Get broadband wireless with Verizon EVDO and Linux
Posted by: Doug98584 on March 05, 2008 04:15 AM
Well, First of, I do have to thank Tina Gasperson for pointing me in the right direction to get my EVDO modem working in Linux! Then I feel I should state the obvious in that though there is an attempt at standardization, there are still subtle differences between the various flavors
So, to clarify my position, I should also state that I am running Susy Linux 10.3
That being said, I can tell you that with the help of Yast and Kinternet, it turned out to be a breeze to get my Verizon USB727 to work, not only on a per log in basis, but to work on demand from any other machine on the network that requested information from the internet
But to continue
Thanks to Tina, I knew what to look for when I pulled up the "Hardware Information" in Yast
This is a nifty little utility that lists all your hardware categorically
All I had to do was click on the "+" beside USB, then scan the list until I found "Novatel Wireless CDMA" which told me that it was on "/dev/ttyUSBO" which I was able to copy to the clipboard. Once I had that information, I could go into Network Devices and set up the Modem
Normal devices are usually detected by Yast, but in the case of this USB modem, I had to add a new modem.
So, clicking on "Add" opened a page to define the new modem as modem1 (I had a standard modem since I was on dial-up). In the spot that requested the device, I just pasted in the device I found checking on the hardware information for USB devices
There is no Dial prefix, and I just left the default Tone Dialing and Detect Dial Tone boxes checked. Although I did uncheck the Speaker on since there is no speaker on the modem.
Then Click the "Details" button.
This brings up the page to plug in the Baud Rate (115200) and Modem Initialization Strings. ATZ in the first is all that is required. Though the Yast modem required it, I do suspect the modem ignores the Baud Rate
In this set up, I did enable the device for non-root users via Kinternet
. All that done, just click on OK to return to the previous screen, then click on Next to go to the Next screen
,
This took me to a screen to set up the provider, which I shall describe in a tad. Suffice it to say I had to create a new provider
This time around however, I can just report what is in the various prompts
The new providers name, "Verizon"
The Phone Number: #777. Username:
xxxxxxxxxx@vzw3g.com. You have to get the 10 digit number from the device. Just put it on a windows machine, and in the VZAccess Manager, send yourself a text message, and you will have the number
Password, I used our password for the account
Now just click on Next and move to the next screen which happens to be the Connection Parameters
This is really the most important screen
There is a drop down box to select when the device should be active, select "Auto".
Then Check the box for "Dial on Demand", "Modify DNS when Connected", "Automatically Reconnect". But in order for you to get the Dial On Demand to work, you must fill in at least one box for the Name Server. I would recommend that you have set up at least a caching name server on your linux box, for then you can use a local name server to detect when it is required to get information external to the local network. You will also want to make sure the boxes for Ignore Prompts, and External Firewall is checked. Hopefully, you do have your firewall correctly configured? IP details, Dynamic!
Your almost ready
Sorry to say, this is one time you will have to reboot so the kernel is reloaded and the system will know the modem is on auto-pilot
This will also reload Kinternet so it rereads the configuration and is aware of the new modem. But, that is really irrelevant as far as the user is concerned But from this point on, the modem will dial-out whenever required, whether anybody is logged in or not
That is another reason you need to correctly configure your firewall
Hope this helps anyone else that is using a USB727 in Linux
hardware
prices 
