Mobile broadband comparison (UK)
- Thu 28th February 2008, 8:31 pm
Mobile broadband, also known as High Speed Down Link Packet Access (HSDPA) is a new technology that lets you connect your lap-top / computer to the internet wherever you are. It works using either a small portable USB modem, or a data card which stays in the computer all the time.
HSDPA is forecast to become the dominant broadband platform by 2011
I have figured out a way to get a very flexible pay-as-you-go mobile broadband setup on my Linux laptops with no contract and next to no hardware costs. see my earlier post Cheap mobile broadband for Linux
The providers:
Vodafone
T-mobile
3
VODAFONE:
Service
Vodafone currently has the fastest mobile broadband service in the UK, with speeds of up to 7.2 Mb.
Hardware
Vodafone offer a USB modem, a Usb dongle and a PC data card.
You can get any of these devices free providing you sign up for an 18 month contract.
T MOBILE:
Service
T-Mobile offers speeds of just under 2Mb which is comparable with some home broadband connections.
Hardware
Both its USB modems come free on any of the T-Mobile tariffs.
3 (three):
Service
3 Mobile offers a capped monthly service. These packages are 1gb / 3gb or 7.5gb per month.
It also lets you have access on a pay-as-you-go basis, so it can be quite flexible.
Hardware
All the 3 mobile internet services are available via a USB modem. In most cases you have to sign up for a contract of at least 18 months to get one free.
Gutsy "Screens & Graphics" config GUI
- Sun 24th February 2008, 8:45 pm
Is it just me or is this one of the worst things in the world?
It seems to be guaranteed to screw up your X config every time you use it.
My favorite Gnome programs
- Sat 23rd February 2008, 8:45 pm
I`m going to list this out in the same order as my programs menu in xfce.
I use my my computer mainly for business but also for some general web/multimedia stuff too.
Tools:
gcalctool make a keyboard shortcut for this indespensible tool
Gnomebaker a user friendly CD/DVD burning application
Vym organise your thoughts with this mind-mapping program
BlueProximity Lock your pc when you walk away from it. Uses your bluetooth mobile phone to check that you are there. If it cannot find you it locks unitl you come back.
Mousepad Standard Xubuntu text editor. Does the job.
Geany More advanced text editor - Good syntax highlighting.
Design:
Gimp Linux image editor
Inkscape Absolutely brilliant vector image program
Scribus Desktop publishing package
Xsane Image scanning program (I use it to use a shared scanner on my office network)
Multimedia:
Beep Media Player Simple mp3 player (like winamp)
VLC Awesome video player. small simple and incredibly versatile
Elisa Media Center software - I run this on my home cinema pc in my living room.
Office:
OpenOffice Suite Do I really need to tell you about this one?
Evolution Basically Outlook for Linux. Works great, I don`t think I`d be able to use Linux without a full featured mail/PIM like this.
Internet:
Firefox Naturally
Liferea Wonderful RSS reader
Pidgin Multi-protocol IM client
Nicotine Excellent Soulseek client for Linux (Ubuntu users DO NOT install the version from the repos, download source and install manually)
Tranmission Lovely little torrent client
Xchat The best Linux IRC client by far
Filezilla I`d rather use GFTP but I found it really unstable
Games:
Wolfenstein Enemy Territory WW2 1st person shoot `em up
Frets on fire Guitar hero on your PC. Pick up that keyboard!
Urban Terror Tactical 1st person shoot `em up
Frozen Bubble - Very addictive 2D puzzle game
Americas Army Linux version of the world famous army training/war simulator paid for by the US army
Others:
Conky Excellent lightweight system monitor
Tilda Animated terminal emulator
This is the bulk of the applications that I use on a daily basis. There are a few others which are not GUI apps and perhaps I`ll save them for a different list. This is the newbie on after all!
Cheap mobile broadband for Linux
- Sat 23rd February 2008, 12:00 am
In this tutorial I`m going to show you how to save the price of a USB mobile modem and avoid having to have a stupid plastic thing that looks like a bar of soap hanging out of your laptop.
The result is a flexible, affordable and completely wire free solution.
What you need:
A 3G mobile phone with bluetooth (the one I used was a Nokia 6830 locked to the 3 (uk) network. I had it laying around but it also turns out that Three is the cheapest network)
A pay as you go mobile broadband sim card (you can buy these on Ebay for as little as £7 make sure it is an HSDPA mobile broadband card and not just a normal 3 sim)
Either built-in bluetooth in your laptop or a USB bluetooth dongle (this tutorial assumes that you have working bluetooth setup on your system.
Step One: Find your phone
type this command in the terminal:
$hcitool scan
You should get a list that looks something like this...
user@linux:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:15:A0:45:4B:44 my_mobile_phone
00:18:42:F0:98:6A another_bluetooth_device
The string of numbers to the left of the device name is the mac address, note this down you`ll need it in a moment.
Now that we can see our phone we should check to see if it is capable of acting as a modem.
type the following into the terminal:
$sdptool browse 00:15:A0:45:4B:44
You should see something similar to...
user@linux:~$ sdptool browse 00:15:A0:45:4B:44
Browsing 00:15:A0:45:4B:44 ...
