[SWLUG] Mobile broadband - can I make one machine feed the others?

[Matthew Moore]

On 03/08/11 19:55, Mark Summerfield wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I followed Matthew's link but the "solution" they ended up with was
> using Windows!
>
> For Network Manager I have:
>
> Number: *99#
> Username: xxx
> Password: xxx
> APN: pp.internet (also tried PPBUNDLE.INTERNET)
> Network ID: I don't know what this is or means so it is blank!
> Type: Any
> PIN: blank?
>
> It is weird that some people can get it working. My Ubuntu 10.10 is
> 64-bit; could that make a difference?

Maybe.  I was refering to posts 5 and 6 in that thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10342153&postcount=5
and
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10342153&postcount=6

Which both contain fixes for Ubuntu.  Basically you make sure you've got 
usb-modeswitch-data and usb-modeswitch installed, get your APN and setup 
a mobile connection in the normal manner.  The Wodafone APN seems to be 
'PPBUNDLE.INTERNET'.

You may also want to try using the Sakis3g script, which will try and 
'automagically' sett up a USB 3g modem:

http://www.sakis3g.org/

 > Regardless, I can now get the connection on Mac & Windows---but is it
 > possible to make those machines act as internet servers to my desktop
 > machine?

Yes, it is on Windows, you use ICS (Internet Connection Sharing), see 
the link below.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Using-ICS-Internet-Connection-Sharing

And it does seem to be possible using Mac as well:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=mac/10.5/en/8156.html

Cheers,

Matt