Sierra Wireless 3G on Vista
We’re currently Cingular subscribers (though our year-long contract with them is almost up). A few weeks ago, we added an “all you can eat” data plan to our account – to be used in conjuntion with the Sierra Wireless Aircard 860 PC Modem. The PC card, itself, is good enough – although the flimsy antenna can be rather annoying at times.
I threw Windows Vista RC1 on my ThinkPad T43p last week. Though the CPU never seems to relax, the OS has generally been stable for me. I had to do some fancy footwork to get Sierra’s software to work on Vista – but even though the 3G Watcher was operational, I couldn’t get Vista to recognize the card. I submitted a support request to Sierra (avoiding talking to Cingular altogether, for good reason).
A few hours later, I heard back from someone named Sam. He suggested I download a driver that had not yet been uploaded to the new Windows Update. The AC8×0 Windows Vista Driver 2.0.0.21 is available for anybody who needs it right now. But, if your machine is anything all like mine, you won’t be able to get everything to work without another software update. This time, Sam suggested that I “try the sierrawireless.com)”>new 3G Watcher. Don’t update the firmware.” That did the trick!
I can now use my Cingular Sierra Wireless Aircard in Windows Vista, although once I’m connected – the CPU spikes and stays at 100% for the duration. I sure hope all these CPU performance issues get licked before Vista goes gold.
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10 Comments
Farhan
September 15th, 2006
at 9:53am
Why don’t you try opening up task manager (ctrl-shift-esc) -> Performance Tab -> Resource monitor and looking up what process is using up the CPU? Might not even be a Vista issue.
thinkpads.com Support Community :: View topic - Sierra Wireless Aircard 860 works with Vista!
September 18th, 2006
at 12:33am
[...] I came across this page today on how to get the Sierra Wireless Aircard 860 to work with Vista. I tried it, and it’s working great! I am using it just now! http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/09/14/sierra-wireless-3g-on-vista/ I don’t think you need to install the AC8×0 Windows Vista Driver 2.0.0.21 in the first link. I did install this first, but it did not install the all the drivers. The new 3G Watcher program has the Aircard drivers with it as part of the package. I chose the custom installation and chose not to update the firmware. The 3G Watcher program finished installing the Aircard drivers as well as the Watcher program._________________DKB [...]
david verbossche
October 30th, 2006
at 7:10am
thank you for this info…its helped me out SO much. I was about to revert to XP and after seeing a very “pretty” vista was a rather depressing thought.
Robert D Childress
February 3rd, 2007
at 8:47pm
Link to drivers that work with Vista RC2 fine. Looks like they are the official release but I didn’t get an email about it.
Nick Tenbarge
February 5th, 2007
at 10:34am
Aircard 875 from cingular didn’t work for me with this software. Customer left before I could find a solution. Any ideas?
John Clark
February 22nd, 2007
at 8:26pm
I have been without my wireless connection for 4 days. This one hint has saved cingular from a very unhappy wireless customer. You should let them know what your rates are…jc
CB
March 11th, 2007
at 8:35am
I am a Cingular (New AT&T) employee and use the aircard every day. While I have not tried to use watcher with Vista, I can tell you that the Sierra Wireless version works MUCH better than the one we provide. Don’t know why that is, but it does. I know our Customer Service can be a bit lacking sometimes, but there are good people within the company that can help. Finding that person might leave a bit to be desired. Tough on employees, too. Thanks for choosing Cingular!
Thiti V. Sintopchai
August 25th, 2007
at 7:00pm
Hi Chris,
Sierra Wireless AirCard 860 not supports Vista. You can check this page for the updated 3G Watcher software + driver + firmware:
http://www.sierrawireless.com/support/sd_acxxx_step2.aspx?ac_id=5&carrier_id=32&lang_id=1&platform_id=11
I bought the AirCard 860 yesterday and it’s been working perfectly on my ThinkPad T42 with Vista Ultimate.
Thiti
Tovj
October 25th, 2007
at 9:20pm
Thanks for all for this VERY useful page. I just got my Vista laptop on 10/19/07 and the Sierra card refused to work, even with the latest 3G Watcher. The solution for me was to upgrade the firmware. It’s working perfectly now. Thanks Thiti for the link.
3 G WATCHER - Dogpile Web Search
September 5th, 2008
at 4:28pm
[...] g carbs) 2 … http://www.dwlz.com/Restaurants/dennys.html • Found on Yahoo! Search Sierra Wireless 3G on Vista ~ Chris Pirillo I had to do some fancy footwork to get Sierra’s software to work on Vista – but even though the [...]