T-Mobile mobile broadband on a Mac Mini

[Dreamkatcha]

I've just received my dongle and having set it up noticed that the internet manager application uses about 20% of my CPU causing my fan to ramp up all the while I'm using the internet.

I was just wondering if anyone is having similar issues and knows of a way to make it more efficient.

 

[MacHamster68]

i had similar issues , but never figured out how to solve them, i even switched from t-mobile to orange and to 3 g also because of higher connection speeds , these managers all drained processor power between 15 and 30% , thats just how usb works , there are some bits transfered via usb from the dongle , its like if you copy a file from a external harddrive , it simply will use processing power , and as faster the connection the more bits are transfered , the more processing power is used thats usb, but most people just do not care and dont even look if its using processing power

after 3 month getting annoyed about that i got a landline and wireless router and ethernet connection and problem solved
but for short periods even ethernet will use processor power if you open a website , thats how the computer works everything you see on your screen and every app open in the background will use processing power to some extend , thats unavoidable

and the spinning fan hmm mine is only spinning fast when its getting to hot ,at 100%usage, but below 100% its quietly spinning a bit i can only hear the fan usually if i press the ear on the case as i rarely push the mini to 100%

 

[Dreamkatcha]

Hmmf, that's really disappointing to hear. If it's an issue that's integral to USB then I don't suppose tweaking the software (not that there seems to be much scope for this anyway) is going to help.

I had my BT line disconnected today so I could save some cash on the rental seeing as I only use it for the net so I'm pretty much snookered now.

It's a shame because Minis were designed to be near silent, and mine was before today. I'll just have to shutdown the connection manager whenever I'm not browsing the web.

 

[MacHamster68]

get aol cost line rental too ,but also free calls to landlines broadband and really not expensive
ps on mac there is no need to use their browser and they have support for mac , important when ordering free router when you join

the whole trouble with these mobile broadband is that you sometimes get only gprs speeds too and they all use the processor quiet a lot and if you download more then the usual 5 gb limit its not cheaper if you have to top up

 

[Dreamkatcha]

Thanks for the tip, but the whole point was to ditch the landline because I hate unnecessary contracts and BT themselves were spamming me with offers for their own broadband services.

Before getting the line disconnected I was with O2 who offer a brilliant deal - £12.50 a month with no download limits.

Anyway I found the solution here. Cheers galwayboy and martium! It's the useless T-Mobile software causing the excessive CPU usage. Bypass that and the problem goes away. Nice one!

I had an interesting reply from T-Mobile tech support. Despite explaining the problem in minute detail they said they can't help me with my mobile phone issue because it relates to a Virgin mobile - I'd given this number in the contact field. Typical Indian call centre response!

T-Mobile have a 3gb limit btw but don't charge you if you go over it, just restrict your downloading so I'm hoping if I don't go overboard they'll be flexible.

 

[MacHamster68]

yes , but i had bad experiences even far away from using the up the limit that speed dropped to gprs speeds which was annoying thats why i changed mobile broadband providers frequently , wouldn't mind only 3.6mbit , but down to gprs was annoying , and i must say i had to hold the dongle out of the window to get any reception sometimes
so i'd say mobile broadband is ok if you only browse for a hour a day or so to check your emails on your netbook , i think thats what it was made for anyway

 

[Dreamkatcha]

Ah, well that puts a whole new spin on it. I've been really lucky with connectivity because so far I've always been able to get a signal and mostly at decent speeds.

One issue I've not been able to get around is the enforced image compression which makes all the graphics look grainy. I hear there are a number of hack work-arounds but most involve Firefox and I'd rather use Safari. A hard refresh is supposed to display the full quality images, though doesn't work for me because the images are reloaded straight from the cache as they were originally saved. Not the end of the world I don't suppose.

 

[loco82]

I am having similar problems with both ZTE 3G mobile and Vodafone Mobile broadband. I found answers here :
http://foliovision.com/2008/09/04/mobile-internet-skype-apple
I hope it will help you.