[opensuse] Telephone tethering, Dynamic DNS and general fun

Roger Oberholtzer

8 Dec 2011 8 Dec '11

15:32

We run openSUSE (11.2, and soon 12.1) in vehicles out on the road. They are all over the place. Sometimes it would be nice to access these systems from the comfort of the office. Especially when they are thousands of kilometers away. So, I am exploring what options there are for openSUSE. I think there are many. So perhaps I mean which option combination is the best. I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer. Once connected, openSUSE needs to get on the network. I would imagine that a telephone that supports tethering handles the IP address assigned to the computer? How it gets the address is of no concern. The computer will get an address. Right? Once it has the address, should it be possible, knowing the IP address, to access the computer from the outside world? The whole discussion here assumes that this is possible. Perhaps that is controlled by the telephone? Or the local phone company? If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service? This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at. After that, the rest must be the regular service configurations. Anyone else been there done that? Yours sincerely, Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 roger.oberholtzer@ramboll.se ________________________________________ Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden www.rambollrst.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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C

8 Dec 8 Dec

16:16

On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 16:32, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer.

I do something like this all the time while traveling. You don't need to use USB cables... it's easier than that. My basic setup is: - An Android phone - My openSUSE laptop or my Android Tablet (OS is irrelevant, it'll work with Windows and OSX too)) Steps to do what you want. Do the initial setup - On the Android phone go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Portable WiFi hotspot settings and set up your SSID and Security the same as you do for a typical WiFi router. - On the Laptop/tablet, go to the usual place you go in your preferred desktop manager to add a WiFi router, and set it up to connect to the SSID you just defined... same as you do for any WiFi router. On the road/in the field - On the Android phone, go to Settings > Wireless & Networks and enable Portable WiFi hotspot - If the laptop or tablet has been previously configured correctly it will automatically find the activated WiFi hotspot and connect.

...

Once connected, openSUSE needs to get on the network. I would imagine that a telephone that supports tethering handles the IP address assigned to the computer? How it gets the address is of no concern. The computer will get an address. Right?

Yes. This works the same as a WiFi router - the device is given a local IP by the phone.

...

Once it has the address, should it be possible, knowing the IP address, to access the computer from the outside world? The whole discussion here assumes that this is possible. Perhaps that is controlled by the telephone? Or the local phone company?

If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service? This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at.

Run ddclient on the laptop... use DynDNS to manage the dynamically assigned IP address from the phone company. After connecting, it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes for the device to be remotely accessible via URL... you can ssh to the remote device etc the same as if it was connected to a wired network. This of course assumes that the phone company doesn't put limitations on the phone contract in use... for me this all worked, and I can connect to tethered devices.. there is no drama. I tried this about 18 months ago with an iPhone and it was nothing but trouble - that may have changed with the iOS updates... I don't know, but on Android, it's very very simple and straight forward. I would highly recommend of course that you test drive it yourself, because your mobile provider is different than mine, and your config is different etc etc.. Some providers get grumpy if you start shuffling huge amounts of data, or have "unlimited" data for the first 2GB and then drop your access speeds to a crawl after you hit the cap. It should be a real simple process using Android phones though. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Oberholtzer

20:44

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 17:16 +0100, C wrote:

...

On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 16:32, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...
I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer.

I do something like this all the time while traveling. You don't need to use USB cables... it's easier than that.

Not a laptop. They are rack mounted computers. They have USB so that it perhaps easiest. Unless different phones are different. Then maybe a USB wireless dongle that we supply would make things easier. -- Yours sincerely, Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 roger.oberholtzer@ramboll.se ________________________________________ Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden www.rambollrst.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

9 Dec 9 Dec

07:48

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 17:16 +0100, C wrote:

...
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 16:32, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...
I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer.

I do something like this all the time while traveling. You don't need to use USB cables... it's easier than that.

Not a laptop. They are rack mounted computers. They have USB so that it perhaps easiest. Unless different phones are different. Then maybe a USB wireless dongle that we supply would make things easier.

Without knowing your environment, that sounds to me like the option most likely to succeed. When the operator plugs in the USB modem, have your system auto-dial to a preset number and voila! -- Per Jessen, Zürich (9.7°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

08:00

Per Jessen wrote:

...

