The Huawei e220 is probably the most popular mobile broadband on the planet. Many carriers across the globe use the Huawei E220 and the hardware is supported on just about every platform in common use. I've used it with Windows and mac systems and it passes the "just works" test. But what about the Eee PC?

It turns out that using the e220 with an Eee PC is trivially easy. In fact, it's been one of the easiest tasks I've had to negotiate as I learn more and more about the Eee PC and Linux.

The starting point, for me, was the discovery of the eee220 Mobile Broadband Tool that can be downloaded from the 3epc User Portal.

Installation was simply a matter of downloading the application's DEB package, right-clicking the downloaded file and installing the software. That took a mere 30 seconds or so.

Once the installation was done, I plugged my e220 in and followed the prompts to create a connection using the Eee PC's own wizard. At the end of it all, I had an icon on the Internet tab of the Easy Mode screen and a "3G" icon in the system tray in Desktop Mode.

[If you don't know about Full Desktop Mode this tutorial might be of assistance]

Plugging the E220 into the USB port automatically launched the connection software. Click the "Connect" button (the one with the stylised globe of the earth and plug) and you're online.

What you need

• Eee PC (I tried this with the 701)
• Huawei E220
• Contract with your comms carrier and a SIM card from them for the E220 (I use Three in Australia)
• eee220 Mobile Broadband Tool from the 3epc User Portal

 3G • Asus Eee PC • Huawei E220