Sabtu, 26 April 2008

Merlin XU870 Apple Mac Support

Installation Instructions: Mac OS X Setup Guide for the Merlin XU870 HSDPA Modem

Introduction

The following describes how to connect to the Internet using a Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870 ExpressCard™ modem and an Apple® MacBook Pro®: with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger™.

The Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870 enables you to connect to a 3G service provider and the Internet. The modem provides reliable wireless data communications with average speeds between 400 and 700 kbps and easily installs in any MacBook Pro®: ExpressCard/34™ slot.

Requirements

Before you can connect to an HSDPA service provider with a Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870 ExpressCard modem, you will need the following:

  • A Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870 ExpressCard modem and an activated SIM card
    Note: The PIN code on the SIM card MUST be disabled BEFORE trying to use the card in the MAC, as there is no means to enter the PIN code on the MAC.
  • An Apple®: MacBook Pro®: with an ExpressCard/34 slot with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger™
  • A UMTS/HSDPA account with a service provider
  • Configuration information from your service provider, including your username, password, APN, and DNS addresses

Setting Up Your Equipment

  1. Power on your Apple®: MacBook Pro®: computer.
  2. Download, unzip and mount the disk image (.dmg)
  3. Install the driver and modem script by launching the Merlin HSDPA (XU870) package.
  4. Verify that the SIM card is inserted properly in the modem.
  5. Insert the modem into the MacBook Pro®: ExpressCard/34 slot.

Setting Up the Network Connections


In this section, you will configure the TCP/IP, PPP, and modem network connection settings.

  1. Make sure the card is completely inserted into the ExpressCard/34 slot.
  2. Select System Preferences from the Apple (Apple menu) menu.

    System Preferences menu

  3. Click the Network button in the System Preferences window.

    System Preferences

    If this is the first time you have inserted your modem into the computer, a notification window will alert you that a new port has been detected and that it is a Novatel Wireless HSDPA Modem.

    New Port Detected

  4. Click OK to dismiss the notification.
  5. In the Network window, select Novatel Wireless HSPDA Modem from the Show drop-down list box.

    Pick Modem

  6. With the PPP tab selected, enter your account name and password into the appropriate text boxes as shown below. Next enter your APN in the Telephone Number text box even though the APN is not a phone number. These values correspond to the user name, password, and APN supplied to you by your service provider.

    Note: Enter the APN in the Telephone Number field. APNs are NOT of the form *98#.

    PPP Tab

  7. Click the PPP Options... button. Change the settings to match what is shown below.

    Note: You may need to turn off IP header compression for some carrier networks.

    PPP Options settings

  8. Click OK to return to the Network window.
  9. Click the Modem tab and then select HSDPA Support (XU870) from the Modem drop-down list box.

    Pick Modem Script XU870

  10. Click the Apply Now button and close System Preferences.

Opening an Internet Connection

  1. Click the Phone icon in the menu bar and select Open Internet Connect...

    Open an Internet Connection

    The Novatel Wireless HSDPA Modem dialog box is displayed

    Connect

  2. Click the Connect button.

    The modem will attempt to register with the service provider. The status bar message indicates the connection status: "Status: Contacting PPP Server..."

    Connecting

    While a connection is being made, the status bar displays "Status: Authenticating User...". When a connection is made, the status bar message changes to "Status: Connected to" and the connect time and IP address are indicated. The Disconnect button appears in the window.

    Connected

Surfing the Internet

Once you are connected to the Internet, you can use any Internet application, such as Safari, Firefox, Mail, and iChat, to surf the Internet, check email, and connect using VPN, etc.

Disconnecting From the Internet

To disconnect from the Internet, click the Phone icon in the menu bar and select Disconnect.

Disconnect

You can also disconnect by clicking the Disconnect button in the Internet Connect application as shown above.

Uninstalling the Merlin XU870 HSDPA Modem Software

To remove Merlin XU870 HSDPA Modem driver and its associated files from your machine, delete the following files (requires Administrator permissions):

/System/Library/Extensions/MerlinHSDPADriver.kext
/Library/Receipts/MerlinHSDPA.pkg
/Library/Modem Scripts/HSDPA Support (XU870)

Data Cards supported by 3G/WIFI Router

The most important “generations” are as follows:
- Technologie 2.5G – GPRS (General Packet Radio Services)
- Technologie 2.75G – EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment)
- Technologie 3G – UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service)
- Technologie 3.5G – HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access)

3G Evolution

WWAN technologies :
Upload
Download
up to :
up to :
118 Kbit/s
236 Kbit/s
164 Kbit/s
384 Kbit/s
384 Kbit/s
3,6 Mbit/s
1,45 Mbit/s
7,2 Mbit/s



Eventually, WWAN will extend to 3.75G HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) and 4G communications. For now though 3G and 3.5G technologies remain the most important.

What is Wimax, Tdma, Edge, Hsdpa, Umts

WiMAX
WiMAX technology, also known as 802.16, will hit the market in 2005 and will function as a wireless alternative to cable modems and DSL. WiMAX plans to offer wireless connectivity up to 30 miles from an antenna at speeds of up to 75 mbps, cable modems bring in data at just over 1 mbps. WiMax, which carriers can use to wirelessly deliver broadband, will include the 802.16 standard, plus revisions and additions.

Wi-Fi
Also known as 802.11, AirPort and wireless LAN, Wi-Fi is a wireless network connection that uses a high-bandwidth radio transceiver to tap into networks at speeds of 11 mbps to more than 100 mbps, up to 350 feet from a base station. Wi-Fi cards most commonly found in laptops have the specifications 802.11a, b, and g. These three standards tap into different frequencies and allow for varying bandwidths. Most new cards can work with multiple standards.

