[Gllug] Mobile phone broadband

[Tim Porter]

I am  exactly the same but now im feeling 3G wasnt enough and I should have
gone for the 7G. I've been relying on it as my sole net connection for
about three months.

I havent found a single thing that it blocks, Skype works, MSN works, no
funky messing with my HTTP, even bit torrent works at a not unreasonable
speed either.

Only problems I have had with it are these:-

1. very variable signal strength and hence variable connection speed.

2. My mobile is on 3 as well, if im in a voice call and within close
proximity of the modem IT WILL NOT CONNECT. That said, if I connect first
and then make a voice call it does not cause the modem to disconnect but
people on the other end of the phone report problems hearing me properly
(even though I can hear them fine). Took me a long time to figure out the
correlation here, it was infuriating for a while when it did it the first
time while I was on the phone to my mate and then every time I called 3 to
report it it would break until I hung up. Facepalm.

3. Idle socket time out very low. The modem will stay online for hours but
individual TCP/IP sockets will get shut quickly if not in constant use. I
dont know if this relates to 1. above. This was only a problem for SSH but
I managed to solve that by getting my remote servers screen session to put
the time and seconds on the corner of the SSH window. Probably an SSH
keep-alive option somewhere if I looked for it.

4. Not really a problem but it was EASIER to get working in Fedora (FC8)
than it was in Vista. Go figure.

On the whole - pretty happy with this product. Occasionally it just stops
working and won't let me connect at all for a few hours, but this happens
with about the same frequency as my old ADSL line anyway, nothings perfect.

Regards,

Tim.

>> Hi Vidar,
>>
>>    I've just got myself a three USB modem which I'm reasonably happy
> with
> 
> I too have a 3 USB modem - again the Huawei wotsit.  You can drive it
with
> Gnome PPP but a much better option is the Vodafone driver package, which
> despite the name works for any service provider.  You can download it at
> 
> https://forge.vodafonebetavine.net/frs/?group_id=12
> 
> Connection speed is variable but it seems reliable (I've stayed on line
> all day with it) and it's fine for a bit of light surfing or catching up
> with your e-mail.
> 
> I haven't noticed any attempts to mangle the data - but since it claims
to
> provide an Internet connection I can't help feeling that any such attempt
> would be in breach of the product description.
> 
> The eeePC recognises it and uses it without any additional software.
> 
> I went for the 3G / month package, but I'm starting to feel that 1G /
> month would have been plenty.
> 
> John
> 
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