Joe, you should know as far as providers' services go, Verizon is probably the worst because of a fairly hard 5GB bandwidth cap, not to mention the widely documented problems with their phones every geek/nerd should know about and try (usually hopelessly in my experience) to relay to friends and such. OTOH, generally speaking, Sprint has the best service as far as data goes, with consistently the best speeds. Their 3G (EVDO Revision C) also has the widest coverage, but that's no saying much since most carriers' 3G coverage footprints are a fraction of their voice coverage. Sprint has a preferred data roaming agreement with Alltel, so your device will work without any surprises on their network as well. But there's one thing no one has mentioned that's SOOOO important: Sprint has a data reseller called Millenicom who has the HUGE advantages of no contract and that they handle the customer support rather than the (notoriously bad) Sprint call center. Keep in mind everything I said is for data only; voice is another matter entirely. As far as devices, quite a few USB devices are supported natively in Linux: just go into the USB menu in the kernel and you'll see the majority in the USB-Serial sub-menu (as you'd expect); in particular, Sierra Wireless has been very good the last few years in supporting the writing of FOSS drivers in the kernel tree. In addition, the device Millenicom was selling (I can't remember the name right this second) had explicit support for Linux by including the driver in a USB storage device on-board: once the driver's loaded, it "switches personalities" and becomes a serial device. (From what I've seen, this is becoming quite common with all sorts of networking devices, including WiFi.) Finally, if you phone does a decent job of supporting 3G and your carrier doesn't sock you with a contract extension for adding or removing it (like Verizon does (and maybe T-Mobile?)), tethering to your phone may be an option that can save from from having to buy a separate device or get stuck in a contract, not withstanding the above. Finally, don't forget these data plans are *E*X*P*E*N*S*I*V*E*!! Are you *SURE* you can't reach an access point? Mike On Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:16:37 -0700, "Joe" said: > Does anyone use one of those 3G wireless network cards with their Linux > system? If so, what provider and how well does it work. I'm currently > with Sprint and was thinking about going with their USB wireless card > for data access and others said Verizon might be better. > > Thoughts? Experiences? --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss