NOW $700 - PCI PCMCI Slot Card for EVDO REV A connectivity
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Wow….I thought this one was going to wither away and die. I don't have a need for the PCMCI option anymore but I will still honor my request. About time that I contribute anyway. Definitely something I will be able to push to my clients in the future!!!
Thanks,
Mark
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I have a USB version that might be coming available soon. I am going to try and get it working there and hopefully it will work in a similar fashion on the pcmcia version, etc.
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I got the elan P311. It does it's job and shows up nicely as a cardbus slot. I can plug a 3Com carbus nic in and it comes right up. This particular card (low profile) has major fitament issues with most motherboards I tested it with, but whatever, I found a test box where I can manage to get it into one of the slots.
My test card (Verizon, Sierra Wireless, I think) went out on loan, so I borrowed a Sprint Pantech PX-500 card. No luck. I was thinking it might go something like this: http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-45602.html
But it doesn't seem to find a driver for the modem. Perhaps this card is not supported. I see some errors when booting:
cardbus0: CIS pointer is 0
cardbus0: Resource not specified in CIS: id=10, size=1000
It does detect an NEC uPD 9210 USB controller (ohci0, uhub4, usb5) but no ucom or ugen device.
It seems that it should show up like a usb modem off of the usb controller off of the cardbus…
I will have to get the Verizon card back and try with it...
Tested on a 1.2 beta1 install and on a generic FreeBSD 6.2 install. -
Joseph Kohan (razor2000 on irc) is sending me a card to test. I will be starting on this bounty as soon as I receive the card.
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Any update on testing progress?
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I never received any hardware.
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The Verizon card I want to test is still in use for another month or so, but I did 'borrow' it for a few hours. It is not a Sierra as I was hoping, but a Novatel V620 (I think, don't have the notes handy). Didn't have time to mess with it, but it does not come up correctly. Behaviour is similar to the Pantech. Some preliminary research seems to indicate that people have been able to get the card working under FreeBSD with some hacking. I won't be able to try until I can get the card again. I'm trying to see if I can get yet another card to test in the meantime…
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I have the hardware to do this and someone willing to send more once the card I have works, just haven't had time to make it happen yet.
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What is the status of this bounty? When do pay for the bounty?
Thanks,
Mark
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If it helps, I've got a spare Kyocera KPC650 (with contract), and a PCI-PCMCIA card… and I can put this into a pfsense box that I could provide access to. I just can't send any of this hardware out to you.
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Sorry but no, that does not help.
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hmmm..No answer to my question. Am I missing something?
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The status is that no one is working on it yet. I may be able to snag the Novatel again to test, but I can't send it off. It's a company card and has to be available in case in case someone is working off-site. Right now, I can't get one purely for testing, so I'm stuck grabbing cards when they are not deployed.
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I have access now to a 3G sprint USB card. I plan on taking this bounty.
Please if you have offered cash towards this please let me know that you are still interested.
Thanks!
PS: this will also add "dial up modem" support as well. -
Our bounty still stands. What model of card are you getting? I might be able to get another card to test builds with when this starts rolling.
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I am still in. Just let me know when to pay up! Curious why you went with USB instead of PCMCIA with PCI adapter? One thing is good is it doesn't take up a slot for a NIC.
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Alright. Here's an update. These mods will require some kernel changes and such so I will get right on this after 1.2 is released. 1.2-RC2 will be released tomorrow so we are very very close to having 1.2 out the door.
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I think this would be an excellent feature for pfSense. I have a Soekris net4511 and want to be able to use the Sierra wireless 860 HSDPA card on it. It's just PPP, that's all. I made a feature request ticket: http://cvstrac.pfsense.com/tktview?tn=1516
EVDO and HSPDA cards natively supported in pfSense would be a Godsend. I can provide the hardware for a month or two if it will get this going. Soekris net4511, 2GB flash, and Sierra Wireless 860 HSDPA card on Cingular/AT&T. I get 1.1mbit down 58kbit up on the card in the Dallas TX area.
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Gents,
I'd be happy to add to the bounty if this support includes Sierra 875U support as well (same Sierra driver apparently supports 850/860/875/875u anyway).. Will add another $600 for a "newbie"-ready solution quickly :) with some basic doco!
It would need to be another WAN port option that can support failover between LAN ports and 3G card. (What we are doing is failing over between 3x ethernet links and 3G in a mobile situation where there is satellite options etc.
Cheers!
Andy -
Did this bounty ever get completed? Any updated status?
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I was reading over at evdoforums and came across the following thread. http://www.evdoforums.com/thread6875.html This started to make me think. Would the mini-pci slot on the wrap board support this card once driver support is built into pfsense? This would be a pretty slick setup, having everything fully contained inside the box besides an antenna.
