[SWLUG] Mobile internet & printers - need hardware recommendations

[Steve Hill]

On Fri, 19 Nov 2010, matt at matthewmoore.org.uk wrote:

> 1 - Mobile Internet Dongles - Can anyone recommend a dongle and supplier
> that works ok with the latest Ubuntu?  If not anyone ever had much luck
> with tethering Android phones?  (I have a HTC Hero)

I have an HTC Dream, which I use the "Wireless Tether" app on.  It does 
bluetooth and wifi - not tried the bluetooth bit, but the wifi stuff works 
fine (it basically sets up an ad-hoc wifi network).  There is some USB 
tethering stuff in the stock Android, but I've not tried that so I'm not 
sure how it works.

I have the Three pay as you go (voice) SIM.  Its clearly not intended to 
be used for tethering (since they provide specific "mobile broadband" SIMs 
for that, which are more expensive), but it works and the T&Cs don't 
actually exclude it.  Basically, each time you credit the account with 
some money, you get free 3-to-3 calls, a bunch of SMS messages and 150MB 
of data (all of which expire after 3 months).  If you want more data, you 
can use £5 of your account balance to buy a 2GB/1 month bundle (there are 
also 1 day and 1 week bundles, but I forget their price and cap).  To be 
honest, I almost never exceed the 150MB in 3 months, although I don't 
tether very much.

Mel has one of the Three USB/3G dongles on contract, and that seems to 
work fine under Linux.  That said, the Three customer services are pretty 
rubbish - she spent half an hour on the phone yesterday trying to cancel 
her contract (so she could switch to PAYG) and all her "Please cancel it" 
requests were continually met with "but we can offer you these deals!" 
replies.  She has more patience than me - she did eventually get it 
cancelled but I would've just given up after 5 minutes and instructed my 
bank to stop paying the DD.

> Don't mind if it's a laser or an inkjet.

FWIW, I won't be buying an inkjet again when mine eventually needs 
replacing (Epson Stylus Photo R300).  I basically have to leave it turned 
on all the time because the cleaning cycle it runs through each time it is 
powered up uses way more ink than my average print job of a few pages. 
That said, the third party cartridges aren't _so_ bad (5 quid a set 
instead of the official ones at 60 quid a set).  Not multifunction though.

-- 

  - Steve
    xmpp:steve at nexusuk.org   sip:steve at nexusuk.org   http://www.nexusuk.org/

      Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence