Visiting friends would like to use an AIS 3G Aircard with their laptop - which has a Peppermint Operating System.

Normally when you plug in a Dongle with a Windows O/S, the programme loads automatically. and you simply click Run.

With Peppermint, nothing happens, and if you try Internet Connections etc., it asks for passwords user names etc. which do not relate to anything related to an Aircard.

Can anybody please help?

Peppermint Operating System is based on Ubuntu Linux, and if you search for "AIS Aircard Ubuntu" in Google you get several how-to's on the problem...

I cannot comment specifically on the AIS aircard but using other aircards I have found that Ubuntu 13.10 (and mint) will start the dongle and after a few minutes show up as a wired connection. Initially when I plugged in hte dongle, nothing happened and like you I went looking for the 3G settings, but then I removed the dongle, re-inserted it and after about a minute I had a connection to the internet.

If still a problem, try installing 'Wine' (via Synaptic Package Manager, which is in Peppermint/Ubuntu's 'System Tools' or somesuch).

Then follow this wiki http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Wine-on-Linux

Works with many windoze-oriented things...

Good luck, AA