TDMA
Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is a digital wireless service that divides a radio frequency into time slots and then allocates the slots to multiple calls, allowing a single frequency to support multiple, simultaneous data channels.

PCS
Personal communication service (PCS) is a second-generation mobile communications technology also referred to as digital cellular. The digital service, which works over CDMA, GSM and TDMA interfaces, operates at the 1900 MHz frequency range and can be used internationally.

iDEN
Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) uses TMDA technology to provide cell phone voice communication, messaging, digital two-way radio and data transfers.

GSM
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a digital cellular system that uses TDMA, which allows a single frequency to support multiple, simultaneous data channels.

EDGE
Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE) is a faster GSM wireless service that can deliver data at rates up to 384 Kbps on a broadband. The standard is based on the GSM standard and uses TDMA.

EV-DO
Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) is a high-speed wireless data connection on a CDMA network. The technology allows users to access high-speed Internet through portable devices, such as cell phones, laptops and PDAs.

CDMA
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a digital wireless service that transfers data at rates from 40 to 144 Kbps. Unlike GSM, which assigns a specific frequency to each user, CDMA allows every channel to use the full available spectrum, allowing greater capacity and higher audio quality for more users.

802.20
Currently in development, 802.20 promises all the benefits of WiMAX 802.16, but it will be optimized for broadband wireless access while traveling at high speeds.

3G
3G is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) specification for the third-generation mobile communications technology that was created for high-speed transfer of data and multimedia content, such as video, downloads, music and interactive games. 3G aims to increase bandwidth up to 384 Kbps when a device is stationary or moving at pedestrian speed, 128 Kbps in a car, and 2 Mbps in fixed applications. 3G will work over wireless air interfaces, such as GSM, TDMA, and CDMA. The new EDGE service was developed specifically to meet the bandwidth needs of 3G.

HSDPA
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.4 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are planned for the near future. The networks are then to be upgraded to Evolved HSPA, which provides speeds of 42 Mbit/s downlink in its first release.

UMTS
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) cell phone technologies, which is also being developed into a 4G technology. Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA as the underlying air interface. It is standardized by the 3GPP, and is the European answer to the ITU IMT-2000 requirements for 3G cellular radio systems.

HSUPA
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family with up-link speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/s. The name HSUPA was created by Nokia. The 3GPP does not support the name 'HSUPA', but instead uses the name Enhanced Uplink (EUL).

USB_ModeSwitch - Activating Switchable USB Devices on Linux

USB_ModeSwitch is (surprise!) a mode switching tool for controlling "flip flop" (multiple device) USB gear.

Several new USB devices (especially high-speed wireless WAN stuff, they're expensive anyway) have their MS Windows drivers onboard; when plugged in for the first time they act like a flash storage and start installing the driver from there. After that (and on every consecutive plugging) this driver switches the mode internally, the storage device vanishes (in most cases), and a new device (like an USB modem) shows up. The WWAN gear maker Option calls that feature "ZeroCD (TM)".

As you may have guessed, nothing of this is documented in any form and so far there is no official Linux driver available. On the good side, most of the known devices work out of the box with the available Linux drivers like "usb-storage" or "usbserial". That leaves the problem of the mode switching from storage to whatever the thing is supposed to do.

Fortunately there are things like human reason, USB sniffing programs and "libusb". It is possible to eavesdrop the communication of the MS Windows driver, to isolate the command or action that does the switching, and to reproduce the same thing with Linux.

USB_ModeSwitch makes the last step considerably easier by taking the important parameters from a configuration file and doing all the initialization and communication stuff.
It does NOT check for success afterwards as of now. The right approach would be to consult /proc/bus/usb/devices (or the output of "lsusb") before and after execution to note any changes.

Download

The latest release version is 0.9.3. The archive contains the source and a 386 binary compiled without any optimizations. I used libusb-0.1.12.
There are changes and updates to the config file more often than new releases; most of the valuable knowledge about devices is contained there. So you better use the latest version linked here.
There is a beta version, usb_modeswitch-0.9.4beta2.tar.bz2 , that supports multiple devices and probably fixes the udev problems. Please test!

How to install

If you want to compile it for yourself, just run "compile.sh" or type on the shell:
$ gcc -l usb -o usb_modeswitch usb_modeswitch.c
That's as easy as it gets ... And it should be HIGHLY portable (OS X anyone?).

Take the fresh executable "usb_modeswitch" (or the one provided with the archive) and put it into your path (preferably "/sbin" or "/usr/sbin").
Put "usb_modeswitch.conf" into "/etc" and edit it according to your hardware. It's heavily commented and should tell you what to do.

Alternatively you can use the brand new command line interface to tell USB_ModeSwitch the things it needs to know; try "usb_modeswitch -h" to list the parameters. This way you can handle multiple configurations. If any command line parameters are used, the default config file is NOT read.

Important: USB_ModeSwitch - like all programs with libusb routines - has to be run as root. Otherwise strange error messages come up ...

Troubleshooting: if you're next to certain that you have the right values for your device, and run after run USB_ModeSwitch seems to do something but nothing changes, there are most likely timing issues involved. Try to run the program manually after a defined delay immediately following the plugging-in of the device, starting from 1 second and working up to, say, 6. If any run was successful, note the time for later steps of automatization (see below).
This is caused by the hot-plugging mechanics of some modern distribution and depends on when they grab and use the device. Maybe someone can provide more insight there.

Known working hardware

Personally, I could only test my Option Icon; the list here - as well as all the necessary data - relies on reports from third parties (people, that is). So don't be surprised if you hit sudden obstacles even with your device listed here. You have been warned.

