So let's just let the veins rest for now. Wifi/mifi experience!

• Everything's fine with the veins, so we'll just move on for now until someone has a question. :-)
• I'm just getting into mobile internet and researching the various possibilities. I'm not the type of person to have my laptop (no smartphone yet!) open all the time, or even with me, so the thing for me is affordable internet access for occasional use.
  I got an unlocked wireless modem (Huawei E585, as small as a cell phone!) and a prepaid laptop internet sim card from T-mobile, a provider I had no experience with yet. (It was the cheapest option.) Oops. The sim card did not work. The laptop and the wireless modem could see each other and wave, but internet was not happening. Didn't even get to the point of the software download/installation they said would happen. Still corresponding with the T-Mobile on that one; I want my money back. So far they are refusing and are basically washing their hands of the whole thing. Recommendation? Don't go for T-Mobile.
  Decided to go ahead and get a small mobile internet plan (not a prepay) from my 'own' provider, since people who already had an account with them could get it for half price. Stuck the thing in the modem en bam, internet. (Obviously the modem is not the problem; hear that, T-Mobile?) Well, not bam; it's not as fast as I'd like, but it should be fine for my purposes. A friend's sim card (from yet another provider) worked as well. (Getting it yet, T-Mobile?) What I'm hoping is to get a local prepay sim when I travel to other countries; that's why I got the unlocked modem.
  We've rented a thing for an upcoming trip over the border, just in case I don't get the sim thang going right. It's a pretty good deal: mifi to be used in the country of choice, for a reasonable price. I'm looking forward to comparing it with my own setup.