Download Sierra Wireless Watcher for Mac - Drivers and software for Sierra/Sprint 3G devices. MacUpdate.com

Sierra Wireless Watcher 2.0.18.0

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Drivers and software for Sierra/Sprint 3G devices. Free

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5.1 MB
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Sierra Wireless, Inc.

Sierra Wireless Watcher includes drivers for Sierra's 3G devices offered by Sprint, as well as the Watcher app for initiating and viewing the status of your connection. The software and drivers can be used instead of Sprint's own SmartView software and works under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Supported devices include:

USB 598
AirCard 402
Compass 597
AirCard 595
AirCard 595U (this card uses USB. perfect for your PowerBook or MacBook Pro)
AirCard 597E
AirCard 860
AirCard 875
AirCard 875U

What's New

Version 2.0.18.0.2845:

Fixed: CR10052 MAC-SnowLeopard-AC402-C597: Watcher crashes when inserting a non-activated device.

Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 or later, supported device.

Quicksilver

+1
Free

Application launcher and much ...

Sierra Wireless Wa... User Discussion (Write a Review)

ver. 2.x:

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Overall:

(4)

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escaperaise reviewed on 19 Aug 2009

I have used Sierra Wireless Watcher with two different Sprint EVDO cards and several MacBook Pros including the Unibody, over the past three years.

Today running fully updated 10.5.8 with Sierrra Wireless Watcher 1.1.4, and SWW crashes as often as every ten seconds, often every 5 minutes, taking the connection with it. Seldom stays online for more than an hour.

There cannot possibly be anything good to say about the software engineers at Sierra Wireless. This is a longstanding and widespread problem and they have no interest in fixing it.

The upside? When the connection is active it's fast enough for everything I do. I travel a lot so I live with the situation and hope someday Sprint will ditch SWW and hire a software company that has a Clue.

[Version 1.1.1]

1 Reply

David Perez replied on 12 Sep 2009

Not sure why anyone would want to use this OR Sprint's EVDO software: OS X offers all the connection management you could need, and handles it in a 'plug and play manner. In fact, that's the idea of OS X, to make life EASIER for users, so they DON'T have to chase down new versions of drivers for hardware whenever the OS is updated. Same principle applies to printer drivers: my HP printer/scanner works better under OS X than it did under HP's Installer software.

I became very leery of 2nd party drivers like Sprint's connection manager when one of the 'updates' last year added nothing, but removed the ability to share the EVDO connection via Airport or Ethernet with other computers. Lame.... Rolling back to the prior driver (or as stated, using Mac OS X itself) fixed the issue.....

djpeterboy reviewed on 07 Oct 2008

Overall the only problem that I've had with the watcher lite is that it unexpectedly quits after some time. Thats it.

Other than that I've used it all over Los Angeles and San Diego, even on the train there, and didnt have a problem

[Version 1.1.1]

-1

+337

Penguirl reviewed on 10 Aug 2008

Buggy. Must be quit manually to logout, shut down, or restart. Must be restarted every few days or data slows to a trickle. Sometimes freezes at launch. Can't share internet connection. Even the screenshot shows a display bug. That's just off the top of my head, I haven't used it in nine months.

[Version 1.1.1]

cg commented on 30 Nov 2007

Causes logout to hang 30-60 seconds with Leopard. Tried on two separate installations with the same results. It doesn't even matter if the card is plugged in, the results are the same. After I deleted the kernel extensions the problem went away, which obviously also kills the ability to use the product at all.

[Version 1.1.1]

-1

muchicuchi commented on 29 Aug 2007

The software still does not support GPS and Mail for OSX. I must log into my browser to do email. Google Earth can't even talk to the modem that uses this program. I have contacted Sierra and they don't provide a time frame for a software upgrade nor does Sprint.

[Version 1.1.1]

1 Reply

nkmac replied on 21 Jan 2008

I brought this at macworld expo. I tested this using a video relay service and it passed my test.
how ever Im in hawaii and didn't work too well.

I think it could be all those tall hotel blocking the signal

wait and see

+65

Joel Mueller reviewed on 03 Aug 2007

I have a 12" PowerBook that only has USB ports - no PCI slots. I could never take advantage of the high speed EVDO internet from Sprint. But they released the AirCard 595U, which uses USB 2.0.

I was able to use the Sierra Wireless Watcher software to activate and connect my PowerBook to the AirCard 595U. Now, I have high speed internet almost everywhere that has Sprint's mobile phone signals. And the speeds are as fast as my DSL connection (downloading at 100KB/sec easily).

[Version 1.1.1]

Madrona had trouble on 05 Jul 2010

I downloaded SWW 2.0.18.0 (2845) from the Sierra website for my Sierra USB 598. It was the only version of Watcher available for Mac OS (10.6.4) and Sprint.

Apparently what I've ended up with is some sort of "lite" version of Watcher. It has no Tools menu. The whole reason I pursued Watcher instead of Sprint Smartview is because I'm trying to find some way of forcing the 598USB card to connect at EVDO speeds only.

I'm in a fringe area where the 1x signal is stronger than the Rev A signal. My previous Sierra modem, a USB 597, came with a version of Sprint Smartview which allowed you to set it for Rev A only. With that setting, my old 597 connected at the high speed all the time. I loved it. But it died of old age after more than two years of daily use. I thought the 598 would be the same only better, but there is no way to get a fast connection. The new Sprint Smartview software no longer allows you to force the connection to EVDO only, and the only version of Watcher available from Sierra for the Mac doesn't even have any Tools menu.

Various forums and even the Sierra customer service people keep on saying that Watcher offers this EVDO-only setting, and they direct me to go to the "Tools" menu. But there IS NO Tools menu!

I'm about ready to sell my 598 on ebay and just buy another 597 from someone. It's really demoralizing to connect at speeds where just trying to get to Gmail is so slow that the page times out, and trying to download an iTunes AUDIO podcast produces messages like "14 hours remaining" on the iTunes download page!

[Version 2.0.18.0]