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Linux Support for Wireless Laptop Internet?
scubacuda asks: "I'm looking for a good "all you can eat" cellular data plan for my laptop. So far, I've looked into T-mobile, Earthlink, and Verizon's wireless Internet options. Any suggestions on price, availability, and speed? The real kicker for me is Linux support, which, I've been told by all three companies, is NOT available. (Any and all hacks would be greatly appreciated!)" This particular market is still in a great degree of flux, especially with landscape-changing deals like the AT&T/Cingular merger going on in the background and issue of going for cellular or WiFi connectivity service. Are there any wireless carriers that you've been able to get working on a Linux laptop? If so, what did you have to do to attain your wireless laptop nirvana?
I'm a Canadian, but I've successfully used wireless Internet connections in the U.S. using GSM (AT&T Wireless) and iDEN (NexTel) networks with a linux laptop. The idea is to think simple, and set up the wireless connection with an existing mobile phone and a PPP connection!
In the case of GSM, all that was necessary was a USB cable to a Motorola C333 to the laptop, then using PPP over the connection. Setting up was no harder than setting up a regular modem connection. The phone was free (after signing up to a plan) and the USB cable was less than $20. Data plans vary, but GSM coverage is decent in all the metropolitan areas that I was in (including Detriot, Chicago and New Jersey).
Similarly, I was able to use a Motorola iDEN phone with a serial cable to connect to the serial port of the computer and the specialized Motorola serial port on the phone. Once again, with a PPP connection to the Internet, there is nothing more to the connection than what's necessary to the dial-up modem connection. The phone itself is a wireless modem that is detected as a serial modem device. A data plan was included with the phone package (as I recall) and coverage was decent in all the metropolitan areas that I was in (see above).
We tried using various PCMCIA and PC Card based solutions for our connections, but we always seemed to have driver problems both in Windows and in linux. Sometimes the devices would seem to work, and then sometimes it wouldn't. For doing demos on the road for a web application, this was not acceptable. We found the best way was to use a phone-based solution for reliability for our mobile applications.
All in all, setting up a wireless connection is easy once you have the cables. With the price of phones these days dropping, getting your linux-based laptop (or any laptop for that matter) on the Internet wirelessly is easier and more cost effective than ever.
These are the good old days you'll be telling your children about. Make them worthwhile.
I hate that something like this even need linux support. I mean, it's basicaly a modem - it should emulate a simple piece of hardware and work on any combination of hardware and software without fancy client software. Imagine if you had to have fancy client with all these unneeded bells and whistles for your 2400 Baud external modem back in the day.
Don't Tread on Me
I've found that a typical SprintPCS phone will appear as a modem when connected with the optional USB connection. If you dial #777 (which equates to #PPP), you'll be connected through the "Vision" inet service. Sprint doesn't advertise this and, naturally, doesn't want people using their "all you can eat" inet service with a laptop or desktop for that matter. The speed is underwhelming but I haven't found anything good in this respect unless you've got the new Verizon service in the select cities.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
I bet if you ask them if they supported Firefox, the answer would be no, too. Support means they have easy instructions to repeat to the caller, not that other things don't work with it.
Why don't you surf the web instead of asking us? Your question is so broad, it suggests you didn't do any research yourself. What do we look like, Slashdot? Oh wait...
http://www.ka9q.net/5220.html
/power display (that would be from the second serial port).. other than that, works fine, very stable...
I have such a card and it works just fine for me... the only downside is you don't have a link stability
up to the computer with a serial cable and you're done.
I've been using the Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 with Linux for over a year. I can't say I am excited about the service itself, which is supposed to be about 56k. In other words, it is slow. BUT, when I am patient, I can ssh to my servers at work and sometimes accomplish something. It works just fine for web browsing, email, instant messaging, and retrieving maps with gpsdrive.
--dingletec--
The T-Mobile GPRS cards usually Just Work(tm) since they use serial and the AT command set. Just have to use PPP and off you go.
Its not the fastest, but its cheap. ($30/mo)
Good luck!
-- dieman - Scott Dier
Ive been using sprint for over a year and very happy0 .php
http://www.natecarlson.com/linux/sanyo-490
I got a new Panasonic Toughbook CF-T2. It has a wireless net card built in. It has no built-in CD drive, so I bought an external USB CD drive, plugged it in, put in the Suse 9.2 install CD, powered it up, and selected my install options. After an hour and a few CD changes, the system was up and running. It correctly repartitioned the hard drive so it's dual boot. It detected everything correctly. The wireless net card was detected but not activated. I used Yast to activate it, and it detected the wireless link and got an IP address. At this point there was a problem, though: the wireless card was eth1 and the Ethernet card was eth0. Even though eth0 didn't have a link, it was for some reason trying to be the default route. No problem. I just used Yast to deactivate eth0 (since I never use it) and now everything works fine.
Oh, and I also used Yast to configure all the ACPI and powersaving features, and they work. I close it, it suspends to disk. It throttles the CPU, blanks the screen, etc, as needed. There are some bugs in the suspend-to-disk feature, though. It's usable but I'm looking forward to installing the next version.
Summary: everything basically worked, no drivers to download, no kernel recompiles. I think it was easier than it would have been if I had tried to install Win XP. I think with Win XP I would have had to download drivers, etc. But I'm not sure; I've never tried it.
At least for Verizon's EVDO we've got a horde of folk in our IT dept. using it thanks mostly to Phil Karn's notes on getting the card working in Linux.
Might want to dig a little deeper and see if "no support" really just means "we don't know if it works and don't know how to support Linux." Hopefully some folks further down will have info on the other services.
