How to get Orange UK's "Internet Everywhere" to work on Linux Ubuntu 8.04 with Option modem
Summary: Use this guide, and use "orangeinternet" "internetvpn" as APN.
Update 2008-09-25
The below text portions that are now in strikethrough, are about problems with timeouts and censored web sites. It seems that had to do with choosing "orangeinternet" as APN. A couple of days ago I switched to "internetvpn" as suggested by a commenter to this post, and the timeouts are gone, and my guess is the filters are gone too, eventhough I cannot verify this latter since I have already requested those filters to be lifted from my account
A couple of months ago I purchased an Orange Internet Everywhere subscription with an Option modem. I have been using it with Windows XP but problems have been mounting more and more with flaky connections and non-working drivers according to the Windows Browser. These problems are solved with a restart, but the problem resurfaces again within 5hours to 10 minutes of running. I believe this may be caused by a decomposing XP installation, but there is really no way to know. Since my laptop is dual boot I really would prefer to use Linux where it is easier to see and trouble shoot, not to mention reinstall. My laptop came without XP CDs, with the OS preinstalled.
Besides, my work makes it easier for me to use Linux than Windows, since the tools I use work better on Linux. When I got Internet Everywhere in late May, the guide I found for Linux was this French one. I never managed to get out on the Internet with it and gave up after a number of attempts and hours of trying.
Since the situation with my XP is getting grave, I decided yesterday to scour the Internet again and found this guide at pharscape. It uses a newer Interface to the Option modem. I followed the guide and everything worked with these cautions:.
- Be careful to not have spaces in your directory names when doing the install. "make" will fail.
- Use "orangeinternet" "internetvpn" as APN in the HSOConnect preferences. "internet" did not work for me
- Coming from CentOS I wasn't sure first on how to install the .deb packages. The syntax is "sudo dpkg -i filename.deb"
I am writing this blog post on the HSO connection :-)
I am not sure if it supports the 7.2 Mb/s speed on Linux.
Update 15:48
I think I do get good connection speeds because HSOConnect says "UMTS" in the screen shot. However I am blocked from lots of web sites by some kind of filter at Orange:
"Orange Safeguard has classified this page as only suitable for people over the age of 18. You currently have Orange Safeguard turned on. If you wish to turn this off then please call Orange customer services by dialling 150 on your Orange phone..."
Apparently Ubuntu support forum pages are not suitable for young eyes.
My guess is that the APN I have chosen is different from the one I use on Windows, because I do not get these blocks when using the service there. However it seems impossible to figure out what that APN name would be. I have called the 07973 100 150 number with Orange but all paths in their voice computer system leads to a "Sorry we cannot take your call" (or similar). Maybe their system is down. I cannot cal just "150" as the blocked page message says, for the obvious reason that I am using an Orange Internet modem, not a phone.
Update 21:07
The connection is now flaky on Linux as well. However it doesn't crash the drivers or make a hard reboot necessary, so I've got that going for me which is nice. The flakiness therefore must lie outside of the computer, either in the modem, the base station, or in temperamental coverage of central London.
Update 2008-08-15
The connection went back to stable again, and everything works fine. I got rid of the Safeguard block by strolling down to my local Orange shop and called from there. There seems to be a timeout on http connections, but I have solved that by tunneling those requests. I cannot for some reason connect to Google Talk, but ssh works well; Google Talk worked on XP. I wonder what the difference is...