[opensuse] EV-DO USB modem (Sprint)
Since Sprint has published a set-up guide for LINUX, I'm considering rewarding their simple acknowledgment of us by giving it a shot...gotta be better than dial-up! In the guide, they state that the maximum connection speed "is limited by the current generic usbserial driver to approximately less than 500kbps.". Can anyone here report on their success with these cards, and if the above limitation is accurate? I am considering the Sierra (USB) Air Card 595U as it has an external antenna connection. (I am 7 miles from a tower, and beyond DSL or cable) Thanks very much, Tom in NM -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sun, Nov 11, 2007 at 11:50:35AM -0700, Tom Patton wrote:
Since Sprint has published a set-up guide for LINUX, I'm considering rewarding their simple acknowledgment of us by giving it a shot...gotta be better than dial-up!
In the guide, they state that the maximum connection speed "is limited by the current generic usbserial driver to approximately less than 500kbps.".
It is true that the "generic" usbserial driver is a slow thing, but that is by design. It was not made to run "real" devices like these kinds of cards at all, and I (as the author of such code) would never recommend that anyone do that. Instead, use the "sierra" and "option" drivers instead, which are specifically written for these devices and work very well. So don't follow Sprint's instructions about the kernel stuff at all, just plug your device in and the correct driver will be bound automaticlly to the device with no needed help from you at all. This should work just fine with the 10.3 release. But you will have to do the ppp configuration on your own, I don't think that NetworkManager can handle this automatically just yet, but I do know those developers are activly working on it.
Can anyone here report on their success with these cards, and if the above limitation is accurate?
I've tested lots of these different cards out and had great success with them.
I am considering the Sierra (USB) Air Card 595U as it has an external antenna connection. (I am 7 miles from a tower, and beyond DSL or cable)
I'd recommend anything from Sierra Wireless right now. They have been actively working with the Linux kernel community to support their devices on Linux. Because of this, their devices are supported the best, they seem to run the fastest, and if we have problems with them, we have good contacts to solve the issues. Other wireless vendors have noticed this and are trying to work to catch up (option and others), and do have their devices working on Linux, but not necessarily at the same performance or support level yet. If you have any problems with these devices, please let me know. thanks, greg k-h -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Thank you, Greg. I'm top-posting to catch every ones attention here. That is the reason I have stuck so firmly to SuSE all these years, and religiously follow these threads. I asked a straight question, and you gave me exactly what I hoped would be the answer. Thank you for taking your time to answer, Sir! I will perhaps have to upgrade from 10.2 --> 10.3 for the latest drivers you mention, but it will certainly be worth it...living with the last several releases on dial-up has been a pain (albeit a worth-while pain...). So again, Greg, Thank YOU, and I'll let you get back to work now. Tom in New Mexico (off to the Sprint store) On Mon, 2007-11-12 at 10:58 -0800, Greg KH wrote:
On Sun, Nov 11, 2007 at 11:50:35AM -0700, Tom Patton wrote:
Since Sprint has published a set-up guide for LINUX, I'm considering rewarding their simple acknowledgment of us by giving it a shot...gotta be better than dial-up!
In the guide, they state that the maximum connection speed "is limited by the current generic usbserial driver to approximately less than 500kbps.".
It is true that the "generic" usbserial driver is a slow thing, but that is by design. It was not made to run "real" devices like these kinds of cards at all, and I (as the author of such code) would never recommend that anyone do that.
Instead, use the "sierra" and "option" drivers instead, which are specifically written for these devices and work very well.
So don't follow Sprint's instructions about the kernel stuff at all, just plug your device in and the correct driver will be bound automaticlly to the device with no needed help from you at all. This should work just fine with the 10.3 release.
But you will have to do the ppp configuration on your own, I don't think that NetworkManager can handle this automatically just yet, but I do know those developers are activly working on it.
Can anyone here report on their success with these cards, and if the above limitation is accurate?
