Three dongle - on Linux
Morning all!
I sent off for one of the "Three" dongles that were available for a fiver a couple of weeks ago. (There was a post on this forum pointing to a MoneySavingExpert forum post that gave the contact details.)
It arrived OK a few days ago and I have been trying it out.
Warning! Geekystuff follows:
It's a ZTE MF627 aligned to a prepay account. You get a sim card with it which slots into the dongle. Interestingly, and not covered in any of the documentation, is a port on the side for a MicroSD "card".
I've struggled with it. It's designed for use with either Microsoft or Mac - and I gave up on those some while back in favour of Linux.
The dongle is not only a wireless device - but it also has a storage area that contains install software for Microsoft and Mac. Incredibly it also has *some* software you need to get the thing going with Linux but it won't work in all cases and you'll need to add loads of other modules.
Problem is that when you connect it to a Linux system it only sees it as a CDRom and wont access the modem part. there are convoluted ways around this - but it might be worth trying issuing the Eject command but leaving the dongle plugged in. On later distros that seems to make it switch to being a modem.
I had hoped to get it going with my little eeePC 701 to use mainly for accessing maps and guides when out travelling, but that used a form of Linux called Xandros, and despite days of fiddling was unable to get it up and running.
My solution was to re-configure the eeePC to use the new Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04. Sometimes I have to remove and replace the dongle after switching off the normal wireless connection - but I can usually get it to connect and I get as good connection speeds as through my BT landline (which is at the slow end of "Broadband" speeds)
It's a PAYG system. You have to buy top up vouchers and convert these to Mobile Broadband Add-ons on the website which gives you 30 days access or less if you use up 1GB. Don't go downloading movies to watch of an evening!
If you don't convert your Top-up to the Add-on then you pay a massive pound a megabyte charge.
Be Warned!
I spoke a length to a knowledgeable chap in the local 3 shop (who didn't try to sell me anything) and he reckons that the way to play the game is to wait until you need mobile boadband (for instance when there's not a handy wetherspoons or waterstones or starbucks to hook into) and then get a voucher which sets you up for the following month. You do have to keep your account active but this can simply be done by logging into your account (three. co. uk/my3 ) every couple of months using the dongle which isn't charged for. Indeed you can even do it before you've got a voucher. Unfortunately you can only use the three website - no others.
There is however a BIG catch22.
You can't access your account on the three website without your password which they send *to the dongle* as a SMS. If you've only been able to install a basic access facility under linux you won't be able to read the SMS to get your password to allow you to access ... and so on!!!!
Couple of work arounds: Borrows somebody's Windows machine, install on that and use to read your password - you can change it later - or - and this is sneaky: put the sim in an unlocked ordinary phone and read the message that way. The chap in the shop did say though that Three don't like people using these special sims in a phone to *send* messages or make calls and they might well terminate the account.
For a fiver it was well worth the money and I won't begrudge the tenner a month for net access when there's no other way.
Regards all
M
