Sierra Wireless 595U / Sprint on Linux
July 3rd, 2007
Here’s how you use a Sierra Wireless 595U USB modem to connect to wireless Internet service with Sprint:
Insert the modem into the USB slot. lsusb should show:
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1199:0120 Sierra Wireless, Inc.
rmmod usbserial
Then:
modprobe usbserial vendor=0×1199 product=0×0120
You should see /dev/ttyUSB0, ttyUSB1, and ttyUSB2 appear. See also instructions for automating this with a similar card (modify vendor and product to above settings).
Now you will need to configure PPP for this. On Debian, run pppconfig. Your settings will be:
Phone number: #777
Username: 1234567890@sprintpcs.com (replace 1234567890 with your data card’s “phone number”, no dashes)
Password: your sprint password
Speed (BPS): 921600 (use lower numbers such as 115200 if you have trouble with this)
Port: /dev/ttyUSB0
Init string: ATZ
Here are some other helpful pages:
Verizon EVDO
Sprint and Linux
Cingular AT&T UMTS
Sierra’s Linux page
Categories: Linux
I’ve always used blank username/password with Sprint. In fact, my 720U’s install stuffs in OS X left them as blank though the windows software did fill them in.
Reply
You can probably get this card to run with the sierra driver if you’re running the 2.6.21 kernel and follow the recipe at
“http://jk.ufisa.uninett.no/usb/”.
As from 2.6.21, you can add new vendor and product IDs to an existing USB serial driver without recompiling.
595U is already in the Linus tree, and there were no code changes, only IDs added to the table. It’s quite likely that the sierra driver will perform better.
Reply
James Graves Reply:
July 5th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Yes, the sierra driver is the one you want. Kevin Lloyd has posted preliminary patches, which, among other things, add the product ID for the 595U.
The sierra driver has larger URBs than the generic serial (I think). Any any rate, you want large URBs for good throughput.
Reply
The Sierra 595U wireless aircard doesn’t seem to work that well. Well, when it works it works very well, but the problem is getting websites to stay online. It seems as if the signal goes away after about 5 minutes of useage. Trying to pull up a website is like pulling teeth. It always reads: the website is not available, or the address is invalid. Not worth $60.00 a month.
Reply
Scott Crogg Reply:
August 12th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I am also having trouble with my Sprint 595U. It connects and operates well for 30-45 minutes, then goes to “local only” (no internet connection). I think this is due to the internal battery draining, which I thought would only happen with a weak signal, but happens regardless. If this is a power issue, would the PCI card version be a better option, or even a powered USB hub? Need to figure out before my 30-day grace period is up! Thanks for any responses.
Reply
John, I was reading a post you made about restoring from Central Point Backup in Vmware.
I am having problems doing same and did not realize there was an extra sector on the floppies. How did you resolve the issue? Can you suggest a way I could restore my 1993 CPBACKUP?
thanks!
v
Reply
John Goerzen Reply:
July 11th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I have given up on that project for the moment. I don’t think I was ever able to restore those files.
Reply
Nice walk through, it has a few missing steps which I covered in my own how-to regarding the Sierra 595U
http://www.gawr.com/2007/07/25/setting-up-a-linux-gateway-with-seirra-595u/
Reply
This modem is fantastic I have had no trouble I use it in a truck thru 48 states lost network connection only once. the 595u is great the gps isn’t very good. But i use another brand of antenna for gps and the 595u for netwoek hanks sprint
Reply
Great, thanks!
Reply