Connecting Fedora Core to Airtel GPRS using Nokia 6020 and CA-42 cable

Hi all,

I am providing this info here so that it might be useful to anyone out there who are trying connect their Nokia 6020 to internet using CA-42 data cable.

After some Googling, I was able to connect my FC4 and FC5 to the internet (GPRS internet provided Airtel in India) using my brand new Nokia 6020 and CA-42 data cable. In fact, I am writing this post from my FC5.

Anyways, this is what I did:

1. Su to root and enter run modprobe using the product and vendor ID of CA-42.

code:

[ilyushin@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost ilyushin]# /sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x0421 product=0x0802

2. Now connect your 6020 to the PC via the CA-42 cable.

3. Then run the command "wvdialconf create"

Code:

[root@localhost ilyushin]# wvdialconf create

It will scan the ports for modem. It should find a Nokia modem in one of the ports. In my case, it was detected in '/dev/ttyACM0'.

4. Now, open KPPP. Provide the root passoword when prompted.
Now create a new connection with the following Account details:

Name : Airtel (anything!)
Number : *99#
Authentication : script-based (select from list)

The rest of the Account settings you can keep as default.

Now click on the Modem tab and provide the following Modem details:

Name : Nokia 6020 (anything!)
Modem : /dev/ttyACM0 (select from list)
Speed : 115200 (select from list)

Save it.

Now, from the KPPP main window, select our new connection and click on "CONNECT".

Thats it ! After "Modem Ready" and "Logging on to Network" messages displayed, KPPP will establish the connection and will minimize to the task bar.

Happy surfing!

If you face any issues, please let me know. Though I am not an expert, I might be able to provide some kind of help.

rTorrent Cheat Sheet

Note: If you’re in a real hurry, the link to the cheat sheet is given at the end of the post. Enjoy!

In my quest for that perfect Bit-Torrent client for Linux (read: one that supported scheduling ), I stumbled upon countless worthless ones. Only one managed to impress me.. and it was NOT uTorrent.

uTorrent (on Wine of course) seemed to fit the bill perfectly – but then scheduled downloads mysteriously failed to complete. Only god knows why. So off I went in search of a better solution..

.. and that’s when I came across rTorrent. I’ve always like CLI solutions to problems (even when that pretty GUI client slaps you in the face and reminds you it’s there) and rTorrent’s minimalistic but powerful features impressed me. It supports scheduling, of course.. (albeit not in as elegant a way as some other solutions) and the learning curve wasn’t too steep either. Besides, it was optimized for high performance and the creator claims a 3x improvement in seeding speeds.. Phew!

In case anyone is interested, the first rTorrent resource to check out is the official website. The man-pages are somewhat outdated (especially some keyboard shortcuts which haven’t been updated in a while). Read the official User Guide here.

Scheduling is accomplished using the schedule = option in the main config file (.rtorrent.rc in your home folder). For BSNL night-birds, the following commands may prove useful (this is what I have in my .rtorrent.rc):

# BSNL Scheduling...
schedule = night_dl,03:00:00,0,download_rate=0
schedule = night_ul,03:00:00,0,upload_rate=48

schedule = peak_dl,08:00:00,0,download_rate=1
schedule = peak_ul,08:00:00,0,upload_rate=2

Just to be clear, download/upload rate of zero turns off throttling, it doesn’t throttle the rate to zero. Also, check out the man-pages for info on the format and the meaning of the various parameters for schedule.

Finishing off, I’d like to add that I’ve made a little “cheat sheet” or quick-ref card for rTorrent . Do check it out and send in suggestions!

rTorrent Quick Reference Card [pdf]