doc/www/modem.php

   1 <? createHeader("Using your BlackBerry as a USB Modem"); ?>
   2
   3 <? include ("barry.inc"); ?>
   4
   5
   6 <div class="subHeader">Introduction</div>
   7
   8 <p>The Blackberry has the ability to act like a Hayes compatible modem,
   9 complete with AT commands.</p>
  10
  11 <p>In order to make use of this feature you will need the Barry command line
  12 tools installed on your system.  See the <? createLink("install", "Install"); ?>
  13 page for more details.</p>
  14
  15 <p>You will need three components to connect to the internet:
  16 <ul>
  17         <li> a working Barry install, version 0.13 or later </li>
  18         <li> a working pppd and matching kernel </li>
  19         <li> an options file and chatscript for your Blackberry provider </li>
  20 </ul>
  21 </p>
  22
  23
  24 <div class="subHeader">If You Installed Barry's Binary Packages...</div>
  25
  26 <p>If you installed Barry's binary packages, specifically barry-util,
  27 then default ppp options and chat scripts are installed automatically
  28 for you.  Currently there are scripts available for the following
  29 providers:
  30 <ul>
  31         <li> Rogers </li>
  32         <li> Verizon </li>
  33 </ul>
  34 </p>
  35
  36 <p>For example, to run the default Rogers connection script, use the
  37 following command as root:</p>
  38 <pre>
  39         pppd call barry-rogers
  40 </pre>
  41
  42 <p>If none of the default script work, see the Troubleshooting section
  43 below.</p>
  44
  45
  46 <div class="subHeader">If You Installed Barry From Source...</div>
  47
  48 <b>Configuring PPPD</b>
  49
  50 <p>Sample configurations are provided in the source tarball, and if you are
  51 using a binary package, they should already be installed for you under
  52 /etc/ppp/peers and (depending on your system) /etc/chatscripts.</p>
  53
  54 <p>Copy the desired options file to /etc/ppp/peers and edit the file,
  55 making sure that the paths are referencing the correct files.
  56 <ul>
  57         <li> <b>pty</b> - must point to the location you installed Barry's
  58                         pppob program. </li>
  59         <li> <b>connect</b> - must use the correct chatscript </li>
  60 </ul>
  61 </p>
  62
  63
  64 <b>Establishing a Connection</b>
  65
  66 <p>If you named your options file "barry-rogers", then to connect to the
  67 internet, run:</p>
  68 <pre>
  69         pppd call barry-rogers
  70 </pre>
  71
  72 <p>Some systems may provide wrapper scripts for running pppd.  For example,
  73 Debian uses "pon" and "poff".</p>
  74
  75
  76
  77 <div class="subHeader">Troubleshooting</div>
  78
  79 <p>Some devices don't respond to the PPP commands at first, but after
  80 the battery is removed and reinserted, modem functionality works.  This is
  81 likely due to the protocol not being completely understood, but resetting
  82 the device in this manner is enough of a workaround to get it working.</p>
  83
  84 <p>If you still run into trouble, the first task is to increase debug output
  85 and to log it.  PPPD supports increased logging if you add the following
  86 lines to the options file:</p>
  87 <pre>
  88         debug
  89         nodetach
  90 </pre>
  91
  92 <p>Barry's <b>pppob</b> program also supports verbose protocol logging.
  93 Change your options file and edit the pppob command line.  For example,
  94 if your pppob is installed in /usr/sbin, set the <b>pty</b> option to:</p>
  95
  96 <pre>
  97         pty "/usr/sbin/pppob -l /tmp/pppob.log -v"
  98 </pre>
  99
 100 <p>Be sure to remove these options once you have your connection working,
 101 as the above causes your entire internet traffic to be logged to the
 102 output file.</p>
 103
 104 <p>If your provider is not yet supported by the sample options files,
 105 you will need to do a little digging on your own.  If you are able to
 106 tether your Blackberry using a Windows system, you can duplicate the
 107 login information in your chat script.</p>
 108
 109 <p>You may also find example configurations for your provider on the
 110 various Blackberry forums available online.</p>
 111
 112 <p>If you are still having trouble, please send an email to the
 113 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=153722">mailing list</a>,
 114 including:
 115 <ul>
 116         <li> the version of Barry you are using </li>
 117         <li> the output from pppd </li>
 118         <li> the log output from pppob </li>
 119         <li> the ppp options file and chatscript you used </li>
 120 </ul>
 121 </p>
 122
 123 <p>The logs from pppob can be fairly large, so limit the size to a single
 124 run.</p>
 125