How do i start my ppp0 device without NetworkManager ?
 

Hello,

I have a cricket usb mobile broadband. I use the ./flipflop to change the mode. From that point i can easily right click "networkmanager" and then click the radio button by the mobile broadband device and then it will start it with no problem. It then shows up as ppp0.

My problem is network manager totally screws up my configuration, I do everything by hand using ifconfig and iptables through scripts and such. Just having network manager running is kind of messing everything up. I could fix up everything through network manager but i would rather not, since its a server its not even running gui most of the time.

anyway is there any way i can start this device just by typing something in the command line ?

thanks

There is, but I'm most familiar with using KPPP for my ppp0 connection (which I don't have anymore anyhow since going onto broadband).

You can start pppd (the PPP daemon) manually, producing the same results basically, as you would get using wvdial or KPPP or a similar ppp tool.

Once the daemon is running & connected appropriately, you would bring up the PPP0 device, and if necessary, add gateway, nameserver, or routing information as required, if they aren't taken care of automatically by pppd.

The place to start, in my opinion, would be the pppd man page:

shell$ man pppd

and go from there. I hope this gets you in the right direction :)
Sasha

Ya i had been messing around with wvdial ... it seems to work
but then

Hm..

Yeah, I'm not really knowledgeable on using pppd with a connection that doesn't actually "dial" something. What is the nature of the internet connection? Like, you say "mobile broadband device", so this to me, means you're probably using a laptop, connecting to some sort of WiFi hotspots or something like that. Is this correct? And do you generally use an account name and/or password, or what? I may have initially been mislead by the fact that the device was named "ppp0" -- where usually I would expect a broadband device to be called "eth0" or "wlan0" or something like that, unless you're using some sort of PPPOE.

Further details like that may enable someone (else?) to better help get your connection up & running :)

Sasha

cricket usb mobile broadband ... so its like a cell phone. Its a little usb thing you plug in and it connects you to a satellite that gives you internet. Looks like im sol i might be better off just making it work with network manager ?

Well, there are two ways to look at that question:

1) If it works with network manager, it can work *without* network manager.

2) It might be worth it for the time being, to set up network manager properly, to make the device *work* -- this will get you connected once and for all, and spare you this frigging around and experimenting for the time being :)

However, if you would, consider the following: IF you do at least get the thing *connected* (even if you don't have the network manager thing totally nailed down) it would be interesting and useful to learn more about how the device is being configured BY network manager, so that you, and/or other users of similar devices, can know how to get the thing to work, WITHOUT network manager. There are surely other folks(and maybe you too) who would like to be able to connect via the commandline, so it'd be good to know how to do it.

Also, could you post the output of a command for me please?

shell# lsusb -vv

and also, what's the make & model # and any other info written on the device or on the sticker it may have on it?

Thanks!
Sasha

(I'm willing to investigate further on the command-line angle, while you may wish to make it work with Net Manager meanwhile, just because it appears easier for the moment)

BTW - that sounds really cool, and very handy. If I may ask, is it an expensive service to subscribe to, or reasonably priced?

Hey, sorry went to bed last night. The service is $40 and somewhere around .7Mbps, i havent used it a lot though but im replacing my comparable comcast 1Mbps. But my whole network goes through my homemade router and stuff, i got it all to work pretty quickly on a single windows or ubnutu machine.

Here is the info http://www.mycricket.com/broadband/

this is lspci all you see here are the 3 nic's in the machine
I wish there was some way i could see what the hell networkmanager is doing when it connects it ? In network manager i just click the radio button by the "usb mobile broadband device" and in a few seconds i'm connected and ifconfig gives a new ppp0 device.

here is the device as listed by lsusb -vv

conclusion
 

Well i got everything working with network manager, it was just a matter of giving it my manual ip's and such. Then i changed my firewall script to route from the new mobile broadband usb (cricket). It all worked great ! I now had a usb mobile broadband dongle working and sharing the internet between about 5 computers on the network + wifi.

so here is a summary of the results
cricket .67Mb/s @ $44/mo
comcast .95Mb/s @ $44/mo

So i lose about .20Mb/s but i gain portability and maybe more reliability. I had issues with comcast thats why i was changing.

I called comcast to cancel and guess what they offered me, my same service for a year @ $24/mo. Thats a savings of $240/yr over either my old comcast or this new mobile thing. So i took the bait and signed up for that. Now i get the almost 1Mb/s internet at half the price.

I think ill discontinue the cricket service after this month. No matter what I only ended up paying max $70 for the cricket first month and dongle thing, and i saved $240. I might just sell the cricket dongle thing on ebay and make most of my money back.

thanks for all the help, its good to know i could easily do all this with a mobile usb dongle. I could setup a lan on a bus and have internet access or something :)

Well that's cool :) looks like it all works out for the best, AND you're saving some money.
No problem, happy to have helped, or tried to! Maybe you CAN now setup a Wifi hotspot anytime you're on a bus -- and of course, charge a small fee for the service to the other passengers ;)

Cheers!
Sasha