Type "
Type in California time and it'll tell you what time it is in California.
Type in London time and it'll tell you what time it is in London in the UK.
Neat!
Fun with Google: What time is it?
My friend Mickey pointed out a neat trick. Wondering what time it is in a far away city or state?
Type "(place) time" into Google, and it'll tell you.
Type in California time and it'll tell you what time it is in California.
Type in London time and it'll tell you what time it is in London in the UK.
Neat!
Type "
Type in California time and it'll tell you what time it is in California.
Type in London time and it'll tell you what time it is in London in the UK.
Neat!
Blago Broke It
"Blago Broke It" is what I'll be saying next week, when all the buses go away.
OK, not *all* the buses, just the ones I use to get downtown, to go out to eat, to get to the Metra, etc.
All because Blago (A) waited until the last minute, and (B) decided to bung it all up by adding in this "seniors get free rides" stuff that nobody asked for and nobody wants.
Thanks, Governor Press Release.
OK, not *all* the buses, just the ones I use to get downtown, to go out to eat, to get to the Metra, etc.
All because Blago (A) waited until the last minute, and (B) decided to bung it all up by adding in this "seniors get free rides" stuff that nobody asked for and nobody wants.
Thanks, Governor Press Release.
Transit: Free Rides are a Bad Idea
As mentioned over here. I'm in full agreement; free fares for seniors are an awful idea. If implemented, it'll be ripe for abuse. People will steal cards, you'll never know exactly who's allowed to use one by looking at somebody, etc.
I'm not against reduced fares, but I do think it's a distraction, a ploy by Blago to try to require it as a condition of proper CTA funding. (Note that I don't think of this as a "bailout" -- that would imply the CTA screwed up. They didn't. It's Blago and the legislature who are falling down on the job, here.)
I'm not against reduced fares, but I do think it's a distraction, a ploy by Blago to try to require it as a condition of proper CTA funding. (Note that I don't think of this as a "bailout" -- that would imply the CTA screwed up. They didn't. It's Blago and the legislature who are falling down on the job, here.)
Network Solutions Domain Tasting
The blogs and media are abuzz; Network Solutions (NSI) appears to be snatching up domain names. If as described, this is a sort of domain "tasting," letting a registrar have access to a domain without paying for it, for a short period of time. For a multitude of reasons, domain tasting is lame.
I've tested it myself and confirmed that they're doing this. On January 8th, I looked up a non-existing domain on Network Solutions website: nuclearnugget.com. (I picked a name not likely to be registered.) I never bought (registered) the domain. The NSI website said it was not in use, and available for purchase.
I check WHOIS today, and find that the domain is now registered! What?!
Domain Name: NUCLEARNUGGET.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM
Name Server: NS2.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 08-jan-2008
Creation Date: 08-jan-2008
Expiration Date: 08-jan-2009
The expiration date is set for a year. Let's hope that's not the case; we'll see when it actually expires.
This sucks. It looks like a bad faith effort on NSI's part to force you into buying a domain name through them, if you happen to look it up through them. Let's say my friend found an unused domain via NSI's website, and wanted me to purchase it. I could only purchase it with NSI as the registrar. I couldn't go to Joker.com, GoDaddy, or anybody else I wanted to. NSI has a poor reputation among many geeks for overcharging for domain registrations and trying to sell you extra services; I'd never in my right mind choose to register a domain with them. But if I want nuclearnugget.com? I have no other choice. I either have to buy it from them, or wait and hope it expires, and doesn't get snapped up by a domain speculator. If I went to some other registrar, like GoDaddy, and tried to register the domain, it would not show up as available, as it looks as though it's owned by NSI.
Below is the full registration information that showed up in WHOIS.
Registrant:
This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com
13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
HERNDON, VA 20171
US
Domain Name: NUCLEARNUGGET.COM
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Domain is Available - Register it Now!
600,000 domain names are registered daily! Don't delay; there's no guarantee
that a domain name you see today will still be here tomorrow!
Register it Now at www.NetworkSolutions.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Network Solutions, LLC domainsupport@networksolutions.com
13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
HERNDON, VA 20171
US
1-888-642-9675 fax: 571-434-4620
Record expires on 08-Jan-2009.
Record created on 08-Jan-2008.
Database last updated on 10-Jan-2008 12:44:08 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.reserveddomainname.com 205.178.190.55
ns2.reserveddomainname.com 205.178.189.55
I've tested it myself and confirmed that they're doing this. On January 8th, I looked up a non-existing domain on Network Solutions website: nuclearnugget.com. (I picked a name not likely to be registered.) I never bought (registered) the domain. The NSI website said it was not in use, and available for purchase.