Disclaimer: I happen to work for one of the companies involved with EVDO.
Verizon's Broadband Access works and is widely available, and if you're a heavy mobile user you can't really beat the $79/mo unlimited usage plan. In markets with the 3G equipment in place (San Diego for example) you get the faster EVDO speeds (throughput is good but latency is still a bit high - you won't be fragging in Quake over it), and everywhere else Verizon has coverage you get good ol' 1xRTT speed which is as functional as dialup and a helluva lot more convenient.
The AirPrime PC5220 card that Verizon provides works under Windows and Mac OS X (one of the recent 10.3.x patches included official drivers), and can be used under Linux if you follow Phil Karn's excellent writeup. Only gotcha is that you need Windows for the initial activation, but from that point on you're fine on your alternative OS.
So right now I'm using a Motorola v710 on Verizon for my wireless Internet. Using Bluetooth. Dial-up networking is one of the few things that Verizon didn't disable on the v710's Bluetooth stack. I haven't tried it with Linux, but I do know that it's basicly like having a good old Hayes Compatable attached to the computer.
However, that only gets you a maximum 128k theoretical, realistically 56k.
I can give you a link to the AirPrime 5220 card. That can be hacked.
Gentoo Sucks
It's my understanding that this setup will work under Linux. The 8200 is effectively the same as an 8100 for data access purposes.
Note that this plan is not really "unlimited". If you use too much bandwidth they will come down on you. Also, using it with a computer is "not allowed", they want you to buy a real data plan for that. However, it works anyway!
This setup has worked well for my needs (mostly voice service with occasional Internet access both from the phone and on a laptop). YMMV.
www.sprintusers.com are very active user forums where issues like this are discussed.
Get their Vision plan, and you have unlimited data for $15/month. Just don't go crazy; there have been reports of people having their line disconnected because they were using data 24/7.
Of course, Sprint won't tell you about this; they want to sell you a connection card and the extra phone line.
As for reception it's simple: if you're near an interstate, it's great. If you're not, NO SOUP FOR YOU.
HEY there's this great program out there that solves all issues of lack of Linux support or whatnot... ITS CALLED WINDOWS!!!!! go get it boys and girls...
' what did you have to do to attain your wireless laptop nirvana?'
move to any country except America.
I love it how you're so backwards with that stuff. Remind me, can I take a phone with a US priceplan into every state yet..and use it?
Add usbserialThe next step is to set up pppd for the T-Mobile GPRS service. I have the "VPN" service, but most users with unlimited access will have the regular one. The main difference is that the "VPN" service gets you a public IP address and must be specifically requested. In places where internet3.voicestream.com is used, internet2.voicestream.com should be replaced if this is the case.The
For instructions on how to use it under Linux, see (for instance): http://modular.fas.harvard.edu/sprint_merlin/
Dedicated Linux servers (root access) $45 p.M.
What corporations mean by "support" is one or two OSes that are standardized enough for the bottom-end support people to walk the users through simple scripts, i.e. "ensure that the computer is plugged in and turned on, click start, click setting, click network and dialup connections, etc..."
The last Verizon tech I talked to didn't know what dhcp was. There's no way these people could deal with something as varied *nix, and frankly you don't want them to. If the hardware works and the protocols are supported you're good to go. If you have a problem reboot the modem. You won't get much else in the way of useful information of the support staff anyway, even if you are running windows.
Actually - it usually does. You have to figure out how to configure it yourself, of course - ether as an USB Phone modem or Bluetooth Modem, but apart from this all you need to know is gprs configuration parameters (gprs access *point* name, user, password).
The best I have seen from this are motorolla phones with miniUsb connector. They have simple and proper support for usb modem.
Those software packages and fancy config dialogs - screw them. provider can't avoid infrastructure standards, so - use them.
I hate you!
I just hooked up my LG vx6000 phone to an updated Debian Sarge with a usb cable. I had to download, compile and load the 2.6 kernel module cdc-acm but after that the going was easy. #777 myphonenumber@vzw3g.com vzw and I am in.
And Bluetooth. I'm not avare of bluetooth support in recent linux releases, but I happily use bluetooth with my ibook laptop and Nokia 6600 wherever I go. Bluetooth defines wireless modem profile, and from there, it's a piece of cake.
here
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
T-Mobile has unlimited GPRS data for very cheap (I think it was $29.95 month). I got it working with gprsec connected to my Sony/Ericsson via bluetooth.
A few gotchas....
1) I had to set the gprsec to use slot 2 for the GPRS number instead of default 1
2) There is a bug in the Sony/Ericsson stack which you have to work around if you use IRDA.
Just get a T-Mobile handset with the $20 unlimited data plan and a phone like the T610's successor (can't remember the model), then use a USB bluetooth adapter to dial up via GPRS. The coverage is pretty good and the speed is usually faster than dial-up.
Overall, I've had great luck with this setup.
One Site that could help alot.
Linux-wireless.com More info here than you probably want, and everything you need.
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
This maybe a bit offtopic, buyt I've written a 802.11b wifi HOWTO to get cheap wifi working with linux.
My friend has T-Mobile and a Nokia bluetooth phone. He has a little USB bluetooth dongle attached to his laptop. He connects wirelessly to his cell phone with the bluetooth. Then the cell phone's unlimited data service provides the laptop with an internet connection via the bluetooth. This required no support from T-Mobile.
He set up a page about it here.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
http://www.emperorlinux.com and
http://www.vectorlinux.com
Good combo.