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...
On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 17:16 +0100, C wrote:

...
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 16:32, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...
I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer.

I do something like this all the time while traveling. You don't need to use USB cables... it's easier than that.

Not a laptop. They are rack mounted computers. They have USB so that it perhaps easiest. Unless different phones are different. Then maybe a USB wireless dongle that we supply would make things easier.

Without knowing your environment, that sounds to me like the option most likely to succeed. When the operator plugs in the USB modem, have your system auto-dial to a preset number and voila!

Actually: ... have your system auto-dial and voila! Then acquire the IP-address by automatically sending an email or visiting a dedicated website or some such. Depends on how automatic you need this stuff to work - if you're trying to assist a local engineer, he might be able to just tell you what the IP is :-) -- Per Jessen, Zürich (8.8°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Oberholtzer

12:21

On Fri, 2011-12-09 at 09:00 +0100, Per Jessen wrote:

...

Actually:

... have your system auto-dial and voila! Then acquire the IP-address by automatically sending an email or visiting a dedicated website or some such. Depends on how automatic you need this stuff to work - if you're trying to assist a local engineer, he might be able to just tell you what the IP is :-)

That is the situation. I would think that information could be reported. Even a simple command run. But if something needs to be configured in the openSUSE machine, that could be problematic. We are already near heretics in that we subject our customers to Linux - even if mainly in the comfort of KDE. Gasp! But if we start asking to have something configured, well, heads might very well roll :) Yours sincerely, Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 roger.oberholtzer@ramboll.se ________________________________________ Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden www.rambollrst.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

8 Dec 8 Dec

16:20

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

We run openSUSE (11.2, and soon 12.1) in vehicles out on the road. They are all over the place. Sometimes it would be nice to access these systems from the comfort of the office. Especially when they are thousands of kilometers away. So, I am exploring what options there are for openSUSE. I think there are many. So perhaps I mean which option combination is the best.

I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer.

Once connected, openSUSE needs to get on the network. I would imagine that a telephone that supports tethering handles the IP address assigned to the computer? How it gets the address is of no concern. The computer will get an address. Right?

I would expect so, yes.

...

If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service? This will be used rather seldom.

You wouldn't necessarily need DNS, your mobile unit could just open a connection to e.g. your web-browser, and you'd know the client id.

...

Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at. After that, the rest must be the regular service configurations.

Anyone else been there done that?

Last year I did have a look around for phones that would support tethering, but I ended up buying a USB GSM modem instead. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (5.2°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Oberholtzer

20:41

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 17:20 +0100, Per Jessen wrote:

...

You wouldn't necessarily need DNS, your mobile unit could just open a connection to e.g. your web-browser, and you'd know the client id.

Indeed some simple mechanism could let us obtain the IP address. Maybe DynDNS is overkill.

...

...
Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at. After that, the rest must be the regular service configurations.

Anyone else been there done that?

Last year I did have a look around for phones that would support tethering, but I ended up buying a USB GSM modem instead.

We would need a system that works everywhere. We were thinkig a user would use their own phone as they have all the local phone company details sorted out. Of course they would have to have a connection that allows this sort of thing. -- Yours sincerely, Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 roger.oberholtzer@ramboll.se ________________________________________ Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden www.rambollrst.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Lars Müller

17:30

On Thu, Dec 08, 2011 at 04:32:31PM +0100, Roger Oberholtzer wrote: [ 8< ]

...

Once connected, openSUSE needs to get on the network. I would imagine that a telephone that supports tethering handles the IP address assigned to the computer? How it gets the address is of no concern. The computer will get an address. Right?

Once it has the address, should it be possible, knowing the IP address, to access the computer from the outside world? The whole discussion here assumes that this is possible. Perhaps that is controlled by the telephone? Or the local phone company?

Most mobile network providers use address spaces from the ranges as defined in RFC 1918.

...

If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service?

And then the name of your mobile host gets resolved for example to 10.10.4.6 and you wonder why you can't reach it. Use openvpn and to make the certificate handling easy use the YaST CA management tool.

