[SOLVED] 3G usb modem / dongle for Mageia

[vincentm77]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a USB dongle so that I can use a data provider for mobile internet with my laptop (Mageia 5, I would like to use M-Net, a german mobile data provider, or Fonic)

Anybody can recommand a particular dongle / provider ?

thanks
Vincent

[doktor5000]

Any 3g modem/dongle should work, I'd suggest to get a cheap and commonly used one (which often comes nearly for free with many contracts)
E.g. when I ordered DSL I got a ZTE MF110 for ~10€ including a flatrate for three months one month in advance before my DSL was enabled. See http://www.3g-modem-wiki.com/page/ZTE+MF110 or https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ZTE_MF110/MF190 for some details on my model.

Most 3G providers usually offer pretty cheap devices together with such contracts, but often on the contrary those are also quite overpriced, compared to the actual cost of those things.
As an example, the model that M-Net offers, an "XSStick W21 (4G)" seems to be slightly overpriced IMHO. You get the same features as mine, only 3x higher max. download speed with HSDAP+. Question is when you can actually benefit from that.
The Fonic is one at ~30 € which seems OK, although they don't really mention what hardware is provided, and web says they provide different models under the same name.

But you could also simply get some used one much cheaper from eBay or somewhere else. Just for comparison, for 5€ less you'd get a brand new ZTE MF65+ which can do a bit more then just connect your laptop.
Just trying to put that price in perspective.


Regarding providers, either get Vodafone or O2/Telefonica, those offer the best coverage usually.
Although if you know where you want to use that dongle primarily, I'd suggest looking up the 3G coverage within that area for the actual carriers (Vodafone, Telefonica/O2, E-Plus/Base, Telekom/T-Mobile).
For your examples, Fonic and M-Net both use Telefonica/O2 as their carrier from what I saw.

[vincentm77]

Thank You Doktor for the very interesting answer.

Vincent

[iceflower]

Hi Vincent,

I'm using a portable router (TP-Link TL-MR3020) with a compatible dongle (Huawei E303WS). You can connect via WLAN or wire to the router and don't need to care about the drivers

Also nice: You can check the network coverage of your network operator beforehand e. g. for Fonic/O2: http://www.o2online.de/microsite/o2-netz/netzabdeckung/

If you need to reduce your traffic I can recommend the Firefox extensions NoScript and uBlock Origin. I use them because I have just 1GB/month (o2 prepaid pack m) and it's hard to stay below that limit without them (despite I don't watch videos and don't perform system updates when in the mobile network).

[ozky]

I have huawei E5377Ts i recently moved my old slow 3g to 4g lte 50mb connection.
Speeds are with wlan 1-2.5mb/s and with cable 1-5mb/s not bad.
In Finland 4g prices are something like 20-40€ depends on speed max is 150mb min is mine 50mb.
Old 3g connections are 24€ in month it's more expensive than 4g.

[vincentm77]

Thank You Iceflower, it looksinteresting.

I guess that you insert the dongle in the usb port of the router ? The SIM card provided by O2 is then inserted in the dongle right ?

Thanks
Vincent

[iceflower]

I guess that you insert the dongle in the usb port of the router ? The SIM card provided by O2 is then inserted in the dongle right ?

Yes and yes

[vincentm77]

Thanks Iceflower !
I ll have to go for this solution if I have difficulties to run the dongle under Mageia...

[doktor5000]

Mentioned a similar alternative in my post, ZTE MF65+ which costs ~25€ and offers wireless to clients and you insert the SIM into it.

[vincentm77]

Thank you Iceflower and Doktor5000 for your answers.

I finally bought a ZTE MF730M dongle and it works great under Mageia5. The connection can be established by choosing "Cable modem" or "DSL" in the Mageia Control Center (Network&Internet, Setup a new network interface")

Cheers
Vincent

[doktor5000]

Please mark the thread accordingly by editing the topic of the first post and prefix it by [SOLVED], thanks