The "option.ko" driver was not made by Option

This is a standard driver for 3G devices and is available in virtually all Linux distributions, it was not made by Option! It was commissioned by Vodafone and released under GPL originally to support the first generation Vodafone 3G card. A large number of 3G devices are supported by this driver, many of them are not made by Option at all.

Some of the Option devices that use the option.ko driver are:

• Original Vodafone 3G 
• GlobeTrotter 3G
• GlobeTrotter Fusion
• Module GTM 351
• And some HSDPA 7.2 Ready devices that have not been upgraded to 7.2 firmware.

If the device uses a standard serial interface but is not recognised by the option driver then the usbserial driver can be used instead.

There is a problem with some versions of the option.ko driver and the newer Option devices that should be using the hso.ko driver. These devices actually need the hso driver to work properly but the hardware IDs have been registered with option.ko.

How can you tell..

The device will appear to behave normally and (assuming ZeroCD has been disabled correctly) there will /dev/ttyUSB0...X ports created but Internet connections do not work.  Check the serial number and follow the Search link -

If the Search points you to the Datacards using hso.ko driver or the iCon 7.2 then you may have a problem.

The 100% check is to list all the USB devices and look for the Option device....

Then compare the idProduct against the IDs listed in the hso driver source.