LinuxQuestions.org - 3G connection works, but not seen by applications

Hi all,

I use a 3G dongle to connect to the internet on my laptop, running Ubuntu 8.04 (patched up to date). I can make a connection using either wvdial or Gnome's Network config utility in System > Administration. Once connected, the ppp0 interface is displayed normally in ifconfig, and /etc/network/interfaces contains the following lines:

Code:

iface ppp0 inet ppp

provider ppp0



auto ppp0

The problem is that applications do not automatically recognise the connection. This is just an annoyance with Evolution and Firefox 3 (I have to deselect "Work Offline" each time I open them). However, it makes Wireshark unusable, as no interfaces are shown in the capture dialogue.

NetworkManager does not recognise the connection (not sure whether it should). Running nm-tool gives:

Code:

NetworkManager Tool



State: disconnected



print_devices(): didn't get a reply from NetworkManager.

There are no available network devices.

I have tried running sudo /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/01ifupdown ppp0 up - this throws no errors, but does not solve the problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rob