n900 as mobile broadband dongle for ubuntu laptop

[mishmich]

Is there any way of getting the n900 to act as a mobile broadband modem for an oldish compaq presario celeron running ubuntu/GDE 10.4 using USB?

alternatively, what about an Advent (MSI Wind) running ubuntu 10.4 NBE/GDE/LXDE/UDE (dual boots with XP). The Wind won't run MeeGo (no WiFi for it yet), but both devices work fine with ubuntu 10.4 & a Vodafone mobile broadband dongle. The Wind has bluetooth, the Compaq doesn't.

The idea is to have the n900 for standalone e-mail access, and as a backup to the vodafone dongle for internet access for the lap/net-books when away from WiFi access.

Mish.

[rmerren]

I am writing this message through then N900 connection on ubuntu 10.4 (not netbook edition, but I think there should be no problem with that either). Just tell your phone to use PC Suite Mode when you connect the USB.

[mishmich]

I got it running, I just went for 'orangewap' and accepted the defaults. It seems to thread the connection as a mobile device via a USB ethernet, with an mac address encoded, and that expects a different password ('orange').

The lookup I did said it needs to be 'paygwap' - but that didn't work, only the default 'orangewap'. Odd thing is, I couldn't get it going on the compaq at first - then I tried it on the netbook and it worked first time. Then I copied the wlan usb settings across to the compaq, and started again with the mobile part, and it worked fine, asked me for the password for the usb device, and fired straight up. So, I disconnected the connection, and tried again - same as I was getting before. Unplugged the usb, plugged it in again - worked fine.

Went back to the netbook, same thing. Fires up fine when I plug it in, but disconnect, and it won't reconnect again. Only by unplugging the usb and plugging it in again. I'm guessing this may be why I was having issues with the compaq earlier - as soon as it 'fails', it disconnects the usb, and that has to be pugged in again to get the PC suite connectivity mode up again.

Bit of a pain - but at least it works. I did try a bit of browsing, and it was really slow in chrome, compared to loading the same page on the device, or using the vodafone dongle. Gets hot as well. The usb port on the n900 gets a bit of hammering, with all the charging and pc-connection it gets. It struggles recharging and being accessed from the PC at the same time.

Still, this is only day one, I am sure I will find out ways to get round these things.

Mish.

[edgar2]

the disconnects and inability to reconnect might be an issue specific for ubuntu and mobile broadband (through usb). i've encountered similar issues on a machine dual booting ubuntu 10.04 and xp. only on ubuntu does the connection die within a day, and refuse to reconnect unless the dongle is reinserted.

[mishmich]

Thanks,

I guess it is more to do with ubuntu than the n900 - I tried with my Nokia 6300 (O2, not Orange), and that was exactly the same. I guess in normal use it won't be an issue - It'll either be plugged or not, just I tend to make sure I disconnect from the OS when not needing the mobile broadband.

I found that the settings I hunted down online for Orange, as well as those that were picked up automatically, were different from those on the n900 settings for the SIM. Changed this, and the performance has improved. Not much to choose between the n900 and the 6300 though, TBH.

I think I need to try and figure out some relevant DNS addresses and stick them in somewhere, although that should become available automacally when the connection is made. It has speeded things up on my home boradband connections in the past. I could try it out on XP on the netbook, see what happens there - but I'm not inclined to...

Mish.

[southwalesboy]

off topic i know... but it took me about 3mins to go from never having used n900 as a modem to accessing internet on my windows 7 laptop over bluetooth. works like a dream! what an awsum phone

[jjx]

I do it over bluetooth from an Ubuntu laptop - works really well. The only issue is that it won't connect if the N900 is connected "itself". The N900 needs to be disconnected from 3G data, then the laptop brings it up and you get the same icon on the N900 as a regular 3G data connection but its blue, and the laptop has its connection. Works really well!

Well, there is the small matter of setting up the Ubuntu laptop to use a bluetooth modem, but I've done that with so many phones that it was quite easy to tweak my existing scripts.

[mishmich]

The Compaq doesn't have bluetooth.

But the usb seems to work OK now - I think I was assuming this stuff was as fiddly as it was ten years ago when last I did this sort of thing - seems you just plug it in and it picks up all the settings. I have avoided this kind of thing since working abroad ten years ago, when I clocked up a £400 phone bill connecting my laptop via a Nokia 7110.

I might give bluetooth a try on the netbook one rainy day.

Mish.

[mikec]

Joikuspot works pretty sweet also, and allows you to share your 3G

[mishmich]

Joikuspot works pretty sweet also, and allows you to share your 3G

I just connected to my W7 laptop, and that was no problem - it is a bit confusing, because I had Nokia phone suite installed and updated for the 6300, but when I plugged the n900 it downloaded and installed Ovi phone suit. So, if I try to fire up the Ovi suite when I connect to the n900, it wouldn't load - only loads if I'm connected to the net. No options to connect to the net via the n900, as there is already a connection. What I figured was that you have to load Nokia phone suite, make the connection to the net via the n900 from there (then Ovi phone suite loads up), and you can run updates & backups etc. from there.

<s>There is an option to share in the connection properties, via the PC, but not looked into it. Isn't Joikuspot in dev-extras? I'm avoiding going there...</s>

Just found it is available for the n900 on Ovi store...

Mish

[tswindell]

I have this issue too, if I disconnect whether intentionally or the connection just drops, ubuntu 10.4 will fail to reconnect unless I unplug and plug it back in. Now, this was not the case with 9.10. I have however found a work arround. if you right click on the network manager applet and "disable mobile broadband" then attempt to connect, it seems to work fine. This would appear to actually be an issue with network manager not tidying up it's DUN connection properly, at least, that's my guess :)