Option (http://www.option.com/) sells a rather popular PCMCIA card that allows
connection to GSM and GPRS networks. It would be nice if redhat-config-network
had support for this card. redhat-config-network-1.2.0-2 does not.
                                                                               
                                
This card gets re-labelled by a lot of providers, e.g. Vodafone sells it as
"Vodafone Mobile Connect Card".
                                                                               
                                
An FAQ is available at <http://www.option.com/support/linux_general_setup.shtml>.
                                                                               
                                
redhat-config-network would have to provide the following functionality:
                                                                               
                                
- show selected network (query via 'AT_OSBM?') and ability to change (see FAQ
for values)
- ask for PIN (with ability to say 'no PIN'), submit to card as AT+CPIN="xxxx".
Report back OK or ERROR.
- ability to select APN from a drop down list plus text entry filed in case own
APN is not in existing list. [1]- optionally, the modem lights taskbar thingie
sets 'AT+CREG=1' and displays the value as an icon (see FAQ for values) and it
does not even need polling.
- definitely use the result of 'AT+CREG?' to determine if line can be brought up.
                                                                               
                                
notes:
                                                                               
                                
- AT command set at <http://www.option.com/support/4_2_downloads.shtml>
Microsoft Office Document, yuck, but it does open in OpenOffice, we could
support a lot more with this card ;-)
- my "Vodafone Mobile Connect Card" reports "CONNECT 57600" even though I set
minicom to use 115200 while testing.
- the PIN can only be entered once, if the PIN has already been successfully
entered, giving it again yields 'ERROR'
- no luck in using redhat-config-network-1.2.0-2 GUI to configure card. A
working, hand made, setup is below
- must set PEERDNS=no in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp<n>, otherwise
it fails with "Received bad configure-nak/rej:  81 06 00 00 00 00 02 06 00 2d 0f
01 81 06 00 00 00 00"
  which is really weird because MacOSX gets the DNS just fine.
- a working config follows (DNS1 and 2 included for reference, extracted by MacOSX)
  n.b. this presumes 'AT+CPIN="xxxx"' and 'AT+CGDCONT=1' have been entered and
the card not removed since)
  plus latency sucks, no real point in trying anything interactive like ssh
# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp2
# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=no
DNS1=139.7.30.125
DNS2=139.7.30.126
MODEMPORT=/dev/ttyS3
LINESPEED=115200
HARDFLOWCTL=yes
DEVICE=ppp2
                                                                               
                                
# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-ppp2
'ABORT' 'BUSY'
'ABORT' 'ERROR'
'ABORT' 'NO CARRIER'
'ABORT' 'NO DIALTONE'
'ABORT' 'Invalid Login'
'ABORT' 'Login incorrect'
'' 'ATZ'
'OK' 'AT+CGDCONT=1'
'OK' 'AT+CGDCONT=1,,"web.vodafone.de"'
'OK' 'ATD*99***1#'
'CONNECT'
                                                                               
                                
# cat /etc/ppp/peers/ppp2
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-ppp2"

plus /etc/ppp/pap-secrets must contain an entry for foo like such:
foo     *
(FWIW, TAB, not space between foo and *)
                                                                               
                                
[1] The Vodafone driver CD contains settings for Vodafone Germany (D2), Ireland,
Omnitel and UK, O2. Orange and e-plus should easily provide theirs, I'll hunt
those down once a first version to test is available.