Re: So very close, but so frustrating...

[Darren Albers <dalbers gmail com>]

On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 7:55 PM, Steve <sjh_ubuntu shic co uk> wrote:
> I've a netbook and I want to use it to access my home-office email wherever
> I happen to be... with minimal fuss.  Sometimes I'll be connected to a wired
> network, sometimes wireless, sometimes via my mobile phone (connected over
> bluetooth) - sometimes from home - sometimes from remote locations.
>
> To this end, I've set up a openvpn VPN using NetworkManager for my client
> which allows me to interact with my email server as if I am at home from
> wherever my netbook happens to be connected.  This works wonderfully well
> both for ethernet and 802.11 wireless connectivity.
>
> My problem arises when I want to use my mobile phone.  I know my hardware
> works, because I can use NetworkManager to disable wireless, then the
> following wvdial configuration to establish a PPP connection... and - if I'm
> somewhere without any connectivity - it allows me to browse the web and make
> ssh connections to servers via my mobile phone.
> --
> [Dialer Defaults]
> Init1=ATZ
> Modem=/dev/rfcomm0
> Baud=460800
> Phone = *99#
> Username = username
> Password = password
> New PPPD = yes
> --
>
>
> So far, so good... but, when NetworkManager is not aware of a network
> connection (because the mobile phone connection has been patched-through
> from the command line) it refuses to allow me to turn on my VPN.
>
> Obviously, it would be best if I could avoid using the command line at all -
> but I'm drawing a blank on how to do this.  Under "Edit Connections" there's
> a promising looking "Mobile Broadband" - which goes on to give me a dialog
> into which I can patch the phone number "*99#" and username/password (though
> these are both ignored by the wvdial approach, so don't seem to be very
> important...) - but I can't see anywhere to specify the interface...
> /dev/rfcomm0 - which, I suspect, is significant.  Furthermore, even with a
> "Mobile Broadband" connection configured in "Network Connections" - I don't
> see how I can activate this from the NetworkManager GUI... (similarly for
> the DSL configurations - though those are of no practical interest to me at
> the moment...)
>
> Is there any way that I can configure NetworkManager to allow me to switch
> between wireless connectivity and 'dialup' networking via my mobile phone?
>  It seems so close to working that it would be a shame to be forced back to
> the command line...
>
> In case it is relevant, I'm using NetworkManager Applet 0.7.0.100 - the
> latest Ubuntu default.
>
> Any hints much appreciated...
>

At this time Network Manager does not support Bluetooth modems.   I
think 0.8 supports phones if they use Bluetooth PAN but not Bluetooth
DUN.