Steve Harris

I’ve been playing with the idea of getting a mobile broadband USB key for my laptop on a network other than Vodafone. I was opting for Three networks 5GB for £15 1 month contract but figured I would first try the iphone internet tethering on O2. Same money a month, although 3GB not 5GB and the same 1 month notice period.

Internet Tethering by sdharris, on flickr

I have no idea how much data I will use so I do not know if that 2GB will be missed but at least this way I can try it for the next couple of months and find out. It also means I do not have to carry a USB key with me or install more software and I save £9.99 by not having to buy the USB key. Plus I read yesterday Three are going to sale advertising space on their broadband software

After waiting a bit longer than the 24 hours O2 stated tethering was enabled today so I tried it out, the connection was not great even in the middle of Bristol but it worked well enough. Will try it for the next couple of months.

It is a shame that you have to jump through a series of menus to get to the internet tethering option though, and you must remember to turn it off!

I’m still not decided on whether to stick with the Vodafone 3G mobile broadband or change to Three, but for now I have installed the mobile connect software from the Vodafone site. Since doing that I have noticed a new process and login item called mac_swapperdemon. Apparently this changes from the USB dongle from a memory card to a modem once inserted. I usually try to keep the login items clear but this little guy is persistent so I will need to be sure to uninstall if I do change to Three.

To uninstall you need to have kept the original .dmg file, rerun setup and select uninstall from the dropdown on the first screen.

Taken from http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=472441