[Sugar-devel] adding 3G support to Sugar (was Re: Sugarizing an application)

[James Cameron]

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 03:48:22PM +0100, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> It's great to hear that. Starting with the user experience, what if we
> have a control panel section where the 3G account is setup and a
> device icon in the bottom frame that allows the user to connect and
> disconnect?

Several wireless broadband modem providers require no account
information; the authentication is done using the IMEI of the device and
the IMSI of the SIM.

Some require that the modem contain a username and password, and this is
set by AT$QCPDPP, and not by the PPP authentication.  ;-}

PPP authentication happens anyway, sometimes with irrelevant data items.

What is often needed is the Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context Access
Point Name (APN), which is set before a call using AT+CGDCONT.  Even
then sometimes it isn't needed, if it has been stored in the modem
previously using AT&W.

The actual number to dial is *99#, although this can be *99***1# if one
wants to direct the modem to use a specific collection of profile
settings (including $QCPDPP and +CGDCONT).

On Linux and Mac OS X this leads to several fields having to be made
available to a user, yet often few of them being needed.

I think I've seen Ubuntu handling this UI design issue by building a
data set of providers.  It might be possible to piggy back on some of
that work.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/