Mobile Broadband 3G Modems with NetworkManager

From ArchBang

Network Manager is a program for providing detection and configuration for systems to automatically connect to a network. Network Manager also has support for modem connections and certain types of VPN. We will deal with mobile broadband 3G modem connections in this how-to.

Network Manager in ArchBang 12.05 works out of the box for wired, wireless and mobile broadband connections. To take advantage of its mobile broadband capability with ArchBang, plug in your modem, wait til the modem is detected and activated and you will see if you right-click on the Network Manager icon that Enable Mobile Broadband is now an option. If you left-click you will see that you can add a new mobile broadband connection. Follow the instructions to add your country and provider. This will set up your connection. You must then right-click the icon and click on edit connections. Go to mobile broadband and you should see your new connection there. Click on edit, make sure the number is correct and add your username and password. Close and restart your connection. You should be good to go. Sometimes the connection will drop for one reason or another, especially if you're idle for awhile. By clicking on and off enable mobile broadband and the connection on left-click, you can resume service. Remember that this is a workaround to use mobile broadband on Linux and most 3G modems only install on Windows and Mac.

One last thing to mention. While 3G modems can auto-connect upon startup with most distros using networkmanager, unfortunately with Arch this capability does not seem to be present and your 3G modem must be manually started by clicking on your connection.

Back to Table of Contents