CELL PHONE as USB MODEM to surf the web SprintPCS Sanyo 4900

[WB7ODYFred]

Sanyo 4900 on a SprintPCS cell phone

Here in the USA, have a SprintPCS cell phone? Buy the FutureDial USB cable from Radio Shack to connect the Sanyo 4900 SprintPCS cell phone to Knoppix 3.4 Linux as a modem for surfing the web / email at 7K to 14.4K bytes per second rate. What is the secret command to issue in a console window to surf the internet?

# pon sprint

I just could not believe it!! It was all there in Knoppix (Debian) Linux. I went to copy in the scripts from a website using a text editor, but the SCRIPTS were all there already installed. Just one $22 cable (www.futuredial.com) and one 10 character command line and I was on line!!! surfing the web, downloading software, sending e-mail. I was using a computer in an 18 wheeler Rig, with no access to a Loooonngg phone line to dial in. Sometimes you park in areas that don't have much in services. I had a 200Mhz desktop computer with 128MB of ram. I was able to access the internet through the cell phone from anywhere when booting from the Knoppix 3.4 version of Live CD. I needed access to information on how to finish my installation to boot from the hard disk with uncompressed file system ext3.

My particular SprintPCS plan gave me unlimited Data connection. Your plan may be different. Check with your provider. I hear T-Mobile gives unlimited data access for an additional fee $ that is not to expensive.

The kppp logs in by sending the command to dial the number #777 through the /dev/usb/ttyACM0 usb serial port device.


Fred Finster
fredfinster (AT) netscape (DOT) net
I do hope/wish that others provide comments with details about what works for your phone service provider. Thanks for your contribution, too.

ps at home I have Earthlink as my ISP. So to logon, I open a console and type
"pon earthlink". When I am finished with the internet connection, I type "poff".

# cat /etc/ppp/peers/sprint
# You usually need this if there is no PAP authentication
noauth
# The chat script (be sure to edit that file, too!)
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/sprint"
# Set up routing to go through this PPP link
defaultroute
# Use remote DNS
usepeerdns
# Default modem (you better replace this with /dev/ttySx!)
#or symbolic link "ln -s /dev/usb/ttyACM0 /dev/modem"
/dev/modem
# Connect at high speed
230400
local

/etc/ppp/peers/earthlink
# This optionfile was generated by pppconfig 2.1.
#
#
hide-password
noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/provider"
debug
/dev/ttyS1
115200
defaultroute
noipdefault
user "your_username_here"
remotename provider
ipparam provider
usepeerdns

cat /etc/chatscripts/sprint
TIMEOUT 5
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' \rAT
TIMEOUT 12
OK ATD#777
TIMEOUT 22
CONNECT ""


cat /etc/chatscripts/provider
# This chatfile was generated by pppconfig 2.1.
# Please do not delete any of the comments. Pppconfig needs them.
#
# ispauth PAP
# abortstring
ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED
# modeminit
'' ATZ
# ispnumber
# OK-AT-OK ATDT4258161416
OK-AT-OK ATDT4744492
# ispconnect
CONNECT \d\c
# prelogin

# ispname
# isppassword
# postlogin

# end of pppconfig stuff



For a USB data cable, apparently RadioShack has it for $19.99, just ask for part number 170-0782.

The hint applies only to Verizon subscribers:
ATD#777 for direct web connection with user/password both = "qnc"

For SprintPCS subscribers, the hint would read:
ATD#2932 for direct web connection with user/password both = "web"

and these hints apply to modem-equipped phones other than SANYO as well.

Here are some weblinks that should give more details.

http://www.natecarlson.com/linux/sanyo-4900.php Nate Carlsons Website with Details

http://viz.aset.psu.edu/ga5in/SprintModem.html
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...21205050615729
http://www.757.org/~joat/wiki/index....a_Samsung_N400


I was killing time in Radio Shack this afternoon (my wife had gone into Fashion Bug) and I noticed that the SnapDialer cables were down to less than $20 so I decided to take a chance (luckily, I did NOT buy the accompanying software).


Thanks to Nate Carlson's page about his Sanyo SCP-4900, I was able to get online via my Samsung N400 in about a half hour's worth of reading man pages and tweaking the scripts. (see below for mine).


Note that /dev/usb/acm/0 applies to my Linux distribution. Read your boot logs to find out what device is chosen for the SnapDialer.

