Forum Linux.général Ultracheap 3G unlocked phone to be used as a modem

Posté par  . Licence CC By‑SA.
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18
déc.
2012

By reading closer the service descriptions and contracts I get that all cheaper offers for unlimited 3G, actually some sort of sub–EDGE offer once one reaches the given 1 or 3Gb limit, they are all made for using into a phone. Putting the SIM into another device, like a USB modem or WiFi HotSpot, would be a breach of contract and reason to close the line.

I've read about guys doing it without restriction. But I also know the system always knows of this.

So do you know a very cheap, if not cheapest, unlocked phone I can get in France that does not have an issue and is recognised by Linux as a modem out of the box, by just pushing in the cable?

Also, can you point out a webpage somewhere about the initiation strings and how to start the ppp connection? Are there any particularities that you know about with the French operators? There is no restriction on language on those pages, they can even be in Swiss French ;-)

I already have a Nokia 2730, but it's locked on a foreign network. And from my experience Nokia does have a lot of deviations from the standard.

  • # Notice : french-speaking forum

    Posté par  . Évalué à 2.

    Good morning.
    Please be warned that this is a french speaking forum and that you therefore might not match the audience you expect. Please tell us if you have any trouble reading or writing french, though you specified you have no restriction on page languages.

    Bon, j'avais pris cela pour du spam, mais après lecture, la question me semble pertinente, donc je vais tenter de la traduire :

    En lisant plus attentivement les descriptions et les contrats des offres 3G illimitées bon marché, en fait une sorte d'offre sous-EDGE une fois que l'on atteint la limite de 1 ou 3 Go, elles sont toutes faites pour être utilisées dans un téléphone. Mettre la carte SIM dans un autre appareil, comme un modem USB ou un hotspot WiFi, constituerait une rupture de contrat et un motif de fermeture de ligne.

    J'ai lu que des types le faisaient sans restriction, mais que le système était toujours au courant.

    Connaissez-vous donc un téléphone déverrouillé peu cher, sinon le moins cher, qui n'ait pas ces problèmes et qui soit directement reconnu comme un modem par Linux, simplement en branchant le câble ?

    Et également, pourriez-vous m'indiquer une page web quelque part concernant les chaînes à envoyer pour l'initialisation et pour démarrer la connexion PPP ? Est-ce qu'il y a des particularités à connaître concernant les opérateurs français ? Il n'y a pas de restriction de langage concernant ces pages. Elles peuvent même être en français suisse ! ;-)

    J'ai déjà un Nokia 2730, mais il est verrouillé sur un réseau étranger. Et d'expérience, Nokia a beaucoup de divergences par rapport au standard.

    • [^] # Re: Notice : french-speaking forum

      Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

      Hello Obsidian

      You are right. But my written French is almost impossible to read. But I can fully understand it both when spoken with or without an accent or in writing. In a way that's the more clear path as Google Translate could deliver a readable French version. I could do it myself, but I'd rather be covered by shame because of my own phrasing.

      I am writing here because I am in France and my tech troubles are very much related to the particularities of the French customs and burocracy.

      I know that a box would be a more elegant solution, but the path is too complicated from an administrative point of view that I have to rely on wireless solutions.

      Thank you for the translation. But it could not have been spam: there is no link leading out, no proposition to buy something, anything.

      • [^] # Re: Notice : french-speaking forum

        Posté par  . Évalué à 2.

        Nevermind for the language nor the supposed spam. The content is OK, it's just that when a message all written in english shows up on a french-speaking forum, it usualy has been dropped there by a bot. :-)

        Good luck with our local customs and burocracy. A lot of efforts have been done to simplify them but there's still a lot of work to do there.

        • [^] # Re: Notice : french-speaking forum

          Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

          I even tried to avoid the burocracy by examining the Swiss offers as the Swiss are quite close. Only that I am going to move in a few months. And that's for sure. And probably away from the Swiss antennas.

  • # precisions ? in english then in french.

    Posté par  . Évalué à 3.

    Do you look at a GSM modem to pass call from your laptop ?

    Or do you want to use the data connexion from the phone - aka tethering (sharing) the data network from your phone through USB/Wifi-

    Tu recherches un modem GSM pour passer des appels depuis ton laptop ?
    Ou tu veux utiliser la connexion data du telephone ? (autrement appelé tethering ou partage de connexion, du telephone vers l'USB ou le Wifi)

    • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

      Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

      Hello NeoX

      I want to do the tethering in order to avoid messing up the contract. The providers say I can't use the SIM card into anything else than a phone, or it would be counted as abuse. Given that I am a heavy user, it's easy to mark that as abuse.

      So, one phone, one cable and a Fedora 17 laptop. But I can change that distribution with anything major, but Ubuntu.

      • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

        Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

        The providers say I can't use the SIM card into anything else than a phone, or it would be counted as abuse.

        so let it IN your phone and use tethering from your phone to your PC.

        • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

          Posté par  . Évalué à 2.

          IMHO this is exactly what he intends to do :-)

        • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

          Posté par  . Évalué à 0.

          Well

          I do have a wonderful Motorola, the first and probably the only mobile phone with eInk screen. There is a jack for the power adaptor and that's it.

          I do have two Samsungs. Plain GSM (2G). Can't find the cable for either of them.

