How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC - Gizmodo Comments

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

paulinsf — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:39:48 EST

I added 3G an easier way. I just broke open a Verizon USB720 dongle and took out the mini-card that it contained. It is a plug in replacement for the wifi card in the Eee. Yes, I used the existing antannas, that seems to work fine. The obvious downside to the method I used is, of course, I no longer have wifi capability, but for my uses that is fine.

paulinsf

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

zxdxz — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:03:44 EST

JKK great hack...

I'm wondering what's in Palm's CEO mind now...

zxdxz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

tnkgrl — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:06:03 EST

Nice hack JKK... You beat me to it!

I was going to publish a very similar mod using a Sierra Wireless 875U HSDPA modem. Unfortunately, lack of time kept me from doing this in time for the holidays :)

PS: Giz, in the picture above you incorrectly labeled the RAM as the HSDPA modem - you may want to fix that.

tnkgrl

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

OldSchoolGadgetLover — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:39:36 EST

@OldSchoolGadgetLover: True... I should just man up and give the mods a shot I guess (I secretly want the 10" model coming out anyway).

OldSchoolGadgetLover

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

celloids — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:25:33 EST

Nice hack, but if given a choice, why go through all that soldering? unlike the touchscreen hack, I don't see the economic benefit for this hack for mass adoption.

Why not buy a usb hsdpa datacard where you can unplug and share the card with other PCs and devices?

celloids

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

auroragb — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:48:08 EST

@Reilaos, Original Asus Fanboy: It's the cheapest for the weight. Nothing in the weight class comes close in functionality and price. So, if you brick one, you're just out $400 instead of $1500 on the UMPC

auroragb

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

herb — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:30:05 EST

Network: 1900/850 MHz GPRS • Transmit frequency: 1850-1910 MHz and 824-849 MHz

EDGE = 800, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

UMTS specifies the bands 1900-2025 MHz and 2110-2200 MHz for 3G transmission

3G/3.5G UMTS/HSDPA - 850/1900/2100 Mhz

How does this work well on a 2400 mhz antenna (b/g wifi)? If the modder is using the built-in wifi antenna, it's too short and wouldn't work without degraded signal strength and risk of burning up the output transistors on the broadband card. Any amateur radio geek could tell you that. Did he actually go to the trouble of making his own antenna for it in the proper frequency band(s) and put it inside the lid of the palmtop? I highly doubt it! Nice idea but I certainly wouldn't have done a half assed job and used the 2.4ghz antenna.

herb

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

OldSchoolGadgetLover — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:03:20 EST

I suck at mods... even simple ones. Can JKK or some such handy person just open up a service and start modding the EEE for folks like me?

I'm sure there's plenty of money to be made.

OldSchoolGadgetLover

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

WE_DELIVER — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:14:54 EST

@jesusdiaz: Thanx for looking into that :-)

WE_DELIVER

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

zimstyles — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:10:43 EST

@jesusdiaz: Thanks Jesus

zimstyles

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy! — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:42:42 EST

Damn I need to get an EeePC

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:29:56 EST

@zimstyles: New answers for your questions in the article.

@WE_DELIVER: Clarified. Hack is for 4G/2G.

Jesus Diaz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

secretmanofagent — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:13:12 EST

@JESUSDIAZ

Here's something odd, the 8G Eee PC is gone from NewEgg, it says "We apologize for the inconvenience, but the item you are looking for has been deactivated. Here are some similar products that you may wish to consider:"
[www.newegg.com]

Any idea what's going on?

secretmanofagent

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:36:57 EST

I will ask JKK

Jesus Diaz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:36:38 EST

@zimstyles: I think it will work in EDGE networks too, but you have to see the specs for the card. As far as I know, the chipsets support multiple standards but I don't know about this one for sure.