There are three known methods for initiating the switching process so far:
1. sending a SCSI command (which is rarely or never used for flash devices) to the storage device
2. actively removing (rather detaching) the storage driver from the device
3. sending a special control message to the device

It is recommended to use the latest firmware available as there have been issues with at least one device (Icon 7.2) in that respect.

  • Option GlobeSurfer Icon (aka "Vodafone EasyBox")
    The thing that started it all, because I wanted it to work on my Linux router.
    All known Option devices use the USB storage command REZERO UNIT for switching.
  • Option GlobeSurfer Icon 7.2
    If you get hardware lockups of this thing when plugging in (flashing LEDs), update the firmware.
  • Option GlobeSurfer Icon 7.2 with HSO driver interface
    A next generation firmware with vendor/device ID unchanging. Your "7.2 ready" device might change its behaviour after re-flashing with this firmware; newer Option devices most likely come loaded with it. Use the new "TargetClass" parameter to recognize already switched devices.
    Note: for HSO driver questions and howtos turn to the fine Pharscape site!
  • Option Icon 225 HSDPA (aka "T-Mobile web'n'walk Stick")
    New Firmware, HSO interface
  • Option GlobeTrotter HSUPA Modem (aka "T-Mobile wnw Card Compact III")
    New Firmware, HSO interface
  • Option GlobeTrotter GT MAX 3.6 (aka "T-Mobile wnw Card Compact II")
  • Option GlobeTrotter EXPRESS 7.2 (aka "T-Mobile wnw Card Express II")
  • Option GlobeTrotter GT MAX "7.2 Ready"
    Timing is an issue, see delayed script below. Lucas Benedičič did extended tests and found a minimum delay of three to four seconds working reliably, depending on the setup and probably the machine.
  • Huawei E220 (aka "Vodafone EasyBox II", aka "T-Mobile wnw Box Micro")
    We now have two options (no pun intended!) for this: 1. removal of "usb-storage" 2. the special control message found by Miroslav Bobovsky. The latter is independent of "usb-storage" and even leaves the storage portion of the device functional.
  • Huawei E270
    Same setup as the E220.
  • Huawei E630 (Experimental!)
    Beware: there are modem-only variants around (without the storage part); for these no switching is required.
  • ZTE MF620 (aka "Onda MH600HS")
    Uses the USB storage command TEST UNIT READY for switching.
  • ZTE MF622
    Detachment of storage driver is sufficient; a minimum delay is recommended (3-4 seconds). See delayed script below
  • Novatel Wireless Ovation MC950D HSUPA and XU950D
    Uses the USB storage command START/STOP (Eject) for switching.
  • Novatel U727 USB modem
    Similar setup as the MC950D

How to automate

Mind that you have to run USB_ModeSwitch every time you plug your device or cold boot with it. If you have "udev" in your distribution (almost all do) it's really not hard to automate this and just forget about it.

If you get a success result when running the tool manually, but the device still shows up as storage, try the latest beta version. If this doesn't work either, timing might be an issue with many of the more your setup; in that case the delayed execution of USB_ModeSwitch might help. See the special script below.

You should have a folder named "/etc/udev" or similar. Somewhere in there (I have a folder "rules.d") you find some files with the extension ".rules". Create a new one (or edit an existing one, but by convention not the default "50-something.rules"). Mind that the parsing order depends on the file name; my instinct tells me to put the switching stuff rather at the end of the line so that the whole storage business is taken care of beforehand.
In the chosen/new file enter/add the line
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="", SYSFS{idVendor}=="", RUN+=""
That's basically it.

From here, there are two ways to continue. If your GSM device is recognized by a recent version of the "option" driver you shouldn't have to do anything but to load the module (most certainly handled by udev automatically). Instead or if your (serial) device is not supported by that module you can always use "usbserial", but it needs to be told the device IDs (plus a performance-related option):

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="", SYSFS{idVendor}=="",
RUN+="/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor= product= maxSize=4096"
As for the difference between "usbserial" and "option", here is a quote from option.c:
  This driver exists because the "normal" serial driver doesn't work too well
with GSM modems. Issues:
- data loss -- one single Receive URB is not nearly enough
- nonstandard flow (Option devices) control
- controlling the baud rate doesn't make sense
Following that, I'd recommend trying the "option" driver first. In recent kernels it recognizes several Option, Huawei and Novatel devices (among others) out of the box. And following kernel developers mail traffic it looks like this driver is becoming the standard for GSM devices as more models are added. In the latest kernels the module entry reads "USB driver for GSM and CDMA modems" (Device Drivers / USB support / USB Serial Converter support).

Devices supported by the "option" driver that don't change their IDs after switching might run into problems because of the driver trying to attach before the switching happened. In this case it might help to blacklist it and to load it manually via the helper script after execution of usb_modeswitch. Again, developers are working on the "option" driver to probe for the device class before binding, so this problem might be handled in kernel 2.6.24.

For plain serial devices that keep their ID after switching a script "/sbin/mydevice_switch.sh" can be created:

#!/bin/sh
/sbin/usb_modeswitch
sleep # probably not necessary, try out
/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor= product= maxSize=4096
And then add this rule:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="", SYSFS{idVendor}=="", RUN+="/sbin/mydeviceswitch.sh"
If timing is an issue with your device or setup it might help to delay the execution of USB_ModeSwitch, to allow other drivers like "usb-storage" to finish their activation. Again, use the helper script - called "/sbin/mydevice_switch.sh" here - and fill it like this:
#!/bin/sh
sh -c "sleep 4; /usr/bin/usb_modeswitch" &
exit 0
Luigi Iotti reported problems on some systems (RHEL 5, CentOS 5) of udev always waiting for background scripts to finish. Here is his solution for a changed "/sbin/mydevice_switch.sh":
#!/bin/sh
# close these FDs to detach from udev
exec 1<&- 2<&- 5<&- 7<&-
sh -c "sleep 4; /usr/bin/usb_modeswitch" &
exit 0

Contribute

USB_ModeSwitch comes quite handy for experimenting with your own hardware if not supported yet. You could try this approach:

Note the device's Vendor and Product ID from /proc/bus/usb/devices (or from the output of "lsusb"); the assigned driver is usually "usb-storage".
Then try spying out the USB communication to the device with the same ID inside M$ Windoze.
I recommend this tool: "SniffUSB" (http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/usbsnoop/index.php.en).

