The new Apple Mac operating system, Snow Leopard, is causing a big headache for mobile broadband networks and dongle manufacturers alike.
We first noticed irritated Tweets through our Twitter monitoring system a couple of weeks ago, with Twitter users complaining that their mobile broadband services were out of action following an update to the new Mac OS.
There are, of course, consumer issues here, as some users simply can’t access a service that they’re paying a monthly fee for. Unfortunately, at this stage, all we can do is call upon the networks and dongle manufacturers to provide software upgrades ASAP and consider compensating users who’s service is considerably interrupted. In the meantime, there are some ways around the technical issues, and we’ll round up the ones that we know of below.
(Please note that we haven’t tested these ourselves, so please let us know if you find that they don’t work. Also, if you have any advice to add, please do so in the comments section below)
If you’re with 3 try the method advised in this blog post.
For O2 users, try this advice.
If you’re with T-Mobile, give this advice a whirl (be sure to read the first comment after the post too).
Vodafone claim that this software update will solve the problem for their dongles.
Orange say that they will release a software update next week to solve the issue. If you’re not already on the Snow Leopard OS, we’d recommend holding out until that’s released. If you already have the new Mac OS, the best we can find at the moment is this advice for Australian users:
Huawei Mobile Broadband & Snow Leopard (this MacTalk article describes how to work around this issue for most of the Huawei dongles).
Another Useful Link For Snow Leopard Users
If your thinking of upgrading to Snow Leopard, you may also need to consider some of the other applications that you currently use, as there are other compatibility issues with the new OS for the Apple Mac. For a list of known issues, and a downloadable application which scans your hard drive to let you know which of these are relevant for you, go to this page.
If you have any other advice for others who are having problems with Snow Leopard and their mobile broadband services, please add to the comments section below.
