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Hi, As this is my first ever post, please excuse me if I have overlooked some obvious source of info. I seek help with getting a virgin Mobile Broadband G3 dongle working under Ubuntu 10.04 on a Dell laptop. I think I am quite close to having done it, but I can't quite get there. The problem may simply be that I do not know what to respond to the network manager. The dongle is badged as Alcatel. When I plug it in, it initially flashes orange, then - now that I have installed usb_modeswitch - it changes to flashing green, which I think looks promising. (However under some circumstances it changes from green to red later) The outputs from lsusb with and without the dongle inserted differ by the line:- Bus 002 Device 005: ID 1bbb:0017 T & A Mobile Phones I'm not sure what I expect to happen, but nothing does. So I assume I need to configure it with the network manager. Here I get stuck. Going to the main menue on the upper panel and following system->preferences->network connection->Mobile Broadband->Add, I am offered a few screens in which I am asked the Provider's country, namelyBritain(UK), The Provider for which I choose Virgin Mobile from a list of options I am then asked my plan, which I do not know, and I have not found anyone at Virgin who will tell me (even when they understand my question). Consequently I have just accepted the suggested "default". The same screen asks me for my plan's APN, but the dialogue box for the APN is not active, so I cannot enter it there. The box contains a feint "vdata", the significance of which I don't know, so I have tried clicking Apply. That takes me to a screen which, under the tag "Mobile Broadband" has some details which I appear to be able to change, including vdata Under "Basic" I have number as *99#, and username and password both blank. From reading posts by people who have made this work, I believe those are correct responses. Under "Advanced" I have APN as vdata and Network and Pin both blank. Again from other posts I think the two blanks are probably correct, but I believe that vdata should be something else. I have tried changing it to VirginMobile and to VirginBroadband but neither appears to get me any closer to a connection. Again I have hit a brickwall trying to get anyone at Virgin Media to tell me what the APN should be. Any suggestions welcome. |
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Your question is laid out well and I dod understand it, I think really before you can proceed, you need that APN. It sounds like the hardware itself is installed, and you can certainly verify that with kshw or dmesg, but this seems to be a settings issue more than a hardware issue, so correct me if I'm wrong on that...... but the only people who can give you the specific information about your APN, account information, etc, is Virgin Mobile. Have you called their corporate offices? |
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Hello. I had the same problem having just signed up to Virgin mobile broadband, but have (luckily) solved it (after a struggle). Thanks to Sakis. What I have :
What I did : APN : goto.virginmobile.uk Then the flashing green light should stop flashing and stay on - you are connected. In firefox untick 'offline' and it works despite Network Manager icon saying you don't have an internet connection! See the forum and instructions on Sakis website. Matthew |
