On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Chris G <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

I've just ordered mobile broadband from Virgin for my wife to use with
her laptop (Ubuntu 10.04) when on the move. It comes with an Alcatel
X220 USB dongle. Does anyone here use one (same or similar), if so a
couple of questions:-

I used to use an Orange dongle. As I recall it was definitely Alcatel, and I think it was also the X220.

What are the chances of it working 'out of the box'? The Alcatel
X220 says it has Linux support. If not then any ideas where to go
to find useful information? (I've done some Googling and have
some ideas but more is always useful)

It just worked for me, though I was using an older version of Ubuntu. As I recall Ubuntu asked who the mobile ISP was (i.e. Orange) and it got all the rest of the information from there.

I'm assuming there's a SIM in the dongle because we want to use it
in Belgium as well and I'm hoping all I need to do is buy a mobile
broadband SIM there and stick it in the dongle. Am I right? Is
there some initialisation/configuring needed to activate the SIM?

I don't know I'm afraid.

HTH,
Richard