[plug] bigpond wireless (maxon) modem

[cobel at bigpond.com]

well, the update is this:

I have tried a few distros and only kubuntu feisty fawn works with the usbserial module and no other fuss. however the dial up number to use is:

*99***1#

not the number quoted on the quozl instruction page (it must have changes since that was written.

I still do not see ppp0 in the knetwork config but that doesnt matter as it works fine with firefox (not with konqeror - that does not work)

I have to say though, that it is just typical of telstra (or bigpond?) to supply a modem that doesnt work with macosX (or didnt work?) I like to avoid windows at all costs and was quite dissapointed when I couldnt use this modem with linux or our mac. I am not very good with linux so patching modules and trouble shooting complicated things is beyond me.

for now though, this seems to be going great I had to remove the dell utilities partition from the beginning of my hard drive to get kubuntu to see the drive and install to it, but thats OK since I have ditched windows aswell (again) I might even be able to share the internet properly now with the other computers here too.

and for those who are using bigpond services - did you know you can download heaps of different linux isos from the file library and it is unmetered - it doesnt add to your download limit.

http://files.bigpond.com/

> Subject: [plug] bigpond wireless (maxon) modem
> 
> 
> > Hi there, I have the bigpond (maxon) blue desktop wireless modem (too far 
> > out for anything but satt or wifi) and I am trying to get it going with 
> > linux. At the moment I am using it successfully with Kubuntu feisty fawn, 
> > getting 540kbps
> >
> > I used the instructions at : http://quozl.netrek.org/bp3-usb/
> >
> > **note that the location of the kernel module varies as per distribution, 
> > and the "\" symbol in the commands means 'line break' - that might sound 
> > obvious to some, but not to everyone! trust me...
> >
> > I used the usbserial module (since I dont know how to patch the airprime 
> > module), once that was done and set up with kppp the computer could ping 
> > google, and do apt-get functions, but konqueror can not browse, every 
> > attempt returns an error like - 'An error occurred while loading 
> > http://www.google.com: Could not connect to host http://www.google.com/.'
> >
> > I then had the idea to apt-get firefox, and that does browse the internet.
> >
> > so - problem sort of solved, except that the interface ppp0 does not 
> > appear in Knetwork setup so I cannot configure it in any way to be the 
> > 'default' route, I think this is why konq cannot use the internet 
> > connection? It does show up in ifconfig, however.
> >
> > anyway, at present I am running kubuntu from the CD as I am also having 
> > dramas installing it and so far other distros i have tried have not been 
> > able to use the modem at all (Puppy Linux, Centos, Mandriva, Suse)
> >
> > well, anyone with any recent experience with this modem? any input would 
> > be helpful, any other distros that are working fine with this modem?
> >
> > and thank-you to that very helpful soul at tech support who actually 
> > talked to me instead of giving me the standard "we dont support linux, we 
> > cant help you (now just go away please)" response - you were only the 
> > fourth transfer, not too bad for a phone call to telstra/bigpond
> >
> > ;)
> 
> 
> Hi Cobel,
> 
> I'm Chris from bigpond. I think Tomasz is referring to TelstraG Next rather 
> than Bigpond NextG. Unforuntely I had a ride-on at the time which who kept 
> telling me to not to support Linux either ):
> Actually it looks like you have got much further than I have. I wasn't even 
> able to ping when I tried it on my external Maxon usb modem but then again I 
> don't even have an active account I was trying trying with the 
> newwbbuser at bigpond.com acct which is only able to connect to the 
> registration server. I might have another try again this weekend.
> 
> If you think using Linux with NextG has dramas you should see the trouble we 
> have been having supporting the Mac. We were supposed to support Maxon USB 
> NextG devices on the Mac at the beginning of the year yet they only just 
> work now with the latest connection manager and firmware update and most of 
> us still dredd getting a call from a Mac user. A lot of our own internal 
> knowledgebase articles are out of date for the Mac and some of the 
> consultants have written their own support guides which we can access from a 
> shared drive in the network.
> 
> Unfortunately I don't think it is a winnable battle me for me to campaign 
> Bigpond to support Linux but I could help write a guide that could be made 
> available on the internet.
> 
> Please let me know how it has been going for you in the meantime and I was 
> actually glad and excited to (finally) hear from a Linux user.
> 
> best regards,
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
>