Mifi Dongle

[timewarp78]

Mifi is a portable wireless router available from 3 and Vodafone. you stick your sim card in it and it connects to the mobile network. You can then connect upto 5 devices to it wirelessly. So that means you dont need a linux compatible mobile dongle. You just connect to this device via the wifi connection on your Pandora and providing there is coverage ;-) you can connect to the net. Its basically creates a wirless access point that you "own". £50 for the device on PAYG.

 

[mali]

JKK or Chippy made a review IIRC, I'll search for it..
Edit:
http://www.umpcportal.com/2009/06/mifi-2352-european-round-up-review/

 

[Chip]

If you have an Android-based phone, you can cut out the middleman.

 

[timewarp78]

Good review - I wouldnt have realised I was looking for one of these until it was made clear that it works by wifi and so is Linux compatible.The one I got is the Huawei E5830.. Dont know how good it is yet as it has a 12 hour initial charge. Nice size though.. Gonna have to do some searching as to how I get into the settings to change the SSID name etc as that seems to be fixed and undocumented..

 

[Mycohl]

If you have an Android-based phone, you can cut out the middleman.

You can do this on WinMo and Palm/Blackberry/iPhone devices, as well.
The software isn't free, unfortunately, but it works well.

 

[Esslan]

an app like this also exist for s60. Cant remember the name though.

 

[WizardStan]

My Nokia Communicator 9500 can also do so without special software you need to pay for. Unfortunately, it's limited to GPRS speeds.

 

[El Jefe]

If you have an Android-based phone, you can cut out the middleman.

If you have a nook, you can cut out all the men.
edit: forgot, that probably wouldn't work in europe....

 

[Dead1nside]

There's a great product for S60 phones called JoikuSpot, uses the 3G to get the internet connection and then created an ad-hoc connection with any device you like. That's basically what the MiFi does.

Edit: NetworkManager has a lot of the USB Huawei 3G modems supported out of the box, you just plug it in and it's ready to go. They're also improving bluetooth tethering between phones as well, so you won't even need an intermediary device like JokiuSpot or the MiFi.

 

[Prometheus]

Ah, excellent stuff. I wasn't aware that these were on Pay-As-You-Go yet.

(I'm one of the folks who doesn't need or want a phone, so this is perfect for me.)

 

[timewarp78]

Did a speed test on this today and upload is 1.5mb according to Speedtest.net (on 3 network) and around 3mb download. Not bad considering I have 20meg virgin broadband and get 0.75 upload on that. Does anyone know if the pandora o/s will scan for wifi networks or will it be command line? Reason I ask is Ive wasted all afternoon and early hours trying to get my eee pc to work with xubuntu and wifi but have conceded defeat and swapped to eeebuntu. (after accidentally deleting windows off the other drive)

 

[WizardStan]

Did a speed test on this today and upload is 1.5mb according to Speedtest.net (on 3 network) and around 3mb download. Not bad considering I have 20meg virgin broadband and get 0.75 upload on that. Does anyone know if the pandora o/s will scan for wifi networks or will it be command line? Reason I ask is Ive wasted all afternoon and early hours trying to get my eee pc to work with xubuntu and wifi but have conceded defeat and swapped to eeebuntu. (after accidentally deleting windows off the other drive)

Last we heard they were working on getting the GUI up to full user friendliness. I believe it has been completed (give or take a couple of tweaks or bug fixes, from what I recall) but it hasn't been merged into the main trunk yet, so the devs probably can't show it off, though I suspect it'll be functional with the initial release, or at least with an update shortly thereafter. We know the wifi works, we've seen them use it, they were just working on the extra features, like wifi scanning.