Are You Running Cat - Cdma On A Mac

[ThaiLife]

I run CAT CDMA on both a Windows PC and an Apple iMac , on the Windows PC there is a small on screen panel you can see the signal strength of the CDMA connection - as shown below ..

and its nice to be able to see the current state of the signal strength.

On the Apple iMac this on screen signal panel is not there , does any one know if its possible to see the CDMA signal strength on a Mac in some way ? .

Any advice, comments or suggestions welcome

TL :jap:

[smiling mantis]

I don't believe so.

This is the typical situation, where the Mac driver is bare-bones, and the PC drivers have all the bells and whistles.

With another wireless service I used there was a company in Europe that was offering a more complete driver package for 3G Mac users but I forget its name now, expensive at around 100 euros IIRC, but it had signal strength and also an interface that would let you use SMS and other features. The same might be true here, but then you need to figure out exactly what kind of modem you have and do the research.

For instance, I have what they're calling the CAT CDMA VW140 modem, but doing Google reveals that it is only referenced here in Thailand, and I don't think this modem is locally manufactured and distributed solely for CAT subscribers, which means it's some other modem, but rebranded for CAT. If I spent the half hour or whatever I could find out what it is, do the Google on that, and then with the devices _real_ manufacturer and model name suss out whether any third-party vendors are offering more complete software for it.

But the signal strength is clearly adequate in my case, so I haven't had the motivation to go through all of that again. I'm at the age now where if it works, I don't ask questions.

[nikster]

I don't believe so.

This is the typical situation, where the Mac driver is bare-bones, and the PC drivers have all the bells and whistles.

[snip]

It's a double-edged sword - on the one hand Mac users usually don't get the PC software that might include signal strength. On the other hand, Mac users enjoy native OS X drivers for most 3G modems, which is much more robust and well made than the things the modem manufacturers usually conjure up (software obviously not being their strength).

The worst case is when there is no native 3G driver but the modem maker has included some piece of quickly hacked together mac software - as was the case with the C-Motech cards. But all new cards, to my knowledge, are supported by Mac OS natively.

If you use the native drivers, you have the option to get a WWAN icon in the menu bar, and if you mouse over this icon, it will tell you the signal strength in a popup. Might have to click on it to see it, I am not sure and can't try right now. But I am pretty certain you do see signal strength there somewhere.

So the rule for mac users and 3G cards is: Don't install whatever the manufacturer has included in software on your Mac - instead, see if the modem is supported natively, and use the native drivers if possible.

PS: I am using the CAT CDMA MiFi which is just a WiFi hotspot, so there's never going to be any driver issues. Half the reason I bought it, actually. Push a button and it works, end of story.

[smiling mantis]

So the rule for mac users and 3G cards is: Don't install whatever the manufacturer has included in software on your Mac - instead, see if the modem is supported natively, and use the native drivers if possible.

That's a great point, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't think to try this first.

Now that I think about it, I remember being distracted by the USB CDROM drive that gets mounted when you first plug the device in. It contains a Mac installer for driver software, and it gave me errors when trying to install it. Which led me to frantically run to CAT's website looking for an updated driver, which I then successfully installed.

I suppose I _could_ try to uninstall CAT's driver, and try as you suggest, but previous experience with uninstalling driver software is going to keep me from doing that unless absolutely necessary.

[nikster]

So the rule for mac users and 3G cards is: Don't install whatever the manufacturer has included in software on your Mac - instead, see if the modem is supported natively, and use the native drivers if possible.

That's a great point, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't think to try this first.

Now that I think about it, I remember being distracted by the USB CDROM drive that gets mounted when you first plug the device in. It contains a Mac installer for driver software, and it gave me errors when trying to install it. Which led me to frantically run to CAT's website looking for an updated driver, which I then successfully installed.

I suppose I _could_ try to uninstall CAT's driver, and try as you suggest, but previous experience with uninstalling driver software is going to keep me from doing that unless absolutely necessary.

Which modem model do you have? I can check whether it's natively supported on OS X. Assuming you're running the latest OS X version...

[smiling mantis]

So the rule for mac users and 3G cards is: Don't install whatever the manufacturer has included in software on your Mac - instead, see if the modem is supported natively, and use the native drivers if possible.

That's a great point, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't think to try this first.

Now that I think about it, I remember being distracted by the USB CDROM drive that gets mounted when you first plug the device in. It contains a Mac installer for driver software, and it gave me errors when trying to install it. Which led me to frantically run to CAT's website looking for an updated driver, which I then successfully installed.

