need advice on setting up 3g dongle for another country!

[slinkeepie]

Hi there,

I am from Melbourne, Australia. Basically, I have promised a friend in Cambodia that I will set up and send them a laptop, with internet/Skype capabilities a must. I have been a strictly Linux user (started with Mint and never saw a need to stray!) for the last couple of years, and I am basically *just* a user, not a technical genius (though I really want to get my skills and knowledge up eventually!). Now, the laptop I acquired has a Windows 7 installation already. I have Mint installed alongside it (Mint 10). I would love for Mint to be their main OS, but I know that if that's to be the case (at least initially, Mint will still be there when their Windows installation goes screwy!), everything they need will have to just work. They'll only need internet and skype access, really, not much at all (I will put some games on there for the kids too [super meat boy ftw!]). They will most likely use wireless broadband.

As my language probably wouldn't be fit for guiding them through installation of the modem (and I won't be able to be there), I was wondering how I could go about pre-installing and verifying the usage of a particular wireless dongle on the system? Assuming they don't opt for the wireless router, of course. I think Metfone will be the provider I recommend to them, according to what I've heard. The models they provide are MF190S and E173 (as well as the MF30 wifi router). *Is* there any way I could do something before I send them the machine to make the installation process easier? What details do I need, can I use an "australian" equivalent of the same dongle model to install and test? Should I get one of theirs sent over? Will they have any problems installing it themselves? (Am I being paranoid?)

I am a bit of a control freak and would rather leave nothing to chance I would really love for Mint to be their OS of choice, as I know it's in their best interests, but they don't, but as soon as they reach some insurmountable difficulty I know they'll just default to Windows (or to people who only know windows!). So I want to get everything working perfectly first.

I booted up Mint 12 and it seemed to have no problems, but I hear 13 is a LTS, and I would love to install that for them before sending it. (Hopefully that gnome release is expected soon?)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[viking777]

I wrestled with 3g dongles and linux for years when neither were quite so fashionable as they are now. To begin with they were a disaster, nowadays they aren't that bad, but they are still vastly inferior to wifi which is universally supported on all computers with very little technical know-how required. Therefore I would actually tell a white lie to your friend and fail to mention any alternatives except the MF30 - you will be doing him (and yourself) a huge favour, believe me.

From what I can tell, the Metfone modems are just ZTE models. I have one in the house right now and if I paid for some bandwidth on it I am sure it would work, but the MF30 would be so much more use to them that there is simply no point in using anything else.

Except of course a mobile phone. Android phones are now capable of providing wireless hotspots that any computer can connect to, so, if your friends already have a phone that does that (and their contract allows connections to computers through wifi - which might be a stumbling block) then they don't need any other hardware at all. I have no knowledge of internet capabilities in Cambodia, so I can't really advise, but even if the phone method is not viable the wifi method will be, so don't sell them short and create problems for yourself, just tell them they need the MF30.

[slinkeepie]

Awesome, thank you vikiing777, you've been very helpful! I did lots of reading on the MF30 after I posted that and it did seem like a much better option -- no compatibility or driver issues, expandable capabilities, they can access their local technical support as well, and (contrary to my initial worries) it's very portable and battery powered, so not inconvenient at all!

Thanks again Just hoping for a killer Maya now