I can't attest much to the PCMCIA cards because I have never used one, but I currently have the unlimited data add-on to my voice plan through T-Mobile and a bluetooth mobile (Sony Ericsson T610). Get a bluetooth adapter for the notebook and configure pretty much like a dialup device (with a little extra stuff for the bluetooth). The bluetooth stack I'm using is bluez, and there are docs available there for connecting a laptop through a cell phone connection. I think that's pretty much the standard bluetooth stack in the kernel at this point.
The best thing about this scheme is that I got a bluetooth adapter for my PDA, and it can use the connection through the cell phone to get Internet connected too (not at the same time, obviously, but you get the idea).
The data transfer rate is about dialup speed, about 4KB/sec. Latency is awful, about 800-1000ms, but that was my impression for all wireless cellular data services. As far as reliability and coverage, the only place I've ever had huge problems was in rural areas, but that's usually just because there's no coverage there from most carriers. But for around $20/month, the idea of being connected to the Internet just about anywhere tickles the geek inside of me to pieces.
Things can be overrated at 0, 1 or 2, regardless of whether they have been modded before. If you post stupid comments like that then your karma bonus is definitely "overrated".
I use the Aircard 555 with telus wireless in Canada. Sierra has an "UNSUPPORTED" driver for the AirCard that took me only a few minutes to get going. The coverage and speeds telus claims are another story (only really good in major centers), but otherwise no problems.
5 5_Linux.asp
http://www.sierrawireless.com/SupportDownload/ac5
Note the linux drivers do not include support for "extra features" like voice mail etc.
I use T-mobile with bluetooth. I use the integrated Dial-In module in bluetooth on my phone to dial into WAP. It works fairly well, though it is a bit slow. I like being able to get on the internet anywhere I get cell signal.
I think support in this context means that you can ring them up and insist that they make it work. Companies just dont want to do this for linux.
There are a couple of reasons for this normally, mainly there are too many flavours of linux, different distributions are only the start of it.
Secondly they probably realise that the average linux user is a bit more clueful and will ask far more technical questions than your average Bangalore call centre can handle!
What I would like for 'support' for linux is a statement to the effect "we've tested this with kernel version foo and it works ok, YMMV...." and if it don't work here's a forum where somebody might answer your question...
Nobody seems to want to give this sort of information, or even keep the chipset in a component the same for more than a few seconds.
<RANT>
(Prism 54 cards prime example.... 2 cards, same manufacturer, same modle number, same PCI ID, same subversion.... Different chipset!)
</RANT>
However sometimes there are just commercial reasons why support is limited... a couple of LARGE companies I've had dealings with will officially support Redhat & SuSE on for their products. However all their development work is done on Debian and then ported to Redhat/Suse.
They can't specify that they support debian because of commercial agreements!
Many Toughbooks come with an (optional) "cellular modem" for the service of your choice. (GSM, PCSVision, GPRS. etc)
Grandparent poster might have misunderstood the question, but he might not have...
PS:
Toughbooks rule!
My CF-M34 is cool - and has lots of cool hardware hacking possibilities.
But how do I put Linux on it? It has no internal CD or floppy, and can't boot from USB!
Verizon Wireless is non-union.
The cellular modem looks like a regular modem to the laptop. It uses traditional AT commands and there's some special phone numbers you're supposed to send it. The O'Reilly book "Linux Unwired" has a good section about this. T-Mobile seems to have the best deal going, if you're in their coverage area.
How about GoMadic? I had to configure this with my father's notebook and Palm Pilot PDA. It works, but it is very slow (dial-up speed with EarthLink and PPP).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I suspect that you can get linux to work with one of those old cradle modem things (don't know what they're called - before my time). Then you can dial the number on your cell and drop it in.
GE/S/P a- e++ y-- r-- s:++ d+ h! X+++ t++ C+ P+ L++ E W++ w M-- V? PS+ P+
You can get unlimited email and port 80 access with T-Mobile for $5/month through their "Unlimited T-Zones" service... although they only advertize it as "WAP Access". Some people report that T-Mobile is cracking down and preventing non-WAP use of port 80, but it still works for me. Check the T-Mobile board at HowardForums for more up to date info.
Worst case scenario is that you might have to subscribe to their "Unlimited Internet" service for $20/month.
If you need DSL-like speeds, go with someone else. T-Mobile's GPRS access is usually slower than dial-up.
How you hook up the phone depends on the phone. All the Nokia symbian phones can hook up to a linux computer wirelessly using bluetooth. Others use cables. Here's one guide I just found using Google... there are many other's out there.
I don't see the point of getting a dedicated pcmcia card for the connection. Even if you don't intend to use the phone, it will probably be cheaper than a PC card.
http://nextelbroadband.com
And, for hardware, you can choose between a PCMCIA card (which probably requires Windoze drivers) and a modem with an ethernet port. I assume the modem with ethernet doesn't require any special drivers or software (although that could be a bad assumption).
I'm posting this using my Moto V60s phone connected via a USB cable to my Windows PC. I've also gotten it working using a Mac. Basically, the phone looks like a USB connected modem with its own whacky command set.
I found a lot of information in a Yahoo group that was about this stuff. Got modem chat scripts and things like that that you need to get it all working. Can't remember the group name, but Google should be able to help.
I get ~100kbs effective transfer speeds. I don't pay for an extra data plan, just use my existing voice minutes which include unlimited nights and weekends.
I'm sure that by "support" they mean some jackass in Timbuktu can walk you through a script over the phone. If you don't need that kind of service you should be fine.
Choose Verizon because they're Non-Union? I can agree with choosing Verizon if they're not outsourcing jobs overseas, but because they're Non-Union, um, get a clue.
You must be a manager. Now I get it.
