Hi all,

I've recently purchased a Thinkpad-branded Gobi 3000 card for use in my W520. Everything works fine, but I would like to know if it's possible to use the card and connect with it, without installing Access Connections?

I find AC terribly bloated and unnecessary for wireless connections, and if possible I'd like to avoid installing it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I would recommend installing Access Connection first if you haven't already, to activate the WWAN and get it on the network you are going to use.

If you are using the WWAN on Verizon, you should be able to install the VZ Access Manager from www.vzam.net. I am not sure about AT&T. I would think they would have a similar piece of software.

After you install that, you should be able to uninstall Access Connections.

I personally use Access Connections on mine as I find it works pretty well.

Hey monkeybagel,

thanks for the response! I've already installed AC, and can see the WWAN card in the Fn+F5, menu, everything runs fine right now.

I was just wondering if there was a way within Windows itself to manage WWAN connections, like how Wifi connections are handled. I'd just rather avoid installing AC if I can avoid it, since I much prefer Windows' way of handling Wifi connections.

I'm not in the US, and from what I gather there's no dedicated software for my carrier for connecting using this card.

Sorry - I should have looked at your location.

There is probably a way to do it - I am not aware of a way that Windows will manage a WWAN card on its own, but you should be able to create a DUN connection for the COM port that is assigned to the WWAN, and dial the data number (in the US, Verizon is #777) and establish a connection.

That does sound pretty onerous, and if that's the only way I'll probably live with Access Connections.

Surely Windows would have a simpler way of handling connections, like PPPoE and other network connections?