Re: [tlug] b-mobile wifi and Linux

[Bruce Howard <bruce@example.com>]

On Feb 16, 2005, at 2:54 PM, Drew Hamilton wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience getting b-mobile's WiFi to work under
> Linux?  I have found a nice step-by-step set of instructions, written
> in English, for getting the PHS internet to work, but nothing, in 
> English
> or Japanese, about WiFi.
>
> The product literature says that the WiFi is only available to Windows 
> XP
> users (ie, not even Win2k, Apple, etc.).
>
> Speaking of which, does anyone have any experience to share about 
> B-Mobile
> at all?  Service quality, etc?

I used b-mobile for a year with my zaurus sl-760 (as well as an older 
sl-5500) running both the stock linux installation from sharp and 
openzaurus (openzaurus.org).  I expect it would work fine with pdaxrom 
(pdaxrom.org).  I also had it working briefly on my desktop linux 
laptop which at the time ran redhat linux (circa 8.? or 9.?).

In each case, I used the standard ppp setup utilities under each of the 
various distributions.  As I recall, the bmobile cf card looks like a 
standard modem attached to the serial interface.  On my laptop, I 
plugged the cf card into a cf-to-pcmcia adaptor.

In terms of service, I found coverage totally fine in Tokyo.  Seemed to 
recall having problems on Sadogashima (though I think that was only 
when I was away from town (Ogi village).  Throughput varied 
tremendously depending on time of day.  Interactive logins worked best 
under ssh with compression enabled.

My most typical use was on the hanzomon/shin-tamagawa line where I 
could connect anytime the train was within a station or pretty much 
continuously once the line goes above ground from Futakotamagawa-eki 
onward.  I was told phs doesn't work if you are moving faster than 
30km/hour but never really had problems connecting while travelling on 
buses and above-ground trains.

										Cheers,
										Bruce