I check WHOIS today, and find that the domain is now registered! What?!
Domain Name: NUCLEARNUGGET.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM
Name Server: NS2.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 08-jan-2008
Creation Date: 08-jan-2008
Expiration Date: 08-jan-2009
The expiration date is set for a year. Let's hope that's not the case; we'll see when it actually expires.
This sucks. It looks like a bad faith effort on NSI's part to force you into buying a domain name through them, if you happen to look it up through them. Let's say my friend found an unused domain via NSI's website, and wanted me to purchase it. I could only purchase it with NSI as the registrar. I couldn't go to Joker.com, GoDaddy, or anybody else I wanted to. NSI has a poor reputation among many geeks for overcharging for domain registrations and trying to sell you extra services; I'd never in my right mind choose to register a domain with them. But if I want nuclearnugget.com? I have no other choice. I either have to buy it from them, or wait and hope it expires, and doesn't get snapped up by a domain speculator. If I went to some other registrar, like GoDaddy, and tried to register the domain, it would not show up as available, as it looks as though it's owned by NSI.
Below is the full registration information that showed up in WHOIS.
Registrant:
This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com
13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
HERNDON, VA 20171
US
Domain Name: NUCLEARNUGGET.COM
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Domain is Available - Register it Now!
600,000 domain names are registered daily! Don't delay; there's no guarantee
that a domain name you see today will still be here tomorrow!
Register it Now at www.NetworkSolutions.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Network Solutions, LLC domainsupport@networksolutions.com
13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
HERNDON, VA 20171
US
1-888-642-9675 fax: 571-434-4620
Record expires on 08-Jan-2009.
Record created on 08-Jan-2008.
Database last updated on 10-Jan-2008 12:44:08 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.reserveddomainname.com 205.178.190.55
ns2.reserveddomainname.com 205.178.189.55
Downtown Adventure: Wildfire
Kate and I went downtown for dinner last night. We went to Wildfire, which is a chain of steak restaurants. I'm familiar with them, as I'm from Minneapolis, and there is one located there, out in the suburbs near where I used to work.
We've been to this one before, and enjoyed it. Last night was really good, too. The service was excellent, and it was easy to find a bottle of wine that I recognized and knew we'd like.
I had the horseradish crusted filet mignon, which was wrapped in bacon and topped with a sort-of baked horseradish crust. The crust was excellent. Yummy, flavored of horseradish, but not overpowering. It came with creamy horseradish on the side, if you wanted it spicier. (I ended up using most of it on my potatoes instead.)
Kate had a trio of filet slices, each with a different crust. One bearnaise, one mushroom, and one blue cheese. I think she liked the mushroom one the best. She found the bearnaise one, in particular, to be a bit overwhelming flavored with too much tarragon.
Overall, we were mostly happy with our experience. And, it's a fair bit cheaper than some of the other fancy steak places in town. However, I do think you get what you pay for. If you're looking for the absolute best cut of meat -- this is not the place for it. Both Kate and I were surprised to have found a bit of gristle and/or marbling in what was supposed to be high end filet mignon.
If you're not the snobbiest of steak snobs, and you like the idea of a blue cheese or horseradish crust on your steak, it's worth a try. We'd likely go back, though this definitely doesn't count as our fanciest steak adventure.
We've been to this one before, and enjoyed it. Last night was really good, too. The service was excellent, and it was easy to find a bottle of wine that I recognized and knew we'd like.
I had the horseradish crusted filet mignon, which was wrapped in bacon and topped with a sort-of baked horseradish crust. The crust was excellent. Yummy, flavored of horseradish, but not overpowering. It came with creamy horseradish on the side, if you wanted it spicier. (I ended up using most of it on my potatoes instead.)
Kate had a trio of filet slices, each with a different crust. One bearnaise, one mushroom, and one blue cheese. I think she liked the mushroom one the best. She found the bearnaise one, in particular, to be a bit overwhelming flavored with too much tarragon.
Overall, we were mostly happy with our experience. And, it's a fair bit cheaper than some of the other fancy steak places in town. However, I do think you get what you pay for. If you're looking for the absolute best cut of meat -- this is not the place for it. Both Kate and I were surprised to have found a bit of gristle and/or marbling in what was supposed to be high end filet mignon.
