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N900 as modem fact finding & question

Hi all,
I just want to share my experience when using my N900 as modem, here are some facts that I found so far :
1. I have to upgrade or install my PC suite sw to version 7.1.40.1 to enable pc suite detecting N900
2. However, in my case, I can pair bluetooth connection but I can not establish internet connection over Bluetooth using PC suite.
3. I change the connection by using the cable, first I plug the usb cable into one of the usb port on my laptop which later from the windows connection icon the speed is detected as 460 Kbps. Yes, I can establish internet internet connection using cable connection over this usb port on my laptop. But wait, it is not stable, after 2 - 3 minutes, myN900 reboots and keep rebooting after that every 2-5 minutes. So :
4. Still using cable connection, I change the usb port on my laptop side which is later on detected as 115.2 kbps of speed. And yes, it is very stable...N900 doesn't reboot (as least for 2 hours of my trial). And when I check the speed using speedtest.net, it is 1.2 Mbps of downloading.

So, conclusion so far :
1. Nope, you can not establish internet connection using PC suite (version 7.1.40.1) over bluetooth. Maybe you can do it manually by creating bluetooth modem and put *99# as the dialling digit.
2. When establishing USB modem using USB2 port on your laptop, the internet session can be established but N900 keep restarting.
3. Yup, finally if you want to use it as a modem you have to use your USB1 type of port on your pc / laptop. It will not trigger your N900 to reboot.

However, please do not swallow my conclusion, yet I still have questions to ask :
1. Is it true that the USB port of my laptop which is later on detected having 460 kbps of speed can be considered as USBv2 port ? and vice versa for the other USB port which is detected having 115.2 kbps ?
2. When I use my "115.2 kbps" usb port, it is very stable. But why I can reach 1.2 Mbps of speed (using speedtest.net) if I only have 115.2 kbps of USB connection ?
3. Will I damage my N900 if I use it as a modem using this USB cable connection in a long run ? Is there any option to switch off the charging during this "modem mode" ? I can see from my other E75, it will be switch off the charging automatically everytime the battery is full and will start again after a while when i reaches certain threshold

Please kindly advice me

Regards

menot

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Menot,

Just some thoughts:

What OS are you running on your laptop? I have Win7, and it installed the Modem drivers for the N900 when I first plugged it in. I can now use it as a USB modem from Win7 networking connection without PC Suite. It runs at full network speed for hours no problems.

I am using Week 47-5 FW in my N900

As shipped, the N900 does not support the DUN (dial up networking) profile. That is why you do not see it in BT profile discovery. It is however, easy to turn on with a shell script. Search the site for details.

Even with BT, I prefer to use USB, as the connection is fast, reliable, and powers the N900, instead of drawing even MORE power from the device. You could of course connect it to the power mains, but then why just just plug it in to your laptop?? I turned on BT DUN in the N900 JIC I forget my cable! ;^)

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Quote:

Originally Posted by menotii (Post 422939)

Hi Menot, This has been discussed a few times on the forums, and i would suggest you search for the words N900 and tether in the search function.
I'm not an expert, but from a quick read it looks like it's not supported out of the box so to speak. 2 possible options are:

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Just thought I'd add a note here on how I got the N900 working as a USB modem in Centos, since there didn't seem to be a better place.. It seems this "just works" on Ubuntu, but I thought I'd record it here for anyone doing things manually.

Overall I'd rather do this with usbnet and iptables/NAT on the phone, using it as a little router rather than a dongle, but this will work for now.

I'm in the UK on a t-mobile PAYG sim.

I plugged the usb cable in and select pc-suite mode on the N900

dmesg on my laptop says:

Quote:

...
usb-storage: device scan complete
usb 1-5: USB disconnect, address 3
usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
usb 1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is no modem.
cdc_acm 1-5:1.6: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
usbcore: registered new driver cdc_acm
drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: v0.25:USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters
usb0: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5, CDC Ethernet Device, 32:9e:46:5a:de:33
usbcore: registered new driver cdc_ether

I ran:

wvdialconf /etc/tmob.wvdial.conf

which creates the file /etc/tmob.wvdial.conf

I then edited /etc/tmob.wvdialconf to put in values for the Phone, Username and Password settings (which I just got from a bit of googling)

after this, /etc/tmob.wvdial.conf shows:

Quote:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = USB Modem
Phone = *99#
Username = t-mobile
Password = tm

I verified the contents of /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial

Quote:

# cat /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial
noauth
name wvdial
usepeerdns

Finally, since I was still plugged into the local ethernet LAN, I did

ifconfig eth0 down

to get rid of the existing default route and IP. (If I hadn't done this, wvdial would have not overwritten the existing default route. This could be fixed by adding the setting "defaultroute" in /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial, most likely.)

I then started the connection with:

wvdial --config /etc/tmob.wvdial.conf

which gave the output:

Quote:

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
CONNECT
~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}"}&} }*} } g}%~
--> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}"}&} }*} } g}%~
--> PPP negotiation detected.
--> Starting pppd at Sun Dec 13 23:44:29 2009
--> pid of pppd: 6145
--> Using interface ppp0
--> Authentication (PAP) started
--> Authentication (PAP) successful
--> local IP address xx.xxx.xxx.xxx
--> remote IP address 10.6.6.6 [<- oo-er!]
--> primary DNS address 149.254.192.126
--> secondary DNS address 149.254.201.126

(... at this point, after checking a couple of pages loaded ok, I hit ctrl-C)

Caught signal #2! Attempting to exit gracefully...
--> Terminating on signal 15
--> Connect time 1.5 minutes.
--> Terminate Request (Message: "User request" )
--> Disconnecting at Sun Dec 13 23:45:56 2009

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwotski (Post 426465)

Overall I'd rather do this with usbnet and iptables/NAT on the phone, using it as a little router rather than a dongle, but this will work for now.

Yep... when you plug it in as 'charging only' via USB, you can easily set up usb networking between it and the linux box using fixed ip addresses.

http://forums.internettablettalk.com...ad.php?t=34690

Then it's just a matter of getting packet forwarding and NAT up on the n900. Wonder if the kernel supports packet forwarding and NAT?

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Quote:

Originally Posted by schettj (Post 426483)

it's just a matter of getting packet forwarding and NAT up on the n900. Wonder if the kernel supports packet forwarding and NAT?

Bizarrely, the supplied kernel does not. :eek: See information in this thread: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=30916 starting at post #15.

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwotski (Post 426465)

I confirm the case for Fedora 11/12 - N900 in PC Suite mode "just works" as USB Mobile Broadband modem and NetworkManager actually recognizes it properly straight away, so getting 3G connection is just couple of clicks away, no manual wvdial config etc. See screenshot.

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Quote:

Originally Posted by evad (Post 450638)

It does NOT work on my Fedora 12 bot, neither on my Fedora 13 beta netbook. dmesg says: "this device cannot do calls on its own. its not a modem", and ups a usb0 interface. I didnt figure out how to make it work here.

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

By the way, it works with wvdial. Seems it is a Fedora Network-Manager problem :P

Re: N900 as modem fact finding & question

Did you choose PC Suite mode when you connected n900?

Initially it only gives a usb ethernet interface that isn't suitable as-is for modem use. Once you pick pc suite mode, it appears as a serial port through which you can use it as any gprs/3g modem.