T-Mobile Broadband USB Stick 110 with Linpus

Hi Everyone,

It took me quite a while to find enough information to get my T-Mobile dongle working so thought it might be useful to post what I did.

First off, I am a complete newbie when it comes to Linux so apologies if I get the terminology wrong.

- Go to the normal Acer Live Update utility, in your Settings, and update your Linpus with all the updates. Most especially the update for Huawei adapters (it was the last one in the list when I did the update). Keep running the Live Update over and over again if needs be, rebooting each time, until it says there are no more updates.

- Once the updates have finished and you have re-booted for the last time, disable your WiFi transmitter by sliding the button on the front of your Aspire One
- You should now be able to load the Mobile Partner program, it should be in the "Connect" portion of the desktop.
- Load the Mobile Partner program.
- Click on Tools, then Options. Highlight Profile Management on the left and then select New on the right
- Put a name in the "Profile Name" box, anything you like but I just used "T-Mobile"
- For APN, Select "Dynamic" and leave the APN text box blank
- Set the access number to *99# if it isn't already. It was that as default on mine.
- leave the username blank
- leave the password blank
- select CHAP if it isn't already selected.
- Click ok
- You should now have a profile in the "profile name" box and a greyed out "connect" box in Mobile Partner.

Mobile Parner is now set up and running.
Just to be sure that Linpus won't interfere with Mobile Partner when accessing the USB dongle, right click on the Network Connection indicator at the bottom right corner of your desktop, near the clock.

- Select Preferences
- Un-check the option for 3G at the end. We do not want Linpus to auto-try that connection when it tries to connect to a network.
- Click close


***Do these next steps before registering with t-mobile***
- Unpack the T-Mobile Dongle from its box
- Put the Sim card in the USB Dongle
- Put the dongle into the netbook
- Wait a few seconds
- A screen might appear with loads of files in it. Close it, they are of no use to Linpus.
- Bring Mobile Partner back into the foreground, click connect and it should connect to the dongle (there are little pictures in Mobile Partner that indicate this).
- The internet will not yet work because you have to enable the dongle with T-Mobile

*** I did these next stages from a different PC so I didn't have to enable the wireless transmitter on the netbook to register at T-Mobile, in case the wireless screwed things up****
*** I think you must have the Mobile Partner running with the dongle inserted and connected to Mobile Partner before doing these next steps*****

- Go online and visit http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/myt-mobile
- Register and top up your phone.
- Your phone number is on the top-up card in the pack
- A verification PIN number will be sent by text to your new USB Dongle. Mobile Partner on the Aspire One will make a ping noise and display a message icon. Open the message (in Mobile Partner) and note down the PIN.
- When you finish registering and topping up, log into your new myt-mobile account.
- The first screen will ask for your PIN number, type the number you just got from the text in Mobile Partner
- You can now log out of your myt-mobile account.

**** Move back over to the Aspire One, Mobile partner should be in the foreground still because you just read the PIN from it***
- Minimise mobile partner
- Fire up your web browser (Firefox 3 in my case)
- Type in a web address
- Happy surfing! (if it isn't working just check that Mobile Partner is still connected and if not, click "connect")

- When you finish surfing select Mobile Partner and then press disconnect

- To surf again load Mobile Partner, click on "connection" and you will see the profile you created earlier but now with a darker blue background in the "connect" button
- Click "connect"
- Mobile Partner should now connect to T-Mobile. Note that in my area sometimes this take a couple of goes to connect so don't give up first time.
- Once connected, minimise Mobile partner (do not close it) so it shrinks to the bottom of your desktop and run your web browser.


Whenever you want to surf using your USB dongle you need to make sure that Mobile Partner is running.

Note that Mobile Partner has an indicator that tells you if you are using GPRS or HSDPA (which I believe is 3G). If you are connected via GPRS web surfing is very slow. Even loading Google takes a while, so don't be surprised if your browser gives loads of "waiting for {web site}" messages. If it connects via HSDPA it's very fast and for general web browsing and sending e-mails etc. it's very similar to desktop speeds.

Hope that helps or at least points you in the right direction.

Cheers

Lee

 

Thanks for the info! Got my t-mobile PYG usb stick and £15 credit, followed your guide and now i'm on mobile broadband finally! Brilliant! Two problems, how do you stop the pop up of all the files every time you insert the usb stick? And, i click connect and it just says connecting perminantly never actually says connected etc, although I can actually surf? Any ideas?

Also, I have found out you can text BA to 150 to check the balance on the usb stick through Mobile Partner but any idea how you can find out how much you've downloaded or got left? and the same for the time left?