I learnt the hard way… if you’re using an Asus EeePC and want to get one of the 3G modems from the evil mobile phone network 3, (Three, Drei) – then if you ignore my advice you will have a real faff and will probably go grey prematurely.
The modem you want is made by Huawei, it’s white, it’s curvaceous, and it has a green “3” logo on top. It will plug and play (sort of), and you will be very pleased with it. It looks a bit “ipod crossed with Nintendo Wii”. It works!
The modem you need to avoid is black, looks uber cool and sort of cyber-punk, and it’s got green stripes and a green “3” logo in the middle of a circle on top. It says ZTE MF622 on top. I prefer the looks of this one, but sadly it hates EeePC’s as much as the Aussies hate losing at sports.
I would like to add that I don’t actually like 3, and wouldn’t have bought any of their products due to abysmal customer service we have received in the past, but the Huawei modem is the only one that actually works with Linux, Windows and Mac.
I’m not sure why the cool black modem doesn’t work, it just doesn’t. It appears as a mass media drive.