driverinternetmacosmodemsnow leopard
I am using Mac OS X SnowLeopard. My Huawei mobile broadband E173 data card is giving me problems. After inactivity for some time, it gets disconnected and when I connect again, it shows as connected but sites don't get loaded. Even the default startup page that's supposed to start on connection is not able to load.
I am using the default driver that came with the device. Are there any alternative drivers?
You could give launch2net from Novamedia a try. There is trial version to make sure it works with your hardware. The trial is limited to 90 minutes online time
No unfortunately the only options are really external. Until someone can come up with a 3G / 4G card that will work in place of the MacBook Airs Wifi / Bluetooth card, but even then how portable are the antennas designs between Wifi and 3G / 4G cellular signals, not sure it would work well if at all.
See iFixits teardown of the MacBook Air 11":
A mobile WiFi Hot Spot is a real option for now, essentially a portable broadband card that interfaces with your Mac via Wifi to allow a data connection. Also if have a smartphone such as an iPhone or Android phone that offers this Wifi sharing you can use one of those as well to do the same thing.
These kinds of devices have their own battery and would allow you to tuck them away in a backpack, bag, pocket etc and use your MacBook Air with out any dongles, etc.
Best Answer
I had a similar device. I will just post some insights I got using that.
Mostly I remember it didn't work when it wasn't plugged in at boot time. But I remember also similar problems as you describe.
Could you check next time it occurs to you quickly reboot and see if the problem persits?
Actually after some trying I found out that I could not only connect through the Huawei software, but also through the built in modem program of Mac OS. In the Network settings the modem showed up and I could connect from there - even automatically. This turned out less prone to problems. (How do you connect?)
Also I remember it was not easy finding current drivers (my provider didn't have any for Mac). In the end I ended up downloading the most current from another network provider and manually inputing the correct settings.