In my Yahoo blog, I reposted Gideon Guillen's article on connecting your Linux laptop to the Internet, using a 3G phone. I have added other important details, in an attempt to make the connection process as painless as possible. Here is the link to my post, which I have also included below:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/prmanalastas?cq=1&p=267
*** Actual Blog Post Follows ***
Using 3G Phone to Connect Linux Laptop to Internet (Jul 18 08)
Gideon Guillen wrote in his blog a procedure for using a Motorola V6 mobile phone as a modem to connect your Linux laptop to the Internet.
http://elijah.pinoguin.com/blog/blog-view/article/motorola-v6-as-modem-in-ubuntu-linux.html
His procedure actually works for the Nokia 6680 3G phone (and possibly other 3G phones as well) when used as a modem for your Fedora-9 or Debian Testing (Lenny) to connect to the Internet using a Smart Buddy prepaid SIM.
Let me recap the important steps to do:
1. On your Nokia 6680 phone, get the correct Internet settings by sending the following text message to 211:
SET N6680
Smart replies by giving you the correct settings for SmartGPRS, SmartInternet, and SmartMMS. Save all of these settings as the default settings for your phone. If prompted for pasword, type 1234, unless you changed the default password on your phone. If you have a different phone, you can get the correct message to send to 211 by sending the following text message to 211 instead:
SET LIST
After installing the correct settings for GPRS, Internet and MMS, your phone is ready for stand-alone use for connecting to the Internet using your phone's little Web browser. However, you would like to use your laptop with your phone, since your laptop has a better keyboard and mouse and a bigger, more comfortable screen. You need the data cable DKU-2 to connect your N6680 phone to the USB port of your laptop. The DKU-2 cable is part of the Nokia 6680 package, but if your package does not include the data cable, you can always get one from CDR-King or from any cellphone store. A different 3G phone will use a different data cable.
2. On your Linux laptop, install wvdial and ppp, if you do not already have them. In Fedora, these were installed by default, but in Debian, I had to get them using apt-get:
apt-get install wvdial
After installing wvdial, as root, create or modify the file /etc/wvdial.conf so that it contains the following:
[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
Modem Type = USB Modem
ISDN = 0
Phone = *99#
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Username = yourusername
Password = yourpassword
Baud = 460800
Idle Seconds = 3000
Auto DNS = 1
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Baud = 460800
Dial Command = ATD
Ask Password = 0
FlowControl = NOFLOW
3. As root user, install your user account in the file /etc/sudoers. For example, if you are user "ambo", you need to add the line
ambo ALL=(ALL) ALL
to the /etc/sudoers file.
4. Before dialing, connect your phone to your laptop using the USB data cable, and check that the phone has already been detected by the system. Type the command
dmesg | grep ttyACM
and if you see a line containing /dev/ttyACM0, that means your phone is already detected by the system and you can now dial. As a normal user (in my case, I am user "ambo"), dial Smart by typing the following command in a terminal window:
sudo wvdial
This command dials the Smart Internet number, manages a ppp connection, performs "ifconfig" to assign an IP address to your laptop, does a "route add" command to fix the routing table, and installs the DNS IP numbers provided by Smart in /etc/resolv.conf. Do not exit from this terminal window -- typing a control-C in this window will disconnect you from the Internet.
As a normal user, check if you have a successful connection by giving the command:
dig
www.google.com
If the system gives you the IP address of Google, then you are now connected to the Internet. Smart will charge you ten pesos for every 30 minutes of Internet use.
Some notes:
This procedure works without fail in my Debian Testing/Lenny laptop. Since Ubuntu is a Debian derivative, it should also work for Ubuntu. However, on my Fedora laptop, I needed to manually copy the DNS values given by the ppp connection into the file /etc/resolv.conf. I had to type the entries
nameserver 203.84.191.216
nameserver 121.1.3.250
in /etc/resolv.conf. I think the Fedora ppp package or the Fedora NetworkManager package does not automatically take care of this.
Thank you Gideon Guillen for providing us with this useful procedure.
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