Jim's Site

I recently got a Virgin Mobile Broadband Modem USB dongle. Researching the dongle looked promising, uncovering people getting it to work on Ubuntu. What was lacking however, was a good tutorial for people to follow to get it to work.

So, that is what I am going to do here.

Please note that these instructions are for people in Australia (not sure about other countries) using Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty).

1. When you first insert the dongle, you will be greeted by a wizard. Click "Forward".

   

2. It will ask you what dongle you have. Choose "Virgin Mobile", then click "Forward".

   

3. It will show a summary. Click "Apply".

   

4. Go up to the network icon, right click on it and click on "Edit connections" to open up the connection manager.

   

5. Click on "Mobile Broadband", make sure the "Virgin Mobile" option is selected. Click "Edit"

   

6. Fill out the Username with your service number, and the Password with your PIN number. Change the APN from "VirginInternet" to "VirginBroadband". Then click "Apply"

   

7. 1. If you have administrative access:

      We need to change a value in /etc/ppp/options, (to turn off chap authentication), so open up terminal and copy and paste (or type) in the below command. It will ask you for your password (you need to be an administrator).

      gksudo 'sed s/#-chap/-chap/ /etc/ppp/options > /etc/ppp/options'> /dev/null

      Then, disconnect and reconnedt the dongle. It will take about 10-20 seconds to appear in the network list again.

   2. If you do not have administrative access:

      You will need to follow the following method every time you connect the dongle.

      1. Go into the connection manager again

         

      2. Go to the "PPP settings" tab and click on the "Configure Methods" button

         

      3. Uncheck the check-box next to "CHAP" (if it is checked), then click "OK"

         

      4. Click "Apply", and close the connection manager.

         

8. Left clicking on the networking icon should give the option, under "Mobile Broadband" of "Virgin Mobile". Clicking on it should make the dongle connect.

   

Troubleshooting connection problems

Sometimes when you click on the "VirginBroadband" option to make it connect, it may refuse to:

If the connection starts to connect, and neither of the green lights in the connection manager have come on (i.e. ), you are probably out of range.

If the connection starts to connect, and both of the green lights in the connection manager have come on (i.e. ), the username and password may be wrong.