...

This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at.

Instead of wasting your time with such a homegrown and very likely non working approach I would use openvpn. Lars -- Lars Müller [ˈlaː(r)z ˈmʏlɐ] Samba Team SUSE Linux, Maxfeldstraße 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany

Roger Oberholtzer

20:46

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 18:30 +0100, Lars Müller wrote:

...

...
If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service?

And then the name of your mobile host gets resolved for example to 10.10.4.6 and you wonder why you can't reach it.

Use openvpn and to make the certificate handling easy use the YaST CA management tool.

...
This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at.

Instead of wasting your time with such a homegrown and very likely non working approach I would use openvpn.

OK. Here could be my chance to finally play with that. But wouldn't the 10.10.x.x. address be a problem anyway? -- Yours sincerely, Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 roger.oberholtzer@ramboll.se ________________________________________ Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden www.rambollrst.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Lars Müller

21:21

On Thu, Dec 08, 2011 at 09:46:06PM +0100, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 18:30 +0100, Lars Müller wrote:

...
...
If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service?

And then the name of your mobile host gets resolved for example to 10.10.4.6 and you wonder why you can't reach it.

Use openvpn and to make the certificate handling easy use the YaST CA management tool.

...
This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at.

Instead of wasting your time with such a homegrown and very likely non working approach I would use openvpn.

OK. Here could be my chance to finally play with that. But wouldn't the 10.10.x.x. address be a problem anyway?

No. I see this with different mobile network operators. Looks like IPv4 addresses finally get handled a bit more strict. This might also be required by the roaming nature of the connection or other technical reasons. Here as an example the settings I got while I verified that I'm not telling you a fairytale. A call to "ip r s" shows: default via 10.64.64.64 dev ppp0 proto static 10.64.64.64 dev ppp0 proto kernel scope link src 10.57.75.50 With "ip a s ppp0" brings: 5: ppp0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 3 link/ppp inet 10.57.75.50 peer 10.64.64.64/32 scope global ppp0 If you then have to access a 10.0.0.0/8 network at the other end of the connection via your openvpn tunnel there are two addresses which can't be reached. 10.64.64.64 and 10.57.75.50 in this example. If you use a smart phone to handle the connection you might even get an additional private network involved between the machine you try to connect and the phone. But the setting of this WiFi network you have under your full control. Lars -- Lars Müller [ˈlaː(r)z ˈmʏlɐ] Samba Team SUSE Linux, Maxfeldstraße 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany

James Knott

17:46

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

We run openSUSE (11.2, and soon 12.1) in vehicles out on the road. They are all over the place. Sometimes it would be nice to access these systems from the comfort of the office. Especially when they are thousands of kilometers away. So, I am exploring what options there are for openSUSE. I think there are many. So perhaps I mean which option combination is the best.

I think the basic connection will be from a telephone that supports tethering. We expect that to be supplied by the local user. It would be connected to the USB port of the openSUSE computer.

Tethering works, but you might also want to consider those "stick" devices for wireless access. They appear to the computer as a dial up modem and they do work with Linux too.

...

Once connected, openSUSE needs to get on the network. I would imagine that a telephone that supports tethering handles the IP address assigned to the computer? How it gets the address is of no concern. The computer will get an address. Right?

Once it has the address, should it be possible, knowing the IP address, to access the computer from the outside world? The whole discussion here assumes that this is possible. Perhaps that is controlled by the telephone? Or the local phone company?

If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service? This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at.

With tethering, you'll likely find you have a NAT address, which means you will not be able to reach the remote computers. Even if the phone gets a public address, it still uses NAT for tethered devices. One way around this is to use 6in4 tunnelling to use IPv6 on the remote computers. You may also have to use it in the office, if you don't otherwise have IPv6 available. I use the client from http://gogonet.gogo6.com. If you register your connection, you will get a static IPv6 address. The Linux client has to be compiled, but there is an issue with 12.1. However, I have a fix available for that. I use that gogo6 client to set up my own /56 subnet (that's about a trillion times the entire IPv4 address space) and run it in single address mode on my notebook. It works well. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Oberholtzer

20:55

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 12:46 -0500, James Knott wrote:

...