I've tested lots of these different cards out and had great success with them.
I am considering the Sierra (USB) Air Card 595U as it has an external antenna connection. (I am 7 miles from a tower, and beyond DSL or cable)
I'd recommend anything from Sierra Wireless right now. They have been actively working with the Linux kernel community to support their devices on Linux. Because of this, their devices are supported the best, they seem to run the fastest, and if we have problems with them, we have good contacts to solve the issues.
Other wireless vendors have noticed this and are trying to work to catch up (option and others), and do have their devices working on Linux, but not necessarily at the same performance or support level yet.
If you have any problems with these devices, please let me know.
thanks,
greg k-h
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sun, 2007-11-11 at 11:50 -0700, Tom Patton wrote:
I am considering the Sierra (USB) Air Card 595U as it has an external antenna connection. (I am 7 miles from a tower, and beyond DSL or cable)
Well, Folks! I am pleased to report that the Sprint/Sierra AC595U is working beautifully on opensuse 10.2, following a very simple modprobe restart to the serial driver. I am in the sticks, and getting a rather solid 22kB/s, with no external antenna...that will improve, I'm sure. Sprint tells me they are scheduled to upgrade this location to EV-DO next May. As it is, it sure beats the dial-up rate I had of 3.6 kB! I can't wait to try it in Albuquerque in the morning... Greg KH, you are the man of the hour, Sir! Tom in NM ps...this is on a ThinkPad R40 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 10:50:59PM -0700, Tom Patton wrote:
On Sun, 2007-11-11 at 11:50 -0700, Tom Patton wrote:
I am considering the Sierra (USB) Air Card 595U as it has an external antenna connection. (I am 7 miles from a tower, and beyond DSL or cable)
Well, Folks! I am pleased to report that the Sprint/Sierra AC595U is working beautifully on opensuse 10.2, following a very simple modprobe restart to the serial driver. I am in the sticks, and getting a rather solid 22kB/s, with no external antenna...that will improve, I'm sure. Sprint tells me they are scheduled to upgrade this location to EV-DO next May. As it is, it sure beats the dial-up rate I had of 3.6 kB!
Hm, why did you need to modprobe anything? It should all "just work". Can you send the output of 'lsusb' with the device plugged in? If you are going to stick to 10.2, I'll see if I can just update a simple driver so that you can actually get some real data rates :) thanks, greg k-h -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sun, 2007-11-11 at 11:50 -0700, Tom Patton wrote: Update to the Sprint AirCard... As Greg KH promised...it functions (so far) flawlessly on 10.3!!! After installing a basic 10.3 in my Thinkpad R40, the card was detected when I plugged it in. Yast did not detect it as a modem, however when adding ttyUSB0 as a modem with the Sprint #777 number, it all worked (using KInternet as the controlling program). Now to wait for Sprint to upgrade this tower to EV-DO! As it is now, I get a solid 21KB/s, which sure beats the 3.1KB/s dialup here. Wahooooo!
Tom in NM
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On Sat, 2007-11-17 at 20:58 -0700, Tom Patton wrote:
On Sun, 2007-11-11 at 11:50 -0700, Tom Patton wrote: Update to the Sprint AirCard...
As Greg KH promised...it functions (so far) flawlessly on 10.3!!!
After installing a basic 10.3 in my Thinkpad R40, the card was detected when I plugged it in. Yast did not detect it as a modem, however when adding ttyUSB0 as a modem with the Sprint #777 number, it all worked (using KInternet as the controlling program).
minor update...when doing the update (instead of new install) on my main pc "master", I first inserted the aircard. Then YAST did identify modem0 and the a/card modem1. The update went flawlessly, thanks to seeing the thread about modifying partition "/var" to mount by identifier instead of /dev/sda3. Huge thanks to that thread, couldn't have popped up at a more opportune moment!!! Thanks all, Tom in NM -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
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Greg KH -
Tom Patton