Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Hi Folks,

I picked up an N810 WE from ebay and have been tinkering with it to see if Wimax will work.

Clearwire recently expanded to the Austin area however speaking with the Clearwire rep... the service here is "Clear" which is not same as "Clearwire" or "Xohm" as available in other cities...

Anyways, the connectivty UI doesnt pickup any Wimax SSIDs in my area... I messed around w/ the cli and noticed a file called /etc/wimax.conf with a bunch of configs labled NorthAmerica_somenumber plans. Many of them were commented out, so I uncommented them all, rebooted and tried scanning for SSIDs... no luck.

Next I found a script called /usr/sbin/wimax-start.. that seemd to rely on iwtool which used a different conf file ie /etc/iwtool.ini so i tinkered with that a bit....

Long story short, by copying the configs from /etc/wimax.conf into /etc/iwtool.ini and modifying /etc/wimax/network.conf and setting the NAI to {sm=1}mywimaxmac@clearwire-wmx.net and then running wimax-start... i was able to get wimax to connect!

Howewver... the connectivity widget in the UI has now clue that this is going on... so it continues to think there is no connection...

Hence I can ping ips etc from the cmdline but nada from the UI... I did manage to hack it but connecting to a wifi access point, then connecting to wimax from the cli and then editing the route table to route everything via the wimax nic... however this is not a viable option as it requires wifi connectivity at least momentarily to be functional...

I would apprciate if any one can point me in the right direction from here...

I can see two possible paths to puruse:

1. figure out the DBUS calls to the connectivty layer (ICD2?) and after wimax-start finishes... make a dbus call that tells the UI that wimax is ready to go.

2. somehow fix /etc/wimax.conf such that ICD2 (which according to comments in that file is the consumer) works and wimax-start is not needed but rather it uses wimax-promotion? or wimaxd? to work.

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Interesting... I wonder if the community-developed OS (Mer) could be made to support what you're trying to do...

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Nice. I've been wondering about that since I've seen the billboards go up.

Also its good to see another austin person around these parts. We're hoping to sometime do something to try and foster some kind of community here. Yeah, real vague. Send a message to Texrat or I if you are interested.

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

I am not too familiar with Mer other than knowing that is is work to port an ubunutu? based linux distro... if so, it may be possible via Mer.. this would require wimax driver pc2400m and iwtool code along with the eap stuff to function under Mer.

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Maybe I am not getting what you are trying to say about Clear, Xohm, and Clearwire. I have a N810-WE that I used on Xohm network (not much success). When Clearwire took over Xohm and relabeled it Clear I was able to use it with no problems here in Baltimore. I also have been able to use Clear services in Philadelphia and Charlotte.

Clearwire's WiMax (4g) service is called Clear and N810-WE can log on without any modification no matter what city you are in if, Clear service is offered and you are NEAR to one of their towers.

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Hi, I could be mistaken but I am under the impression that Clearwire is not rolling out the same technology and or frequencies/protocols etc in all Cities... whatever they have rolled out in Austin doesnt work w/o some modification w/ the N810-WE... I do have a Clear USB modem and that works fine. However the N810-WE does not see any Wimax SSIDs.. and I have to use the procedure described above to get it to connect..

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

i just thought of another possibility.. perhaps since i bought this unit used.. its files were previously modified.. hence breaking wimax... can some please point me to pristine copies of /etc/wimax.conf /etc/iwtool.ini and /etc/wimax/*..

thanks

mfk

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

It is the same frequencies/protocols. I don't know what was the problem with your N810, maybe the last owner had something to do with you not being able to log on to Clear. :confused:

Clearwire downloads a small (197 KB) app/file called clearwire-settings version 0.0.9 (look in Application manager) to your N810. :cool:

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Might sound stupid but did they activate your N810 WE on an account? It can't access the WiMax unless the ESN is activated...

Re: Clear Wimax on N810 WE
 

Aha! i dont have a clearwire-settings package.. and it is not in my apt-get list... can you pleae tell me which repo this is in.. thanks..