Thinkpads Forum

What is the best way to get a mobile broadband set up on T430 with Win 8.1 Unit is supposed to have necessary hardware pre-loaded from at time of purchase from Lenovo. Thanks.

I'd use Windows to manage the WWAN connection; that's what I do on my T420s & T430 with Windows 7, it just works.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... -to-finish

Data cards installed in laptops are typically locked to networks. Even if they aren't, they typically have very little flexibility with respect to frequency bands. So what you have may not fit you, unless it was specced for the wireless providers in your area.

The situation has gotten worse over time. The older GSM and EDGE systems have guaranteed world-wide compatibility with 4-band cards. That vanished with HSPA, but the varieties of frequency assignment were still few. With LTE, the band assignments are highly regional. Only the phones offer the possibility of some cross-carrier compatibility.

For the individual, the best solution, with the highest throughput and greatest carrier flexibility, is inevitably a smartphone. You can buy a tethering plan for the phone, or, as many of us do, use a tethering app and a VPN without paying for the tethering feature. Also, with many carriers, data for the phone is priced less per gigabyte than data for a laptop. I use an Android phone, because there are no prohibitions in the Android marketplace against tethering apps.

The above is the U.S. "lower 48" experience. Users in other countries or areas may not have to pay more for data delivered to a data card. Take a look around.

See also http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=115571

doz-
You would need to check with Lenono or the broadband card maker to find out exactly what it supports, first. Mine came with an AT&T SIM card in it, but supposedly the computer hardware itself is not locked to AT&T. I don't know, I haven't tried to verify that in reality yet.
Once you know what the card supports, which specific LTE "bands" it supports, you can go to the Wikipedia and check out which LTE bands are being used by which carriers in which areas. If not LTE, whichever service you are interested in, there are listings for all of them.
In some geographies, like Puerto Rico, the carriers are using legacy systems that differ from the mainland US. Which in turn differ from the EU or the Orient. But there are listings by carrier, geography, and service type (HDPA, Edge, LTE, etc.) all hiding in the Wiki and other places, so you can plan a strategy.

If that doesn't point to a good solution for you, be aware that a number of the big cell phone carriers no longer ban using your phone as a hot spot. Many of them enable it now, and don't care how you use the data allocation, as long as it is being paid for. Or, you can buy a "MiFi" or similar hot spot box for under $100 and the monthly data charge is usually the same, or less, than you would pay to activate the computer.

hellosailor wrote: If that doesn't point to a good solution for you, be aware that a number of the big cell phone carriers no longer ban using your phone as a hot spot. Many of them enable it now, and don't care how you use the data allocation, as long as it is being paid for. Or, you can buy a "MiFi" or similar hot spot box for under $100 and the monthly data charge is usually the same, or less, than you would pay to activate the computer.

Which are these? I've been using the usual Android run-arounds to avoid tethering fees.

I'm in your area, so what works locally?

You mean, which are the MiFi gizmos?

Check with your carrier first, since they know what works from them. Then if you've got a local BestBuy or cell store, see what they've got in stock. Unless you need gobs of data, one that is only 3G or 4G is fast enough for one casual user.

hellosailor wrote:You mean, which are the MiFi gizmos?
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No, I mean which permit tethering without additional fees. Tmobile offers a sample, something like 50MB/month. Thereafter, the tethering fee and the higher data cost apply. Do you have information about which carriers are permissive of tethering? I know only one, Verizon, which is prohibited by FCC covenant governing the spectrum from restricting the usage.

I tether with my carrier, which I prefer not to name, using the Clockwork Mod app, "tether", which disguises the connection, and a VPN, which disguises the data. If you know of other carriers, aside from Verizon, who don't need this subterfurge, I'm all ears.

No, I don't know which carriers are doing what these days. There are a batch of apps (PDAnet being the granddaddy?) that cloak tethering, but keeping track of what the carriers are promising is a full time job.