Which Puppy has the best USB 3G(Mobile internet) support?

[Atle]

Hi all good folks out there...

I am trying to identify the most mobile internet friendly Puppy in puppyland.

I hope there is one that sticks out, that is better than anyone else..

Any tips or hints?

Its supposed to be just for a project that concerns mobile internet only and preferably 32 bits. The end result will be published and its simply a mixture of stuff in order to gain the most out of your prepaid internet bundle and control of such...

Might be in for a script that can send and receive sms as well, while at it...

any other ideas of what is cool when you use mobile internet, I am all ears..

But most important... whats the best puppy for it?

atle

[watchdog]

Consider to buy a 3G wifi Router instead of a 3G usb dongle... For example:

http://www.dlink.com/it/it/home-solutio ... bps-router

[nic007]

It depends on your specs but I will just use one of the newer Puppies like Tahr (it should have the drivers). I've used my mobile phone modem to connect with Puppy for a long time and also used some dongles. If data is an issue you may want to consider using Opera Mini as a general browser. I have a post in the HOWTO section of this forum explaining how to get it to operate on your desktop/laptop.

[Atle]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Its just that I have sort of learned that Puppy with its growing number of spinnoffs and variants all have their pro's and con's.

In this case its a matter of looking up the very best candidate for support and ease of use for mobile internet and 3g USB modems.

To give it a short explanation, its a matter of how one can cater for the part of the world that are mostly depending on mobile internet. As we al know Windows is sort of greedy on various updates such as Anti Virus and Win update, that will by ease swallow you entire internet bundle without even visiting one website.

So with the better candidate I will tweak it to even outperform Opera Turbo with a set of tools for Firefox in order to make it a reversible near text only browser and a few more like disabling Firefox pre fetch etc.

The main goal is to deliver a platform that is designed to deliver true internet usage and not just a whole lot of "administrative updates" that is the usual situation for most users of mobile internet.

Such pets as Bitmeter
will be installed and any other ideas are very much welcome


Best

Atle.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Atle.

Such pets as Bitmeter
will be installed and any other ideas are very much welcome.

As the instigator of the BitMeterOS puppy project, I'm very gratified to hear you say that...

It is a very useful little app, and all credit must go to Rob Dawson, its original creator, who even dropped by on the thread to give us all some much needed advice and encouragement!

I will give you one piece of advice; unless you're planning on setting it up for multi-pup use, and want to differentiate between internet and LAN traffic, then the older 0.7.6 is much more stable. Rob Dawson used a later version of SQLite for the newer 0.8.0 version, and sadly, he found it wasn't as reliable as he'd hoped it would be.

And that's why the 0.7.6 and 0.8.0 databases are not interchangeable.


Mike.

[Atle]

I spent a few years in deep deep Africa so I got some experience in how to make the most out of a slow and expensive mobile internet connection....

I remember so well once I understood that Puppy allowed me to boot from my Nokia phone with some storage and how I could run the live session and the insert the phone again as a modem. That blasted my mind and I have been here more or less since that.

Its my believe that Puppy is perfect for users in Africa and hence the request to build a proper distro that can enable old hardware and use mobile internet with less use of mb's.

Atle

[nic007]

I spent a few years in deep deep Africa so I got some experience in how to make the most out of a slow and expensive mobile internet connection....

I remember so well once I understood that Puppy allowed me to boot from my Nokia phone with some storage and how I could run the live session and the insert the phone again as a modem. That blasted my mind and I have been here more or less since that.

Its my believe that Puppy is perfect for users in Africa and hence the request to build a proper distro that can enable old hardware and use mobile internet with less use of mb's.

Atle

No need to build another distro. If your goal is to have the best option for oldish hardware then Wary Puppy will be your best option (it has the biggest driver base for dialup modems) and it was specifically built to cater for older machines yet it still comes with relatively recent applications. In fact, I'm still using Wary Puppy even on not so old hardware. And again if data usage and slow connections is an issue, you should definitely consider using Opera Mini as mentioned in my first post. I can guarantee that this will use the least data (a savings of about 80%) and it's quick. I have been using this for years. You can of course also use an html only browser like Dillo but even that will not save you as much data as Opera Mini and it has limited functionality.

[Atle]

Hi and thanks Nic...

Wary might be what i am looking for.

And i guess i can do a update on usbmodeswitch for the sake of being even more updated when it comes to 3G modems.

As for the tweaks I do with Firefox its like installing stuff that will make it use as little as Dillo, but that it can still be reversed into a full blown Firefox.

I would not mind to bench marked up against Opera. I win that match for sure.

With Bitmeter OS that is just a few click away...

I'll check out Racy...

thanks again


atle

[nic007]

The 3G dongle should just work when you plug it in and set up your connection with pupdial. Opera Mini has nothing to do with the big desktop Opera browser or Opera Mobile. It's a java application (a browser) that runs on millions of cellphones. I'm running it via a small emulator on my laptop. It uses less data because the data is compressed by Opera's proxy servers before webpages are displayed (this all happens in real time). Racy will not have all the older dialup drivers like Wary and is basically the same as Wary but built with a later kernel for faster machines. The applications are the same. I've used both on my machines and the performance seems very similar.

[Atle]

Opera Mini and Opera in turbo mode goes trough their servers. All your traffic.

I really don't like that. Better off with Firefox and make it use even less data

But never did I test neither Racy or Wary...

So its a good bid...

There is hope here

[nic007]

There is a massive difference in data usage between Opera Mini and any other big browser, it's incomparable. Opera Turbo is a bit of a gimmick anyway. Just want to mention that I have used Opera Mini for years without any security issues, I even use it for online banking. I've also used all the big browsers from time to time. I prefer Palemoon, Seamonkey, Opera, Firefox in that order. I'm not the greatest fan of Firefox. BTW - How do you use less data with Firefox?

[Atle]

First of all... disable network prefetch

install:

adblock
image block
flash block

Preferably also

NoScripts
Privacy Badger

Its all a trade off

I look for more that can stop such as CSS and stuff. The less clutter, the less mb spent.

Also you do not view video online. You download it if you really want it.

Just stuff like that and some OS tweaks to go as well

Might be more, but i can not remember them all right now

[nic007]

You can do that with any big browser. At the end of the day it comes to personal choice I suppose.

[Atle]

This is based on firefox only and a few years of trying and failing as not all that blocks really blocks it from spending your precious bundle.

So its not for any other browser than firefox.

That I am sure of:-)

[nic007]

You were not able to stop flash, images, java script, ads, etc. on other browsers? Have you tried hard enough or check the options thoroughly? Anyways, doesn't matter because you are sold on Firefox so you will be using that in any case.

[Atle]

I want be bothered to look as I already found it for firefox.

But be my guest and come up with alternatives

[nic007]

I've already given you a lot of alternatives. What's the point if you are not bothered trying it and have already settled on using Firefox?

[Atle]

Firefox and the Puppy variant is to very different things to me. I now firefox pretty well being a user since the early days and what i ask for here is opinions regarding the puppy and its 3G support.

Cause its my experience that some are good at this and others at that if you read me?

[nic007]

I've given you that answer too. Have you tried the Puppies I recommended?

[Atle]

not yet Nic...

Got things lined up and I await in case someone shows up with other vital information..

Are you keen on a testrun?