Tethering works, but you might also want to consider those "stick" devices for wireless access. They appear to the computer as a dial up modem and they do work with Linux too.

I have had mixed luck with them. The most common one in Sweden (A Huwei from Tele2) almost works with Linux. There are endless discussions about it. I even had one on this list a year or so ago. But at the end of the day it does not work. I understand that Vodaphone have a modem that has Linux support. I think they actively support it. If I could get one, I guess I could use any GSM card in it? The customer could either have a dedicated GSM card, or a pay-as-you-go card they buy locally? We do not really want to get in the position of supporting exotic local devices. We are hoping for hardware we can select and deliver that works everywhere.

...

...
Once connected, openSUSE needs to get on the network. I would imagine that a telephone that supports tethering handles the IP address assigned to the computer? How it gets the address is of no concern. The computer will get an address. Right?

Once it has the address, should it be possible, knowing the IP address, to access the computer from the outside world? The whole discussion here assumes that this is possible. Perhaps that is controlled by the telephone? Or the local phone company?

If the IP address could be accessed, I guess the next step might be to register it with a dynamic DNS service so it can be know to us. Any suggestions on a DNS service? This will be used rather seldom. Mainly in times of difficulty or support. I could even consider a stupid solution where the system copies a file to a known IP address that we could look at.

With tethering, you'll likely find you have a NAT address, which means you will not be able to reach the remote computers. Even if the phone gets a public address, it still uses NAT for tethered devices. One way around this is to use 6in4 tunnelling to use IPv6 on the remote computers. You may also have to use it in the office, if you don't otherwise have IPv6 available. I use the client from http://gogonet.gogo6.com. If you register your connection, you will get a static IPv6 address. The Linux client has to be compiled, but there is an issue with 12.1. However, I have a fix available for that.

I use that gogo6 client to set up my own /56 subnet (that's about a trillion times the entire IPv4 address space) and run it in single address mode on my notebook. It works well.

I was expecting a NAT solution was going to be used. But since the computer knows where we are, perhaps a vpn, as has been suggested in another post in this thread, between us? -- Yours sincerely, Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 roger.oberholtzer@ramboll.se ________________________________________ Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden www.rambollrst.se -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

James Knott

20:58

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

I was expecting a NAT solution was going to be used. But since the computer knows where we are, perhaps a vpn, as has been suggested in another post in this thread, between us?

VPNs work well. I have used openVPN for years, but IPSec is becoming more popular lately. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

C

21:07

2011/12/8 Roger Oberholtzer :

...

I understand that Vodaphone have a modem that has Linux support. I think they actively support it. If I could get one, I guess I could use any GSM card in it? The customer could either have a dedicated GSM card, or a pay-as-you-go card they buy locally?

We do not really want to get in the position of supporting exotic local devices. We are hoping for hardware we can select and deliver that works everywhere.

I've got one of those too :-) I have too many ways to get connected to the internet :-P The Vodafone guys were developing their own custom software for the modems they make. Take a look here: https://forge.betavine.net/projects/vodafonemobilec/ There hasn't been much work on it for a while now... I haven't tested to see of it works in openSUSE12.1 - you might get away with using the NetworkManager... C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen

9 Dec 9 Dec

07:55

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

On Thu, 2011-12-08 at 12:46 -0500, James Knott wrote:

...
Tethering works, but you might also want to consider those "stick" devices for wireless access. They appear to the computer as a dial up modem and they do work with Linux too.

I have had mixed luck with them. The most common one in Sweden (A Huwei from Tele2) almost works with Linux. There are endless discussions about it. I even had one on this list a year or so ago. But at the end of the day it does not work.

When I bought my USB GSM stick almost two years ago, I ignored all the Telco "deals" and just went for an "iCON 505M" by Option: https://www.distrelec.ch/icon-505m-umts-usb-stick/option/gi1505-11563/847919/it-&-zubeh%C3%B6r I have not yet bothered with getting it to work with Network Manager, I just plug it in, run a script, then use minicom for sending AT commands to dial up. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (9.4°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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C
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Lars Müller
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Roger Oberholtzer