This is the extremely short version. I will post a more detailed HOWTO in the future.

Please post any improvements, new device information and/or bug reports to the ModeSwitchForum !
Or send me an old-fashioned e-mail (see below).

Whodunit

Copyright (C) 2007 Josua Dietze (digidietze at this domain)

Command line parsing, decent usage/config output and handling, bugfixes added by:

  • Joakim Wennergren (jokedst) (gmail.com)
TargetClass parameter implementation to support new Option devices/firmware:
Created with initial help from:
Config file parsing stuff borrowed from:
Hexstr2bin function borrowed from:
Code, ideas and other input from:
  • Aki Makkonen
  • Denis Sutter
  • Lucas Benedičič
  • Roman Laube
  • Luigi Iotti
More contributors (device specific) are listed in the config file.

History

Version 0.9.4beta2, 2008/03/19 Possible udev release fix Version 0.9.4beta, 2008/03/16
Multiple device support
Version 0.9.3, 2008/03/09
More devices, no other changes from 0.9.3beta
Version 0.9.3beta, 2007/12/30
New TargetClass parameter for recent Option firmware (Paul Hardwick), more devices
Version 0.9.2, 2007/11/02
New Huawei mode (code from Miroslav Bobovsky, added by Denis Sutter), more devices
Version 0.9.1beta, 2007/09/11
Added command line parsing (jokedst), cleaned up config stuff (jokedst), bug fixes, doc updates
Version 0.9beta, 2007/08/12
Name change from "icon_switch", parameter file and generalizing
Version 0.2, 2006/09/25
Code cleaning, more messages
Version 0.1, 2006/09/24
Just very basic functionality ...

Legal

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

ZTE MF622 USB HSDPA modem, windows installation problem, drivers, 3 mobile broadband

n the UK the mobile operator "3" provides a good value mobile broadband service -and if you sign up on a long contract you can get the USB modem for free. It is HSDPA which basically means you can get fast mobile broadband (almost 3Mbps) where available, and it will degrade down to lower speed mobile networks where required. In theory you can get online almost anywhere.

The modem provided is by ZTE (a chinese telecommunications electronics company) and it all seems quite clever because it is capable of "self-installing" (on windows at least, for mac a disc is provided, and for linux: you're on your own).

Although on windows XP and Vista it should install automatically I have found it extremely hit and miss. One PC required 30 minutes onto technical support and my other PC I spent about 10 hours trying to get it to work...

The way it seems it should work is when you plug it in, windows detects it as some kind of mass storage device. It loads the drivers for this device, and then in doing so somehow then detects it is some kind of data interface (you can watch what happens in Device Manager - it's interesting). Windows plug and play then looks for drivers for this interface, and (my guess is) it finds them on the modem (remember it looks like a storage device at the moment) and installs them from there. There are three "data interfaces" to install - so it appears to install three items in three separate "add hardware" wizards. Once these install they appear as "ZTE Proprietary USB Modem" under the Modem section in device manager, and as "ZTE Diagnostics Interface" and "ZTE NMEA Device" in the "Ports" section.

Once this has happened, somehow the device also then gets detected as a CDROM drive and appears in "My Computer" as a new USB Storage drive. It has an auto-install script which then runs and installs the ZTE "control panel" software. This software allows you to connect/disconnect from the mobile network and configure your modem. The software installs to your PC, and from then on every time you plug the modem in, the installed software runs (instead of installing itself again).

On paper, as you can see, it all looks very slick and clever - because it saves you having to do all those steps manually....

..that is, of course, if it works - and on both my PCs it didn't. If you've have the same trouble, then by now you have probably spent several hours tearing your hair out trying to figure out what's going on. I spent many hours going backwards and forwards between restore points, and one thing I just couldn't fathom was that in fact the process behaved different each time; sometimes I would get errors saying drivers not found; other times it would say it's installed but won't work until reboot (and then after reboot, all the drivers have disappeared again); sometimes it would say the installation didn't work properly and the device probably won't work; twice I even got a message saying drivers were corrupted.

I don't have an explanation for this, other than perhaps, something is a bit ropey about the way the modem communicates and changes between being a storage device and a data interface.

Anyway - in the end i got it to work with the following combination of steps - the order may or may not be relevant.

