[SWLUG] Mobile internet & printers - need hardware recommendations

[Philip Barnes]

On Fri, 2010-11-19 at 10:03 +0000, Justin Mitchell wrote:
> It's usually easy enough to tell which model the dongle is by, often the
> MNOs website will tell you. if you go for a huawei device then its
> almost certain to work, they tend to all be variants of the E220 device,
> which has worked out of the box for a couple of years now.
> 
As Justin says, the huawei devices are all the same thing, the part
number is then just operator branding and the box.

The main thing to look for is which network has the best coverage where
you intend to use it.

I primarily use my mobile (N95) connected through bluetooth to use
mobile broadband. I do have a huawei dongle that I was given, which I
managed to unlock (with windows) so it can be used on any network
(useful to put a local sim in when travelling). I used it with a PAYG
sim to ensure the costs were limited on a short trip to France.

The wifi devices look like a good idea if you intend to use it as a your
primary internet connection, but if you want it to use on trains, in
cafes and when out and about, then a dongle or mobile phone is the way
to go.

I did have a play with several different live disros and my phone and
dongle, the only ones that worked from a live CD were Ubuntu 10.04 and
Fedora Gnome. Fedora KDE didn't work and I didn't try kubuntu.

HTH Phil