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Enabling Mobile Broadband

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:34 pm
by rclarke
I ordered my T500 (Vista) with mobile broadband, and there is a Cingular sticker on it, so I'm assuming it's there.

When I run the Thinkvantage>Mobile Broadband Connect it can't see the card, which may be a driver issue.

How do I get this turned on? Do I get a choice of plans and providers or am I locked to Cingular? What plans are people using?

Thanks

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:51 pm
by kingweb
You should be able to find the driver on lenovo.com. However, it should already be installed. Is your radio switch turned on? Do you see the little light turned on that indicates WWAN is alive?

As for plans, right now, I just put my AT&T SIM card from my phone into the laptop when I need to use the internet. I have the PDA plan. From what I understand, you are not "supposed" to use it for a laptop, but AT&T looks the other way if you don't abuse the bandwidth.

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:58 pm
by rclarke
kingweb wrote:You should be able to find the driver on lenovo.com. However, it should already be installed. Is your radio switch turned on? Do you see the little light turned on that indicates WWAN is alive?.
The Wi-Fi is on but the symbol next to it isn't. I'll have to have a look for the driver.
kingweb wrote:As for plans, right now, I just put my AT&T SIM card from my phone into the laptop when I need to use the internet. I have the PDA plan. From what I understand, you are not "supposed" to use it for a laptop, but AT&T looks the other way if you don't abuse the bandwidth.
That sounds like I could just use the SIM card out of my Blackberry. Is it easy to get at the SIM slot in the laptop?

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:03 pm
by kingweb
Assuming that you have bluetooth, you should see 3 little lights.
From left to right:
Wifi, Bluetooth, WWAN.

If the WWAN is not on, then that's your problem. Try Fn + F5 and you should get a menu that allows you to turn it on.

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:07 pm
by rclarke
kingweb wrote:Assuming that you have bluetooth, you should see 3 little lights.
From left to right:
Wifi, Bluetooth, WWAN.

If the WWAN is not on, then that's your problem. Try Fn + F5 and you should get a menu that allows you to turn it on.
I definitely don't have Bluetooth. There's a space in the overlay printing between the Wifi and WWAN lights. FN+F5 doesn't seem to do anything; the WiFi light's on (and I'm using it now)