Cingular Sierra AirCard 860 - Here's the card NOW PAY US For the Drivers!
posted 19 April 2006, Wednesday
This week we were in need of Bandwidth from a new facility as the building has not been linked to the surrounding SONET ring. The quickest solution, Broadband WI-FI! Choices, Verizon, Sprint and Cingular.
The team chose Cingular for various reasons and our purchase, well it is history. The Cingular call center's sales expert misinformed us that the Sierra 860 card worked with MAC OS X Powerbooks and soon the ExpressCard/34 would be available. This is incorrect.
Reality, she was wrong. I am not saying she lied or misrepresented herself, however, she was led to believe the OS X worked and assumed it was an out of the box setup. Surprise!! It does not work in OS X and further more it does NOT work with the D-LINK Kyocera Router. By the way, this router is fantastic!
After researching this issue I spoke with Sierra Wireless and the company does not support OS X. However, they do have a third party MAC OS X SUPPORT option from Nova Media.
Note, this costs an additional $75 per PCMCIA card. This is a very poor option offered Sierra Wireless and is a slap in the face to its customers. If you need a lesson in how to brutalize your customer contact Sierra Wireless, they are experts in this field. Sierra Wireless should come up to the task and operate like a professional company. If I paid for the card give me the drivers. What if HP or EPSON had this policy??? It's just crazy.
Obviously, Sierra Wireless is aware of their inadequacies as they have a engaged a consulting company High Road Communications that is working on their image, operation and attempting to add value to Sierra Wireless. For all intensive purposes this effort is sub-standard and is just not working. Sierra Wireless is far from a world class operation. (Note: Sierra Wireless ask for your money back)
Enough negative news on Sierra Wireless let's focus on Nova Media. Nova Media offer a demo that actually recognizes the card and operates the Sierra 860 card, supposedly, in slow speed. Upon testing the card with the demo you can upgrade to the faster speed for $75. I tried the demo, for about 5 minutes, couldn't connect. So off to NOVATEL I went. NOVATEL is another provider for PCMCIA GPRS BROADBAND WIFI Card provider.
My overall experience with Sierra Wireless is simple, Sierra Wireless and the Sierra 860 is just not a good option for MAC OS X.
To be fair, I did use the Sierra 860 in my Compaq Laptop Windows XP box and it worked. I could not use Cingular's Communication Manager as it did not recognized the card and therefore the Broadband did not connect. I had similar problems with other Laptops and finally was forced to use the Sierra Wireless communication manager and everything seemed to work reasonably well. So, in the end I do believe Sierra Wireless has a competence in this area, however, it is not "Word Class" and appears to be half baked. This would explain the reason for the need for the consultants.
Now, as I eluded NOVATEL as a company, smokes Sierra Wireless, in this space NOVATEL is "World Class". Now, due to shipping issues, I am a little stuck as Cingular was suppose to send me the4 Novatel U730 cards, which I have yet to receive. We are still waiting and no response from Cingular today so our focus changed to downloiading these NOVATEL drivers Cingular told me existed. Off to the NOVATEL web site!! Surprise!!! What did we find?? The NOVATEL MAC OS X drivers are for sale. Jeeezzz, this is comical. These drivers are only $29.95, however, that is not acceptable, either.
So, I went to Verizon, bought a U630 NOVATEL signed up for Broadband and 20 minutes later my MAC came alive. Also, the NOVATEL works in the D-LINK Kyocera Router. So, were connected and crusing the web.
Now, I was disappointed by both Sierra Wireless and NOVATEL for charging extra for MAC OS X drivers. I find this very poor!! True, the Sierra Wireless engineer did say they will not write drivers for MAC OS X. This is unfortunate but it is a fact of life, for the MAC, that is. There are suppose to be DARWIN drivers for this card, we just couldn't cant find them to date. At the end of the day Sierra Wireless really kissed the trout on this effort and overall is a very poor effort. NOVATEL on the other hand was simply World Class. They were more responsive and amenable to my MAC OS X situation and will be assisting me once I get my Cingular NOVATEL cards and call back in for the proper drivers. I am sure this week we will know the final outcome. But, still, at this point, they too, charge for MAC OS X drivers and maybe able to solve this dilemma through our final call.
If Sierra Wireless trys a little harder, has a better support attitude/effort and gets their proverbial act together they can really make a difference. Reading the blogs and reviews this proves to be a difficult task for Sierra Wireless. Hoiwever, NOVATEL appears to be the place for people in the know to spend their money. I for one, will put my money into NOVATEL before Sierra Wireless. As soon as I find the final out come to the NOVATEL drivers and Cingular I'll post it here.
