Guides

Anyone who’s been following Alasdair Allan’s posts on The Daily ACK will know that he’s had some sharp teething problems with his new 3 HDSPA USB modem. It all started when he unboxed the dongle and found his Macbook wouldn’t play with his new toy; he then updated us a week later, when he’d successfully used the dongle with Leopard on his iMac, but still had no joy with Tiger OS X.

But just to get the weekend off on a good note, Alasdair has posted the news (on the move, using the dongle itself) that he’s cracked the problem. He arrived at the solution by combining advice from a helpful geek in 3’s technical support team with the Mac configuration advice from Aaron Heath that we posted about earlier today. Basically it boils down to the fact that ‘the proprietary connection software didn’t actually have the permissions it needed to add or configure the new network interfaces’ - read the full story here if you too want to use mobile broadband with Tiger.

And there’s a nice extra tip in the article for anyone wanting to keep track of their data usage in the form of SurplusMeter, a free app which can monitor ongoing usage against a preset bandwidth allowance.

What do you do if you’re having issues with your dongle? Well, if you’re an upstanding blogger like Mister Aaron Heath over at Rational Geekery, you don’t sit about moaning; you get on and post a handy troubleshooting how-to for fellow Mac users who may be having trouble connecting the device.

Having tried everything to get his iBook to accept the dongle (including the time-honoured banging-the-desk method), Aaron finally deduced that the key to success was ensuring that his Mac’s settings were correct, and using OSX’s on-board internet connection facility rather than the modem’s own pre-installed software.

He emphasises that most Mac users should find that the modem will work straight out of the box using its own software, but the few that have encountered problems can follow his screenshot guide to configuring their Jobs-machines differently. And if you’re still not sorted, Aaron invites you to drop him a comment and he’ll try to answer your specific queries.

Now that’s what we call gentlemanly behaviour.

Some people do all the work so we don’t have to. Having received his 3G USB modem, Dale Lane was determined to use it on his EeePC. But the baby computer operates with Linux, and the dongle is only compatible with Mac and Windows OS - meaning that it simply won’t recognise the dongle as a hardware device when you plug it in.

Undeterred by forum naysayers, Dale looked at the dongle on his Windows ThinkPad and discovered that the Huawei E169 is a ‘composite device’ - both a flash memory disk and a modem - which the EeePC can’t handle. But having sniffed out Josua Dietze’s existing Linux USB_modeswitch utility, Dale inputted the codes for the Huawei E169 device, allowing him to disable the memory storage mode and enable the modem.

In short, The Man Did It (respect) and it’s all working like a dream. Apparently, E220 or newer dongles don’t have this problem; but if you’ve got an E169, read his clearly explained guide with full screenshots to get mobile broadband on your EeePC, easy.

Monetise This has been testing out the 3 mobile broadband dongle and has found it to make working life considerably more, well, mobile.

Rob’s article for MT covers the installation procedure and the ease with which it is undertaken. Having already been using a HSDPA phone to work whilst out and about he was keen to see how, if at all, the “cool little modem stick” was any easier.

The outcome is yes, Rob was able to get it running in next to no time due to it being “breathtakingly straightforward” and was then browsing, ftp-ing along with utilising Remote Desktop Protocol. This means that mobile broadband allows Rob to “create websites and generally run my business from almost anywhere.” Good news indeed, having found the fixed locations and expense of wifi hotspots limiting, leading him to conclude that “Mobile broadband solutions such as this one really trump wifi hotspots in almost every way.”

He also created a video of the installation process that be viewed here or below, the choice is yours.

In case it slipped you by previously we thought it would be sensible to feature GreenHughes.com’s guide again on getting 3 mobile broadband functioning on an EEE PC.

With tiny being the new rock and roll and EEE PC’s literally emerging from rucksacks, handbags and man-bags all over the place, it is important that those seeking ultra-mobility can in fact experience it. So if you are indeed opposed to blogging or just generally surfing, from a tethered location, then investigate Greenhughes.com’s post ‘Using your Asus EEE PC on the 3 mobile network’. It gives you all the information needed. Enjoy your freedom…

Linux is the non-conformist choice of operating system, which can cause a few compatibility issues to those not on the bleeding edge when it comes to manipulating software.

Bearing this in mind, GreenHughes.com has been willing to help out a pal get going on 3 mobile broadband and it wasn’t actually that difficult. Liam (Mr. Green-Hughes) did encounter a few issues that involved use of his circumnavigator skill set, but nothing to taxing. These instances are all detailed in the post for anyone looking to make their eee pc the mobile node it has the potential to be.

Hooking up mobile broadband on to an eee pc is a topic being discussed at Overclockers, hopefully, GreenHughes.com will smooth the process.