• bp3-usb

Quozl's Maxon BP3-USB on Linux Feedback Wiki

This is a project community page for Quozl's Maxon BP3-USB on Linux, here you can read comments made by others, make comments yourself, or help other people solve their problems.

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Fedora Core 12

Moving on to fedora 12, Networkmanager has a wireless - broadband connection wizard, which allows selection of; Australia > Telstra > Next-G as you progess.

A apn of telstra.internet is set. However I had issues connecting with this, and just set this advanced setting blank. i.e; Nothing in the advanced APN field.

This worked fine, with all other settings as per Fedora 10 below.

• That's great. Yes, Network Manager in recent Linux distributions handles this automatically. When you use nothing in the APN field, the APN is usually obtained from the modem's non-volatile settings by the modem firmware. This means that your experience depended on those settings, and so it might not be portable to everybody else. I'm only mentioning that for completeness, not as a criticism. ~~ JamesCameron

Fedora Core 10

I tried wth Fedora Core 10 here, just installed with KDE Desktop. I get a connection, setting up KPPP, as per instructions, but must use my account name@bigpond.com, with the associated password to get a connection.

I tried *99# and *99***# in the Phone Number and can only get a 1-2 kb/s connection. Firefox does not function to browse (not in offline mode either) with No proxy set as connection.

• Success, I just edited the connection from Network Connections/Mobile Broadband/CDMA connection 1 created from the device detected as a choice with the default *99# for number and account details entered for username/password in Fedora 10. Online with it now doing this edit. Great Stuff. -- Adrian Fewster vk4tux@bigpond.com Good link here, well worth watching:

http://www.redhat.com/v/ogg/Fedora10ConnectionSharing.ogg

Here now with fedora 10 as host computer, I can share the maxon bp-3 (GSM connection 1) internet with a XP laptop ethernet connected just with a crossover cable.

fedora 10 Network Manager, Wired connection 1 method: ¨shared to other computers¨.(Using crossover ethernet cable, no router/hub).

On client XP laptop the automatically obtain ip/dns options are enabled in tcp/ip lan properties.

• Indeed, the extra integration between Firefox and Network Manager means that despite creating a connection manually the software doesn't use it. I've been told that ping works, wget works, but web browser trusts Network Manager or something. Someday I'll see the benefit of this new restriction, but not yet. -- James Cameron

BP3-USB in Mandriva 2009 One working easily

I got this going tonight - reasonably straight forward thanks to James' work being included in the 2.6.27 kernel. Plugged the card in and it detected fine, using the option driver. Installed umtsmon using "urpmi umtsmon", changed the profile to the correct one using the AT+CGDCONT command. Initial tests showed about 600kbps down, 100kbps up in a mediocre signal location. I can update this with more details if anyone is interested.

-- RobHodges

Fedora Core 9, Alternate Number

I've just set up a basic Internet system for a friend using Fedora Core 9 and your instructions: I used dmesg to see that the computer spotted the modem and correctly installed the usbserial driver. I set up the BigPond account using KPPP and followed your instructions and found with some help from BigPond support that I had to use *99***# here in North Queensland as the dialed number and also had to use: acccount_name@bigpond.com as the account name and also the correct password for it to work. Apart from that the only hassle was that I had to un-tick the "work offline" button in the "file" menu of Firefox.

Regards, Mark Harriss

• The alternate dial number uses an alternate APN profile stored in the modem. You can use the modem command AT+CGDCONT? to find what each profile is set to. It is important to get it right, so that you get charged according to your plan. -- JamesCameron

Ubuntu 6.06

I had to build a Windows 2000 box specially to support the NextG modem and hated the connection manager software and the useless software firewalls. We can't get ADSL here so wireless was my last hope, but Windows was soooo painful. I just don't know enough Linux to even attempt this by myself.

It works as described with the desktop modem on Ubuntu 6.06. I added usbserial to /etc/modules and used pppconfig to set up the connection scripts (used CHAP rather than PAP though) then setup ppp0 in the interfaces file. A quick bit of work with Firewall Builder and I've not got a modestly well protected firewall and NAT router to acting as a gateway to the internet for my other machines that connects on boot.

Now all I need to BigPond to get raise the metered usage limits and lower the cost!!!

A big thank you Quozl.

AndyHitchman

• No worries. -- JamesCameron

Fedora Core 4, IPCP Looping

Firstly a thanks for your great work!

I have the external NextG modem and it has the same device ID as the USB stick you wrote about. I live in a NextG blackspot so all my setup so far has been done offline until I take the server and the modem for a drive up a hill with a generator tomorrow!

I am using FC4 (no X) on a headless box with a hand coded PPP configuration.

I notice that the modem authenticates without a signal and then pppd does the IPCP loop trying to find an address. It looks like "CONNECT" doesn't mean what it says when dialing *99#.

Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate chat[1964]: send (ATDT*99#^M)
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate chat[1964]: expect (CONNECT)
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate chat[1964]: ^M
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate chat[1964]: ATDT*99#^M^M
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate chat[1964]: CONNECT
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate chat[1964]:  -- got it
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate pppd[1963]: Serial connection established.
Feb  9 10:29:44 adamgate pppd[1963]: Using interface ppp0

Then the debug output shows the IPCP loop.

All with the modem inside a metal building with no detectable signal.

BigPond support gave me a number they called the 'MSN' 0409XXXXXX. Is this the other number to dial? When I try that with no signal, I at least don't get a CONNECT.

SteveWalsh

• Regarding the IPCP looping problem: 3G modems are different from other types of modems in that they are more like a network card than a modem. When you initiate a PPP session, you are actually creating a session with the modem itself and not with a server at the far end. The modem creates a separate network connection across the air using the 3G protocols. When IPCP is looping it is usually due to the inability of the modem to create the 3G protocol connection, either due to poor signal or network congestion. You can use the gcom utility to query the modem's signal strength.

