connecting through mobile broadband

[sriram]

hi i use HUAWEI - HSDPA USB Modem (Model:E220) to connect to net
this modem was provided by the ISP provider here in Oman
i use Ubuntu 9.10 release (Karmic Koala)
while connecting to internet, my USB modem is detected by the system and it appears in the desktop
But Network Manager does not display "MOBILE BROADBAND" as an option
I had to restart the system again and then only the modem is detected

Is there a way out for this ?

[James Kemp (james+ubuntu)]

I have a very similar experience with an HTC Hero sharing its network connection over a USB connection on an Acer Aspire D150 netbook. Am running 9.10 stable, and the phone is on the t-mobile network in the UK (badged here as the T-Mobile G2, but it is an HTC Hero).

I've tried this several ways and I'm certain of the behaviour. If I connect the phone, choose the share network option then the network manager attempts to connect. It reports that the connection is successful, but there is no routing that I can confirm. Ping of any non-local IP fails (even of the default gateway reported by nm). Also all the connections fail. I get the same behaviour if I attach the phone at boot time before the machine is started.

However, if I connect it all up, wait until it reports that it has connected and then re-start the machine without unplugging anything it works.

[James Kemp (james+ubuntu)]

OK, I've been looking at this some more. Today when connecting I have noticed that if eth1 (the wireless card) is up then it inhibits routing through usb0. Taking eth1 down sorts it out. However eth1 comes back up automatically after a short period (a minute or so).

Here's an example from a terminal window.

james@ace-garp:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:23:5a:65:66:31
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:1
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:28

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:24:2b:e3:94:18
          inet6 addr: fe80::224:2bff:fee3:9418/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:985
          TX packets:4 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2604 (2.6 KB) TX bytes:1400 (1.4 KB)
          Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:800 (800.0 B) TX bytes:800 (800.0 B)

usb0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 4e:f0:87:ae:15:e8
          inet addr:192.168.100.100 Bcast:192.168.100.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::4cf0:87ff:feae:15e8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:270 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2668 (2.6 KB) TX bytes:37779 (37.7 KB)

james@ace-garp:~$ ping -c 4 192.168.100.254
PING 192.168.100.254 (192.168.100.254) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.100.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.65 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.100.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.18 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.100.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2.35 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.100.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2.58 ms

--- 192.168.100.254 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3004ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 2.185/2.446/2.659/0.188 ms
james@ace-garp:~$ ping -c 4 83.105.49.21
PING 83.105.49.21 (83.105.49.21) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 83.105.49.21 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3022ms

james@ace-garp:~$ ping -c 4 www.google.co.uk
ping: unknown host www.google.co.uk

james@ace-garp:~$ sudo ifconfig eth0 down
james@ace-garp:~$ sudo ifconfig eth1 down

james@ace-garp:~$ ifconfig
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:24:2b:e3:94:18
          inet6 addr: fe80::224:2bff:fee3:9418/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:985
          TX packets:4 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      ...

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

@James,

What you're seeing is normal/expected, NM will prefer wired devices (and it seems like you wireless card shows up as one). It also can't guess which device to use for the default gateway when there are multiple devices of the same type (eg. wired), so it keeps it to the initial one. Is this on a system running Kubuntu? Regardless, please file a separate bug, since this is clearly not the same problem as for sriram.

@sriram,
If your 3G modem appears on the desktop, it would show as a CD-ROM device no? This probably indicates an issue with usb-modeswitch. Please confirm.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for network-manager-applet (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]