Snow Leopard and Sierra Wireless 881 USB...

I'm using it on my MacBook Air with no problems at all.

And I don't use the watcher program it is supposed to incompatible with Leopard/Snow Leopard.

I came across this site today and hopefully it will help you.

http://sierrawireless.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/508/session/L3NpZC9FWWpPeHhHag==

Take a look at this site and in the first column it mentions ATT laptop connect card as incompatible at this time. I would click on ATT's website and ask them what's the problem.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3258

Got it to work after re-installation of application

Hi I had the same exact problem with my AT&T USB Air Card. I had to un-install the Sierra Watcher (Goto applications -> Sierra Wireless Watcher -> Un-install Siearra Wireless Watcher) Then restart your computer. This will allow the Computer to see the installation software on your USB card. Re-install the application. This will cause it to be re-build in SL. Your computer will re-start as part on the installation process then it should work.

It did on mine as I'm using it now to type this reply. Well best of luck.

2002cbr600f4i said:

After reboot, insert the dongle and wait a few seconds....

I was prompted with a dialog box saying that a new Airport device was detected and did I want it to be configured? I said yes. It set up all the settings and suddenly it worked!

Click to expand...

That last bit is all I did. I never had the Watcher installed. I was told by AT&T it didn't work well with Leopard.

Setup Instruction, This is what I did to get it up and running

Here are the steps I used to get it working without needing to use the Sierra Wireless Software:

1. Open System Preferences -> Network
2. On the left hand list click on the Item with the Telephone icon
3. Click on the configuration drop-down, will probably be labeled "Default", and click on "Add Configuration..."
4. Name it whatever you want, I'll call it AT&T
5. Press the "Advanced..." button near the bottom of the window, it's to the left of the "?" help button
6. For the Vendor select "Sierra Wireless", For the Model Select "GSM" Then Press "OK" button.
7. click on the Checkbox that says "Show modem status in menu bar"

-- End of the One time set up --

---------------
How To Use:
---------------

1. Plug in the USB Modem stick.
2. Click on Telephone icon in the menubar then, Click on the AT&T menu item, "Or whatever you called the configuration in the setup instructions above."
3. click on Telephone icon again and click on Connect.

NOTES:
--------

I had to unplug the modem then plug back in to re-connect to the internet, Otherwise it would say "Authentication ..." then would Disconnect.

I encounter the exact same "fatal error" when I tried to connect my AT&T Sierra Wireless USBConnect Mercury through the AT&T supplied Sierra Wireless Watcher (v. 2.2.1) after installing Snow Leopard (MacOS 10.6) on my MacBook Pro 17" (3.06 Ghz). Previously, in Leopard (MacOS 10.5) it had been working fine.

Installing the firmware update had no effect. Installing on the Windows XP side through Parallels 4.0 Desktop produced the same error - the AT&T driver acknowledged there was a connection available but did not detect a card (figure that!).

What DID work on Snow Leopard was this:

The result is a MUCH faster and more reliable connection than Sierra's native control software has ever been. This is a significant improvement over my previous MacOS 10.5 configuration.

I hope this helps!

Sierra Wireless and Snow Leopard

Thanks for the last posting. I followed your comments and BINGO! I online. It was easy.

The only other detail I had to complete on system preferences was to create, name and verify with password the AT&T account by phone number. Otherwise, it was perfect.

Thanks for the posting!

Slightly different experience

USB Connect 881. After Snow Leopard, could not connect, however opening Network Connections showed a new device, called MiniCard. Selecting that and clicking Connect works fine. Selecting Advanced shows the device as an Apple Modem (v.32).

I configured the Aircard device as indicated above in this thread, and I can now also connect using that device.

The problem is that the icon at the top of the screen shows:
AT&T 3G: Not configured
Turn WWAN Off
PPP Not configured

Notice, no way to turn card on or off (selecting Turn WWAN Off makes the phone icon go away).

