WDS with Vodafone (Huawei B970) and Linksys WRT54GSv7 running DD-WRT

The commonest mobile broadband offerring from most operators is some form of USB dongle (with a data-enabled SIM card inside), which unfortunately limits sharing that internet connection. Welcome the Huawei B970 HSDPA wifi router. A buddy grabbed it for me from Pretoria for 2500ZAR, quite a decent price considering its functionality.

I got a cool place for it in my house, somewhere, some hidden corner upstairs, that's the only place I could get 3G+ HSDPA coverage. Unfortunately, this was not the ideal location for covering the entire house with WiFi.

I grabbed my trusty old Linksys WRT54GS v7 already flashed with an older version of DD-WRT micro, upgraded to DD-wrt v24-sp2, and set it up as a "wireless range extender" or "repeater" or whatever one may call it. Using the stock Linksys firmware, this functionality is not possible.

Step by Step:

1. Setup the Huawei (aka Vodafone) B970 router, make sure it can properly serve wifi (and net connectivity). It's a lil bit tricky, you need to create a profile for your operator (you must be equipped with your APN + user-name and password if required), then set this profile as the default. The vagaries of this step will not be covered here - refer to the packaged printed manual (in the box).
2. Grab your Linksys WRT54GS (or any Linksys wifi router with a broadcom chip). Flash it with DD-WRT, the latest build. Instructions to do this are galore on the dd-wrt website. This is a trivial process, depending on the Linksys router you have. If you are wary of this, then just buy the Linksys WRE54G. However, adventure is fun. Congratulations if you have come this far, and are ready to proceed :-)
3. Open the B970's admin interface, go to advanced wireless settings, go to "wireless bridge", enter the MAC address of the WRT54GS. Do not get the MAC address at the back of the Linksys, but in the dd-wrt WDS page. (Wireless -> WDS)
4. Open the dd-wrt Web UI, turn off the WAN interface, DHCP and firewall. Ensure the SSID, channel and security settings in the Linksys match those in the B970. Go to the WDS menu, enter the MAC address of the B970 and select LAN. Note the MAC address listed atop and ensure its the same address in the B970. Enable "Lazy-WDS".
5. In the Linksys "Basic" setup menu, enter the gateway and resolver IP address of the linksys as the IP address of the B970. By this time, I assume you have already setup the two routers to different IP addresses on the same subnet.
6. Important: Make sure they are in the same channel.
7. You should be good to go. When you open the "status" page of the Linksys, dd-wrt should show you the online 'WDS Nodes'.
8. Leave a comment and I'll help you out if you are stuck. I've been rather lazy to add screenshots from both routers' setup.

Nokia E71 - Dead: Very Hot Camera Lens Cover

So, after just 15 months of ownership (may be a little less), the much beloved Nokia E71 has given in to, I don't even know what - nothing. It's dead. All of a sudden, the camera lens cover started heating abnormally, to rather uncomfortable temperatures - even when the phone is turned off, for as long as the battery was in. The battery gets drained in just over 20 minutes, and when it's working, it's completely unreliable. I wont list here what problems there are.

A quick look online revealed many such issues, especially right after the warranty period. Of course I took it to our Nokia dealer for checking (HM Rawat (Mauritius Island)). They need a little over 45USD to "receive it and carry out basic diagnostics" :-) ! That's complete BS. I was already anxiously waiting for the Nokia N900, but this was certainly a deal-breaker. Nokia out of the window for now.

Next in-line? Yes, the iPhone 3GS wins. I hate to admit this, but time has taught me that Steve Jobs has ways of making appealing (and really cool) gadgets that actually outlast most competitors.

Phew!

Maggots in food aboard South African Airways SA160

I was quite amazed to see maggots in the food served to me on SA160 flight from Johannesburg to Mauritius. I showed the food to the senior hostess, she told me that its not her problem, but the food supplier. Talk of customer care (or lack thereof) :-(

GPS on the Nokia E71

What would have been the purpose of spending my hard-earned Mauritian Rupees towards the latest smartphone if i could not put its features to good use? You betcha. I decided to start making use of the GPS function (although, frankly, Mauritius is such a small place that my intended use of the GPS feature is merely to pose on my buddies). :-)

First things first - I combed through the phone's applications to see if there was something I could use out of the box. There was Nokia Maps 2.0 preloaded, but I found that it only has the major roads in Mauritius. In short, it was useless for me. I then looked online for the famous Google Maps, and to my utter dismay, it was worse than Nokia Maps. This left me with one option - to look for a commercial solution.

