[Tfug] Ubuntu with a wireless/cell modem

[Jim March]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 4:48 PM, John Gruenenfelder <johng at as.arizona.edu>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks to Sprint's rapid un-deployment of the Broadband Direct, my folks
> are
> currently with a Net connection.
>
> My father does have a UT Starcom UM-100 USB wireless modem.  This is
> supposed
> to connect to Cricket's cell network and provide a data link.  It has been
> used previously in Windows so he knows it works.
>
> Normally I am very weary of USB networkng gear, especially wireless.  But,
> free is free.
>
> The good news is that when it is plugged in, the kernel recognizes it as a
> serial devices and attaches it to /dev/ttyACM0.  But, that is as far as we
> have been able to get.
>
> Google hasn't turned up anything about Ubuntu + UM-100.  And I haven't used
> a
> modem in Linux (let alone Ubuntu) for so long I'm at somethign of a loss.
>
> Is there any chance of this working at all?  What additional configuration
> needs to be done?  I know there must be more, but in Windows it came with
> some
> sort of setup program and it hid all of the details (phone numbes, codes,
> accounts, etc.).
>
> Anybody have any experience with this or something like it?


Well I have a Verizon USB cell-modem working as a wvdial device.  I'll show
you how mine works, and yours should be roughly similar.

My device is a Novatel USB720.

Step one:

sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf

...and in the text file, I insert:

---
[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Baud = 460800
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
ISDN = 0
Phone = #777
Username = $916xxxxxxx at vzw3g.com
Password = vzw
---

The "password" is universal to all accounts.  The "username" is unique to
the hardware device; since it's basically a cellphone, it has it's own
number and since I first signed up in California my area code matches
Sacramento.

I have no idea what your "phone =", "username =" and "password =" lines
should be, but I think all three will be needed for a wvdial session.

Your "modem" line should of course point to "/dev/ttyACM0" I suspect.  The
"init" stuff might work as-is.

To actually turn on communications, I just do "sudo wvdial".  Note that if
my WiFi picks up an SSID and connects to it, it'll stomp on my cellmodem
signal so I often turn Network Manager's "Enable Networking" checkbox
completely off.  Wvdial works "outside of" what Network Manager is doing.
Which means when you start FF3, it comes up as "work offline" until you
uncheck that in the "file" menu, a nuisance but not a showstopper.

Intrepid is supposed to get this functionality built into Network Manager.

I found some references to using your device here and it looks similar to
mine:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=315927

Yet again, you'll have to figure out how it works on the Cricket network by
calling their tech support people...

IF you're interested in switching to the Verizon network, I still have the
PCMCIA EVDO device I used to use (Kyocera KPC650).  While not as fast as the
newer USB device I'm using, in bad signal areas the KPC650 is better - esp.
with the external antenna and signal booster gear I have for the KPC650.

Jim
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