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USB EVDO Modem Without PCMCIA

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the implant-it-already dept.

David Ciccone writes to tell us that he got a first look at Sprint's new USB EVDO card. The new USB wireless card can help users connect their non-PCMCIA equipped devices to the Sprint Power Vision Network. Very few details are available for the card, but David was able to capture a few pictures and the couple of speed tests he ran seem halfway decent.

6 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. I have the PCMCIA version but... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...my laptop sees it as two USB serial devices anyway. My guess is that this device is the same as mine but has less hardware. (I use mine under Linux and the machine sees the device as /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1) One of the first questions I asked myself was "why didn't they just make it a USB device?"

    Another responder rightly notes that many phones with a data plan already have the ability to do "internet" for computers via a bluetooth link. Mine does that too. So why do I have a sprint card? My job got it. :) It's good though ... fairly fast though I rarely use it.

  2. You can already do this with an EVDO-enabled phone by Yossarian45793 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have a RAZR V3c, and Verizon's EVDO service, and I've have been plugging my notebook into my phone using a USB cable for months. The download speed are up to 2 Mbit/s and that's not exaggerating (you do need a strong signal, though).

  3. Re:seems a bit useless by aesiamun · · Score: 5, Informative

    the new intel macbook and macbook pro systems do NOT have a PCMCIA.

    This might be welcomed to people who own these systems.

  4. Re:seems a bit useless by NixLuver · · Score: 3, Informative

    'enabling dhcp to share the connection'? When did dhcpd start routing?

    In other news - many new laptops do not, in fact, include the archaic PCMCIA/PCCARD interface; the new one is "Express-Card", and it's not compatible, backwards or forwards or sideways. Nobody, noway, nohow. But they have USB connections GALORE.

    --
    Thinking outside my Head
  5. Great, they support both operating systems by Trelane · · Score: 3, Informative
    Windows and Mac.

    Any word on Linux?

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    --
    Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    1. Re:Great, they support both operating systems by pamdirac · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm not sure about this device. I just bought the Sprint 5740 card (PCMCIA) which is apparently sold by Verizon as well. Linux is not supported, but it is actually easier than Windows to setup. Some people claim you have to activate the card under Windows. I bought mine pre-activated, but I set it up in Windows anyway (had to borrow a laptop) to find out my user name to use in wvdial. I'm guessing if I knew that, Windows would not have been a requirement.

      I used this post http://kenkinder.com/evdo-pc5740/ to configure. wvdial wound up working better than pppd for me (Dell Inspiron 9300/FC5). In any event, the cool thing is that under Linux there was nothing to install. My card was autodetected as a usbserial device, and I simply configured wvdial to use it as a modem. Who knew we would be going back to dialup and gladly at that?. I did have to apply a kernel patch to get a performance boost though.

      I guess this doesn't directly answer the question, but it may give you an idea of what to expect and what to look for. The short answer is that these devices seem (mostly) to just work under Linux, but under Windows you have to install specialized software and drivers to use the cards which actually was a PITA.

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      John McNair