobileConnect” and “User Manual”. The former is the installer binary, and the latter is a folder with the manuals in PDF format (for me, they were in English and Spanish).
Clicking on the “MobileConnect” icon the installer will start, and after being asked to accept an [[Software license agreement|EULA]], then introduce the admin password, then choosing a location for placing the files (actually just a hard disk, not a concrete dir), the installer does its thing.
Profile setting
After that, we only need to configure a connection in the “Mobile Connect” window that opens automatically after installation. For that, click on “Setting…” and create a new profile. If you read the manual (see above), it is easy to fill in the blanks. In short:
- Profile name: whatever you want
- Access Point Name: this is the APN value that simyo tells you in some paper (gprs-service.com)
- Telephone number: *99#
- Account name: irrelevant
- Password: irrelevant
Save the above, then choose the profile you just created in the drop-down list in “Profile name”, then hit the “Connect” button. If after saying “Dialing up, please wait”, it tells you “Connection succesfull!”, then everything is fine!
PIN deactivation
Apparently using the modem under Linux requires that the PIN is deactivated. Doing that under MacOSX is easy: when the “Mobile Connect” window is active, go to the “Manage PIN” drop-down menu in the top bar. There you can find “Activate”, “Deactivate” and “Modify”. Self-explanatory, ain’t it?
Installation of simyo Huawei E220 under Linux | handyfloss said,
October 3, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
[…] friday I wrote about how to install a Huawei E220 modem under MacOSX. Today I will write the corresponding HowTo for […]
ditechspain said,
October 24, 2008 @ 17:09 pm
So far I’m not too impressed with simyo. Spain. Their website doesn’t appear to function with Safari. When I did get on using firefox and followed the links and ordered mobile internet, they sent an e mail acknowledging my order for a mobile phone, and when the sim arrived it gave me lots of info about using the sim for a mobile phone and absolutely nothing about how to use it for the internet. My mail asking for instructions to “support” at symo.es has gone unacknowledged for more than 24 hours and even using these and other links to try to configure my huawei 220 just result in my reaching the authentication stage, but not actually being able to connect. I don’t know if it is the Sim card or the Network Settings which are the problem.
I really don’t understand why mobile companies are so reluctant to put this basic stuff on their web site. I had to go elsewhere to find out how to get into Vodafone and Movistar as well. So thanks for posting this.
By the way, if you are following these instructions, don’t be surprised if your mac shows a different set of options to those in here. The APN setting option on mine is only shown in the Advanced pane. And the asterisk in the phone number is only found in the Special Characters menu option (which doesn’t work in most of my Applications!)
isilanes said,
October 24, 2008 @ 19:36 pm
Well, my experience was actually good. I only wrote to them once, and they answered quickly. The product I asked for was exactly the one I received (it’s the “internet-only” SIM), along with suitable instructions for Windows and MacOSX. Shame on them that they didn’t have official instructions for Linux, but that would be too much to ask for (see the first comment in this post for a pingback to my post on Linux installation).
Among the things I like of them is the fact that you have no permanency clause, and that your personal page in their site even features a button to quit whenever you want. In this day and age of telecoms that force you to stay by contract, and make quitting as difficult as possible even after the forced stay period, this means a lot.
Not to mention that their offer is way cheaper than that of Movistar, Vodafone and Orange, and has better features.
ditechspain said,
October 30, 2008 @ 17:53 pm
So far my Simyo experience is a bit of a lottery. Without your page I’d still be hunting around for the settings (Thanks), and even then I only got it working after putting the sim in a phone and making a call. What you do without a Simyo compatible phone I don’t know. Maybe you could put an ordinary phone number in the set up page of the Huawei and dial that and then reset for the internet. They have ignored three requests for help in setting up the internet connection (they sent no instructions and there aren’t any on their website), and for some days I was unable to access my data page. Then, to cap it all, for a couple of days although the modem was clearly connecting to Simyo, I could not get a connection, it stalled at “Authenticating”. Didn’t matter where I was, including the centre of Valencia. Then last night only an hour and 30 kms later it let me in. This morning I tried again in a fairly remote industrial estate well outside the city and the Blue High speed connection came up, for the first time ever including in the City. The difference is that with the Gprs connection, checking my mac mail takes just under five minutes, loading a web page takes a minute or more, and forget about Hotmail. This morning the mail was checked in seconds, web pages loaded almost immediately.
The data page is extremely good, especially if you are on pre-pay as you top up on-line with a card when you like, or tell it to top up when your credit reaches a specified figure. You also get an exact breakdown of how much all this is costing you, and that is a lot less than I was expecting. I’m on pre-pay because after Vodafone I wanted to know it would work before committing myself. You get as much in free calls as you pay for the sim, so it’s financially risk free to see if it works for you. There doesn’t seem to be an option to change from pre pay to monthly contract, which seems odd.
However unless the reliability of connection (currently 0%) from my home improves dramatically, I’ll have to move on. The speed is normally pretty abysmal as well, although I think that is more a function of the main company and not Simyo. if I had gone with Orange I’d be committed to 18 months and still have to cope with the slow speeds.
isilanes said,
October 30, 2008 @ 18:03 pm
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, ditechspain. It is very useful to read comments like yours. I really hate the fact that in general the individual experiences with telecom companies are very personal… it is difficult to make general statements, because some people are happy, some other are not. Some people have problems, some other don’t.