[clug] Virgin Mobile Broadband with Linux Huawei E220

[Grant Morphett]

As I said I'm with 3.  I have a mobile plan with them and the mobile
supports HSDPA so I have signed up to an XSeries plan.  500MB for
$20/month.  It means I get internet both through my phone (good for email)
and my laptop when I connect my mobile to my laptop.  I only browse the web
and do emails during work hours so 500MB/month is just enough.  I have ADSL2
at home for everything else.

3 also do a 1Gig $20/month plan too with an external USB modem and you can
scale up from there in terms of gigage.

If you can get good 3 reception the service is ok.  I find that the coverage
isn't stunning especially inside buildings.  I haven't used other providers
so its hard to compare however for the premium you pay for Telstra I would
hope both their coverage and service would be significantly improved.  If
not I would just go with 3 as its cheaper.  Remember with 3 there is no
regional coverage.

I believe Vodafone are offering 5Gb for $39/month at the moment.  No idea
what that's like.

iBurst (sp?) seem to be doing their own thing.  Its not 3G.  I couldn't
figure out how it was working from a quick google so it might be worth
futher investigation.

No idea if any of that helps.

cheers

Grant

2008/5/2 Robert Edwards <bob at cs.anu.edu.au>:

>
> So, what is the best offering in Canberra at the moment for
> wireless broadband? I currently (still) have a Veritel/BigAir
> wireless modem, which seems to be a bit expensive and not as
> fast as some of the newer offerings.
>
> Issues I am interested in (others may have other issues to add?):
>  - coverage
>  - price (/GB etc)
>  - speed
>  - latency (to various random domestic and O/S sites)
>  - uptime (availability)
>
> I think the offerings are:
>  - Telstra
>  - Optus
>  - Virgin Mobile
>  - Veritel/BigAir
>
> any others?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bob Edwards.
>
>
> Hal Ashburner wrote:
>
> > Hello Clug,
> > Virgin mobile broadband was slightly more of a hassle to work through
> > than I
> > was expecting so i just want to make these notes discoverable on the
> > interweb for the next person. I did this on debian stable and again on
> > sid -
> > I imgaine most of it translates to other distros and BSD ok. Do yell at
> > me
> > if I'm wrong about that, I am interested.
> >
> > Right so you plug in the usb modem, a huawei E220 and you want it to be
> > represented by /dev/ttyUSB0
> > on BSD the device file would already be there, so (I guess) ensure the
> > relevant usbserial driver is loaded?
> > on linux using udev we can ensure the kernel modules are loaded when
> > it's
> > plugged in.
> > 1. Add a file /etc/udev/rules.d/50-huawei.rules
> >
> > SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1003", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1",
> > RUN+="/sbin/modprobe option"
> > SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1003", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1",
> > RUN+="/sbin/modprobe ppp_async"
> >
> > "option" is the relevant usbserial driver on linux
> >
> > 2. create a file /etc/ppp/chat-E220
> >
> > ABORT BUSY
> > ABORT ERROR
> > ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
> > REPORT CONNECT
> > TIMEOUT 10
> > "" "ATZ"
> > OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"ip","VirginBroadband"
> > OK "ATE1V1&D2&C1S0=0+IFC=2,2"
> > OK "AT+IPR=115200"
> > OK "ATE1"
> > TIMEOUT 60
> > "" "ATD*99#"
> > CONNECT \c
> >
> > 3. create a file /etc/ppp/peers/E220
> > debug
> > /dev/ttyUSB0
> > crtscts
> > #modem
> > refuse-chap
> > require-pap
> > noauth
> > nodetach
> > defaultroute
> > noipdefault
> > noccp
> > nobsdcomp
> > novj
> > user "irrelevant"
> > password "irrelevant"
> > /usr/sbin/chat -s -S -V -f /etc/ppp/chat-E220-nopin'
> >
> >
> > of particular interest there, and where virgin seem to differ from 3
> > mobile
> > and the other providers using this modem is
> > refuse-chap
> > require-pap
> > without those your modem logs will show you everything you expect on
> > initialisation but it will then mysteriously hang up on you.
> > without giving some string for user and password it also seems to
> > mysteriously not work despite that fact it doesn't seem to matter what.
> >
> >
> > 4. at the prompt
> > pon E220
> >
> > poff E220 to turn it off.
> >
> > I Hope that saves someone some time.
> >
> >
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>



-- 
Thanks

Grant