With their 5220 card and instructions from Phil Karn it works perfectly! See: http://www.ka9q.net/5220.html
I've been able to get my mac powerbook to use T-Mobile's data service. Their service is a standard PPP access service (~ 56 K) and I was able to get it working with both a Nokia 6610 over a USB-serial converter cable, and on an N-Gage over bluetooth. The trick is getting your laptop/PC to see the phone as a standard modem. Once that's accomplished, you just dial the access number, and the rest of their system is standard enough to use. I used them as my only at-home internet access for about 2 years (didn't feel like paying an extra $50 a month when I had high speed access at work), so the extra $20/month at the time was at my price point. Service is slow, but functional. And though the lower level tech folks don't know a whole lot, at least you got a live person, and they scaled you up the levels very quickly if they could not help you.
I just wished T-Mobile had a mobile high speed network like Verizon does. I'd much rather pay for their service and support than I do for the other communication companies I've dealt with (SBC, MCI, Sprint, Time Warner).
The unions force Verizon to treat its workers far better than the Chinese treat the Tibetans.
I run MacOS X, not Linux (I've got an aluminum PowerBook 15"), but I'm at least familiar with the Cingular and Verizon data services. I tried to use T-Mobile's service a year or so ago with my old T68i phone, but never got it working. But that was also in the 10.2 days - 10.3 is slicker.
Cingular's service over a cell phone is called MEdia net, and unlimited GPRS usage is an extra $20 per month. Speeds are poor (about a perceived 70k at peak), but you can use it virtually anywhere you get a GSM signal. I used it with my old T610 phone via Bluetooth, and it was a useful "last resort" way out to the Internet.
Verizon gives you all you can eat of their data network (currently 1xRTT in most areas - about 80-140k on average) for $80 per month. They're in the process of upgrading that to 300k baseline (what they call EV-DO) with bursts over a meg. They sell a PC card to do the work for you that supports both networks. Check their website to see what speed is offered where - currently I'm at the slower speed here in Boston. However, even the slower speed is faster in real-life performance than Cingular's was.
I'm pretty sure both can be used with Linux, though I can't tell you how. MacOS X has the necessary drivers for both the Audiovox 5220 card that Verizon provides, and for the PPP scripts needed to use your cellphone on Cingular's network.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
If you're looking for support, you're screwed.
If you're looking for functionality I have written documents for my company's knowledgebase.
I do work for a large wireless carrier, and I have made this information available on my personal website as I haven't yet received approval to make it available on our external support site and can e-mail you my url(will not post it to avoid being slashdotted)if you want e-mail me at chiane25@hotmail.com if you are interested.
Methods of tethering I've written about are IrDA, bluetooth, PC Cards(all that we sell) as well as USB.
I really should create an account on slashdot to rake in some karma.
Suport me in my quest to make the english language even more less intelligible...
Good luck using a closed-sourse proprietory Microsoft OS... after years of frustration I am happily using Linux now and have no complaints about support whatsoever.
It's true, I'm doing this right now. Great if you only need port 80. It's easy to configure:
0 31 205022950.htm
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Dec/bpd20
I use a Samsun a530s from Verizon and it uses the standard ACM drivers under linux just fine. If you can find a verizon phone with the 1x icon on it, you should be able to do 240kbps over their 1xRTT network (look at their National Access map).
I got my cable from Radio Shack, see http://www.howardforums.com/ for more info on the phones that are compatable.
And then he did that thing with that stuff and it was like, wow...
I've used a Sierra Wireless AirCard 555 (verizon wireless) with linux. Although they claim the card is 144kbps, the ping round-trip time is pretty slow, and makes sshing pretty unpleasant.
After initializing the card for the first time (using windows, it needs to update the firmware, etc.), the card works like a regular com-port/modem. Beware of wvdial though, i had to patch it to make it work reliably with the AirCard. Also see http://centerclick.org/aircard555/
I recently dumped the aircard and replaced it with a GSM phone Nokia 6820. Which not only has a fold-out QWERTY keyboard, both a commercial and a free ssh client, and bluetooth, but also an IR port which emulates a modem when put next to the IR port on a laptop. Then just dial *99# and you're in business, even when traveling abroad. (The AirCard doesn't support data calls outside of the US.)
I think it's a better deal than the dedicated wireless cards, unless you're planning on using it constantly. It appears that the speed on the 6820 (with AT&T / Cingular service) via IR is better than the AirCard too.
I got the T-Mobile unlimited data plan, and I have a Sony Ericcson T68i phone (I'm in the NYC area, so coverage is quite good in the area).
What I do is connect my t68i via the serial cable or bluetooth to my laptop. and use it as a modem that way, havent had a problem in the major areas...
My only wish is this: I can actually use my cell phone as a actual modem, and not have to depend on the network's gprs service (My regular mobile is off ATT/Cingular, and they charge by sheer data used). While I realize that this is in a way odd and also not feasible simply because of how the signals are transferred - i long for an old school acoustic coupler kind of thing, since i get free night/weekends on my regular mobile, and it would be nice to able to use that for that particular service when i'm traveling about.
I have a 6620 and a belkin adapter on my pc. ATT/Cingular GSM Edge isn't wonderful but it's the best thing I've had since riccochet dropped Baltimore coverage.
I do seem to get around the 40Kb / second they advertise with the edge service if I'm not driving. My pings are consistant with dialup.
The ATT/Cingular coverage is a shade better than T-Mobile in my neck of the woods. (I started with T-Mobile and had no service in my appartment)
It's not replacing my cablemodem anytime soon for the house but it's incredibly useful on the move. My next project is to put a bluetooth linux box in the car and play around with some GPS, net wired crosshair on a map i'm over here kinda fun.
