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:-
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?
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
I can't speak for the Virgin dongle, but the only way you'd get at the SIM card in my Vodafone 3G dongle would be with a hammer! It's a sealed plastic thingy. I've not tried using it abroad but I'd imagine one of these outcomes:
- it doesn't work in the slightest - they charge you hundreds of pounds per byte of data (I may exaggerate but you get the idea).
Of course you mileage may vary!
Cheers, Pete
On 25 June 2010 15:38, 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:-
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?
-- Chris Green
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On 25/06/10 15:54, Peter Thorpe wrote:
I can't speak for the Virgin dongle, but the only way you'd get at the SIM card in my Vodafone 3G dongle would be with a hammer! It's a sealed plastic thingy.
Are you sure there isn't a little tab under the endcap where the USB plug is ? Every dongle I have seen has a removable simcard somewhere, I can't imagine them being manufactured with the sim sealed in.
On Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:46:18 +0100 Wayne Stallwood ALUGlist@digimatic.co.uk allegedly wrote:
On 25/06/10 15:54, Peter Thorpe wrote:
I can't speak for the Virgin dongle, but the only way you'd get at the SIM card in my Vodafone 3G dongle would be with a hammer! It's a sealed plastic thingy.
Are you sure there isn't a little tab under the endcap where the USB plug is ? Every dongle I have seen has a removable simcard somewhere, I can't imagine them being manufactured with the sim sealed in.
I have a vodafone mobile connect dongle (Huawei) and the sim card is on a removable tray which slides out from above the USB spade connector.
Mick
(Bottom posting...)
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The text file for RFC 854 contains exactly 854 lines. Do you think there is any cosmic significance in this?
Douglas E Comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc854.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------
On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 03:54:22PM +0100, Peter Thorpe wrote:
I can't speak for the Virgin dongle, but the only way you'd get at the SIM card in my Vodafone 3G dongle would be with a hammer! It's a sealed plastic thingy. I've not tried using it abroad but I'd imagine one of these outcomes:
- it doesn't work in the slightest - they charge you hundreds of pounds per byte of data (I may exaggeratebut you get the idea).
Of course you mileage may vary!
In my case (it's arrived now) the SIM is a standard one that just plugs into the bottom of the USB dongle so swappong SIMs is entirely possible though whether the dongle is unlocked I don't know.
I'm not aiming to use the Virgin SIM in Belgium, I'm going to buy a Belgian SIM.
On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 12:48:15PM +0100, Chris G wrote:
On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 03:54:22PM +0100, Peter Thorpe wrote:
I can't speak for the Virgin dongle, but the only way you'd get at the SIM card in my Vodafone 3G dongle would be with a hammer! It's a sealed plastic thingy. I've not tried using it abroad but I'd imagine one of these outcomes:
- it doesn't work in the slightest - they charge you hundreds of pounds per byte of data (I may exaggeratebut you get the idea).
Of course you mileage may vary!
In my case (it's arrived now) the SIM is a standard one that just plugs into the bottom of the USB dongle so swappong SIMs is entirely possible though whether the dongle is unlocked I don't know.
... and it appears to work 'out of the box' once I'd installed usb-modeswitch, all I need to do now is get the key into the SIM.
I'm not aiming to use the Virgin SIM in Belgium, I'm going to buy a Belgian SIM.
** Chris G cl@isbd.net [2010-06-25 15:39]:
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:-
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?
** end quote [Chris G]
I got one from 3 a while back and finally gave it ago around Easter (iirc), although I've not made major use of it. It was supplied with a standard SIM just the same as a mobile phone, so you have to break it out the plastic holder and fit it in the same way. This one came with software for Linux on the dongle, which initially mounts as a standard USB memory stick. I've not managed to get the software to work properly yet though. That said the dongle works nicely.
What I originally found was that if you run the software and let it fail to connect then Ubuntu (9.10 at the time) will happily make use of the device. As it turns out all this was doing was switching the driver mode from memory stick to modem. Once I'd twigged this it was simply a case of installing the usb-modeswitch package and I was away. The only downside is that, without the supplied software, I can't send or receive SMS messages or use it as a phone (iirc) - although there may be software out there that does that, but I'm not really that worried.
By the looks of this page:
http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/#hardware
the Alcatel X200 and X220L are supported, so you may be in luck.
On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 05:01:47PM +0100, Paul Tansom wrote:
** Chris G cl@isbd.net [2010-06-25 15:39]:
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:-
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?** end quote [Chris G]
I got one from 3 a while back and finally gave it ago around Easter (iirc), although I've not made major use of it. It was supplied with a standard SIM just the same as a mobile phone, so you have to break it out the plastic holder and fit it in the same way. This one came with software for Linux on the dongle, which initially mounts as a standard USB memory stick. I've not managed to get the software to work properly yet though. That said the dongle works nicely.
What I originally found was that if you run the software and let it fail to connect then Ubuntu (9.10 at the time) will happily make use of the device. As it turns out all this was doing was switching the driver mode from memory stick to modem. Once I'd twigged this it was simply a case of installing the usb-modeswitch package and I was away. The only downside is that, without the supplied software, I can't send or receive SMS messages or use it as a phone (iirc) - although there may be software out there that does that, but I'm not really that worried.
By the looks of this page:
http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/#hardware
the Alcatel X200 and X220L are supported, so you may be in luck.
Excellent, thank you. I'd read about usb-modeswitch during my googling so seeing that it knows about the X220 is good news.
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.
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:-
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)
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.
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.
On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 06:00:40PM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
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.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about things like provider locking, thanks for pointing that out. In that case it *might* be worth going for a separate dongle for Belgium rather than unlocking the Alcatel one. It would give us more flexibility if, for example, I am in Belgium while my wife is in the UK.
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.
They seem to come locked as well don't they? I think my "two dongles" approach may be better for us.
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Chris G -
mick -
Paul Tansom -
Peter Thorpe -
Richard Parsons -
Wayne Stallwood -
Wayne Stallwood