  • plugged it in - and regardless of whether the data interfaces installed I let the main software control panel installed (this is fairly obvious - instead of installing as a USB device, it actually runs installshield and adds a new program to your START menu.)
  • Now, it seems some of the drivers are stored along with this program. So locate c:\program files\zte mobile connection\drivers - and right click on both the .inf files and choose install. This should copy the drivers into your windows system area.
  • There's also an Intel32 directory with a "DotNetInstaller.exe" in it. I ran this too, even though I have an AMD processor! By now I was getting desparate.
  • So far it still didn't even cause the USB modem to install as a MODEM, it was appearing as a CDROM drive in device manager; so, I went into device manager DISABLED the ZTE CDROM drive. This is when things started to get interesting.
  • After about a minute the CDROM drive ("USB Storage") disappeared and the 3 DATA INTERFACEs appeared in device manager (under "other devices" to begin with. They then installed themselves (this time without asking to look for drivers - perhaps because they were already there from step 2). This looked promising and the light on the modem was green.
  • Next I ran the ZTE connection program (this is the "control panel" program installed in your start menu. Now it was reporting the modem was "online" (note - these means communicating with the PC, not connected to the internet) which was a step forward, but it was showing no SIM card and no mobile network...
  • I created a restore point at this point, just so I could get back to this "half working" siutation if I needed.
  • I unplugged the modem took out the sim card, cleaned it, blew on it, played with it a bit and put it back in (and out again) several times; then plugged the modem back in.
  • To my horror, the first thing to appear in device manager was the flaming ZTE CDROM again! Arrrgghhhh - no modem device! BUT - it came up with the red-cross that indicates it is disabled (remember, I disabled it earlier) and then disappeared. Shortly after, the Modem re-installed and appeared in device manager.
  • HURRAY - LOOKING GOOD!
  • Next I ran the ZTE connection manager again (you know, that one in your start menu) and it came up showing the modem online AND this time showing the sim ok and showing the mobile network strength.. YAY!!!! It works...
  • Every once in a while I have to disable the CDROM/ZTE USB storage device again and unplug and plug in again to get it to work... It's a pain, but at least it's now repeatable.

Now - the only downside to this if you leave the "ZTE USB Storage" disabled is that it won't automatically start the connection manager when you plug the modem in - you'll need to choose it from your START menu.... I can live with that....

I also sometimes find that I plug the modem in and the "3" software starts, but the modem shows as offline (red). No amount of plugging/unplugging seems to fix this - but a reboot usually does. Sometimes I also have to plug the modem in and then leave it for about 2 minutes for anything to happen. It's all very frustrating.

ZTE MF622 USB Modem Under Linux

I recently bought a 3G wireless card to use with my laptop, a ZTE, model MF622.

Since the first time I tried linux, also the first time I encountered this kind of problems with my usb ADSL modem, and this being an usb modem also, I knew I was going to have troubles.

At first I tried USB ModeSwitch which has experimental support for ZTE's MF620 model with no luck. I then followed the instructions on the site to snoop the usb comunication under M$ Win to get the messages being sent to the device so I could mimic that under linux. Still, no luck.

I then tried to code a python script which used the libusb so that I could make the device switch to the modem configuration. Still, no luck.

I spent a lot of time on this subject and then one time I removed the usb_storage module while hal was waiting for the device to settle down and guess what!? After a few seconds, the device changed itself to the modem configuration. All I needed now was to automate this procedure.

Here's the udev script that does the job:

ACTION!="add", GOTO="ZTE_End"

# Is this the ZeroCD device?
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="2000",
SYSFS{idVendor}=="19d2", GOTO="ZTE_ZeroCD"

# Is this the actual modem?
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0001",
SYSFS{idVendor}=="19d2", GOTO="ZTE_Modem"

LABEL="ZTE_ZeroCD"
# This is the ZeroCD part of the card, remove
# the usb_storage kernel module so
# it does not get treated like a storage device
RUN+="/sbin/rmmod usb_storage"

LABEL="ZTE_Modem"
# This is the Modem part of the card, let's
# load usbserial with the correct vendor
# and product ID's so we get our usb serial devices
RUN+="/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x19d2 product=0x0001",
# Make users belonging to the dialout group
# able to use the usb serial devices.
MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"

LABEL="ZTE_End"

Save this file as /etc/udev.d/15-zte-mf622.rules for example(this path is a good one under (K)Ubuntu).

The next time you plug-in the modem, at first, the usb_storage module get's removed. After a few seconds, since the modem is not being handled like a storage device, it'll switch to the modem configuration. At this stage we tell udev to load the usbserial kernel module with the vendor and product id's and you'll get 3 ttyUSB devices. The /dev/ttyUSB0 will be the one you should use to make a connection.

You can now point ppp or wvdial to that device a start the connection, or, you might also want to check UMTSmon, this is an application suited for these kind of modems.

Latest 7.2 HSDPA/HSUPA USB Modem from Novatel

Ovation

Ovation

Ovation™ MC950D and MC930D 7.2 USB Modems - HSDPA/HSUPA Networks

Novatel just released its new Ovation MC930D & MC950 USB modem that will hit theoretical download rates of 7.2Mbps as well as upload rates of 2.1Mbps. This Ovation series Ovation MC950D and MC930D are designed to support various platforms including Windows, Mac, and Linux. MC950D is a tri-band modem while MC930D is a single-band type. The USB form factor makes for a truly versatile device, as it is smaller and more widely available than a traditional PCMCIA card.

No wires, no battery, no hassles
With Ovation connectivity is on the fly! Unlike other devices, Ovation MC950D and MC930D don’t use batteries. Get connected wherever, whenever, and for as long as you need; not as long as your battery will last. No costly battery replacements, no additional chargers to lug about in your baggage, no unnecessary stress. Ovation is designed to make your life easier, not give you another thing to worry about (or carry around).

Lose the CD: Software, drivers, and user guides are on the device
MobiLink™ Lite Connection Manager software and drivers for Windows are included on the device. Connect to the Internet without the need to install drivers from a CD, just plug it in, allow the software and drivers to automatically load and you’re ready!

Novatel Ovation™ MC950D and MC930D

Ovation also gives you worldwide connectivity on any HSDPA / HSUPA network supporting the 2100 MHz band. Meaning that it is also supporting Malaysian frequency band and totally works either on Celcom Broadband or Maxis Broadband.