Verizon Wireless is non-union.
And Verison ranges from "mildly better than a dial-up" to "this sucks". I use their PCMCIA modem with a "all-you-can-eat" plan. Service is spotty at best. Lately, I've been getting strange delays/failures that seem DNS related. Ping times to their own DNS servers (when I can ping them, ehe...) is 500ms to 900ms. It also appears that the driver downloads the firmware to the card at boot, so good luck getting a linux version.
Sometimes, when I'm running downhill with the wind at my back, I get close to ISDN speeds. That's the exception, not the rule. I do have to say it's pretty freaking cool to jump online where ever I happen to be. If the service was more reliable, I'd recommend it.
For what it's worth...
Everyone who is interested in this should call ALL providers before doing anything to find out. The answer will be no, but the goal is to make our voice heard. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Yes I know the guy on the other end of the line rarely collects these statics, but you never know when you talk to the one guy who will be asked. Once management hears that the question comes up they start keeping track of how often it comes up (this will happen withing warning so we don't slashdot their phone lines). If there is enough people calling, the message will be recieved. Make sure your voice isn't lost.
If you get this working on an unsupported network (your only choice now), and suddenly it stops working with linux (make sure it is something they did, and not your mistake - check with others!), then it is time to slashdot their support lines, and don't accept "not supported" for an answer, talk to management (even though it is the guy at the next desk), and keep screaming. When nobody on a "supported OS" can get though because they broke the "unsupported OS", they will change.
The Ericsson pc card presents a standard serial port interface to the user, and a quick google will get you the needed commands and modifications to pppd to use it. I have done this with 100% success. Performance is roughly what you'd expect from a 56k modem; ie, not great, but it does work in a lot of places where no other connectivity is available.
Why they use any sort of proprietary connection instead of standard ethernet is beyond me. This would completely eliminate any need for them to write or distribute proprietary software, and would in one stroke provide compatibilty with pretty much any computing platform.
Just set it up as a serial modem connection on one of the pcmcia AirCards that all of those providers have available. Its a great solution I've used for over 2 years.
Please tell me someone else caught the "Suport" spelling of the article title before I did.
Question everything
how do you install ANY os on it? I assume you went into the BIOS and controlled the boot order? Can it network boot? If it can network boot you should be able to install Linux from that. Can it boot from a USB flash drive? You could probably install Linux from that too.
You lost me when you said "I'm a Canadian"!
Hey, this even works in windows. I've been using it for for a while now in linux, and didn't want to purchase some software, so I found a driver on the web to work with win2k and just use the dial up connector. Oh, by the way, mandrake 9.0 and up have never needed a driver. Kinda funny. I found this incredible useful just recently while house hunting in VA. My wife was on the laptop looking up houses, mapquesting driving directions, and checking email. My only complaint is the battery loses charge in about an hour. You would think the usb would charge as you go. Sony VIAO PCG-Z505 P2-366 384M-Ram Mandrake-9.0 SprintPCS Sanyo SCP-8100 with usb cable purchased at Radio Shack
Linux Unwired, written by Roger Weeks, Edd Dumbill, Brian Jepson and published by our friends at O'Reilly, is an invaluable reference for anything that is Linux and wireless. It has several chapters on 802.11 (picking a card, setting it up, using security, setting up or building a Linux access point), and also covers a variety of other systems: Bluetooth, IrDA, cellular networking, and GPS. Their wireless chapter gives instructions and suggested equipment for (IIRC) AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Verizon, and possibly one or two others. It's reasonably priced, and chock full of useful stuff--I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of it to learn how to do this.
(Note: I am not associated with O'Reilly in any relationship other than being a satisfied customer.)
Tired of free iPod sigs? Subscribe to my blacklist
I did this 3 years ago, for a cross-country drive (Tampa, FL to Los Angeles, CA, 2500 miles, 2.5 days). I wanted to "broadcast" my drive, so I had my Linux laptop capturing from a webcam, and sending the pictures back up to my web server.
:)
:) Oh, and never drive it in a U-Haul. It took 5 days with only one real sleep stop.
I used the Nextel im1100. The speed wasn't great (or even good most of the time), but it let me get the images up slowly. I could get one frame every 5 to 10 seconds sent up, which was more than enough to entertain my friends, who would check up on my progress every few hours.
You have to do a ppp script, just like you would dialing up on a conventional modem to an ISP. The init string was something odd. I think it was AT&S0=0 . The dial string was simply "ATDT". If you search around on DejaNews, you can find the right init string, if I'm mistaken.
There are other providers who's modems work exactly the same way. When I was researching it 3 years ago, they all acted like serial cards. I picked Nextel, because I already had a couple cell phones with them, and I could simply add it to my account. I don't know if things have really changed, but when I was looking at them, they advertise a "max" speed, which is *MUCH* higher than your real connection speed. In other words, you'll never see the speeds they offer. Generally it'll be 9600 baud, with really bad latency. 400ms+ pings were the norm.
Nextel will tell you specifically that they won't work on anything but Windows, but trust me, it works fine. It's the difference between what the support people know, and the way it really is.
The im1100 has it's own battery, it doesn't depend on the laptop for power. For my drive, I had the laptop and the modem plugged into a power inverter. I got pulled over twice on that drive. The cops gave my setup a really funny look, but didn't really say anything about it. Oddly enough, driving 2500 miles, you really start questioning if the speed limit should be so low..
I kept asking myself, "My car can easily do 160mph. I'm doing 75mph. If I doubled my speed, I'd cut this drive time in half. It's 800 miles to the next state. At 75, that's 10.6hrs. at 100, that's 8hrs. At 130mph (a nice cruise speed for my car) that's 6.1 hours. 6.1 hours sounds a lot better than 10.6 hours."
