[lug] Re: [clue-tech] Cellular broadband cards under Linux?

[Nate Duehr]

Chris N. Brown wrote:
> Yup, I use Verizon's.  been using it for a few years now (the AirPrime PC 
> 5220) an it works like a champ.  Of course, Verizon didn't offer any official 
> support for setting up the card and using it, but there is a website out 
> there (google for Linux Airprime) that tells you how to set the thing up.
> 
> For what it's worth, I'm running SuSE 10.0 but it's worked under every version 
> of SuSE I'm run since 9.2.  The only downside is that initially you have to 
> use Windows to activate the card.. I did it under Vmware :-)
> 
> 
> Good luck,
> Chris

Is the 5520 one of the newer cards that operates on their fast EV-DO 
network, or the older protocol?

EV-DO has a theoretical maximum of 2Mb/s, assuming perfect conditions 
and no one else using the cell site.  Friends using the cards are 
reporting 500 Kb/s consistently throughout Denver Metro.

Another hint: All the carriers offering EV-DO data on CDMA at this time 
are using "rev 0" of Qualcomm's chipset... it's not even fully released 
yet and it's good enough to offer service on -- that's impressive in 
these days of using software releases as a way to make your customers 
beta-test your code that seems to be so popular right now.

Just curious on the speed thing.

I've been using a T-Mobile Sony-Ericsson card (GC-79 I think?) for a 
long time under Linux, but it's limited to 56K down/28.8 up on 
T-Mobile's network.  (But also MUCH more inexpensive, and if you can 
live with the lower speeds, saves a lot of money.)

It's a dual 802.11b and GSM data card.  802.11b support requires 
ndiswrapper and the Windows driver.  GSM acts like a modem with some odd 
setup strings and dialing commands, and works with standard pcmcia_cs 
serial support.  Also both networks will operate at the same time, which 
means you can do interesting things like share the GSM data connection 
out over WiFi... but I haven't had any need to do that yet -- especially 
at those speeds -- 56K is too slow to share!  (GRIN)

Nate