Service Name: OBEX Object Push
Service RecHandle: 0x10000
Service Class ID List:
"OBEX Object Push" (0x1105)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 9
"OBEX" (0x0008)
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"OBEX Object Push" (0x1105)
Version: 0x0100
Service Name: Dial-Up Networking
Service RecHandle: 0x10001
Service Class ID List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 1
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Version: 0x0100
Service Name: Imaging
Service RecHandle: 0x10002
Service Class ID List:
"Imaging Responder" (0x111b)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 15
"OBEX" (0x0008)
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"Imaging" (0x111a)
Version: 0x0100
Service Name: OBEX File Transfer
Service RecHandle: 0x10005
Service Class ID List:
"OBEX File Transfer" (0x1106)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 10
"OBEX" (0x0008)
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"OBEX File Transfer" (0x1106)
Version: 0x0100
Service Name: SyncMLClient
Service RecHandle: 0x10006
Service Class ID List:
UUID 128: 00000002-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000002
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 11
"OBEX" (0x0008)
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"" (0x00000002-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000002)
Version: 0x0100
Service Name: Nokia OBEX PC Suite Services
Service RecHandle: 0x10007
Service Class ID List:
UUID 128: 00005005-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000001
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 12
"OBEX" (0x0008)
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"" (0x00005005-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000001)
Version: 0x0100
Ok.. the section you are looking for is Service Name: Dial-Up Networking
This means that the phone will work as a modem. Take a note of the channel number below (in my example it is 1)
If your phone does have the dial up networking section you can move on to the next step.
Step 2 pairing the devices
Type the following commands in to you terminal:
$sudo hcitool cc 00:15:A0:45:4B:44
and
$sudo hcitool auth 00:15:A0:45:4B:44
A pop up should appear asking for a passcode enter a 4 digit number (I used 1234)
Now you phone should prompt you for the passcode. Enter it here and the two will be paired.
Step3 configuring rfcomm
Now we need to edit the interface that our phone will communicate with. Type the following command in to the terminal (replace mousepad with your text editor of choice)
$sudo mousepad /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf
Edit the file to look something like this (entering your phones mac address and channel number that you noted down earlier.
rfcomm0 {
bind yes;
device 00:15:A0:45:4B:44;
channel 1;
comment "Bluetooth PPP Connection";
}
Save the file and close.
Restart bluetooth:
$sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
Step 4 Configuring PPP
Type the following command in to the terminal:
$sudo mousepad /etc/ppp/peers/mobile
Add the following to the file, save it and exit.
noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/mobile"
debug
/dev/rfcomm0 460800
defaultroute
usepeerdns
lcp-echo-failure 0
Now run:
$sudo mousepad /etc/chatscripts/mobile
Add the following, save it and exit.
TIMEOUT 35
ECHO ON
ABORT `\nBUSY\r`
ABORT `\nERROR\r`
ABORT `\nNO ANSWER\r`
ABORT `\nNO CARRIER\r`
ABORT `\nNO DIALTONE\r`
ABORT `\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r`
`` \rAT
OK `AT+CGDCONT=2,"IP"`
OK ATD*99#
CONNECT ""
Step 5 Try it out!
Type the following command into the terminal:
$pon mobile
Wait a few seconds
Now run:
$ifconfig
To disconnect run:
$poff
If you have a ppp0 entry with an IP address in the iconfig list you are connected!
If not the chances are that the /etc/chatscripts/mobile config isn`t right for your phone. There are quite a lot of forum posts and blogs on this part of the process so you should be able to find the answer on google.
Step 6 monitoring your usage
If like me you topped up your pay as you go sim card with the minimum £10 then you`ll have 1gb of useage for the month. 1gb is quite a lot if all you do it check your mail and browse the web, but I`d haate to run over my limit and have to pay the unbelievable £1 per megabyte charge for data outside my bundle.
There is a MASSIVE shortage of good software out for dial up connections so your choices are pretty much limited to two...
Option 1 pppstatus
pppstatus is a command line network monitoring tool which shows how much bandwidth you are using and the total amount up/downloaded in each session. I used it for a while but I got irritated by having to have another window running for it and it`s not very pretty :/
$sudo apt-get install pppstatus
Option 2 Conky
For those of you who have not come across the wonderful Conky before it is a simple lightweight system monitor which you can configure all day long!
I set up a second instance of conky to run only when I connect my mobile broadband (I already have one instance of conky running at startup)
Having a second instance allows me to kill the process when I disconnect without affecting my general one which is always running.
$sudo apt-get install conky
A copy of my conky config file is here
To automate the startup and closure of conky is wrote a quick bash script to dial up and start the monitor.
Save as pppstart
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/pon mobile
/usr/bin/conky -c .pppconkyrc
And to disconnect and kill conky I use these two scripts.
Save as .pppstop
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/poff
/home/dave/.pkill.sh conky
Save as: .pkill.sh
if [ $1 -eq ""]; then
echo "Usage : ./pkill.sh
else
get_proc=`ps -e -o pid,command | grep $1`
echo $get_proc > get_it
get_pid=`gawk -F" " `{ print $1 }` get_it`
kill -9 $get_pid
fi
make each of the files executable e.g
$sudo chmod 777 .pppstart
(do this for all 3 files.)
Finally, I created a menu entry in my xfce menu to run the start and stop scripts.
I hope this works for loads of people. I`m really enjoying having flexible broadband access no matter where I am. If you have any troubles following this leave a comment and I`ll try my best to help out.
Back and ready to blog
- Wed 20th February 2008, 8:52 pm
Ok, I have been away for a ridiculous amount of time and I feel really bad about it.
I am now planning a massive change in the way the blog works and here are some of the changes coming up soon...
Multiple blog sections -
Linux Media Server/centres, mobile Linux, Lightweight OS`s, Hacks to name but a few...
Video -
Videos related to Linux
Eye candy section -
Themes, Icons, Wallpaper and probably lots of wobbly windows!
Watch this space!