Create /etc/ppp/peers/sprint to contain:

noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/sprint"
defaultroute
usepeerdns
/dev/usb/acm/0
9600
local
novj

Create /etc/chatscripts/sprint to contain:

TIMEOUT 5
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
\rAT
TIMEOUT 12
OK ATD#777
TIMEOUT 22
CONNECT ""

To get the system to connect, type:

pppd call sprint

You can tell a lot by tailing /var/log/messages while you do this.

[WB7ODYFred]

From website http://modular.fas.harvard.edu/t42/
Lots of information about using Debian linux

Debian GNU/Linux on a Thinkpad T42p

William Stein

Configuration

I received a Thinkpad T42p at the end of July, 2004.


My Sprint USB Sanyo 4900 Phone


Compiled CONFIG_USB_ACM=m the acm.o module. (Selected this in the USB section, near the middle.)
modprobe acm
Plugin phone:
May 29 16:40:01 localhost kernel: Product: SANYO USB Phone
May 29 16:40:01 localhost kernel: SerialNumber: Serial Number
May 29 16:40:01 localhost kernel: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
May 29 16:40:01 localhost default.hotplug[3190]: arguments (usb) env (DEVFS=/proc/bus/usb OLDPWD=/ PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin ACTION=add PWD=/etc/hotplug HOME=/ SHLVL=2 DEVICE=/proc/bus/usb/003/003 PRODUCT=474/701/0 TYPE=2/0/0 DEBUG=kernel _=/usr/bin/env)
May 29 16:40:01 localhost default.hotplug[3190]: invoke /etc/hotplug/usb.agent ()
May 29 16:40:01 localhost default.hotplug[3191]: arguments (usb) env (DEVFS=/proc/bus/usb OLDPWD=/ PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin ACTION=add PWD=/etc/hotplug HOME=/ SHLVL=2 DEVICE=/proc/bus/usb/003/003 PRODUCT=474/701/0 TYPE=2/0/0 DEBUG=kernel _=/usr/bin/env)
May 29 16:40:01 localhost default.hotplug[3191]: invoke /etc/hotplug/usb.agent ()
May 29 16:40:05 localhost usb.agent[3190]: Setup acm for USB product 474/701/0
May 29 16:40:05 localhost usb.agent[3191]: Setup acm for USB product 474/701/0
May 29 16:40:05 localhost usb.agent[3190]: acm: already loaded
May 29 16:40:05 localhost usb.agent[3191]: acm: already loaded

The following configuration steps are copied this web page, and they work perfectly for me. Now that you've got an ACM device, you just need to create a dialup connection. Note that the ACM device name may vary - just search through /dev for the proper device. On my (default) Debian install, it's /dev/ttyACM0. On RedHat 7.3, it's /dev/input/ttyACM0. Once you've found that, the number to dial to get a connection to the Vision network is '#777' (which is #PPP on the keypad). So, use whatever method you prefer to create a dialer that will dial #777. On my Debian box, I'm using the standard 'pon' scripts. Here are the config files I use:
/etc/ppp/peers/sprint:

# You usually need this if there is no PAP authentication
noauth
# The chat script (be sure to edit that file, too!)
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/sprint"
# Set up routing to go through this PPP link
defaultroute
# Use remote DNS
usepeerdns
# Default modem
/dev/ttyACM0
# Connect at high speed
230400
local
novj


/etc/chatscripts/sprint:

TIMEOUT 5
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' \rAT
TIMEOUT 12
OK ATD#777
TIMEOUT 22
CONNECT ""



More Websites to Check out

Lab-Y reportsLinux Internet Access with Sprint Cell Phones: Compatibility Reports
http://dast.freeshell.org/section/debian/phones

Linux and Mobile (Cellular, Smart) Phones

You want to use Linux or another UniX with your mobile (cellular) phone? Here are links to usage documentation about Linux with different mobile phones. You may find documentation about non-Linux phones as well as dedicated Linux phones. Do you have written a documentation yourself? Please submit a new entry. And don't miss the general resources section at the bottom, containing overviews about Linux software for mobile phones (including free JAVA applications for mobile devices) and more.

http://tuxmobil.org/phones_linux.html
http://tuxmobil.org/howto_linux_laptop.html Howto Linux-Mobile-Guide
http://tuxmobil.org/phones_survey_sanyo.html Sanyo with Linux survery
http://tuxmobil.org/phones_linux_sms.html Linux Apps for Smart Messaging System - SMS


Need to save/load information to the phone? Use BITPIM
http://www.bitpim.org/ works with the Sanyo 4900 and other cellphones.