          Of all of them the Nokia is the only one that has 3G support. Only that is locked.

          In all this mess I am ready to get yet another tool. Only it has to have all these qualities:
          * cheap
          * unlocked
          * someone swearing it would work out of the box to use it as a modem, maybe some webpage explaining the procedure.

          • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

            Posté par  . Évalué à 1. Dernière modification le 18 décembre 2012 à 17:13.

            french mobile phone are locked for modem use by provider,
            so you have to buy a naked phone, not attached to a provider.

            then every option will be available including tethering.
            usually tethering over USB is seen as "network connexion" so no need of modem and ppp settings.

            • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

              Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

              Can you tell me why there are so many tutorials about getting EasyTether on the android device in order to do the connection?

              Is it just spam?

              Is it because the phone might have that function locked?

              • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

                Posté par  . Évalué à 2.

                AFAIK this is for old versions of Android (1.5…, before 2.2) , which did not include "USB modem" nor "wifi hotspot" modes by default (integrated in the OS).

                AFAIK ces tutoriels sont pour les vieilles versions d'Android (1.5… bref avant 2.2), qui n'incluaient ni le mode "modem USB" ni le mode "hotspot wifi" par défaut (ils n'étaient pas intégrés à l'OS).

              • [^] # Re: precisions ? in english then in french.

                Posté par  . Évalué à 2.

                many answer regarding these posts.

                1°) might be old post for previous android, the current one is call Jelly Bean and is v4.1.2
                the previous one was Ice Cream Sandwich and v4.0.x
                older one may not get internet sharing and so need some tweak.

                2°) might be for locked by provider phones.

                in both case, if you buy a recent one without a contract (so called "naked phone") you should have all functionnality you need right out of the box.

                plusieurs reponses concernants les posts que tu trouves sur les forums

                1°) ce sont peut-etre de vieux posts pour d'anciennes version d'android,
                la version actuelle est appelée Jelly Bean et c'est la version 4.1.2
                celle juste avant etait Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0.x)

                les versions plus anciennes peuvent ne pas avoir certaines fonctionnalités et donc necessiter des logiciels supplementaires.

                2°) peut-etre parce que certaines fournisseurs verrouillent la fonction de partage pour te vendre cette option, ou pour te faire acheter une clef 3G.

                dans les deux cas, si tu as achetes un telephone hors operateur (aussi appelé "telephone nu") tu devrais avoir toutes les fonctionnalités dont tu as besoin, directement en sortant de la boite.

  • # Free Mobile

    Posté par  . Évalué à 3. Dernière modification le 18 décembre 2012 à 14:53.

    Free Mobile vends des smartphones plutôt pas chers, totalement débloqués, avec pour tous sauf le ZTE F160 la compatibilité sur leurs hotspots wifi si tu es abonné chez eux.
    Les smartphones android fonctionnent comme un modem sous Linux "out of the box", se présentent comme une connexion virtuelle usb0.

    Free Mobile sells quite cheap, fully unlocked smartphones. Most of them (actually, ZTE F160 excepted) are compatible with Free Mobile hotspots which are free to use as soon as you're one of their customers.
    Generally speaking, all Android smartphones works as a modem "out of the box" under Linux : they appear as a virtual connection named "usb0" and there is no need to worry about ppp.

    http://mobile.free.fr/mobiles.html

    • [^] # Re: Free Mobile

      Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

      Well, the next in line is a 49€ old android with wifi. Never ever toyed with android so I have no idea of how it connects. But it does make sense as it's like the iOS for the MacOS.

      Wifi would be nice if it can be set up as a hotspot itself so I can share the connection. Otherwise it would probably never leave the shelf from home.

      • [^] # Re: Free Mobile

        Posté par  . Évalué à 3.

        The Huawei you're looking at is equipped with Android 2.2, which can act both as an USB modem and do a wifi hotspot (in order to share the 3G connection).

        Free Mobile wifi hotspots may be quite useful if you're in a flat where your laptop detects a "Freewifi_secure" ssid. Internet access through these hotspots are not counted in the 3 gigabytes allowed before bandwidth reduction.

        Le smartphone Huawei que tu as remarqué est livré avec Android 2.2, qui peut être connecté comme un modem USB et devenir un hotspot wifi (pour partager la connexion 3G).
        Les hotspots wifi de Free Mobile peuvent être utiles si tu es dans un appartement où ton PC détecte un réseau "Freewifi_secure". L'accès à internet par ces hotspots n'est pas décompté des 3 gigaoctets autorisés avant réduction du débit.

        • [^] # Re: Free Mobile

          Posté par  . Évalué à 1.

          That is excellent news. Amazon.fr has few options from third parties with various hotspots. The prices are upward of 70€ for the same functionality for me. Never mind the slow system.

  • # Sony Cedar

    Posté par  (site web personnel) . Évalué à 5.

    J'ai personnellement un Sony Cedar, qui coûtait 75 euros il y a un an, ça a peut-être baissé depuis. C'est petit, léger et peu cher, contrairement aux gros smartphones, ça prend en charge GPRS, EDGE, UMTS et HS(D)PA, ça utilise un connecteur micro-USB et ça expose, au choix, un modem USB standard, une interface réseau USB standard — avec routage par le téléphone ! — ou un périphérique de stockage de masse.

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