I tried this and I was quite surprised when everything worked exactly as you said is would (for in Linux things rarely work for me as they are suppoesd to). When I insert the card, the red light flashes once or twice, then quick green flashes, then a solid green light.

However, when it came time to start it up, I issue the ifup ppp0 command and nothing at all appears to happen. If I issue the same command again, it will say that interface ppp0 is already configured. I can't get the the Internet though. -- Is there some other step I should take?

Thanks for the great tutorial -- like I said, one of the best and clearest I've yet seen and it was a breeze to follow.