USB Mobile broadband stopped working after first time

[AnttiV]

Hi.

I have a laptop without a mobile connection that I thought I'd carry with me to work (no WiFi access) and don't want to use a mobile phone as a WiFi bridge the whole day. So I rummaged my storage and found and older ZTE 3G USB Broadband modem. (white stick, with pull-in USB connector. No idea of model, has no stickers on it).

So I popped it in, xubuntu detected it OK apparently, since it asked for PIN number and I now had a "Mobile Broadband" section under the network pulldown menu. I clicked on the "New Mobile Broadband connection.." button, went through the settings and clicked apply. After a few seconds it was connected and working fine. Happy about this, I shut down the computer, backed it into my back and commuted to work.

I just now pulled it out of the back, turned it on and sticked the USB modem back into it. Shows up just like before under the network menu, but it won't connect. Not automatically, not by clicking the "ISP Connection" menuitem that I set up earlier. If I click it manually a second time, I get a notification that an active connection was removed before it could be used (paraphrasing).

So... it worked 2 hours ago, but turning the computer off and then back on made it not work at all?

I'm not tethered via my phone, but don't want to use all my battery on my phone with this. What should I do to have it work again, like it did the first time?

[uncielser456]

Tried rebooting both laptop and broadband modem?