If you're not the snobbiest of steak snobs, and you like the idea of a blue cheese or horseradish crust on your steak, it's worth a try. We'd likely go back, though this definitely doesn't count as our fanciest steak adventure.
On the Awesome Level of Discourse...
...in our [Rogers Park neighborhood] blogland community.
As I mentioned previously, Craig Gernhardt asks"Has Joe Moore created a hate in Rogers Park towards military personal?" No word from Joe on whether or not he has stopped beating his wife. However, in the mean time, I'm sure if a gnat farts in the Amazon rain forest, Craig will help us to understand how it's the fault of the local political machine.
As a follow up, Thomas Westgard takes Craig to task for publishing the Grodner police report with the names and personal information of witnesses left intact. Makes sense. Until the bit where Tom calls Craig "an irresponsible drunk."
I took issue with that in comments, and was rewarded with this from Tom: "Oh, now I think I understand your point, Al. You're saying that I should have gone after Craig on the point about the witnesses, but the attack on his drinking habits was gratuitous."
Tom agrees. "That might be true," he says, but then he goes on to call me a "lackey" because I dared to raise the issue. As he seems to have misused the word, I'm not quite sure what he actually meant.
Tom and Craig have a strange, synergistic relationship.
On another note, maybe I should try to ride the #96 bus one last time before it disappears in the doomsday scenario. I moved here from Minneapolis, which is a very, very small town as far as public transit is concerned. They don't have anything like the El, Metra, or the amazingly broad and wide bus coverage that we are lucky to have here in Chicago. I love it, as it has meant that I've had to drive barely once every few weeks, instead of daily, like I did in Minneapolis. And here we are, to the point where Illinois is about to throw away big chunks of the Chicago transit system. It's just amazing and sad. Mass transit is one of the things that makes the Chicago area special, and apparently not enough people realize it.
(ETA: This content was from my old Rogers Park neighborhood blog, now rolled into this one main blog.)
As I mentioned previously, Craig Gernhardt asks"Has Joe Moore created a hate in Rogers Park towards military personal?" No word from Joe on whether or not he has stopped beating his wife. However, in the mean time, I'm sure if a gnat farts in the Amazon rain forest, Craig will help us to understand how it's the fault of the local political machine.
As a follow up, Thomas Westgard takes Craig to task for publishing the Grodner police report with the names and personal information of witnesses left intact. Makes sense. Until the bit where Tom calls Craig "an irresponsible drunk."
I took issue with that in comments, and was rewarded with this from Tom: "Oh, now I think I understand your point, Al. You're saying that I should have gone after Craig on the point about the witnesses, but the attack on his drinking habits was gratuitous."
Tom agrees. "That might be true," he says, but then he goes on to call me a "lackey" because I dared to raise the issue. As he seems to have misused the word, I'm not quite sure what he actually meant.
Tom and Craig have a strange, synergistic relationship.
On another note, maybe I should try to ride the #96 bus one last time before it disappears in the doomsday scenario. I moved here from Minneapolis, which is a very, very small town as far as public transit is concerned. They don't have anything like the El, Metra, or the amazingly broad and wide bus coverage that we are lucky to have here in Chicago. I love it, as it has meant that I've had to drive barely once every few weeks, instead of daily, like I did in Minneapolis. And here we are, to the point where Illinois is about to throw away big chunks of the Chicago transit system. It's just amazing and sad. Mass transit is one of the things that makes the Chicago area special, and apparently not enough people realize it.
(ETA: This content was from my old Rogers Park neighborhood blog, now rolled into this one main blog.)
Cafe Suron Space; Liquor License
The space currently occupied by Cafe Suron will soon be replaced by a restaurant called Tas. The new owner, Aykut Sinanoglu, is looking for community support for a liquor license.
Joe Moore has called a community meeting to be held at Cafe Suron on Monday, January 7th, at 7:00 pm. Time permitting, I think I'll make it over there and listen in.
I'm undecided as to whether or not I'd like to see this place have a liquor license. I could be for it, as it always bummed us out that Suron was a BYOB. But it depends on how well the place is run, and I have no info on the new owner.
We liked Cafe Suron -- but -- we haven't been there for more than a year, because the service has just been unbelievably, astoundingly awful on every visit. Great food, but we got tired of waiting an hour for it and having wait staff feed us bologna about the food being up "any second now."
Joe Moore has called a community meeting to be held at Cafe Suron on Monday, January 7th, at 7:00 pm. Time permitting, I think I'll make it over there and listen in.