Right about the time I'd start trying it, is when I'd get pulled over. Since I was on I-10 in fuckin' Wyle E. Coyote country, where the cactus outnumber the humans 100000:1 they were ok with my 5mph over. They just wanted to remind me to slow down. I'm good with that. I like warnings a lot more than tickets.
Oh, and if you try to figure out my average speed for the drive (41mph), I did stop in El Paso for 12 hours, and had 6 fuel stops (4 of them I was kinda fuzzy from lack of sleep and a constant caffeine buzz). I also hit shitty traffic in San Antonio, and tried to stop in Bum-stick Arizona for cigarettes (couldn't find my brand), and again in Phoenix (again, couldn't find my brand). I was twitching by the time I got to California, and it was 2 days to find a store that had my brand.
It's an interesting drive. Everyone should try it once by themselves, just to say they did it.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I am running a panasonic toughbook. LT modem onboard and wireless card. If I really want fast wireless net I go to the Seattle Public Library and get online free. No reg no pass, 802.11b - I downloaded three ISOs of Solaris 10 in about 90min. Our Tax Dollars well spent!!! The rest is by various net cafes w/ free wireless or from wifi dsl at home. The bulk of the posts here are modem by cell or some variation. If I want to just check my mail - modem is enough. If I want downloads, I just need to pick my time and place. I could spend a week connected 24/7 to download a CD ISO or just get coffee and in the time it takes to drink it, get that big file.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
My experience with 3 different Internet connection providers has been that NONE of them had stated support for Linux. Linux as an unsupported platform for [fill in ISP here] is usually not a technology issue; rather, it's a tech support issue. Their techsupport staff needs to be able to walk Joe Average through 10 easy steps of "click this, click that, etc..." Troubleshooting via Linux would require one of two things: A) Far more complex read-response scripts. Or B) Far more educated techsupport staff. Neither seems likely to happen.
My latest foray into high(ish) speed access at home resulted in yet another frustrating conversation: (I suspect the situation is similar for cell-based access.)
What's my PPoE connection information?
Huh? I need to login to your PC to complete the setup.
No you don't, I just need the connection information to put in my firewall.
The firewall is on your PC. It doesn't matter.
No, the firewall is a dedicated piece of hardware.
Sir, if you'll just let me use your computer...
[I log him into a linux shell...]
Uhhhh, we only support Windows. I don't think this computer can connect to the Internet. Has it logged into the Internet before?
[rant]Why does everyone think you log-on, log-into, or log-onto the friggin Internet?!?[/rant]
The un-supporting meat bags answering the phones have NO idea what a default gateway is (nevermind the knuckle-draggers they send to connect it), yet they are responsible for troubleshooting network connectivity! That is why so few service providers "support" Linux. The sad thing is, they could really save themselves a lot of grief if they would just put the 4 or 5 nuggets of useful information we need in the initial welcome e-mail. Instead, they bury the meaningful info in 40 pages of screen-by-screen click fests. Finally, on page 34 I find what I'm looking for: The IP of their DNS server! Yipee! Now it's back to my welcome e-mail to search for my login ID amongst 6 pages of marketing bullshit.
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
I have a customer who uses Raven CDMA modems on Verizon's network. He uses these like normal modems using a PPP connection to get data from earthquake recording systems, either intermittant connections or nearly continuous. The modem connects via serial at 115200 baud and he is getting around 10K Bytes per second throughput. Since it pretty much looks like a hayes modem, it doesn't matter what operating system you have on your laptop. I have absolutely no idea what the equipment or service costs are.
I've been using the Sprint Merlin C201 pcmcia card with linux with no troubles. I found the card on sale for $29 in a Tiger Direct catalog along with an unlimited data plan for $89 per month. I took the ad to the local Sprint store and they matched the offer and gave me the card and unlimited data plan for that price. It's for commercial users only, but I have a web business (ahem). The plan is not cheap, but since I'm on the road 50% of the time, it saves me $ over hotel connect charges. A couple of links on the merlin card and linux: http://modular.fas.harvard.edu/sprint_merlin/ http://www.tummy.com/Community/Articles/merlin-c20 1/index.html
I'm actually using a SonyEriccson GC83 with AT&T Wireless (soon to be Cingular Wireless) to post this right now. I can't comment on its Linux compatability (on Win2k w/ the work laptop), but I doubt it works because it seems to require this strange AT&T software (which is actually pretty nice, let's you control VPN connections eand everything form inside it). Overall the service is pretty quick; I get sustained d/l rates of about 20k per second. Latency seems pretty high though, although I don't have any numbers to back this up. It's about $70/month for unlimited data. Good luck!
Why don't you Jack Hasses learn how to spel, damnit?!???!!!???!?! The word "Support" has TWO P's, not one or three or four but TWO!! TWO P's! What am I supposed to do with an empty case?!???!?!
Verizon says that it doesn't support Linux, but I run Linux all the time on Verizon's DSL and it's just fine. Verizon also says that it doesn't support MacOS 9, but I occasionally have to access Flash based sites via Explorer. It works fine then too. If you understand what Linux expects and what Verizon expects then setting the correct parameters at the appropriate places is not a problem. A challenge, perhaps, but not a problem. A disciplined thinker can do it. I know, I know...some people are really sensitive about not thinking or being identified as non compos mentis, i.e., as being among those who choose NOT to use their mind. These just want to push this button or that and just have it work. They wish to think of nothing, they wish to NOT THINK AT ALL. That's ok for the many who wish to imitate the rest of the natural world but it is not ok if one identifies oneself as a human being utilizing technology. Utilizing technology of any sort requires thought and planning. So what if Verizon doesn't support Linux...you, as a Thinker, support yourself! Let the rest forage and herd as they will.
