This is officially my first tutorial, so bear with the fact that the format might be slightly unusual.

    I will start with stating the purpose of this tutorial, in case it wasn't that clear from the title. Now I know a lot of us cant do without being on-line, in fact if we aren't on-line what is the point of having a computer, right? Well I want to help you in setting up a Wireless USB modem (Mobile Broadband) on your Linux Mint, just in case you don't use a wired connection. The tutorial is aimed at people living in Nigeria and using any of the four networks (MTN, Etisalat, Glo, Airtel), but you could still follow along even if you live outside Nigeria and use your countries native mobile broadband provider.

    So lets begin the work. Now first of all connect your modem to your system and make sure it shows up in the list of mounted drives in the file browser. I personally am using an Airtel modem which has been unlocked to work on MTN, Etisalat and Glo as well. So if you can see your modem it means your system can recognize the modem, but you have to do some work before it can browse.

    Now its time to do some typing. Go to Preferences → Network Connections and click on the Mobile Broadband Tab, then hit on Add. When you click on Add it brings up a New Mobile Broadband Connection wizard. If at this moment your modem is plugged in you can select it from the drop-down menu but even if its not connected it makes no difference, next click Forward. Next Choose you country, in our particular case we are going to choose Nigeria and click Forward. Next we can choose a provider, in my case I am using Linux Mint 11 and the providers I can see for Nigeria are Etisalat, Glo Mobile, MTN and Zain(which is Airtel). So I will choose Airtel, but you can choose whatever network you want since we are still going to edit the default settings. We click forward and we see the Choose Your Billing plan Screen. From here you can select your billing plan it will add default settings to the profile you are creating but those settings could be edited later. We click forward one more time and then hit apply. Now we can see it in the Mobile Broadband window. Now lets click on it and choose Edit, then go to the mobile broadband tab and edit accordingly for the network you want to use.

List of settings for the Nigerian Mobile Broadband providers:

MTN
Connection name: MTN
Number: *99#
Username: web
Password: web
APN: web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net
Network ID: (leave this field blank)
Type: Prefer 3G(UMTS/HSPA)
PIN: (leave this field blank)
check the Available to all users check-box if needed.
Check the connect automatically check box.

Etisalat
Connection name: Etisalat
Number: *99#
Username: wap
Password: wap
APN: etisalat
Network ID: (leave this field blank)
Type: Prefer 3G(UMTS/HSPA)
PIN: (leave this field blank)
check the Available to all users check-box if needed.
Check the connect automatically check box.

Glo
Connection name: Glo
Number: *99#
Username: flat
Password: flat
APN: gloflat
Network ID: (leave this field blank)
Type: Prefer 3G(UMTS/HSPA)
PIN: (leave this field blank)
check the Available to all users check-box if needed.
Check the connect automatically check box.

Airtel(Zain)
Connection name: Airtel
Number: *99#
Username: internet
Password: internet
APN: internet.ng.airtel.com
Network ID: (leave this field blank)
Type: Prefer 3G(UMTS/HSPA)
PIN: (leave this field blank)
check the Available to all users check-box if needed.
Check the connect automatically check box.

Now make sure you use the setting you require for your mobile broadband provider, for those of you outside Nigeria you can always google for the appropriate settings.
Take note that you should be subscribed to a browsing plan before you plug in your modem, I suggest doing that through windows using the UI on the modem or using the modems sim (if it is possible to remove the sim from the modem) and subscribing through your phone.
So now with the setting done and you being subscribed to a data plan, plug in you modem. When your modem gets recognized just choose the connection you created and it will connect.

NOTE: With some older modems you might need to plug in your modem and wait for a couple of minutes and with the modem still plugged in restart the system for the modem to work.

Thats all folks. Thanks for following along and I hope that this tutorial will be helpful to all of you who want to use a USB Modem to browse.