FreeBSD 9 and 3G Modems

[Odhiambo Washington]

On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 21:48, Alejandro Imass <ait at p2ee.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 10:56 AM, Odhiambo Washington
> <odhiambo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I am Google-ing for a recent definitive HOWTO use my 3G modem with
> > FreeBSD/PC-BSD and what I get seem rather old.
> >
>
> Which one? You need to specifiy modem brand/model and network provider
> to see if other have got that particular one working. Also check the
> Linux crowd (Ubuntu in particular) and then extrapolate to FBSD.
>

I have a Huawei E1820 and I am in KE, using Safaricom.


>
> > Someone can point me to a recent document detailing the steps. I have
> > PC-BSD 9 on my laptop.
> >
>
> Usually it's just a question of making the kernel mount the tty and the
> dial using something like wvdial. If it's popular and supported it's pretty
> easy, if not is still possible.
>
> Supporting the modem is usually a two layer problem first solving the
> multi-device problem on the USB bus, that is, selecting the correct device
> available (i.e. selecting the modem instead of the flash that contains the
> windows software), and then the actual kernel or userspace driver for that
> specific device (ZTE, Enfora, etc.).
>

Luckily, I already disabled the flash/virtual CD-ROM that the modem
contains. I got the AT string combo to do this. I also have one ZTE dongle
that I don't want to talk about because I haven't managed to find a way to
disable the virtual CD-ROM it contains.


>
> Ultimately, you get a serial modem and you just have to use AT command to
> dial, etc. and wvdial does a great job and it's quite easy to set-up and
> run.
>
>
You know, sometimes all this process is what makes people shy off of *BSD.
I am a diehard lover of FreeBSD, but the few times I have installed Linux
on my laptop, this whole process was a breeze... well, not quite, but not
as difficult as it is in FreeBSD. Luckily, I use WiFi more than I use 3G,
so it's never quite bothered me. Even now, I just want to see how easy it
can be on PC-BSD/FreeBSD, with a GUI to boot, if there is, but I do not
feel it is such a big necessity for me, because I have D-Link DIR-825 which
can use this modem on it's USB port and allow me to use 3G.

-- 
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
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