Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
On 03/09/09 21:17, Jon Taylor wrote: Hi all, I’m looking for some information. My father in law is looking to buy a laptop and broadband dongle. We’ve (sort of) found a laptop that we’re going to put Jaunty onto but I’d like to know if there are any ISP’s we should look at and also any we should avoid? Also are there issues with dongles and Ubuntu or is it going to be plain sailing? Please bear in mind that this is going to be for a recently retired person who has only ever had MS OS’s so he definitely won’t understand terminal or other technical stuff. I’ll probably be the one setting it all up for him. The 3G dongle subject was discussed *very* recently on this list. The last reply to the thread entitled USB Wireless G3 Dongle was only a day before your post. That response has lots of good info about which dongles work etc, but the basic answer is that most of the mainstream devices seem to be just fine. Huawei are probably the biggest manufacturer, ZTE is reported to not be straightforward. If you look through the archive for the thread you'll find more detail: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-uk/2009-September/thread.html Cheers Al -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
On Thu, 2009-09-03 at 21:17 +0100, Jon Taylor wrote: Hi all, I’m looking for some information. My father in law is looking to buy a laptop and broadband dongle. We’ve (sort of) found a laptop that we’re going to put Jaunty onto but I’d like to know if there are any ISP’s we should look at and also any we should avoid? Also are there issues with dongles and Ubuntu or is it going to be plain sailing? Please bear in mind that this is going to be for a recently retired person who has only ever had MS OS’s so he definitely won’t understand terminal or other technical stuff. I’ll probably be the one setting it all up for him. I’d be really grateful for any advice and/or warnings of potential hazards. Thanks Jon Hi, I use t-mobile (Huawei dongle) on laptops that 8.04 and up on. I have no real issues using it bar one. To get 30 days of broadband at the fixed £15 (3Gb download limit, but allows to to browse even when exceeded and blocks downloads between 4pm and midnight) you have to SMS from the device after purchasing the top up which makes you reliant on t-mobiles Windows software. :-( Regards Phil signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
On 04/09/09 08:27, Philip Wyett wrote: snip / I use t-mobile (Huawei dongle) on laptops that 8.04 and up on. I have no real issues using it bar one. To get 30 days of broadband at the fixed £15 (3Gb download limit, but allows to to browse even when exceeded and blocks downloads between 4pm and midnight) you have to SMS from the device after purchasing the top up which makes you reliant on t-mobiles Windows software. :-( Have you tried wader? That supports SMS over 3G devices. http://wader-project.org/ We funded some of the development ;-) Al -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
Matt Jones wrote: If he is only going to use it a small amount, then Vodafone offer the best deal, top up £15 for 1GB. Then use it until it runs out. With everyone else, your 1GB of data only lasts 30days, even if you haven't used it all. Most of the dongles are plug and play, I'm not sure about the Vodaphone one though, as the field has developed so quickly, then the drivers aren't in Ubuntu yet for the most modern ones. Do you have a link to the laptop? Matt. I can confirm the Vodafone modem is supported. Once it's configured (which is just a case of following a wizard and selecting the provider in the case of the Vodafone Pay As You Go modem you'd select Vodafone Topup and Go) then all you do is simply plug the modem in wait about 10 seconds, click the network manager icon in the task bar and select the Vodafone connection. I can't remember if the Vodafone modems have a money back guarantee or not, if not it's worth at least checking the coverage maps on Vodafone's web site to make sure you are in an area which is covered at least by 3G (ideally HSDPA). Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
On Fri, 2009-09-04 at 08:39 +0100, Alan Lord (News) wrote: On 04/09/09 08:27, Philip Wyett wrote: snip / I use t-mobile (Huawei dongle) on laptops that 8.04 and up on. I have no real issues using it bar one. To get 30 days of broadband at the fixed £15 (3Gb download limit, but allows to to browse even when exceeded and blocks downloads between 4pm and midnight) you have to SMS from the device after purchasing the top up which makes you reliant on t-mobiles Windows software. :-( Have you tried wader? That supports SMS over 3G devices. http://wader-project.org/ We funded some of the development ;-) Al Thanks Alan. Got it installed and running on my work/main 8.04 laptop I have with me and able to send an SMS to my phone. Will try with a top-up tomorrow. Many thanks Regards Phil signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
