On 25/06/10 15:38, Chris G 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:-
Not used the Alcatel but the Huawei one on my T-mobile mobile broadband service was plug and go in Ubuntu using the network mangler, The only thing that doesn't work is signal strength reporting but there are ways of obtaining that if I am desperate to know.
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) 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?
Well the Pay-g one from T-Mobile is provider locked and I assume that is the case for most if not all pay-g ones. I know mine can be unlocked but have never bothered myself. As to contract devices on other providers I am not sure but googling should tell you. Other than that if the SIM needs to be activated then you may need to do that first in a mobile phone or something.
The alternative is to look for a deal on a mifi device rather than a USB dongle. Then you have the advantages that it is OS independent (providing whatever you want to use has functional wireless) and it can serve more than one device at a time. I think this would be the route I would take if I was buying one again.