Key features on Ovation Mc950 and MC 930 :

  • Peak download speeds to 7.2 Mbps and upload speeds of 2.1 Mpbs
  • Mobilink™ Lite Connection Manager is pre-installed, flashed in the USB modem’s memory.
  • Small and Compact. Only 70 x 25 x 12 mm (L x W x H)
  • Multi-color LED indicator for real-time service status, technology modes, and error conditions.
  • Supports Microsoft Vista, Windows® 2000, XP, Mac OS® X & Linux

MAXIS WiFi E960 Modem

Why keep good things to yourself? Surf and share with this new device. It has so many features which you and everyone else can enjoy.

• First, it's a wireless modem so you can surf anywhere on our HSDPA/3G/EDGE/GPRS network.
• No fixed lines required. No messy wires.
• Easy to set up, it can be used as a WiFi gateway to create a WiFi network. This allows everyone in a meeting to share an internet connection. No WiFi router required.
• You can make phone calls via this modem.
• Not only that, this modem also provides high speed internet access at speeds up to
3.6Mbps which makes it 15 times faster than a dial-up connection.

• Operating Frequency - UMTS / HSDPA (2100 MHz )
GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850 / 1800 / 1900MHz)
• Dimensions - 155mm X 155mm X 28mm
• Operating System for USB mode - Windows™ 2000, XP & Vista Operating Systems only
• External Interface - 4 LAN Interfaces (RJ45), 1 Telephone Interface (RJ11),
1 USB Interface - multiplex for power supply and USB Interface

Huawei E960 FREQUENTLY ASK QUESTION
Image

1. What does the Huawei E960 device enable me to do?
The Huawei E960 is an HSDPA 3G wireless gateway for consumers and enterprise users. It enables you to set up a Local Area Network (LAN) flexibly, and also to access the Internet in wireless mode. Voice calls can also be made/received by connecting a fixed line phone to the E960.

2. How many devices can share data connection using the Huawei E960?
The Huawei E960 provides wired data connection for up to 4 devices, as it has 4 Ethernet interfaces. It can also connect multiple devices over wireless LAN as well as HSDPA/3G/GPRS.

3. What services does the Huawei E960 solution offer?
The Huawei E960 offerings the following services:
• Data service
• Voice function
• High-speed routing function
• Safety and local maintenance management function

4. How do I make/receive voice calls using the Huawei E960?
The Huawei E960 has one telephone interface (RJ11). The cable of a fixed line telephone can be inserted into the telephone interface, enabling user to make/receive mobile calls.

5. How do I connect wirelessly to the Huawei E960 router to start Internet-surfing?
1. Ensure SIM card is inserted in the E960 router.
2. Connect the power adapter to the E960 router, and power up the E960.
3. On your laptop, go to Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Wireless
Network Connection
- Click 'Show Wireless Networks'
- Default SSID of the E960 wireless network is 'e960'
4. Select SSID 'e960' then click 'Connect'

6. How do I configure WLAN settings/security of the Huawei E960 router?
1. Follow Steps 1 - 4 stated above.
2. Log on to Web Management layout page of E960:
- Open Internet Explorer, input E960 default address "192.168.1.1",
- At log-in page, select 'Admin' for User Type. Default password is 'admin'
3.Click "Quick Setup". It will guide you through configuration of WLAN settings and security.

The new ZTE MF622 USB MODEM

zte MF622

China’s largest listed telecoms manufacturer,ZTE Corporation introduces their slim, compact USB Modem with code name ZTE MF622.The MF622 USB modem gives you truly mobile broadband that’s easy to use and won’t cost you an arm and a leg. It means freedom from wires and hotspots, and access to the Internet at breakneck speeds.

To use your MF622 USB modem you’ll need a few things. Your computer or laptop needs a minimum of 50MB hard disk space, 1 free USB port, a Windows 2000, XP, Vista or and Mac OSX operating system. Installation is quick and easy. And the great user-friendly Modem Manager interface to manage your connection.

zte MF622

The specification as below:

*Auto installation, no CDROM required.(The software is in modem memory)

* HSDPA/UMTS 2100MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900MHz

* Support Speed 7.2Mbps.

* Internal Antenna + Additonal external antenna possible

* Slimmest and Smallest: Dimensions: 86 x 44.3 x 10 mm

* Stylish and modern design, Weight: 40 grams Only

* Less hot, not as huawei E220 very hot after long use.

This modem is also used by many international and local telecommunication companies, such as UK’3′Network, TMN Portugal, and also by our new telco in Malaysia U-Mobile.

Now this modem can be purchased from us for RM670 only. Suitable for all operators such as Celcom Broadband, Digi EDGE Broadband, Maxis Broadband and U Broadband.

Minggu, 20 April 2008

Fujitsu MHZ2 BT: the latest 500GB 2.5-inch laptop drive


Solid state is still what gets our motors purring, but 500GB of storage in your laptop isn't anything to scoff at, either. Fujitsu's new MHZ2 BT is the second drive to hit the half-terabyte mark, but just like the Hitachi 500 gigger it's a non-standard height (12.5mm), meaning you won't be able to slap it in most laptops or enclosures -- unless you're willing to shave out an extra ~3mm of surrounding matter. Expect 'em out in May.

http://www.engadget.com

Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue Preview

Blue is the colour of the future, apparently. We could argue, but what's the point? Everyone knows the blue LED is far superior to all other LEDs and any product that uses one immediately goes up in our estimations. Of slightly less importance than the truly innovative blue LED is Blu-ray, Sony's swaggering and victorious high-definition disc format that's now seeing wider adoption in notebooks. Dell recently announced plans to add it to its entry level Inspiron 1525 at a sub-£750 price point (see: Dell Launching Sub-£750 Blu-Ray Notebook) and Sony has been offering a similar deal for a little while now.

