KPN Internet Mobile + HuaWei + OSX == horror

GRRR!

For my MAC PowerBook A couple of months ago I bought a PCMCIA UMTS card with a KPN subscription for Mobile Internet. Costs a couple of euro but it provides me with Internet access when not being able to connect to a cable, for whatever reason.

I bought a MacBook a little later and since it does not have a PCMCIA slot, got myself a HuaWei E270 USB device to go with it. The HuaWei USB will automount, show the drivers that need to be installed and does so with all the correct settings preloaded: if one runs some sort of windows.

I do not.

Luckily KPN provides a dmg with the correct config from their website for us 'few' MAC users. Nice.

Unfortunatly my connection suffers from various problems:

• connection speed sucks: 100 KB/s toprate up & down
• HuaWeidrivers kernel panics OSX
• syslog takes up to 80[!!!] % of the CPU when beeing flooded by the HuaWei driver

Of course the KPN helpdesk offers 'solutions' that do not cut ice:

1. Use another OS [riiight!]
2. Use another machine [Ok, give me one!]
3. Have the HuaWei driver installed by a service point [it is!]

Google assistance requiered. I took a random [1 in a million :P ] syslog line "RemovefromQueue: Enter, MaciSize" and found more people who are complaining their syslog was beeing filled up by the HuaWei driver messages, unstable connections & other jazz. In the HuaWei forums people are going rampant suggesting to go wired DSL because this seems not to be resolved although the user x00114004 [who's profile claims he works at HuaWei] says he has sent the information to the R&D department. Over at the Apple Support forums it is the same. In Australia too.

Most complaints are about the E220, but some mention the E226 and mine is the E270.

Luckily there is an updated version of the E270 driver available for OSX, unfortunatly it is wrapped in a .EXE, sigh...

So much for using China products sold by the KPN.