Recommended 3G/Netbook Solution

Purpose

Netbook computers are selling like hot-cakes and of course (!) once you have a netbook, the next thing you want to do is to get it online while you're traveling around. Previously we published a generic "howto" based on a "3" broadband modem .. based on feedback from the forums, we're now being a little more specific.

Prerequisities

An Intel ATOM based netbook, in this instance we're using a Samsung N10 although netbooks of a similar spec (of which there are many) should also work. You will also need a 3G modem / account with "Three", I'm sure the instructions will approximate for other networks .. although you may need to experiment depending on your provider.

[If any other network providers would like to provide us with test accounts / devices we would be happy to expand on our list of kit that is known to work properly.]

With regards to "three" hardware, we have / use a HUAWEI E220 HSDAP USB modem, which was their standard option a little while back. Since then they seem to have standardised on a ZTE MF627 .. I don't know why as this is far complex to get going. Again, if someone wants to send us one of these we will expand the instructions, in the meantime if you have a ZTE MF627 (or MF636) you should probably take a look at the following link firsr:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1065934

You will ALSO NEED a 1Gb USB memory stick.

Step by step

First of all we need a known quantity with regards to a Linux distribution, so we're going with the Ubuntu Netbook remix, 9.04. Installing this is relatively easy, proceed as follows;

1. Take a look at the instructions listed here for full details of installing Ubuntu Netbook remix
2. In summary, download the .img installation file
3. Insert your USB memory stick into a USB port
4. Download usb-imagewriter is you don't already have it
5. Use the imagewriter program to write the .img file to the stick
6. Insert the stick into your netbook and boot off the stick
   Note: you may need to change the BIOS boot order on your netbook .. when the machine first boots, you should see a prompt (albeit very briefly) to hit a key to enter the BIOS setup. This is likely to be ESC or DEL or F1. When in the BlOS, locate the 'Boot Options' and then the device boot order .. your USB stick needs to be ordered such that it appears first. Don't forget to save your BIOS settings before rebooting the box.
7. When the Netbook boots, select your preferred language, then select the Install option.
8. Follow the instructions from this point, you can't go too far wrong .. if you see something break horribly, it may be that there was a problem writing the .img file to the memory stick, in which case it's worth re-writing the .img to the stick and trying again.
9. The Samsung N10 in particular comes with a large hard disk with 2 x 70 Gb partitions and Windows XP pre-installed. If you want to retain XP and have the machine boot Linux OR XP at startup, delete the second 70Gb partition and create a new primary partition (which should be the third partition) and call it boot and size it to 1G. (it should be type 'ext2') Then create an extended partition with the remaining space. Inside the extended partition, create another 1G partition of type 'swap', and use the remaining space to create an ext4 partition. The first parition (boot) should have it's mount point set to "/boot" and the last should be set to "/".
   On the other hand, the option "use entire disk" will over-write Windows and do it all for you.
10. Once installed, the next step is to get the 3G working.
11. Insert your modem into your Netbook .. it should pop up a "New 3G Broadband" window .. select the options you need and click next until the configuration is complete. Note that is you have a PIN set on your SIM card (which you REALLY should!) it will ask you for this when you come to connect.
12. Now, before you try to connect (!) you will need to change a few settings .. if you right click on the network manager icon in your tooltray (top right) and select Edit connections, the network connections box should appear.
13. Now click on the Mobile Broadband tab, highlight "3" (or whatever you decided to call your connection when it was auto-added) and click on Edit. Note in this example I called the connection "Three" rather than "3".
    
14. You should now see the screen show n on the right .. make sure you enter your PIN if there is one set up on your SIM card.
15. Next you will need to click on the "PPP Settings", this stage in particular is CRITICAL as to an extent, everything else we've done so are is common sense, whereas this is a show stopper unless you know it needs to be changed.
16. You should now see the screen as shown in the second on our screen shots on the RHS of the page. First you need to limit the authentication methods to PAP, this is done by clicking on the 'Configure Methods' button and unticking the other unwanted methods.
17. Next you need to turn off compression, in particular leaving boxes here ticked it likely to prevent the system from establishing a PPP connection with Three's servers, so although you will see a nice clean blue 3G light on your modem, it won't actually produce a working connection.
18. Click on Apply and we should be ready to attempt a connection.
19. Right click on the Network Manager icon in the tooltray and "3" should be listed under the connection name you chose. Select this option.
20. Connecting will probably take around about a minute assuming it's working properly.
    

Troubleshooting

I'm going to try to avoid getting too technical here, if you have the recommended configuration there are a very limited number of things that can cause you a problem. (assuming you've followed the instructions correctly)

1. I've waited a minute but I still see a green flashing light and have no connection
   - Check you're actually within range of 3's 3G service
   - Check your PIN setting / make sure it's clear if you have no PIN
2. I've waited a minute and have a blue 3G light, but no connection
   - You've connected to 3, but PPP failed, so check you've turned of your compression settings.
3. I have a connection, but want to disconnection and clicking disconnect on the tooltray item doesn't work
   - yup, bug. Just pull the USB modem from it's socket, works every time.  ;-)
4. It worked once, but now when I try to reconnect it sits there
   - it can get confused, try removing the modem, then reboot the netbook

Operational recommendations

Once you have a 3G connection up, leave it up until you've finished with the laptop. If you don't have an account with a decent data transfer allocation - you probably shouldn't be doing this anyway because it will be expensive (!)

After using the connection for 5-10 minutes, wait a little while (!) and check on 3's control panel just to see how much of your bandwidth allocation you've used. (this should give you a feel for what you can use before excess charges cut in)

It's worth checking back with the control panel periodically just to make sure things (charges) are as they should be.

Once your connections are up, you should see "ping" times to other UK sites of between 150ms and 300ms, if your ping times are consistently outside this range (i.e. larger) then there is probably an issue somewhere.

Remember that 3G signal strength is KEY, if your signal is "too" weak you will have all sorts of odd problems.

General comments on the Samsung N10

Intel ATOM processor N270 at 1.6GHz, gives reasonable performance for web browsing and general operation, seems to play YouTube videos without too much of a problem.

1G of RAM and 160Gb hard drive are fairly generous and certainly enough to run XP and Ubuntu on a dual-boot basis.

10.2" screen is 1024 bits across, which is enough to view 99% of web sites without any problems.

Battery life is 8/9 hours, which is pretty damn good.

Screen is "relatively" dark, but this machine is designed to extend the scope of the battery so I guess it's to be expected. Quite usable tho'.

When used with "remix" pretty much everything works, the standard "Cheese" camera application for example works perfectly with the Samsung's build in WebCam. (tip: turn the resolution down to 320x240 for snappier movement, many more powerful machines have problems with cameras capturing at 1280x1024!)

Sound works fine, wireless networking works fine and picked up all my neighbours wireless networks without me having to do anything (!)

The remix desktop (for my money) is very well designed and ideal for netbooks.

The installer automatically detected the Windows XP installation and automatically installed a dual boot option. Indeed it even resized the XP partition for me when I started playing with it, so I'm guessing installing on a box with Windows and no spare partition is going to be relatively easy as long as your windows partition has some space on it.

I paid £257+VAT+delivery .. which doesn't seem like a bad deal .. looking at the spec of the £199 ASUS machines this should be a no-brianer for an additional £60.

Disclaimer

• We have no affiliations to either Three, Ubuntu or Samsung
• We accept no responsibility for you not being able to make this solution or any similar solution work
• You use these instructions at your own risk and we accept no liability for any charges you may incur while using or attempting to use this instructions.