Thinkpads Forum

My company has offered to pay for an AT&T WWAN data plan for everyone, so I'm looking for opinions on which card I should use for best/easiest support in Linux.

If it matters:
- I use Fedora
- The choices for devices are here: http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscen ... -cards.jsp

I have a T60 with a Verizon EV-DO card, but that won't work with the AT&T network, and is apparently a lot slower than the newest cards.

IIRC, AT&T offers their own branded CardBus and ExpressCard devices, a USB device (which I'd like to avoid), and a Sierra Wireless AirCard 881 CardBus card, and from what I can tell, it's possible to get any of them working with Linux.

I'd appreciate any stories of people here actually using such a card, even on another network, with Linux.

I've also read that some ExpressCards don't stay in the machine well. Has that been a problem for anyone here?

I use the Sierra Wireless 860 Aircard on at&t with Mandriva 2008.1. I downloaded the firmware from Sierra Wireless and use kppp to dial in to at&t. I use minicom to issue commands to the modem for changing frequency bands and resetting the card.

The 860 Aircard is no longer offered by at&t, but it does run on both the HSDPA and EDGE networks. The 881 offers increased speed over the 860.

http://www.sierrawireless.com/faq/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=1076

I believe I have read that at least some versions of Linux have support already built in for some cellular modems. I think Mandriva is one of these. I have not verified this myself though. I had already installed the firmware from Sierra Wireless before I tried using my card.

While not an internal or express/pcmcia card, I would suggest picking up a Samsung Blackjack, iPhone, or Blackberry and getting your company to cover the data plan. Getting any to work with Linux is relatively easy (I have owned the first two, watched bunches of other folks tether on Blackberrys in Linux), though there is a trade-off in battery life (keeping USB or wireless powered on your laptop) vs convenience (presumably if you have your laptop you also have your phone). Your extra bonus is any of the phones above can be had with an SSH client, and that is more valuable than WWAN on a laptop alone, as you know if you've found yourself in situations where you need a shell immediately. So, assuming you are considering this:

Again, Blackjack and Blackberry are easy and you'll be able to write yourself a quick function/alias easily and you can skip to the next paragraph if you own or want one. In the case of the iPhone, the easiest method is to use your laptop as an ad-hoc network, then use a proxy (i like TinyProxy) on the phone to forward all requests to the WWAN connection. Note this requires a hacked iPhone. I tether to my iPhone with this alias: The phone connects to the computer, then I just proxy out with my browser. To ssh out, you can either port forward or just ssh to your phone and get out.

You'll also want to make yourself a, say, .bash_mobile with your most common commands to save the keypresses for those instances you're using a term on the phone while waiting for your laptop to boot or on a date or whatever.

(Note: for the iPhone, various repo's Terminal2.app is great and lets you create your own aliases and functions, all accessible in progressive menus when a finger is touching the terminal but not the keyboard.)

Regardless, if you use shells a lot be aware your ip on AT&T's network will constantly change and drop sessions. Personally I shell to one of my loose acl'd hosts, attach to a screen session there, then go to work/my target box/whatever. This way I can work without too much inconvenience, can compile or whatever in the background, and I always have a common jumping point to my target boxes.

HTH. Also interested in others' experience with the cards originally asked about.