Comments on: Safaricom, Huawei e220, Linux and you!

By: Safri Dzal

Safri Dzal — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:39:55 +0000

Wow, your post was 2008 but it just fit to what I want..Now I’m using LinuxMint11, no problem on connecting, but I cannot send/recieve SMS. Your post was a great help to me..thanks a lot.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:22:04 +0000

Tony,

Hey, if you’re on Ubuntu 10.04 it should work without wvdial. Try to plug in the modem and then right click the network menu, go to “Edit connections” and then set up a new “Mobile Broadband.”

I’ve been meaning to update this post to mention that wvdial isn’t strictly necessary anymore!

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:34:57 +0000

Hi
I am running ubuntu 10.04 on laptop. I copied the wvdial settings that you have posted here to my /etc/wvdial.conf file so as to connect to the net using my safcom Huawei E220 dongle. I got the error ‘bad init string’ after the first run. I then removed the line ” Init4 = AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”SAFARICOM” ” from the /etc/wvdial.conf settings. I am currently getting the error below:

No Carrier! Trying again.
–> Sending: ATDT*99#
–> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
NO CARRIER
–> No Carrier! Trying again.

I would really appreciate any help I can get.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:14:38 +0000

Hi allan,
My sister wants a system like mine, linux mint, because she doesn’t want to deal anymore with windows xp virus. I think of sending her Linux mint isadora (ubuntu 10.04 LTS) but not sure of how it behaves with the safaricon dongle. With Ubuntu 9.04 it worked very well (the last time I was in kenya). What about PClinuxOS 2010, has anyone there tried it on any kenyan usb modem internet providers?

By: peter

peter — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:20:11 +0000

Mike,
works fine by me. I’m using Debian Lenny. I installed wvdial, modified /etc/wvdial.conf and voila I was up and running.

By: mike

mike — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:32:49 +0000

Alan:
well its a nice thing he was able to do that, but slackware 13 was the easiest for me along with opensuse 11.2 in connecting the e220 modem, im however having real trouble with fedora 12 and debian lenny. the so called “friendlier” distros

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:04:47 +0000

Hi Carlos,
If I got you right, you have NOT yet figured it out, am I correct? I would also like to use Orange’s CDMA services, as they are much cheaper than Safaricom. The ZTE modem is not picked by Linux (I am running Linux Mint Helena), but their Huawei is. Yet, it does not connect. Any ideas or past experiences? Thanks a lot!

By: Carlos

Carlos — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:13:02 +0000

Hi, do anyone have experience connecting to Orange?

I am able to connect but the IP address that I get seem to be wrong. For example:

ATZ
OK
–> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
–> Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”bew.orange.co.ke”
AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”bew.orange.co.ke”
OK
–> Modem initialized.
–> Sending: ATDT*99#
–> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
CONNECT
–> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.
–> Starting pppd at Mon Feb 1 14:59:26 2010
–> Pid of pppd: 15754
–> Using interface ppp0
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> local IP address 10.53.0.196
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> remote IP address 10.64.64.64
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> primary DNS address 212.49.70.22
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]
–> secondary DNS address 212.49.70.23
–> pppd: (â[06][08][08]ã[06][08]

Now, I am not able to reach any of the DNS, not browse the internet.

Many thanks.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:53:32 +0000

Carlos,

Glad you could fix it by yourself. You’re in Slackware; a brave man!

By: Carlos

Carlos — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:25:42 +0000

I’m replying to my own post :-)

After some extra configuration in Slackware 13 using pppsetup, it worked perfectly.

Thanks a lot for this blog!