Little wonder, then, that other companies are readying to join to the Blu-ray fan club and Acer seems to be at the top of the queue crying "pick me, pick me". Having unveiled its new Gemstone Blue range of 16in and 18.4in notebooks in the shape of the 6920G and 8920G in the middle of March, we've been handed an advanced sample of the 6920G to see what's on offer.


Most significant about both these new notebooks is the switch to 16:9 ratio displays, rather than the 16:10 found in most notebooks. Why? Because, as many of you may be aware, high-definition video is recorded in 16:9 resolutions, be they 720p or 1080p. This means you can watch video without unsightly black bars and though it's still nothing like a home theatre experience, every little bit helps.

These new machines also mark the debut of a new iteration of Dolby Home Theatre. Always a welcome addition to any notebook, this version adds new processing features, among them a new Natural Base function, support for discrete and virtual 7.1 channel audio and a new software application for controlling all the features included.

Indeed, everything about this latest range seems geared towards making watching films, video and other entertainment as easy and as pleasurable as possible. Take what Acer is calling the ‘CineDash' media console, an initially slightly bewildering array of touch-sensitive media controls to the side of the keyboard. Of course, touch-sensitive controls like this are nothing new, but Acer seems to have gone out of its way to make the CineDash as outlandish as possible.

Yet, despite its garish appearance it's actually a surprisingly intuitive interface. Set into the middle is a large touch-sensitive dial that allows you to scroll up and down, with arrow keys to the left and right and an Enter key in the middle. This arrangement works very well and is perfect for navigating Media Center. Below this are the usual array of Play/Pause, Stop and Next/Previous control buttons, while to the left is a nifty volume slider. Acer has even been considerate enough to include a Hold button, so you can deactivate the console and prevent any inadvertent contact from interrupting your viewing.

Acer has also made a lot of the speaker arrangement on the new Gemstone Blue series. Claims of "True 5.1 surround sound" through its six integrated speakers may be outlandish, but the 6920G in our possession can certainly pump out an impressive sound. This is helped by the Tube CineBass, which as the name suggests is a tube-style arrangement on the back of the notebook intended to boost warmer tones. This works well for music when combined with the Natural Bass feature, though the Sound Expander is best avoided when listening to music. In films the effect makes its presence known, though you'll still be better off plugging in a pair of speakers or headphones, which in particular sound superb thanks to Dolby Headphone's virtual surround and the warmer tones provided by Natural Bass.

Visually, the Gemstone Blue is an interesting thing to behold. Its blue and black glossy lid certainly looks the part, while the Acer logo is backlight to create a neat holographic effect. Inside, however, it perhaps lacks the elegance of some of the larger notebooks offered up by Sony and HP. The CineDash on the left is quite an imposing feature and the three-tone effect created by the light grey wrist rest, black keyboard and charcoal grey speaker grill is a tad jarring. It does also take a moment to get used to the size of the screen, since it's not as tall as the 16:10 displays one's used to seeing.


Regrettably, our sample doesn't feature a Full HD display either, resorting to a more pedestrian 1,366 x 768 HD Ready resolution that's nonetheless well disposed for movie watching purposes. In its 16in guise the Gemstone Blue will be available in both this and a Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 version. Meanwhile, the 18in 8920G will come in Full HD only and is likely to be the most desirable in terms of image quality, with Acer claiming a 90% colour gamut against the 60% one provided by the perfectly able 16in panel. This should mean noticeably richer and more vivid colours, while both feature a contrast boosting glossy finish.

As ever with Acer, perhaps the most appealing aspect of this new range is the value that's on offer, with the Aspire 6920G starting at £669 sans-Blu-ray and the 8920G at £899 with Blu-ray, a Full HD display and 4GB of RAM. Furthermore, all will feature staples such as Draft N wireless, fingerprint readers, Bluetooth and HDMI, while all but the cheapest in each range will be powered by Penryn CPUs along with nVidia's new range of 9-series discrete graphics.


For us, the highlight of the entire range may well be the 6920G-834G32Bn, which will offer a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD, Blu-ray, Full HD display and a Hybrid TV Tuner for less than £999. To our minds that's a truly superb spec for a notebook costing less than £1000. Further details of the ranges can already by found on Acer's UK website (Aspire 6920 | Aspire 8920), with pricing ranging from £669 to £1,149 for the 6920G and £899 to £1,399 for the 8920G. Overall, with the feature set and Acer's typically competitive pricing, the Gemstone Blue series could be a very good one.

NB: Some models are available to order now from Mesh Computers.

It may look a tad formidable, but Acer's CineDash is a surprisingly intuitive interface.


The touch pad is sunk into the chassis, while a fingerprint reader is discretely tucked in between the two touch pad buttons.


There's a webcam too, though it's only 0.3-megapixels.


HDMI is included, as is S/PDIF audio output and the power input can be found on the hinge.


There's a Blu-ray drive and four USB ports, three of which are shown here.


The Acer logo is backlit, creating an unusual holographic effect.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review

Acer: Eee PC killer on track for Q2/Q3

Thomas Ricker, posted Mar 5th 2008 at 6:22PM
We had the chance to corner Acer at CeBIT to ask them about their plans for that Eee PC killer. We received confirmation from Stefan Engel, Managing Director and Country Manager for Acer Germany, that they were on target for a Q2/Q3 release. Incidentally, they will continue to offer the 7-inch Packard Bell EasyNote XS (aka, Everex CloudBook, NanoBook, FIC CD260) along side the Acer branded 7- to 9-incher even though Packard Bell is all but officially an Acer subsidiary.

http://www.engadget.com

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Processor Review - Long Awaited B3

Phenom X4 9850 - First B3 CPU

While our testing for today will revolve around the new AMD Phenom 9850 processor, AMD is actually refreshing the entire lineup of Phenom processors with the B3 stepping update. AMD has also presented as confusing a picture of availability as possible to boot!