Jesus Diaz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

whiskey — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 02:52:28 EST

I wanted one then... I crave one now!

whiskey

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

MrBlahBlah — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:17:03 EST

if this was apple they would totally bring down the hammer

MrBlahBlah

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

karnak — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:09:03 EST

There's the hack I was waiting for. It's getting pretty close to OQO (with HSPDA) as far as versatility, and still about half the price.

karnak

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

rospaya — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:02:29 EST

The dollar is on it's lowest, but the EEE still costs more than 300 euros in Europe (at least where I live).

rospaya

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

WE_DELIVER — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:20:16 EST

Wait... how does this work on the 8G models? It shouldn't
The 8Gig SSD should be in the slot where that modem is shown. The 4G/2G/Surf models should work since the SSD is soldered to the motherboard elsewhere.

WE_DELIVER

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

herbthehammer — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:34:33 EST

Either I've lost my mind completely or this "shouldn't" work as good as it could. For CDMA sprint/verizon, they operate on 1.9ghz and 800-900mhz (cell and 3g). If they are using it instead of wifi, using it's antenna, the built in one is for the wrong frequency, 2.4 ghz. Anyone that knows about antenna building, could tell you that it's too short and the swr's are probably through the roof and might even burn up the output transistors on the 3g card eventually. I would be willing to bet that a usb 3g card would perform better, with stronger transmit and receive signal strength available to use.

herbthehammer

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

zimstyles — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:55:36 EST

@jesusdiaz: What about edge?

zimstyles

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Stacky Botrus — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:18:14 EST

Wow, not only is this guy a sleeper, I discovered that the US dollar isnt worth shit.

Stacky Botrus

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Joseph — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:02:51 EST

CAn you put this in an iphone ?

Joseph

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Reilaos~ — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:39:22 EST

Coolness. Is there something about the Eee PC that makes it more appealing to hack besides perhaps the price?

Reilaos~

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:20:14 EST

@androgenous_wombat: You don't need to remove the SIM card. Just order a copy of your SIM card and you are gold. Install and forget. I think the hack is pure genius.

Jesus Diaz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

androgenous_wombat — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:17:14 EST

The only downside is having to remove the RAM to get at the SIM card. Looked easier to get to than almost every phone I've ever had.

androgenous_wombat

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

slingblade — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:07:23 EST

So you need to have a data plan to get this baby to go?

slingblade

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Windhawk — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:04:08 EST

This is great. Having anywhere 3G(-ish) makes the EEE PC pretty much the ideal traveling companion.

Now if they would just sell them out of the box like this...!

Windhawk

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

strider_mt2k — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:46:55 EST

Wow.

If I ever get around to getting one of these beauties it's REALLY nice to know there's info on some VERY cool hacks available.

strider_mt2k

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

bjarnia — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:23:46 EST

Thanks... That is pretty sweet though. If my plan was to travel with it, I'd obviously get a good data plan beforehand.

bjarnia

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:20:39 EST

Yeas, it's called roaming. You will pay an arm and a leg unless your usage is worth a world data plan. But in your country, a data plan should be cheap enough.

Also, if there's no 3G available, this will use GPRS.

Jesus Diaz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

bjarnia — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:17:44 EST

Forgive me my 3G ignorance... But when you say that you can connect "anywhere in the world" where there is 3G coverage.. How does that work? Does your phone company have to have deals with the local cell providers (that run the 3g network?) I assume so?
Because I was thinking that this computer, being really small and lightweight, would be really super handy to travel (read: semi-backpack) to countries in asia/africa/samerica... Allthough i just realized that most of these continents that i mentioned probably have very, very limited 3G coverage, if any :P

bjarnia

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

telecomz — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:10:38 EST

I'd love to see similar hack on the OLPC XO....

telecomz

How To Install an Internal 3G Card in the Asus Eee PC

mrgarylee — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:55:36 EST

Add 3G really makes me reconsider whether or not I should even wait for the apple ultraportable laptop. Even with the limited hard drive size, this would be the perfect laptop to carry around for bloggers such as myself! My macbook is looking more dell-ish every day!

mrgarylee