Mitakuye Oyasin: Translation from Lakota Sioux, "We are all related."
Hell in both countries packets carried porn where your computer was, and then you got off. ....yea, bad joke.
$
I've been happy using my Sony Ericsson T616 and the Cingular MediaWorks Package (costs around $20/month, see https://www.cingular.com/media/media_purchase).
s orydetail.asp?id=24792&phoneid=238
I get unlimited data, so I don't have to worry about a per KB charge, and I've been able to get coverage anywhere I can get a signal from Cingular. The downside is that it's slow (dialup modem speed, at best), but that's still good enough for checking e-mail or looking up maps or phone numbers when I'm out on the road.
I usually use it over Bluetooth from my PowerBook, with the following settings:
- Phone#: *99***1#
- User: wap@cingulargprs.com
- Password: CINGULAR1
I've also had success using it over a serial connection to the phone, through a cable similar to this one:
http://www.cellphonemall.net/wireless/store/acces
I've been using the Merlin C201 PCMCIA card under Linux for nearly 2 years now. The card shows up as a regular modem which you run PPP on. I've got an extensive page on how to do this setup at http://www.tummy.com/Community/Articles/merlin-c20 1/.
The service is through Sprint, and costs $80/month for all "you can eat". Apparently, the service agreement for the $10/month net with your phone prohibits the use of a laptop with it, but there are people using USB adapters or similar to access the net over the phone. The setup is similar to the PCMCIA card, using PPP.
I also have a page on using the LG-5350 phone and USB cable to get net access using PPP with Linux at http://www.tummy.com/Community/Articles/lg5350/
Sprint coverage is pretty good. The first trip I took with it was up into the mountains, where I was able to get extremely good coverage from my camp site. Another crowd would wonder WTF I was doing with a laptop when camping, but the /. crowd will understand, I'm sure.
The speed is pretty good. I can do downloads at 12 to 15KB/sec, and at one point while camping I ran an incremental backup of my laptop up to a my server. I think it pushed 600MB of data across it, uploaded, at 7KB/sec average.
The real killer is the latency. It runs, on average, 500ms (half a second). For web page downloads it's not so bad, but for anything interactive it's pretty nasty. Latency usually ranges between 250ms and 1000ms, but if coverage lapses or is spotty it can be several seconds.
That said, I love the connectivity. These days you can get WiFi in most locations if you are willing to go to a place that has it. The CDMA is great for times when I want to use the net from a place that doesn't have it, or a place where their WiFi is wedged because of a flaky AP or a butt-head with a virus or running file sharing.
Sean
I'm able to connect to T-Mobile's GPRS service in FreeBSD 5.3. It's about as fast as a 56k modem, but it works well when you have little choice. The FreeBSD Handbook has a nifty Bluetooth section which among other things explains how to use the Dial-Up Networking service profile.
T-mobile, my carrier or choice, works as well. YMMV handset to handset but there's TONS of stuff out there on how to tether GSM handsets to most OSes. They offer GPRS service at $20/$30 per mo. unlimited web and mail only/full unblocked usage respectively. It's a bit slower than 1x - feels about like 33.6 dial-up. Honestly, sometimes, it can feel excruciatingly slow. Try killing the connect and redialing. That often cures it. But hey, it's ALL YOU CAN EAT at dial-up prices almost and not $80 a month. I use it with my ibook or pda on the train from San Bernardino area of SoCal to LA on my daily commute and can reliably stream 24k music streams and surf and email just fine. As for tethering, to date I've used an S/E T68i, unlocked S/E 637, Nokia 3650 and now I'm trying a Motorola unlocked V551. I've used them all via bluetooth on both OS X and Linux and a couple of those on windows. Also on Palm and PPC. As for support Tmobile has a fairly knowledgeable group. They seem to work both state-side and off-shore using a tier system. The t1-t2 group seems to be off-shore, are very helpful, still hard to understand at times and the t2's seem very knowledgeable. None of them will ever hesitate to escalate your call. The T3's will basically go to all ends to solve something. I know, I stumped one. I figured it out myself and called him back and gave him my findings. He seemed happy to hear it. Basically, they seem to honestly care about customer service. As for Linux support I think if you push the issue you might get help. Just go in with the ability to help them help you. Make them feel confident that you can translate the Mac and windows way of doing things into what you need. Their coverage isn't as good as VZW but is good enough where I use it. Farthest I've tried it was Cedar City, UT with decent coverage from here to there.
Most important thing to remember. If you're going to get on a contract I strongly suggest that you do all of your research for the how-to's up front. Get the equipment all at once and get it going as fast as you can. The reason I say that is most carriers give you a roughly 15 day try-out before you must commit. Getting it all to work is half the battle. The user experience with the working product and getting comfortable with that is the rest of it. You may also want to consider Cingualr. Good network but they also charge $80/mo. for all-you-can-eat. However, they do support data useage over pre-pay. Only one I know of in the states. It's $0.02/kb though so be careful. A $50 card will be good enough to get
I've been able to get connectivity on my Linux laptop with Verizon and a Samsung A650 phone. Even been able to put on a custom MIDI ringtone with BitPim.
Some specifics about set up can be found here.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Im using Alltel with a Motorola V60i cell phone and aftermarket USB data cable. This phone has the capability to act as a USB modem which I have gotten working in both Linux and Windows. Then I simply dial into the ISP i get for free from my school, using my regular wireless minutes (hopefully offpeak). For windows I googled for a motorola usb cell modem driver and found one to support the v60i. In fedora i set up a ppp conection using /dev/ttyACM0 (you need the cdc-acm module, plain acm on redhat). Yes these connections are painfully slow but i just use it for emergencies mostly anyway.
