I'm going to be going on a trip for a while with probably little/no access to a wireless access point (that I'd be able to use), so I'm looking for a possible wireless broadband provider that may officially support Linux, or at least whose hardware will be supported, even if the company doesn't officially support Linux.

I've looked at Sprint's instructions for setting up their USB modems on Linux, but it's awfully rooted in Ubuntu (I'm using Arch on my laptop), and it requires the use of "KPPP", which is not in the Arch repos.

Am I SOL? I refuse to sink down to having to re-install Windows on this thing for the sole purpose of being able to use mobile broadband services. I'd like to keep this machine 100% Linux...to me, putting Windows back on just for internet is like giving up and letting MS and the ISPs win.

EDIT: If this is in the wrong place, I apologize. I just put it in Networking because it's internet-related.

I dont know. I saw this though. I have been trying to figure out which carrier to go with as well. http://tuxoft.de/V3/#dialin

I have used a variety of equipment from Verizon with great success usually with Debian and derivatives. I am presently using a MiFi 2200 both as a wifi router and usb attached with Lucid Lynx.

Just an update: I was being dumb by not reading all the way through the PDF document on setting up a Sprint modem...turns out there's a section on generic CLI setup using wvdial.

One thing, though:

Surely there's a way to do that without having to open a terminal window? Like in a shell script that I could run at bootup (in rc.local for Arch)? Or maybe I could disconnect it from the terminal with nohup?

Sorry if it seems like I'm preempting things a little too soon, but I just want to make sure that there's a possibility of it working (assuming I go with Sprint...dunno what their pricing is for plans...sadly I'm not the one who's gonna be paying for it, so I probably won't have a whole lot of say in the decision )

Hi again. Have you looked at udev rules? I dont pretend to understand it fully ( I was never able to get it working for an older sound card ), but you can have a udev rule run a script opn device pluf event.
Like I said, I just thought i would put the idea out here for ya. I, in no way, am trying to pretend to understand udev events fully. To tell the truth...I dont know if Arch uses Hal or udev . Udev replaced Hal right?
Hope it helps

Well won't it depend on who is providing service inthe area where you going to be located. Wouldn't make sense to gear up for Sprint if you will be in a Verizon area.

Well, I guess that means I really won't have much choice...if any at all.

Well, hopefully whatever provider we go with has hardware that supports Linux at the very least; somehow I doubt that it would be that much of a pain to set up by oneself, even if the ISP doesn't officially support Linux, right?

It's basically almost the same as setting up an old phone-line dial-up modem, right? The only difference is that you probably have to do some kind of "activation" process with the provider. That probably has to be done on a Windows machine, I imagine, but that just "activates" the device, and only the device, right? It's not tied to the computer you "activated" it on or anything, is it? Or does that vary with the provider?

Sorry I have all these n00b questions; I suppose I'll go do a little research myself while I'm waiting for answers.

EDIT:

That's actually not a bad idea...but I've never mesed with udev either, so I wouldn't really know what I was doing, but I can learn.