As you would expect, any of the still available B2 stepping quad-core Phenom processors have reached the end of their short lives and will either be sold at a discount or sent back to AMD. Keep your eyes open for deals! What you get instead is all quad-core Phenoms, known as the X4, running on the updated and fixed B3 stepping along with some new clock speeds. The X4 9850 that we are testing runs at 2.5 GHz, a cool 200 MHz increase over the previous B2 stepping top frequency of 2.3 GHz. It is also a fully unlocked processor, though AMD has not given it the "Black Edition" moniker for whatever reason.

Also notice that the Phenom X4 9850 is the first Phenom to use an updated bus speed of 4.0 GHz, with the 2000 MHz HyperTransport bus in full duplex mode. This also means that the memory controller on the Phenom X4 9850 is running at 2000 MHz versus the 1800 MHz that it ran at on the first series of Phenom CPUs. We are very curious to see how this change affects the processors performance overall.

The X4 9750 runs at 2.4 GHz but still uses the 3.6 GHz bus speed and the 1800 MHz memory controller speed. You can also see that AMD is making both a 125W and a 95W version of the CPU; but you'll only be able to buy the 125W version in the channel at places like Newegg, etc. In fact, of all the brand new CPUs listed in the table above, only the ones in the orange font are going to be available for you to buy; the rest are going straight to the system builders and OEMs.

That means that you won't see any results for the Phenom X3 triple-core processors today here either; AMD has assured us that a launch for the channel is imminent for April so you won't have to wait long.

We only received pricing on the channel parts as follows:
  • Phenom X4 9850 - $235
  • Phenom X4 9750 - $215
  • Phenom X4 9550 - $195
The rest of the prices remain a mystery for now, but you can see that with the triple core parts AMD is going to have price them pretty low - good news for consumers bad news for AMD's bottom line still.



Here rests the new Phenom X4 9850 on our AMD 790FX motherboard, the MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard. The four cores on the CPU are still built on AMD's 65nm process and feature about 450 million transistors on a 285 mm^2 die. With the 125W TDP rating, it's no surprise the X4 9850 uses a somewhat higher 1.2-1.3v rating.


Note: these pictures were taken with the Phenom X4 9850 installed on a Gigabyte motherboard though our testing was done on the MSI board

Our updated Gigabyte motherboard BIOS correctly recognized the processor as a Phenom 9850 and was running at DDR2-1066 memory speeds without much trouble at all.



In the BIOS we can see that the processor is indeed running at a 2000 MHz clock rate with the memory controller at a 1.25v Vcore setting.





The latest version of CPUZ properly recognizes the new B3 stepping of the Phenom processor as the X4 9850 - 2.50 GHz clock rate and 2000 MHz HyperTransport link and all. Our memory window shows the system running at DDR2-800 speeds in dual channel, unganged mode which basically refers to running each 64-bit memory controller separately rather than combining them (ganged mode) into a larger, single 128-bit controller.

http://www.pcper.com

Phenom 9700, AMD's 1st Quad-Core CPU

Top Model With Four Cores - AMD Phenom 9700

Translation: The Spider Spins It's Web.

Today marks a historic occasion for AMD. After delays of more than a year, the company can finally present its new, highly anticipated processor - and not a moment too soon. AMD needs a fresh product. While this CPU was originally meant as a competitor to Intel's Core 2 CPUs, the balance of power in the CPU arena has shifted over the past 18 months. The new processor, dubbed Phenom by AMD, is the first quad-core CPU by AMD and, as the company likes to remind us, the first native quad-core design.

The exhaustion in the faces of our editors in the Munich lab is a testament to the hard work they've put into this article over the past few hours and days. We tested all three models of the new processor, the Phenom 9700, Phenom 9600 and Phenom 9500 , running each of them through our benchmark suite. Compare Prices on AMD Phenom Processors Along with the Phenom processor, AMD is also presenting its "AMD OverDrive" tool.

With the new 7-series chipset family, consisting of the 790FX, 790X and 770, AMD is simultaneously unveiling the Spider platform. Up to four graphics cards can be set up as a Crossfire X configuration using the new 790FX chipset.

All of the current and the new motherboards and processors are fully compatible with one another.

Looking towards Eastern Europe: For the actual introduction of its Phenom processor, AMD invited the press to the Polish capital of Warsaw, where the company held a three-day press conference.

Jochen Polster, manager of AMD Germany, opened the event with a keynote addressing the press. For the first time since the acquisition of graphics chip company ATI, AMD is presenting a complete platform consisting of the Phenom processor, the 790FX chipset and the HD3800 graphics card series. With this platform, code named Spider, AMD aims to offer the basis for a computer that is affordable for everyone.

Jochen Polster emphasised that the Phenom quad-core processor does not represent a high-end model for now. AMD plans to price the Phenom models markedly lower than Intel's quad-core models.

The gaming market has always been a driving force in PC sales. With the 790FX chipset, AMD now offers buyers the possibility of creating a system using up to four graphics cards in a crossfire configuration. The appropriate driver is expected for release in January 2008.

Since we already covered the HD3800 series of graphics cards in a separate launch article, we will concentrate exclusively on the Phenom quad-core processor and the new 790FX chipset in this article.

AMD's Phenom processors - our test candidates today.

http://www.tomshardware.com