Solution from Sierra Wireles Tech Support

I had the same problem. Emailed Sierra Wireless tech support and received an extremely fast response:

Hello Matthew,

You need to install a new version of Watcher. Please click on the link provided below to download Build 2160 of Watcher.

http://www.sierrawireless.com/resources/software/mac/B2160_3G_Watcher_Gen.dmg

Regards,

Sierra Wireless

Installed it and this solved my problems.

Matt

Wow - the only way I could get this working with 2 different Mercury USB Connect 881 modems was to use the watcher software from Sierra Wireless.

I am disappointed as Leopard had native support for HSDPA modems built in - or at least I have it working.

I also do not have the signal bars - but a phone icon, disappointing.

Has anybody had any additional luck with the Mercury USB Connect 881 modem from AT&T?

Well it works yay

I became a member of this forum just so I could post here and say thanks. The telephone modem bit worked well for me, but I notice that that light on the modem stays steady and does not blink like it used to before I upgraded to snow leopard, and was using the Watcher program. It also seems to get hotter.
The modem is the mercury model, the slimmer one then the 881. After doing the SL install, it said sorry charlie, fatal error. I ditched the Watcher program, figuring that the stick would just reinstall its onboard software. Nothing doing, it would not do that like it did with just plain leopard. Also, oddly, the onboard flash chip that the mercury modem also has, worked just fine. I looked in the folder of the flash drive using a Windows machine, and found folders with junk in them that the MAC was not seeing. A .jpg file I had placed in the folder appeared on each computer. If I am feeling brave I might try installing updates for the device...Or should I just forget it? is there any chance that running the Mercury modem without the actual software for it could damage it?

And boo on Apple for not fixing SL so that it had support for this popular device, I was tickled pink when my new Macbook pro snagged my old 881 modem with nary a hitch and put the little icon right up on the top tool bar thing. I thought, hey this is why I wanted to try an Apple!
I figured that SL would be just the same. Beh, WRONG...
oh well, thanks to you guys, I am online just the same.

Ixnay

joeyjj23675 said:

Hi I had the same exact problem with my AT&T USB Air Card. I had to un-install the Sierra Watcher (Goto applications -> Sierra Wireless Watcher -> Un-install Siearra Wireless Watcher) Then restart your computer. This will allow the Computer to see the installation software on your USB card. Re-install the application. This will cause it to be re-build in SL. Your computer will re-start as part on the installation process then it should work.

It did on mine as I'm using it now to type this reply. Well best of luck.

Click to expand...

This worked perfectly for me. Just uninstalled, rebooted, then reinstalled from the USB connect card.

Hope this works for others as well.

Ditto for my wife and I. We uninstalled, rebooted, then reinstalled and it worked perfectly. Don't mean to be broken record. Just wanted to send an AMEN from the congregation.

mrg0114 said:

I had the same problem. Emailed Sierra Wireless tech support and received an extremely fast response:

Hello Matthew,

You need to install a new version of Watcher. Please click on the link provided below to download Build 2160 of Watcher.

http://www.sierrawireless.com/resources/software/mac/B2160_3G_Watcher_Gen.dmg

Regards,

Sierra Wireless

Installed it and this solved my problems.

Matt

Click to expand...

I took this approach and it worked right away. Uninstalled the old Sierra Wireless Watcher software (using App Zapper --- great little program, BTW), then installed the new software (now called "3G Watcher"), rebooted, and it connected right away.

Thanks very much to all of the users in these forums. Great discussion and very helpful as always!

Fix outside of having to download software worked for me

I am using the Sierra Wireless USB 598U from Sprint. I removed the SprintView software and simply opened the network preferences and deleted my previous Sierra Wireless setting (Listed on the left).

Plugged/Unplugged my device and it prompted me to open network preferences.

After I did that I simply changed the username to #777 and left the password blank.

It connects very fast, show a wireless icon up on in the system tray and I dont have to deal with any of the SprintView software nonsense.

881 aircard leopard snow works great

881 aircard using leopard snow works great after installing new version of sierra watcher on a macbookpro using ATT version. Confirmed 3G using speakeasy on all 8 servers. Send old version to trash and installed new version of sierrawatcher in two minutes. No Problems. Old version of sierrawatcher prompts fatal error. Good Luck! Apple777