[Gllug] mobile broadband recommendations

[Philip Hands]

Hi,

I just got a 3 usb-stick for a friend on the basis that it was the
cheapest deal I could find for a low-usage user.

They do a 12-month pay-as-you-go, with 12GB of data, for 80 quid up
front, with the USB dongle included for free.

The people in the shop were mildly clueless, but allowed me to browse
the web and get it set up while I was there.

Installing it under Debian was pretty straight forward.

You need to (or at least it seemed helpful to) install usb-modeswitch
(which deals with the problem of it pretending to be a CD drive
initially).  A quick glance at this package seems to indicate that it
looks out (via udev rules) for the USB ID for the mock-CD, and kicks it
in the head, replacing the ID with the one that indicates that it's
actually a 3G dongle.

I found that in order to get it to pop into life just by plugging it in,
I needed to tell Network Manager that I wanted the connection available
to all users, and that I wanted it to auto negotiate (which are a couple
of check boxes hidden around the place).  I wanted that so that the
non-technical user this is for could be told "Plug the stick in when you
want Internet, unplug it when you're done".

Cheers, Phil.
-- 
|)|  Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560]    http://www.hands.com/
|-|  HANDS.COM Ltd.                    http://www.uk.debian.org/
|(|  10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London  E18 1NE  ENGLAND
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