I'm undecided as to whether or not I'd like to see this place have a liquor license. I could be for it, as it always bummed us out that Suron was a BYOB. But it depends on how well the place is run, and I have no info on the new owner.
We liked Cafe Suron -- but -- we haven't been there for more than a year, because the service has just been unbelievably, astoundingly awful on every visit. Great food, but we got tired of waiting an hour for it and having wait staff feed us bologna about the food being up "any second now."
Military Hating Lawyer Keys Marines Car
Found this on a number of blogs, and it's worth linking to: Rogers Park lawyer Jay R. Grodner thought it would be keen to key Marine Sgt Mike McNulty's car. Over a bad parking job or not, hard to say, but if you believe what you read (and I do), sounds like Grodner ran off at the mouth with anti-military sentiment. Amazingly, McNulty stayed calm -- instead of beating the snot out of the guy, he called the cops and got him arrested. Good for him!
I'm not for the war in Iraq, but I do support people in uniform. They've got tough jobs, and they deserve our respect. This couldn't have been more un-called for.
There's a tinfoil hat aspect to the coverage from Craig Gernhardt's "Broken Heart" blog -- Craig manages to make the post about Joe Moore:
One of our Anti-war Alderman's constituents damages a military man's vehicle. This should really be interesting. Jay Grodner, living in a ward under the control of Joe Moore, a known anti-military politician, defaces a military mans vehicle. Is this what all military personal can expect when venturing into Joe Moore country? Has Joe Moore created a hate in Rogers Park towards military personal?
Multiple people replied with comments recommending sanity; restraint; this is bad on its own even though it has nothing to do with Joe Moore. "We have quite enough to lay at Moore's doorstep if we stick strictly to the truth, so let's stick to the truth, and to rational arguments," said one commenter. "How on earth does this have anything to do with Joe Moore?" asks another. "Because he got himself involve in the anti-war rhetoric," responds Craig.
Craig goes on to take another commenter to task for not using his full name. The commenter, Dave Lowitzki, clarifies who he is, and is accused by Craig of being a "shill for Joe More on this blog." He manages to slam Dave for having a college education, among other things. He tells Dave to go similarly reprimand the Second City Cop blog since they covered the story as well (strange, considering they made no mention of Joe Moore).
Craig responded to my questioning by pointing out that Joe Moore has tried to shut Craig's blog down before, and that he hasn't been sued by Joe yet (?). I was then invited to take my "punk ass" elsewhere. Heh.
I like Craig's blog. It's very insightful -- sometimes. The problem is, everything he writes about seems to have to be filtered through his personal vendettas. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Pulling Joe Moore into the picture here makes for a poor fit, and then defending it at all costs makes Craig look like he's gone off the deep end.
I don't know a ton about Joe Moore, but from what I do know, I'm not a huge fan. I'd like to learn more about the politics of our neighborhood, to be better informed. This is why I read the blogs. But, when people go off the rails, reaching for conspiracies that don't exist, it makes it hard to trust what they say; it makes it hard to tell fact from fiction.
Craig takes it really personal when somebody challenges something he says. I'm counting the seconds until either he deletes that post, my comments, or bans me from the blog.
I'm not for the war in Iraq, but I do support people in uniform. They've got tough jobs, and they deserve our respect. This couldn't have been more un-called for.
There's a tinfoil hat aspect to the coverage from Craig Gernhardt's "Broken Heart" blog -- Craig manages to make the post about Joe Moore:
One of our Anti-war Alderman's constituents damages a military man's vehicle. This should really be interesting. Jay Grodner, living in a ward under the control of Joe Moore, a known anti-military politician, defaces a military mans vehicle. Is this what all military personal can expect when venturing into Joe Moore country? Has Joe Moore created a hate in Rogers Park towards military personal?
Multiple people replied with comments recommending sanity; restraint; this is bad on its own even though it has nothing to do with Joe Moore. "We have quite enough to lay at Moore's doorstep if we stick strictly to the truth, so let's stick to the truth, and to rational arguments," said one commenter. "How on earth does this have anything to do with Joe Moore?" asks another. "Because he got himself involve in the anti-war rhetoric," responds Craig.
Craig goes on to take another commenter to task for not using his full name. The commenter, Dave Lowitzki, clarifies who he is, and is accused by Craig of being a "shill for Joe More on this blog." He manages to slam Dave for having a college education, among other things. He tells Dave to go similarly reprimand the Second City Cop blog since they covered the story as well (strange, considering they made no mention of Joe Moore).
