This is how I got the Option Max 36 PCMCIA 3G modem to work under Ubuntu 7.10. This manual should work on most zeroCD equipped 3G modem cards, like the vodafone ones.
When you put the card into the PCMCIA slot, will the mediaplayer open and the cd icon will appear on the desktop with a name something like zeroCD. This feature is meant for the windows users. On windows the card will mount from the initial USB storage on the card and the OS runs the autorun.inf file, that installs the drivers for the card. But we are dealing with linux and we only see the initial USB storage correctly. There is a program to deal with this zeroCD weirdness.
FIrst get the usb_modeswitch. Also get the usb_modeswitch.conf and copy it to /etc. Unpack the usb_modeswitch and run it with command "sudo ./usb_modeswitch -W". The last option is just for verbose and it can be omitted. For some reason you have to take the card out and reinsert it again to get it to respond correctly. I am not sure if this will happen on all hardware but with my hardware it did so always. I have to reinsert the card every time before I can switch the mode correctly and get the ttyUSB0 - ttyUSB2 to appear into the /dev. NOTE! With the version 0.9.3 of the usb_modeswitch the problem seems to have disappeared.
Second thing you have to do is get the vodafone python driver from Vodafone mobile. Unpack the driver and read the file INSTALL from the package and follow the instructions in it.
Afrer the installation you should be able to run command "sudo vodafone_mobile_connect_card_driver_for_linux" or command "sudo vodafone_mobile_connect_card_driver_for_linux_debug". As the name suggests last of those commands puts out much more information about the program than the first one. When the driver starts it should show the device in the selection screen click it and continue. Then the driver asks Personal Identification Number (PIN), after that the driver shows that the card sees the network and so on (in case everything went ok this far).
As a last thing you have to create a profile for the card in the driver.
In the profile you have to define APN and authentication mode. Usually most network operators in Finland use internet as APN. In Elisa network the following settings seem to work.
username: rlnet
password: rlnet
APN: internet
Authentication mode: CHAP
(Correct settings for your network can be found from your operators
technical forums and so on)
As a very last thing press connect from the driver GUI and wait. If the settings were correct for the network authentication, you should get connectivity.
The vodafone driver could be replaced with the gcom package that can be installed by "sudo aptitude install gcom". After that see further instructions from "man gcom". But I liked the vodafone driver to be much more fun.
All of these manuals/tutorials are provided as is. They worked for me and that is all the help I give with them, so if I forgot something or there is a typo you can inform me but do not expect me to solve your problems :) Oh and almost forgot, use them at your own risk.