Comments on: Getting XS4ALL HSDPA/UMTS working on OS X Leopard

By: Thijs van der Vossen

Thijs van der Vossen — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

I’m wondering how reliable this is. Have you had any issues with the card and/or the HSDPA/UMTS/GPRS service from XS4ALL?

By: andy

andy — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

@Thijs: so far it has been very stable. Got max. download/upload performance from every location I’ve tried it from so far. I’m also quite happy with the latency (90ms average) so can’t complain. It’s just too bad the installation was a hassle on Leopard, at least for me. A friend of mine has a the Vodafone HSDPA package and their offering is Leopard friendly because they bundle a special version of launch2net with their cards (same hardware).

By: Johan

Johan — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

Hi Andy,

Having the same problem, I tried your solution. Only thing is I don’t see the Modem in /dev.
I do see the App Diag and Control though.
Do you have any thoughts on that?

By the way, thanks for posting this solution in the first place.

Johan

By: andy

andy — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

Hi Johan,

Did you install the drivers that came with the card? If not, you can also find them online:

http://www.option.com/data/gtmac/GlobeTroter%20Connect_1.3d0-164.20618.ziphttp://www.option.com/data/gtmac/GlobeTroter%20Connect_1.3d0-164.20618.zip">http://www.option.com/data/gtmac/GlobeTroter%20Connect_1.3d0-164.20618.zip;

Sounds like you are still missing those..

-andy

By: Johan

Johan — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

Yes, I did all that, but I don’t see the cu.GT HSDPA Modem entry. I only have these:

Last login: Tue Jun 10 08:44:05 on console
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 3 10 jun 08:43 /dev/cu.GT HSDPA App
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 1 10 jun 08:43 /dev/cu.GT HSDPA Control
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 5 10 jun 08:43 /dev/cu.GT HSDPA Diag
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 2 10 jun 08:43 /dev/tty.GT HSDPA App
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 0 10 jun 08:43 /dev/tty.GT HSDPA Control
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 4 10 jun 08:43 /dev/tty.GT HSDPA Diag

Then, connecting (with the modem, as you described) gives this:

Jun 10 09:04:20 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro pppd[246]: pppd 2.4.2 (Apple version 314) started by root, uid 501
Jun 10 09:04:21 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro ccl[248]: Initializing phone: ATE0V1&F&D2&C1&C2S0=0
Jun 10 09:04:21 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro ccl[248]: Initializing PDP context: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","umts.xs4all.nl"
Jun 10 09:04:21 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro ccl[248]: Dialing: ATD*99***1#
Jun 10 09:04:21 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro ccl[248]: Waiting for connection
Jun 10 09:05:31 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro ccl[248]: Modem error; the modem is not responding.
Jun 10 09:05:31 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro ccl[248]: CCLExit: -6019 (Modem error, modem not responding.)
Jun 10 09:05:31 jj-de-jongs-macbook-pro pppd[246]: Connect script failed

Another thing that strikes me is that the Option Modem scripts (in /Library/Modem Scripts/) are executables (Option Globetrotter GSM and Option Globetrotter 3G). I tried to copy/paste them in a textfile. No use of course, but I have to try anything

As far as I’m aware I disabled the SIM PIN (I did it on XP, where the connection does work though…)
The last thing I can think of is that there’s a HW problem, i.e maybe something’s wrong with the expresss bus. And then it ends for me…

Any thoughts would be welcome, if none, no problem, I’ll look further.

By: Johan

Johan — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

Sorry, the new lines don’t seem to work

By: andy

andy — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

Hmm, strange

Can you create the device special files yourself and then try the connect? The "tty.GT HSDPA Modem" should be the next device after "cu.GT HSDPA Diag". The "cu.GT HSDPA Modem" should then be after that one i.e. if the "tty.GT HSDPA Diag" file is "9,9" then you should mknod the 9,10 and 9,11 modem files yourself. Mind you, I don’t know if this is possible and even if it will work, good luck

-andy

PS. Yeah, commenting sucks, sorry, you have to add HTML markup to make things look right

By: Johan

Johan — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

I installed launsch2net and suddenly the tty.GT HSDPA Modem did appear.
Though Launsch2net didn’t work, now your solution does. Thanks.

By: Jan van der Torn

Jan van der Torn — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

I can’t get the damed thing to work. I’m missing the modem device nodes you listed, so I only gor 6 nodes, not the 8 you’ve got. Naturally my Mac says, device not found

Any suggestions? The Option company leaves me in the dark, no help from them thank you very much…

Jan

By: andy

andy — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:46:00 +0000

@Jan: try installing the launch2net drivers and see if that helps:

http://www.novamedia.de/e_pages/e_produkte_mac_l2n.html
;

-andy