Craig responded to my questioning by pointing out that Joe Moore has tried to shut Craig's blog down before, and that he hasn't been sued by Joe yet (?). I was then invited to take my "punk ass" elsewhere. Heh.
I like Craig's blog. It's very insightful -- sometimes. The problem is, everything he writes about seems to have to be filtered through his personal vendettas. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Pulling Joe Moore into the picture here makes for a poor fit, and then defending it at all costs makes Craig look like he's gone off the deep end.
I don't know a ton about Joe Moore, but from what I do know, I'm not a huge fan. I'd like to learn more about the politics of our neighborhood, to be better informed. This is why I read the blogs. But, when people go off the rails, reaching for conspiracies that don't exist, it makes it hard to trust what they say; it makes it hard to tell fact from fiction.
Craig takes it really personal when somebody challenges something he says. I'm counting the seconds until either he deletes that post, my comments, or bans me from the blog.
Cradlepoint CTR-350: Wifi Anywhere!
I've been coveting this little device ever since I first heard of it, earlier this year.
What does it do, you ask? Well, it couldn't be simpler. You take your Sprint EVDO USB modem, plug it into this small device (which is about the size of a pack of smokes), and boom, you've got an instant wifi hot spot.
Why would you want to do that? Sure, you can plug your Sprint modem into your laptop. But that means it only works with one computer at a time, and that computer has to have drivers and support for the Sprint modem.
What if you want to meet up with friends to do a bit of mutual geeking out? Starbucks has wifi, but it'll cost you. Wouldn't it be more fun to meet up at the local pub, even if the pub doesn't have wifi? Just bring along the Cradlepoint CTR-350 travel router, plug it into the electricity, and you've got an instant wifi access point.
Heck, if I ran a bar, or a coffee shop, I'd look at using this to cheaply and easily offer internet access to my customers. It's probably cheaper than what a cable or DSL provider is going to charge a business for a similar setup.
Let's break down what it actually costs. Sprint EVDO is $59/month. The Sprint USB modem will cost anywhere from $79-$279, depending on what your plan is and whether or not you're a new customer. And the Cradlepoint router is only $149. So for around $400 in hardware, and $59 a month, you've got an instant wifi hotspot for your business. That's got to be priced comparable, if not cheaper, than an actual commercial hotspot solution plus line and connectivity charges.
I'm not sure if the Sprint terms of service allow this, but I won't tell if you won't.
I'm not a security wonk, so I can't talk in great detail about the security capabilities of the device. At a glance, it seems to have everything you need, with support for WEP and WPA encryption.
It has an easy web-based control panel where you can configure all the relevant options. There are detailed settings that go far beyond whatever I'd need. So if you need to set up NAT, inbound port mapping, or special settings to give gamers' packets priority over others, you should be able to do configure the router to handle any/all of those requirements.
I've logged into the setup screens, but the only changes I've made were to change the SSID (visible network name) of the wifi network and change the default passwords. The device has separate user login and administrator passwords, of course.
I've left it configured so that it's open and unlocked, in a sort of “Starbucks-like” mode. By that I mean, anybody can connect, but they don't get internet access until they launch a web browser and enter a password.
This device doesn't have any flaws that I can find. I haven't done any serious throughput testing, but it seems fine and I managed to do a whole day's worth of work over a VPN connection through it yesterday. It didn't feel any better or worse than connecting directly over the Sprint modem via a USB connection.
The only problem I had at all was connecting my T-Mobile Wing cell phone to the wifi network. The web browser on my Windows Mobile phone shows the login screen just fine, but the submit button doesn't work. Maybe it's script based and not supported by the lite version of Internet Explorer found on my phone. That's a very minor issue as far as I'm concerned.
I see myself using this quite a bit in the near future. I travel quite a bit for work, and I'm always working out of different offices here in Chicago or elsewhere, coffee shops, or my home. This means just about every day I'm connecting to work from some different network, and subject to that network's flakiness or potential down time. And when our cable goes down at home, (as it has on occasion) I can turn on the Cradlepoint router, and both my girlfriend and I can jump back online and get done what needs to be done. Or, sometimes I'll have two computers running at the same time, one crunching big numbers for work, and the other with my email and RSS feeds open. Now I can keep this going, even if the network's down wherever I am.
