Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Linux and Mobility with Wireless World.


I have more information for you.
My decision to go mobile was proven right.
My wired connection is giving me only 5 Kb per second and it cannot even connect me to Google let alone my email..
I switched it off and ecven my torrent downloads are at snail pace.
I only went for a data plan and no iPhone or mobile telephone used.
I hate telephones and take them as constant irritation and enemy to productive work.
I am made to understand that cell phones will eclipse the human population soon.
It is matter of time 
Only internet and prepaid SIM.
The other requirement is Linux compatible unlocked dongle and a good Linux distribution, ideally a latest edition.
They are Ubuntu easily the best and automatically connected me to the Internet.
It gives all the details too.
I will list them down (some numbers are changed to mask my IP Address) here if one is doing manual configuration.
They guys and girls in Dialog, Mobitel. Airltel, Tigo and the rest do not understand them unfortunately.

1. IP Address ooo.222.222.152
2.Broadcast Address as above 000.222......
3.Subnet Mask. 255.255.255.255.255
Default Router 00.64.64.64
Primary DNS.000.19.72..201.
Secondary DNS.000.19.72.201

Please do not use above they are not real.
Then comes Knoppix 7.0.4. Live or installed but one has to look for the network utilities and configure but it is automatic and no manual entries.
Sabayon 10 is also pretty good and I am posting this with Sabayon Gnome the brand new touch screen compatible and compiz version.

Good luck with your mobile roaming with Linux and there over 200 active Linux distribution to choose.

I have stooped downloading and testing them to save my electricity bill which is more than I pay for the Linux Magazine for a year subscription and I get a DVD with every issue.

Why don't you subscribe to it and save time and electricity?


Linux and Mobility with Wireless World.
If one is an ardent Linux user one is discriminated for being such in Sri-Lanka.
This had been the case few years ago but with routers hitting the market we were lucky.
Lately even the server functions are slow and not reliable and I was without internet connection for over 10 days.
I decided to opt for Mobile connection as a backup which my daughter uses since she prefers the mobility than to hook up to a wired Ethernet.

As usual I did a market survey to find both Mobitel and Dialog do not support Linux with their dongle devices.

I did not check Tigo and Airtell.]

I bought few dongles for wireless router (which I do not use now) when I was abroad but they do not have slot for SIMS.
I knew of a vendor who is quite up to date with gadgets in Kandy and he found me a dongle that can be used with any SIM and Linux compatible.

After that I found a wireless router that was Linux compatible.

Armed to the teeth I went to Mobitel and bought a SIM and with the help of the guys at the desk after several visits we were able to mount my Linux distribution with the dongle attached.

Below is an email related to that story.
It still has minor hiccoughs, none of which the Linux cannot negotiate.
It is strange that the dongle should not have Linux script to support Linux and the guys and girls who work for Microsoft and Apple have to bootstrap their efforts to be less discriminative in a commercial world.

This is why one of us has to be a hacker to hack these dongles for them to be universally acceptable. 
I have no time for those activities till I retire but a guy who has more time and adept at Linux should try it for me. 

Following is an email I posted to Mobitel Service.
Thanks for your help.
The SIM is still temperamental with my Linux Distribution.
It is all due to the dialog box wanting a number, password and ping information.
I persisted with not entering any data in those entries and at last the SIM sent a message to handshake with the server.
Still there was a problem since I worked with the live distribution on RAM and not on my hard disk installation.
In a couple of goes the hard disk installation picked the message and I was quickly on the web.

Unfortunately every time I wanted to access the web I had to configure it since the netbook was earlier used with the wired router ( I will have a go, with the wireless router when I have time).

Then I changed the SIM to Mobitel Dongle but it was not automatically recognized by Linux.


I opened is files in it to find install Linux file and clicked it and the script installed 7 files in a folder but still those files were not automatically recognized by Linux since the root kit and its files are meant for Microsoft and Apple Mac.


I believe a clever Linux guy (not me) can write a simple script to overcome this problem of the Mobitel Dongle without any physical changes.


I will look into these files when I have time (busy now).


In the process I may have corrupted the SIM and may not be able to use it anymore.
I will be visiting you to buy another SIM if it was the eventual outcome of my adventure with the mobile gadgets.
Thanks again.