[Gllug] PAYG mobile broadband

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 03:27:25PM +0000, Tristan Miller wrote:
> Greetings.
> 
> On Monday 20 December 2010, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 03:17:04PM +0000, Tristan Miller wrote:
> > > Dear all,
> > > 
> > > On Thursday 16 December 2010, Tristan Miller wrote:
> > > > I did some further research and apparently Vodafone's PAYG "USB
> > > > Modem Stick white" is a K3570-Z, which is reported to work well
> > > > with the Sakis3G script.  The cost is £25, which includes 3GB, and
> > > > £15 for every 3GB thereafter.  The initial cost can be reduced to
> > > > £15 through a cashback site like
> > > > <http://www.topcashback.co.uk/vodafone_-_personal/>.
> > > 
> > > I got my Vodafone pay-as-you-go dongle on Friday and tried it out.  It
> > > works, with one extremely irritating caveat:  the device must first be
> > > used on a Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X machine.  I assume that the
> > > dongle is somehow locked at first, and that the proprietary MS
> > > Windows/Mac OS X "installation" software unlocks it.  I've posted
> > > further details at
> > > <http://forum.sakis3g.org/smf/index.php?topic=262.0>.
> > 
> > I'm assuming this is "first time ever", not "first time each boot".
> 
> Well, I assume it's "first time ever"; how is the dongle going to know 
> whether or not I've rebooted my machine?

In general because the RESET* line goes low or the power goes off :-)

If the Windows software was uploading firmware or ASIC programs to a
RAM area in the dongle, this could happen.  I guess you would have
found out if this was the case by now though ..

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
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