Naturally, on the mention of GPS, two names come into mind: Garmin and TOMTOM.

I decided to try Garmin first, as it is supposedly more popular. I looked on garmin.com to see if a) There is software that can be installed on the Nokia E71, b) There are detailed maps available for Mauritius. Both were available - but the Mauritius maps are made by a third party partner for Garmin - called Garmap (www.garmap.com) . I was happy to find that Garmin Mobile XT 5.0 that i quickly downloaded and installed to the gadget. I bought a license and unlocked it right away. I later downloaded and installed the Garmal Indian Ocean Streetmaps v 1.0, unlocked it and lo! I was absolutely ready to navigate!

In summary, I can report that the Garmin solution works well on the Nokia E71, but not perfectly:

• Sometimes, it may take forever to get a satellite lock. When i reboot the phone, it works right after. Another quick hack is to open Google Maps or Nokia Maps first, which takes much shorter to acquire satellite lock, then close it right away (or leave it in the background) and open Garmin Mobile XT. Even with AGPS on, this seems to be my problem, and that of many E71 users out there.
  
• The software must be unlocked for it to detect the internal GPS chip.
• It is not very accurate sometimes. A reboot also fixes this nuance.
• GPS is a battery hog for the E71 - invest in a car charger.
• Garmin Mobile XT is designe really for friving, not walking.

Otherwise, this is agreat gadget. I would recommend it to anyone anytime.

E71 - Finally Here!

So, i finally received my Nokia E71. Extreeeeemely lovely and sexy gadget! In no way does it compare to my previous Moto Q9h - well, in some features. For example, I am already starting to miss the Calender in the q9h. Windows Mobile got the calender perfectly right. I had expected to find the following features, which I still cant see:

• In the message list, ability to select multiple messages on the go, for the purpose of forwarding, deleting or other function.
• Same for e-mail.
• Home screen - ability to display more than 1 upcoming appointment.

The battery life is lovely. 5 days going, and its about to drain now, yet I am a relatively heavy user!

There are already many reviews there, so I wont re-invent the clock. I am a power user, so will update this page regularly with tips, tricks, hacks and tweaks, especially for Linux and OS X Leopard.

Bye-bye Q9h: Hello Nokia E71 or Apple iphone 3G

My Moto Q9h is not even 1 year in my posession, and I cant wait to donate it to some poor soul and get myself a new gadget! I am a fan of qwerty key-pad smartphones, and most importantly, they should not use a stylus. The next logical choice here remains the latest Nokia e71. I am thinking of the iphone 3G too, but it apparently lacks some basic functionality that is available in other gadgets of the same price. (Copy+Paste, Bluetooth file transfer, FM tuner, flash-enables browser, etc).

So, It appears that I remain with no choice but to go Nokia - the E71. I will provide a detailed review once I have it in my paws!

Cisco VPN Client disconnects immediately after VPN session is established while using Huawei E220 modem with OSX

I had quite a bit of trouble getting the Cisco VPN Client working well while connected to the internet on my macbook (OS X 10.5.2) using the Huawei E220 HSDPS/UMTS/GPRS/EDGE modem. The problem is that Huawei supplied quite an erroneous script for OS X (the script is bundled from the huawei-supplied software from www.huawei.com). 

My problem exactly:

1. Connect to the net using the Huawei E220 Successfully.

2. Start the VPN Client, connect, session is properly established.

3 After 2 seconds, the VPN session disconnects.

I did not dig very deep to find out what the problem is (as i have no more hacking time these days) but i decided to use another modem script from Ross Barkman's collection ( http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ ). The script is the "Generic HSDPA" type. 

Download and unzip the script to ~/Library/Modem Scripts/ then in the network preferences, replace the "Huawei Mobile" with "generic HSDPA modem", then in the phone number, replace whatever you have there with the APN for your service provider. This is all, and you are ready to happily and securely work remotely using the Cisco VPN Client.