  The airprime module in kernels prior to 2.6.18 use usbserial to communicate with the card and are therefore limited to about 500kbps. You can upgrade your kernel to 2.6.18 or above, or use a backported airprime module as described here.

  DeanCording

  • Yes, what Steve Walsh reports is normal. The modem authenticates the host without any radio traffic at all, quite disconcerting. The MSN ... no idea, never needed it. -- JamesCameron

Option Globetrotter, IPCP Looping

Hi, thanks for all the good info that got me at least this far. I've got the Option Globetrotter pccard nextg modem. I'm getting as far as the IPCP looping thing as well. I've run gcom as per Dean's suggestion and got a signal strength of 10,99. Is this good or bad?

I've also got a nextg mobile which is showing full strength signal, so I'm guessing 10,99 is good. That doesn't help though. Any other ideas?

JohnMarley

Linux Mint Bianca, 10.11.12.13

Thanks! I have the modem working on Linux Mint Bianca using the perl script. All I had to do is edit the script as shown in the comments (nice and easy). The script was not able to get the gateway using the traceroute command saying that it doesnt like 10.11.12.13. Maybe because Linux Mint uses tracerout6? I hard coded the gateway using the same IP as what is used by my Windoze box -feel free to comment on this. In case it helps you to know this - I also tried various versions Suse, Zen and a few others, but they failed. Have a nice day,

MarkusABergh

• The reference to 10.11.12.13 shows the modem had not finished registering with the radio network at the time it had established connection to the host. You get different results if you leave it longer. The script shouldn't be needed. -- JamesCameron

Fedora Core 6, Cannot Ping

Thank you for this page. I have got the BP3-USB device working on Fedora 6, but when up an running I can't ping out. The ppp0 device has been added to the routing table as in

192.168.255.1   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 ppp0
.
.
0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         U     0      0        0 ppp0

but ping fails with

PING www.anu.edu.au (150.203.99.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
ping: sendmsg: Operation not permitted

This is more of a routing problem than a BP3 problem, but has anyone got any pointers to how to fix the problem?

Thanks for any help Richard

• This will be iptables rules. -- JamesCameron

Linux Mint Cassandra, Ubuntu Feisty

Thanks for the information, BP3 works fine on Linux Mint Cassandra (Ubuntu feisty based). All I had to do was install kppp (apt-get install kppp) and edit two files: To /etc/modules I added the line usbserial To /etc/modprobe.d/options I added options usbserial vendor=0x16d8 product=0x6280

Once I had configured kppp it worked fine and starts on bootup. I didn't have to make any changes to the gateway or default route, it Just Worked...

John

• Be aware that using the usbserial module can limit your maximum throughput to about 500kbps. Use the airprime module instead to get the 1500 - 2000kbps obtainable from the network.

  DeanCording

Firmware Upgrade Breaks Modem

The recent firmware upgrade (2007) that increases the upload and download speeds breaks the Linux support.

To get it to work you need to use atdt*99***2# instead of atdt*99#. The extra ***2 selects a PDP context (in this case telstra.internet) as the default context appears to be invalid.

DeanCording

• What was happening was that the firmware upgrade would wipe the first stored APN, and it had to be re-stored using the BigPond Connection Manager software. Alternatively, it could be set manually using AT+CGDCONT. The workaround Dean discovered was to use the second stored APN. -- JamesCameron

OpenSUSE 10.2 and 10.3

Thanks for the insmod tip -- I was flummoxed until then But with that it's almost a windows-style no brainer serial-modem-style configuration in KDE with ppp, udev, smpppd, wvdial software and Kinternet as the click-on / click-off manager.

I'm getting 2500Kbps regularly.

For further information: Wireless broadband in Suse/openSUSE for Bigpond Next G Network

Swerdna

Binary Module Patch Script

In Mandriva 2008.0, the Airprime module only contains the USB Id for (0x0c88, 0x17da) Kyocera Wireless KPC650/Passport.

You need to change the line from:

usb_id_old = struct.pack('@HH', 0x413c, 0x8115)

to

usb_id_old = struct.pack('@HH', 0x0c88, 0x17da)

Also, don't forget to ungzip the module before you run the patch script and gzip it again afterwards.

DeanCording

Caution Re telstra.internet APN with hourly plans

Hi All,

Firstly, thanks for the useful instructions.

Be careful about using the telstra.internet APN if you are on a telstra.pcpack hourly plan

I recently followed the instructions to get an orange Telstra BP3USB working under ubuntu 7.10. All worked well. I had to use the atdt*99***2# to get it to work because I'd upgraded to the 7.2Mbps firmware.

The problem is, the ***2 selects a context which uses the telstra.internet APN and this APN is not compatible with the billing for the telstra.pcpack hourly plans. The result is that I was charged extra (PAYG rates) for each telstra.internet session!!! Thankfully I only used about $6 of time before getting my next bill.

P.S. (I was on a $49/month for 20 hours "pcpack" with Telstra CDMA and got upgraded to this plan on NextG. You can download quite a bit in 20 hours on NextG (There is a 12GB AUP limit though)

P.P.S I've got Mandriva 2008 installed on an Asus eeepc and about to try the modem out on that.

RobHodges

2008-07 Resale Value Hit

Rumours are circulating that BigPond is refusing to reactivate modems that have been sold second hand, as a business decision on their part. If you wish to sell your modem, perhaps you need to talk it through with BigPond.

2008-07 Unlocking

Daryl has reported that the BP3-USB modem may be unlocked using the DC-unlocker, and then used on the "3" network.

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