USB Dongle trouble connecting.

[Igotaquestion]

Hey guys, So, I have a small Huawei usb Dongle that should just plug and connect you to the network. When I connect it to the Mac a shortcut appears on the desktop. Clicking that brings me to safari, along with an error message that says it can't find the server. When I look for available wifi networks it doesn't appear as an option. But it has no problem connecting and joining the network on a machine running windows. Am I missing something really obvious here?

 

[MacInWin]

What Mac, what version of the OS? What do you see in System Preferences>Network for adapters? Sounds like it's trying to phone home (probably to some Chinese server) and not getting through.

 

[ferrarr]

Is the dongle designed to work with Mac hardware and macOS? Which versions?

 

[Igotaquestion]

Hey thanks for getting back, MacBook Pro late 2013, High Sierra 10.13.6 Can't seem to find any option called Network for adapters. In network it just shows options for wifi, bluetooth and thunderbolt bridge

 

[MacInWin]

If that's all you see in network, then the dongle is not being recognized as a network device. I suspect, as does Bob, that there is no driver for it for the Mac. Or at least, you don't have it installed.

 

[sllewk]

Hi, Am I getting on the wrong bus here? "but it has no problem Connecting and joining on a machine running Windows"? Is the usb dongle for an Apple Mac or a Windows machine? If it is a Windows machine then it might not connect on an Apple Mac. I could be barking up the wrong tree here I suppose!

 

[Slydude]

You're not necessarilly getting on the wrong bus Keith. I used one of those dongles for a while and it often did not play nice with Macs even though it was supposed to work with them.

@Igoaquestion If I read the first post correctly this device used to work with your Mac but doesn't work with it now. Is that correct? If so, have you updated the OS recently? The dongle I had worked for a while and I think even survived through one of the minor updates but when I made the next major OS update it stopped working.

If you have updated the OS recently, there is one thing that might work but will take a bit of detective work. See if you can figure out what wireless chip the dongle uses. This name probbbly isn't the same as the name on the dongle. The chip manufacturer may have an updated driver.

Edit:The wireless chip manufacturer in the dongle probably isn't the same as the manufacturer of the dongle.​ Last time I checked there were only a handful of manufacturers making these wirelss chips (for Mac or Windows) which are then parted out to manufacturers of wireless card and the dongles in question.

 

[chscag]

Sly is correct. With Windows, hardware for the most part remains backward compatible. But with macOS, upgrading not only means that software becomes obsolete (re: 32 bit apps) it also results in hardware incompatibility.

 

[harryb2448]

Dongles do not play nice with Macs, part of their backwards compatibility with the lowest common denominator in the Windows world.

 

[pm-r]

It would be very nice to know exactly what model of the particular Huawei usb Dongle device is and it's very possible that the Mac OS has left such devices behind in their compatibility, especially when I read this:

Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 with latest upgrades

E8372 WiFi wingle, dongle Specifications | HUAWEI Global

That's if the devices are even similar in specs or functions, and those Mac OS versions are pretty legacy.

Maybe I missed it, but I sure didn't see any description of what the Huawei usb Dongle device actually was or what it was supposed to do or work with.

Pretty well shooting with blanks here I would say



- Patrick
======