I have a web page with information on how to get the Sierra Wireless 5220 PC card working with Linux. The 5220 is, at present, the only supported device on Verizon's WirelessBroadband service (their name for CDMA 1xEV-DO).
I dumped my notes to my blog. I use an Ericsson T616 under AT&T's service. Works well enough. The solution I came up with involved horking a few scripts from Knoppix (thanks to Kyle Rankin for the excellent book Knoppix Hacks, which inspired me to try using GPRS in this manner. Made life real easy as I didn't have to mess with PPP chat scripts and the like - yuck.
I don't know exactly which networks you are using, but I already used without any problems cards made by option (option) to connect to GPRS & UMTS networks under linux.
You just insert the usb-serial module with the good parameter and you have access to a serial modem.
Howto and utilies can be found here:
This card (should) work with any GSM(/GPRS/UMTS) network worlwide.
As a bonus, some verions can also have a wireless LAN module, which is more difficult to configure.
#include "coucou.h"
If you want easy linux support the Aircard 555 and the 5220 both work under linux.. there are many tutorials on the net... only issue is that you have to activate it on a windows machine.
I'm in the UK and use the Vodafone 3G card. Pretty easy to set up (PPP) and it downloads at 400 Kbit/sec ! latency is acceptable as well. OS is Linux Ubuntu.
This is Verizon the telco that is unionized. Verizon Wireless is a seperate company, jointly owned by Verizon proper and Vodafone (I think).
linux support.
I got my SPRINT CDMA2000 card going, back when they were first introduced, by firing it up in W2K and then reading the connection log.
Discovered it was straight PPP.
Had no support for signal strength other than looking at dropped packets.
SPRINT was running brain dead transparent cache at the time and caching box would soak the upstream side of their network.
BR>When they added fee off peak calling, the network was so saturated that I had trouble getting a call through, nevermind data (lowed QOS priority).
I dropped the thing after a few months of fighting with SPRINT ("we don't cache", right, I watched it from my own server! "we don't implement QOS", jeez guys, the guys who sold ou the system advertise it as a feature holding you out as an example!).I understand they have much better service now and know a good many folks using them with linux. I've lost my incentive. I was trying to talk the rapid transit people into putting a PeeCee wwith SPRINT card and 802.11B on the busses to encourage ridership. Figured if people could take care of email on their way to work, they might be more inclined to ride the bus. Not good for SPRINTs model in which riders would each pay a subscription, but hey, that's business
Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!
"Is there a program I can run from DOS/Windows to start a Linux install if I have the CD images in a FAT directory, or in their own partition on the hard drive?"
This is one of the options for installing Debian, and in fact is how I did my first ever Linux install (of Potato). Basically, I had to make a directory and copy a half-dozen or so files into it, then exit Windows using "Restart in MS-DOS mode", navigate to the correct directory when the machine restarts, then type loadlin followed by the name of the kernel image file. It then started a Debian base install, and after configuring the network, I grabbed the rest of the installation from a Debian mirror. (I did this instead of booting from floppies because I didn't have any floppies lying around).
The above process did *not* work with the bf2.4 kernel for Woody when I tried it on another machine, and I remember reading that a bug in loadlin would not allow it to load certain kernels (no idea if it has been fixed by now). There is a new Debian installer being prepared for Sarge - no idea if there is some way to run it off a FAT partition.
Also, newer versions of Windows do not allow you to boot in DOS mode.
Finally, if you have some way of getting all of the files from a bootable installation CD onto a hard drive partition, you could set up the boot order to get it to boot from there. I'm not sure how you could do this within Windows.
The things is that a GSM modem isn't like a WinModem. It provides the ability to use the phone's link as a data layer. This being quite demanding, also from the regulatory viewpoint, the modem tends to sit in the phone rather than the PC.
What you do get on the PC is some optimisation software sometimes and also stuff to make raising the link somewhat easier.
As an employee of at&t wireless/cingular I regret to say that at this time through all of my searching we are not supporting linux, however I do know from past experiences that if enough people call in looking for linux support(as I'm sure many slashdotters will)things will change for the better
LOL!
I'm pretty happy with my Motorola v710's crippled bluetooth, because I can still hop on the internet via my Zaurus (linux-based PDA) and just pay minutes. Pinging slashdot averages about 512ms, and DSLReports shows the connection to be slightly faster than 56k. It's not as good as a WiFi hotspot, but it definitely lets me check email and ssh into any servers causing trouble.
I have a Transmeta based subnotebook (Sony Picturebook C1MV) running Ubuntu!
Works just fine for me using a usb bluetooth adapter and my Nokia 3650 on T-Mobile's network.
I'd like to reiterate what someone earlier said, just because its not supported doesn't mean it doesn't work. I had the same setup on AT&T before I switched to T-Mobile (you can't beat +$19/mo for unlimited usage.)
Do your homework, often google found me support forum entries on the provider's homepage that had all the settings I needed.
Ten years ago this was a piece o' cake with Metricom's Ricochet service. They're gone and nothing better has come along. But hey, that's progress.(?)
He was saying that they weren't union and as such should not be used if that is your criteria.....
>
Choose Verizon because they're Non-Union? I can agree with choosing Verizon if they're not outsourcing jobs overseas, but because they're Non-Union, um, get a clue.
I have an iDEN internet connection via work and it is terribly, horribly slow at 19.2kbps max.
FYI.
+++ATH0