This article is an update to the last article that I've written for Mobile Broadband on Mandriva 2009.0. The Network Center has gone through a good overhaul in our shiny new Mandriva 2010.0. I'm going to show you all how ridiculously easy it is in Mandriva to configure your USB 3G Modem in a KDE 4.xx environment

Please follow the instructions and screenshots below.

STEPS

1. Connect the USB HSDPA Modem HUAWEI E220 on any of your available USB Ports

2. Mandriva Hardware Detection tool "harddrake2" should automatically detect the plugged in HUAWEI modem, however do check it out by running the below commands on a Konsole as root

3. This shows that the device is detected. Open Mandriva Network Center from the desktop toolbar or go to MCC (Mandriva Control Center) --> Network & Internet --> Network Center and you should see your HUAWEI Technologies HUAWEI Mobile detected there as PPP0. Clicking on GPRS/Edge/3G will get "rpmdrake" automatically prompt you to install KPPP if you're in KDE or any other PPP dialers if you're in GNOME. Pop in the installation medium or any other main repository to install the dialers.

    There wont be any prompt if you've already installed your PPP dialers.

4. Once the dialers are installed (Silently in the background auto-magically by rpmdrake), expand the GPRS/Edge/3G and you should get three additional buttons as Monitor, Configure, Refresh and Connect

6. This is where Network Center is significantly enhanced from the last versions of Mandriva. When you click "Configure", the Internet Service Providers (ISP) are automatically listed in the Network Center. The best thing is, the country that the SIM/ISP belong to is automatically selected and the list of service providers for that Country / Region are listed down. Next comes the most interesting enhancement, APN. Most users are left with no luck to enquire about their ISP's APN (Access Point Name), the username and password to access their 3G account. Mandriva eases this pain by prepopulating these information for its users. See examples below,

For M1 Customers,

For SingTel Customers,

For StarHub Customers,

Alternatively, you can edit these values if you know any other APN, username and password for your ISP.

For M1 customers:

• Access Point Name: sunsurf
• Account Login (User Name): 65
• Account Password: user123

For SingTel customers:

• Access Point Name: internet
• Account Login (User Name): 65IDEAS (or BLANK, Yes Leave it BLANK)
• Account Password: IDEAS (or BLANK, Yes Leave it BLANK)

For Starhub customers:

• Access Point Name: shwapint or shwap or shinternet (StarHub has these 3 working APNs so far)
• Account Login (User Name): star (or BLANK, Yes Leave it BLANK)
• Account Password: hub (or BLANK, Yes Leave it BLANK)

7. Click Ok to save this setting

8. On the main Network Center window, Click "Connect" on the PPP0 and voila! there you get your Mobile BroadBand working on your shiny new Mandriva 2010.0

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