If Cingular does not fit the bill with the NOVATEL drivers, we'll certainly go to Verizon based on how seemless their intergration has been to date and MOST importantly, the NOVATEL drivers are part of the deal!
The team chose Cingular for various reasons and our purchase, well it is history. The Cingular call center's sales expert misinformed us that the Sierra 860 card worked with MAC OS X Powerbooks and soon the ExpressCard/34 would be available. This is incorrect.
Reality, she was wrong. I am not saying she lied or misrepresented herself, however, she was led to believe the OS X worked and assumed it was an out of the box setup. Surprise!! It does not work in OS X and further more it does NOT work with the D-LINK Kyocera Router. By the way, this router is fantastic!
After researching this issue I spoke with Sierra Wireless and the company does not support OS X. However, they do have a third party MAC OS X SUPPORT option from Nova Media.
Note, this costs an additional $75 per PCMCIA card. This is a very poor option offered Sierra Wireless and is a slap in the face to its customers. If you need a lesson in how to brutalize your customer contact Sierra Wireless, they are experts in this field. Sierra Wireless should come up to the task and operate like a professional company. If I paid for the card give me the drivers. What if HP or EPSON had this policy??? It's just crazy.
Obviously, Sierra Wireless is aware of their inadequacies as they have a engaged a consulting company High Road Communications that is working on their image, operation and attempting to add value to Sierra Wireless. For all intensive purposes this effort is sub-standard and is just not working. Sierra Wireless is far from a world class operation. (Note: Sierra Wireless ask for your money back)
Enough negative news on Sierra Wireless let's focus on Nova Media. Nova Media offer a demo that actually recognizes the card and operates the Sierra 860 card, supposedly, in slow speed. Upon testing the card with the demo you can upgrade to the faster speed for $75. I tried the demo, for about 5 minutes, couldn't connect. So off to NOVATEL I went. NOVATEL is another provider for PCMCIA GPRS BROADBAND WIFI Card provider.
My overall experience with Sierra Wireless is simple, Sierra Wireless and the Sierra 860 is just not a good option for MAC OS X.
To be fair, I did use the Sierra 860 in my Compaq Laptop Windows XP box and it worked. I could not use Cingular's Communication Manager as it did not recognized the card and therefore the Broadband did not connect. I had similar problems with other Laptops and finally was forced to use the Sierra Wireless communication manager and everything seemed to work reasonably well. So, in the end I do believe Sierra Wireless has a competence in this area, however, it is not "Word Class" and appears to be half baked. This would explain the reason for the need for the consultants.
Now, as I eluded NOVATEL as a company, smokes Sierra Wireless, in this space NOVATEL is "World Class". Now, due to shipping issues, I am a little stuck as Cingular was suppose to send me the4 Novatel U730 cards, which I have yet to receive. We are still waiting and no response from Cingular today so our focus changed to downloiading these NOVATEL drivers Cingular told me existed. Off to the NOVATEL web site!! Surprise!!! What did we find?? The NOVATEL MAC OS X drivers are for sale. Jeeezzz, this is comical. These drivers are only $29.95, however, that is not acceptable, either.
So, I went to Verizon, bought a U630 NOVATEL signed up for Broadband and 20 minutes later my MAC came alive. Also, the NOVATEL works in the D-LINK Kyocera Router. So, were connected and crusing the web.
Now, I was disappointed by both Sierra Wireless and NOVATEL for charging extra for MAC OS X drivers. I find this very poor!! True, the Sierra Wireless engineer did say they will not write drivers for MAC OS X. This is unfortunate but it is a fact of life, for the MAC, that is. There are suppose to be DARWIN drivers for this card, we just couldn't cant find them to date. At the end of the day Sierra Wireless really kissed the trout on this effort and overall is a very poor effort. NOVATEL on the other hand was simply World Class. They were more responsive and amenable to my MAC OS X situation and will be assisting me once I get my Cingular NOVATEL cards and call back in for the proper drivers. I am sure this week we will know the final outcome. But, still, at this point, they too, charge for MAC OS X drivers and maybe able to solve this dilemma through our final call.
If Sierra Wireless trys a little harder, has a better support attitude/effort and gets their proverbial act together they can really make a difference. Reading the blogs and reviews this proves to be a difficult task for Sierra Wireless. Hoiwever, NOVATEL appears to be the place for people in the know to spend their money. I for one, will put my money into NOVATEL before Sierra Wireless. As soon as I find the final out come to the NOVATEL drivers and Cingular I'll post it here.
If Cingular does not fit the bill with the NOVATEL drivers, we'll certainly go to Verizon based on how seemless their intergration has been to date and MOST importantly, the NOVATEL drivers are part of the deal!