[vox] cell-phone network data cards and linux?

[Bill Kendrick]

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 04:31:26PM -0800, Wes Hardaker wrote:
> 
> Anyone used cellphone network data cards with linux successfully?  I'd
> actually like to do it for a month "occasionally" (which really means
> buying an expensive card because I don't want the 2-year contract).  Are
> there issues?  Does it generally work?  I've seen web-references to the
> AT&T cards working under linux so I *think* it looks ok...

I have a Sprint USB cell modem (it has its own phone number, and is
stand-alone.  My normal cellphones that I talk and text-message on are
on Verizon.  The reason I got the Sprint one is that's what work had, and
they gave it to me (plus the contract) when I quit.)

It requires a Windows to set up the first time, so you'll need someone
with a Windows box and CDROM drive.  After that, though, I've been able
to simply use it with KPPP.

I created a pair of shell scripts that I use (one calls the other).

--- sprint.sh ---
#!/bin/sh

kdesu /home/kendrick/bin/sprint_setup.sh
kppp
--- end ---

And the little script that does the magic:

--- sprint_setup.sh ---
#!/bin/sh

rmmod sierra
rmmod usbserial
modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1199 product=0x0120
mkdir /dev/usb
chmod 755 /dev/usb
ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/usb/ttyUSB0
--- end ---

This is on Ubuntu with KDE.  (7.10 thru 8.10)  I let kppp deal with keeping
track of the phone number to dial (#777) and my username (ph# @ sprintpcs.com)
and password.

You could also do all this a more Unixy way, of course...

-bill!