Cradlepoint didn't pay me for this review, and I bought the device at full price directly from them. But, if they decide they like me for this, they should feel free to send me another one so I can send it to one of my friends in Minneapolis. I know he'd find it handy! :-)
(Random note: I wrote this review in OpenOffice on my new Asus Eee PC, while connected to the net via the Cradlepoint. I'm loving the Eee, and the Cradlepoint router makes it easier to share connectivity between my primary Windows laptop and the cool Linux-running Eee. Look for more thoughts from me about the Eee in the near future.)
Asus Eee PC and Sprint EVDO? Easy!
Like every other UMPC-toting geek out there, I broke down and bought an Asus Eee PC. It has a form factor I love, plus an actually-usable keyboard on which I can touch type. And at $399, it's the absolute cheapest laptop you can with this small of a form factor.
I figured it's be pretty hard to get my Novatel U720 EVDO USB modem working with it; I've used Linux before, but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to system internals and modem configuration. But, after giving it a shot today, it turned out to be super easy.
Here's how I did it.
If it didn't work, try rebooting with the USB modem connected. Also try disabling the Wifi or wired ethernet, if that's how you're connected currently.
When you're done using the modem, go back to this window and hit ^C (control + C). That should close the Sprint connection, and tell you that it has been closed.
Credit: I got much of this info from this Ubuntu Forums post. I copied and cleaned up the actual information to paste, as the forum post copy had curly quotes that kept it from working.
All told, this only took about 15 minutes to set up. If you're not afraid of creating a text file or opening a shell window, it probably won't take you any longer than that to get up and running.
I figured it's be pretty hard to get my Novatel U720 EVDO USB modem working with it; I've used Linux before, but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to system internals and modem configuration. But, after giving it a shot today, it turned out to be super easy.
Here's how I did it.
- Go download the Linux PDF howto guide from Sprint's download page. You actually might not need this, but it might come in handy. (The guide focuses on KPPP, which doesn't help us as KPPP doesn't seem to be pre-loaded on the Eee.)
- Start up the Eee, and open up a console window. (Home -> Work -> File Manager -> Tools -> Open Console Window)
- Type the following commands:
sudo modprobe -r usbserial
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=[VendorID] product=[ProductID]
For the VendorID and ProductID, get those from this chart, which came from the Sprint instructions. For example, I have a Novatel U720 USB modem, so I typed:
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1410 product=0x2110 - Now we need to create a handful of PPP scripts. Run this command:
cd /etc/ppp/peers
This will move you to the directory where these PPP scripts go. - Type sudo nano sprint and an empty text editing window will open up in the simple "Nano" editor.
- Paste in this info:
#the USB serial device of the EVDO PCMCIA card.
ttyUSB0
#your login information
user YOUR_NUMBER@sprintpcs.com
230400 # speed
#debug
defaultroute # use the cellular network for the default route
usepeerdns # use the DNS servers from the remote network
-detach # keep pppd in the foreground
crtscts # hardware flow control
#lock # lock the serial port
noauth # don't expect the modem to authenticate itself
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect"
disconnect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect" - Use the arrow keys to move to where it says YOUR_NUMBER. Delete that out and replace it with your Sprint modem's phone number.
- Hit ^X (control plus the X key).
- Answer yes when asked if you want to save.
- Hit return when it asks the filename; it will already be specified.
- Type sudo nano sprint-connect to open a new Nano editor window, then paste in this info.
#time out is 20 because sometimes the card takes a little while to initalize
TIMEOUT 20
ABORT 'BUSY'
ABORT 'NO ANSWER'
ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
SAY 'Starting Sprint\n'
'' 'AT'
'OK' 'ATQ0V1E0'
'OK' 'ATZ'
'OK' 'AT&F'
# Dial the number
SAY 'Connecting...\n'
'OK' 'ATDT#777'
CONNECT CLIENT - Save this file by hitting ^X, like you did above.
- Type sudo nano sprint-disconnect to open a new Nano editor window, then paste in this info.
"" "\K"
"" "+++ATH0?
SAY "Disconnected from Sprint." - Save it by hitting ^X, like you did before.
- Now, to connect to Sprint, type:
sudo pppd call sprint
If it didn't work, try rebooting with the USB modem connected. Also try disabling the Wifi or wired ethernet, if that's how you're connected currently.
When you're done using the modem, go back to this window and hit ^C (control + C). That should close the Sprint connection, and tell you that it has been closed.
Credit: I got much of this info from this Ubuntu Forums post. I copied and cleaned up the actual information to paste, as the forum post copy had curly quotes that kept it from working.
All told, this only took about 15 minutes to set up. If you're not afraid of creating a text file or opening a shell window, it probably won't take you any longer than that to get up and running.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)