[gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Grant]

I need to connect a couple of Gentoo laptops to some type of wireless
broadband service during a visit to Sydney, Australia.  There seem to
be some wireless broadband modem rental companies down there:

http://www.fatfree.com.au/wirelessbroadband.html

I also have a couple quad-band GSM cell phones we could tether with a
local SIM card.  Does anyone know if any of these companies (or
others) have good data service:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/australia.html

Does anyone have experience with this stuff?  Do wireless broadband
modems work in Gentoo?  Does tethering to cell phones work?

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 16:37:03 -0800, Grant wrote:

> Does anyone have experience with this stuff?  Do wireless broadband
> modems work in Gentoo?

I tried a number of 3G modems for an article I wrote last year and all
of them worked. There were only two brands of modem supplied by the
various telcos, Huawei and Novatel and they are very similar in
operation.

Vodafone have a software package for these modems, whichever telco you
use, but it is tricky to get working with a shedload of dependencies. If
is only needed if you want to do stuff like send SMS messages from the
computer. For standard Internet usage, you only need the kernel modules
and your favourite PPP software.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

without C people would code in Basi, Pasal and Obol

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Grant]

>> Does anyone have experience with this stuff?  Do wireless broadband
>> modems work in Gentoo?
>
> I tried a number of 3G modems for an article I wrote last year and all
> of them worked. There were only two brands of modem supplied by the
> various telcos, Huawei and Novatel and they are very similar in
> operation.
>
> Vodafone have a software package for these modems, whichever telco you
> use, but it is tricky to get working with a shedload of dependencies. If
> is only needed if you want to do stuff like send SMS messages from the
> computer. For standard Internet usage, you only need the kernel modules
> and your favourite PPP software.
>
>
> --
> Neil Bothwick

Thanks Neil, I'd like to get as close as possible to being ready to
plug-and-play with one of those modems.  Do you remember the names of
the kernel modules?  I've never used PPP software before.  Can you
recommend a package?

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 08:56:02 -0700, Grant wrote:

> Thanks Neil, I'd like to get as close as possible to being ready to
> plug-and-play with one of those modems.  Do you remember the names of
> the kernel modules?  I've never used PPP software before.  Can you
> recommend a package?

You need usbserial and the Novatel modems use the option module. I use
wvdial with this config, which worked with T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2.

[Dialer tmob]
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 460800
Init2 =AT
Init3 = AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = *99***1#
Username = username
Password = password


-- 
Neil Bothwick

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great
ordeal of meeting me is another matter. - Sir Winston Churchill
(1874-1965)

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Grant]

>> Thanks Neil, I'd like to get as close as possible to being ready to
>> plug-and-play with one of those modems.  Do you remember the names of
>> the kernel modules?  I've never used PPP software before.  Can you
>> recommend a package?
>
> You need usbserial and the Novatel modems use the option module. I use
> wvdial with this config, which worked with T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2.
>
> [Dialer tmob]
> Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
> Baud = 460800
> Init2 =AT
> Init3 = AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0
> ISDN = 0
> Modem Type = Analog Modem
> Phone = *99***1#
> Username = username
> Password = password

Thanks Neil.  Weird that wvdial is in /usr/portage but doesn't come up
at gentoo-portage.com.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Paul Hartman]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Thanks Neil, I'd like to get as close as possible to being ready to
>>> plug-and-play with one of those modems.  Do you remember the names of
>>> the kernel modules?  I've never used PPP software before.  Can you
>>> recommend a package?
>>
>> You need usbserial and the Novatel modems use the option module. I use
>> wvdial with this config, which worked with T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2.
>>
>> [Dialer tmob]
>> Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
>> Baud = 460800
>> Init2 =AT
>> Init3 = AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0
>> ISDN = 0
>> Modem Type = Analog Modem
>> Phone = *99***1#
>> Username = username
>> Password = password
>
> Thanks Neil.  Weird that wvdial is in /usr/portage but doesn't come up
> at gentoo-portage.com.

Looking at http://gentoo-portage.com/Browse it seems the entire
net-dialup category (and several others) are absent from that site.
Maybe he didn't get it all set up properly after the servers were
lost.

Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Grant]

>> Thanks Neil, I'd like to get as close as possible to being ready to
>> plug-and-play with one of those modems.  Do you remember the names of
>> the kernel modules?  I've never used PPP software before.  Can you
>> recommend a package?
>
> You need usbserial and the Novatel modems use the option module. I use
> wvdial with this config, which worked with T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2.
>
> [Dialer tmob]
> Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
> Baud = 460800
> Init2 =AT
> Init3 = AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0
> ISDN = 0
> Modem Type = Analog Modem
> Phone = *99***1#
> Username = username
> Password = password
>
>
> --
> Neil Bothwick

Thanks again Neil.  My Nokia N82 is working like this:

Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = USB Modem
Phone = *99***1#
ISDN = 0
Username = username
Init1 = ATZ
Password = password
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800

Any better way to manage the connection than 'wvdial' and ctrl+c ?  It
sounds like wicd doesn't support ppp yet.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:01:38 -0700, Grant wrote:

> Any better way to manage the connection than 'wvdial' and ctrl+c ?

I've used Kppp with simlar settings.

> It sounds like wicd doesn't support ppp yet.

I did read somewhere that it was planned.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

God: What one human uses to persecute another.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless broadband modems - Working?

[Momesso Andrea]

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On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 08:48:10PM +0000, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:01:38 -0700, Grant wrote:
> 
> > Any better way to manage the connection than 'wvdial' and ctrl+c ?
> 
> I've used Kppp with simlar settings.
> 

If you can do it with wvdial, it can also be done using gentoo net.* init
scirpts.

For example this is the wvdial.conf for my gprs phone:

[Dialer Defaults]
#Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Modem = /dev/rfcomm0
Baud = 460800
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"ip","internet.wind","",0,0
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Carrier Check = no
Phone = *99***1#
Username = wind
Password = wind

And this is the equivalent part in my /etc/conf.d/net

config_ppp2=( "ppp" )
link_ppp2="/dev/rfcomm0"
username_ppp2='wind'
password_ppp2='wind'
pppd_ppp2=(
"noauth"
"defaultroute"
"usepeerdns"
)

phone_number_ppp2=( "*99***1#" )

chat_ppp2="
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' '\rAT'
TIMEOUT 12
OK ATZ
OK 'AT+cgdcont=1,\"IP\",\"internet.wind\"'
OK 'ATDT\T'
TIMEOUT '60'
CONNECT ''
TIMEOUT '5'
'~--' ''
"

So, instead of using wvdial I just run "/etc/init.d/net.ppp2 start" and
"/etc/init.d/net.ppp2 stop".

---

TopperH
http://topperh.blogspot.com

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