I suppose I _could_ try to uninstall CAT's driver, and try as you suggest, but previous experience with uninstalling driver software is going to keep me from doing that unless absolutely necessary.

Which modem model do you have? I can check whether it's natively supported on OS X. Assuming you're running the latest OS X version...

CAT CDMA VW140. It's a neat little modem and works great, but then too I'm under 2km from the nearest CAT tower too.

But I now realize I should have gotten the Mifi like you have. I actually have two Macs, and I was going to use the spare as a basestation only to later discover that Internet Sharing only supports WEP! Ack!

Running 10.6.5.

[ThaiLife]

Thanks for the comments , its appreciate

From what I remember when I first got the Mac the people at the CAT office just used the software CD that came with the

MC727 USB Modem, to get the modem to work, its only lately that ive thought about getting some sort of on screen signal read out on my Mac.

On the top Mac tool bar there is what looks like a signal strength indicator shown below ( A )

This graduated bar icon never seems to move , its there or its not .

When I put my mouse pointer over the the icon , this below is what I see ( B )

The only option I can see is to go to Network Preferences , which is shown below ( C )

the only other signal looking icon ( Red pointer above ) is static

So I can't see any where that shows the current signal strength

or am I missing some thing ?

TL

[smiling mantis]

Thanks for the comments , its appreciate

From what I remember when I first got the Mac the people at the CAT office just used the software CD that came with the

MC727 USB Modem, to get the modem to work, its only lately that ive thought about getting some sort of on screen signal read out on my Mac.

On the top Mac tool bar there is what looks like a signal strength indicator shown below ( A )

This graduated bar icon never seems to move , its there or its not .

When I put my mouse pointer over the the icon , this below is what I see ( B )

The only option I can see is to go to Network Preferences , which is shown below ( C )

the only other signal looking icon ( Red pointer above ) is static

So I can't see any where that shows the current signal strength

or am I missing some thing ?

TL

You got more than I've got... that signal bar thingie you've got in the menu bar is making me green with envy. Man I really screwed this up (then again, it works... maybe I should leave well enough alone?)

I remember better now, you're right, the package comes with a CD, but it's one of those little CD's and I was afraid it'd get stuck in the laptop, so that's why I went online to find the driver. Apparently, they only make the driver available online, and not the software that provides the signal bar indicator.

The thing I downloaded from the CAT site is called vancouver-osx-V1_22_5-release.dmg. Is that what the driver is called on the CD? Was there another installer or any other file included?

[ThaiLife]

Thanks for the comments , its appreciate

From what I remember when I first got the Mac the people at the CAT office just used the software CD that came with the

MC727 USB Modem, to get the modem to work, its only lately that ive thought about getting some sort of on screen signal read out on my Mac.

On the top Mac tool bar there is what looks like a signal strength indicator shown below ( A )

This graduated bar icon never seems to move , its there or its not .

When I put my mouse pointer over the the icon , this below is what I see ( B )

The only option I can see is to go to Network Preferences , which is shown below ( C )

the only other signal looking icon ( Red pointer above ) is static

So I can't see any where that shows the current signal strength

or am I missing some thing ?

TL

You got more than I've got... that signal bar thingie you've got in the menu bar is making me green with envy. Man I really screwed this up (then again, it works... maybe I should leave well enough alone?)

I remember better now, you're right, the package comes with a CD, but it's one of those little CD's and I was afraid it'd get stuck in the laptop, so that's why I went online to find the driver. Apparently, they only make the driver available online, and not the software that provides the signal bar indicator.

The thing I downloaded from the CAT site is called vancouver-osx-V1_22_5-release.dmg. Is that what the driver is called on the CD? Was there another installer or any other file included?

Hi , your comment ( that signal bar thingie you've got in the menu bar is making me green with envy )

I would be even more happy if it did any thing , but it just sits there not moving

It would be nice to see the actual real time signal strength some how

TL

[smiling mantis]

OK, I went ahead and removed the driver (the included uninstaller failed to do the right thing so I had to go into /Library/Extensions and remove it manually) and rebooted and tried to let the Mac recognize the modem on its own and it didn't.

So I reinstalled the driver software I dloaded from CAT. One thing maybe worth noting is that you can specify Generic->CDMA in the System Preferences->Network->Advanced->Modem and get the thing to work, albeit at what appears to be reduced speed. Alas, no WWAN gizmo in the menu bar though. So I went back to Other->Vertex Wireless Multi-Function Device.

This concludes my screwing around with this thing, unless anybody comes up with additional information.