Rob Beard wrote: Matt Jones wrote: If he is only going to use it a small amount, then Vodafone offer the best deal, top up £15 for 1GB. Then use it until it runs out. With everyone else, your 1GB of data only lasts 30days, even if you haven't used it all. Most of the dongles are plug and play, I'm not sure about the Vodaphone one though, as the field has developed so quickly, then the drivers aren't in Ubuntu yet for the most modern ones. Do you have a link to the laptop? Matt. I can confirm the Vodafone modem is supported. Once it's configured (which is just a case of following a wizard and selecting the provider in the case of the Vodafone Pay As You Go modem you'd select Vodafone Topup and Go) then all you do is simply plug the modem in wait about 10 seconds, click the network manager icon in the task bar and select the Vodafone connection. I can't remember if the Vodafone modems have a money back guarantee or not, if not it's worth at least checking the coverage maps on Vodafone's web site to make sure you are in an area which is covered at least by 3G (ideally HSDPA). Rob The networks don't make dongles, they just rebrand them, and change the hardware and supplier from time to time so there is no vodaphone dongle as such. The main manufacturers you will come across are Huawei, Option and ZTE and this will be printed somewhere on the underside of the dongle in very small faint text. They really are quite simple devices when they are working. They are basically modems and talk old school Hayes AT commands. They tend to be seen as a few serial ports, one for data, one for commands, sometimes some extra ones for reasons that are not always apparent. The difficulty is that they start out in useless mode, pretending to be a CDRom drive containing drivers for defective operating systems that don't properly support them. These drivers then flip the dongle into sensible modem mode and then carry on. The crazy thing is that all the dongles have different commands to turn them into modems and every time a new one comes out a new rule has to be added to support it. The defective operating systems are fine as the drivers and rules don't come with the operating system but are on the CD when it is in useless mode. I guess it would be nice if the CD contained a little text file in a standard place with the command to flip it, or if they just didn't do the stupid fake CD thing at all. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
Alan Bell wrote: Rob Beard wrote: Matt Jones wrote: If he is only going to use it a small amount, then Vodafone offer the best deal, top up £15 for 1GB. Then use it until it runs out. With everyone else, your 1GB of data only lasts 30days, even if you haven't used it all. Most of the dongles are plug and play, I'm not sure about the Vodaphone one though, as the field has developed so quickly, then the drivers aren't in Ubuntu yet for the most modern ones. Do you have a link to the laptop? Matt. I can confirm the Vodafone modem is supported. Once it's configured (which is just a case of following a wizard and selecting the provider in the case of the Vodafone Pay As You Go modem you'd select Vodafone Topup and Go) then all you do is simply plug the modem in wait about 10 seconds, click the network manager icon in the task bar and select the Vodafone connection. I can't remember if the Vodafone modems have a money back guarantee or not, if not it's worth at least checking the coverage maps on Vodafone's web site to make sure you are in an area which is covered at least by 3G (ideally HSDPA). Rob The networks don't make dongles, they just rebrand them, and change the hardware and supplier from time to time so there is no vodaphone dongle as such. What I meant was I wasn't sure if Vodafone would offer refunds within 28 days on the modems that they sell. May have badly worded it, I realise that Vodafone don't make the modems and just brand them. The point is, it would be a tad annoying going out and buying a modem for a specific provider (Three, Vodafone, T-Mobile etc), finding that you can't get reception where you want to use it and then not being able to return it for a refund. Luckily where I want to use my dongle I can generally get reception (plus I also have the backup of 1GB data on my Three contract mobile, not that I've figured out how to use the phone as a modem via Bluetooth yet - I did find a guide but didn't have very good reception and the guide was for T-Mobile). Does anyone know if these dongles are still locked to specific providers? I vaguely remember reading something a while back about unlocking the E220 modem so it can be used on any network, can't say I've tried it, but maybe it could be handy to have a couple of SIM cards for different networks (to cover to gaps in reception assuming, for instance maybe one on Vodafone and one on T-Mobile). Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] laptops and broadband dongles
On Fri, 2009-09-04 at 10:18 +0100, Rob Beard wrote: The point is, it would be a tad annoying going out and buying a modem for a specific provider (Three, Vodafone, T-Mobile etc), finding that you can't get reception where you want to use it and then not being able to return it for a refund. Luckily where I want to use my dongle I can generally get reception (plus I also have the backup of 1GB data on my Three contract mobile, not that I've figured out how to use the phone as a modem via Bluetooth yet - I did find a guide but didn't have very good reception and the guide was for T-Mobile). I have Mobile Broadband running on my Noia N95 with 3. Very easy to setup. I use the USB cable to connect to my phone and put the N95 into PC Suite mode. Ubuntu then pops up a window to configure the broadband modem, as I believe you get with the dongles. All very easy. I am using Jaunty on and Acer Aspire 1690. Rgds Ken -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
