Bitfever

The Stick is known as iCON210 from Qualcom (or sometimes Option) and is HSDPA capable. But you want to use it – especially without using the shitty provided Software.

1. When the stick is inserted for the first time it acts as a storage device containing the (ugly and almost useless) software as well as the kext (driver) installer. Install both.
2. Eject the virtual “Disc”
3. Deactivate the PIN for the stick using the iCON software. Then throw it away.
4. When you open the network preferences, you see three new devices. Select macusb_modem (and give it a nice name like UMTS-Modem).
5. In the settings make sure you set the following options:
   • Dial *98# (at least that is what my network, O2 Germany requires, YMMV). Username/Password depend on your operator. For O2 Germany they can be left blank.
   • In the “Advanced…” Options “Modem” tab select Vendor: “Generic”, Model: GPRS (GSM/3G) and set the APN to the APN for your plan. For Prepaid O2 it is pinternet.interkom.de (yes, interkom.de) Be careful your data plan depends on the APN, so selecting the wrong APN can cost you money. CID can be set to 1.
   • In the “PPP” tab select “Configuration” from the dropdown and and uncheck “Send PPP echo packets” as well as “Use TCP Header compression”
   • Click “Apply” to save the configuration.

Before plugging in the USB dongle again you should make sure the driver is loaded by running sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/MACUSBDriver.kext/ in a Terminal window.

Before connecting you need to eject the virtual “Disc”.

Now you are good to go. And you do not need the rotten iCON210 software.

Update for Snow Leopard: Unfortunately the iCON210 driver does not work correctly with Snow Leopard. I recommend a Huawei E160 HDSPA stick which works well with Snow Leopard (at least with a 32 Bit kernel). It can be bought on eBay for about 40 €