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I believe that all the WRAPs, etc have mini-pci slots and the EVDO cards are mini-PCIe cards, and would not fit.
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Just a bump…unless there is an update...... ;D
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Edit: I may have spoken too soon. I was looking to come over here from m0n0wall but just realized that the embedded version of pfSense requires 128mb of ram and I only have 64 so unless the solution can be easily ported over to m0n0wall, I will have to withdraw my offer.
I can add another $100 for a solution that works with a Sprint Aircard 580 (Qualcomm MSM 5500) as a failover solution in case our dsl goes out. It doesn't have to be an automatic failover in my case as the card won't be permanently in the Soekris 4521, it will be manually inserted if the dsl goes down. Of course an automatic failover option would be nice too. ;-)
I can provide remote terminal access to the Soekris board and card if it helps.
Pyramid linux is supposed to have this feature but I have had several issues with Pyramid so I am looking at other distros.
Thanks,
JeffP.S. By the previous subject line, I am assuming this brings the bounty to $700
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I don't think anyone monitoring this post gets notified by a modification. Try posting a new message. As to your question you might want to direct that to one of the devs.
Mark
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If we can get a working solution for this, I want to port it to m0n0wall as well if it's acceptable to Manuel.
3G has proven very difficult to implement because virtually every card requires its own custom kernel patch, so I don't know how likely it will be that we'll ever see a solution supporting a large number of 3G cards. We'll have something that supports at least some cards in 1.3.
Those who are interested in this, could you please post the specific make and model of the card you are wanting to use?
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Hi CMB,
Is this true for USB EVDO Cards? I think Sullrich is testing with USB unless PCMCIA and USB are no different regarding the developement. Also Since it has been a while it might be a good idea to see who is still interested in this bounty. I currently do not have a need since I used an alternate solution but I will still honor my bounty. I actually like the fact that I am no longer tied to a specific card so if one of my customers goes down I can easily rush in and provide Internet access. I also would like to offer this as an option for managed services…failover option.
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Kyocera 650 (PCMCIA)
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@cmb:
3G has proven very difficult to implement because virtually every card requires its own custom kernel patch, so I don't know how likely it will be that we'll ever see a solution supporting a large number of 3G cards. We'll have something that supports at least some cards in 1.3.
I think a native PFSense solution would be great. Until then the best way I see of doing this is with the CradlePoint CTR350 you can bridge the EVDO to the ethernet port on it and plug that into the WAN or secondardy WAN on PFSense.
http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/2124/63/Please note: I don't work for CradlePoint, EVDO info, or 3Gstore.com. Just think the technology is cool and could work nicely with PFSense.
@cmb:
Those who are interested in this, could you please post the specific make and model of the card you are wanting to use?
I prefer any of the EVDO Rev A. USB options because they would work on the both the full and embedded hardware.
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Haven't looked at this stuff in a while. A solution for me would have to be usable with hardware that is currently available from providers in my area. A quick check shows that in the Chicagoland area, both Sprint and Verizon offer the Sierra 595U and the Novatel U727 as USB options, so support for either of them would be ideal. Something that could adapt a currently available pcmcia card to USB/Ethernet would also be acceptable. I have pretty much given up on using a pci adapter- only certain models work, there are fit issues, and they're not a solution for Alix/Wrap boxes.
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I would like to see this happen as well. I have a Pantech PX500 Rev. A. http://www.pantechusa.com/web/guest/px500
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If people are still interested in this i would like to take this bounty.
Though it requires test hardware from all parties interestred in the bounty or at least a remore freebsd machine with console access and the card pluged in.Waiting for answers from pledgers and response to the above comments.
Ermal
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It's been a while, but I can still get the money for this bounty allocated. If the bounty is accepted we will be getting a new account for testing. I'm looking at getting Sprint with the Novatel Merlin u727 usb-modem. The Sierra hardware is changing- the 595u seems to be being phased out for the 575.
There looks to be some experimental support for some cards, including the u727 here:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/p4-projects/2008-March/025214.html
It would be easier for me to setup remote access to a test box than to ship the equipment, but if needed can work something out.
Just to recap, our general guidelines are:- Device is usable as a normal interface in pfSense, able to used for failover, etc.
- Must be usable with hardware I can get new now, preferably a modem I can get with the account.
- USB connectivity seems the only usable solution.
- The code is open source / part of pfSense.
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I have been working on this in my spare time. Ermal is going to port a driver from OpenBSD so we will most likely share this bounty in the end. However I need to finish up the OpenVPN project before I can fully commit to this one…. but soon.
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Having trouble locating the email. Will keep looking.
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@mcrane:
Ermal is going to port a driver from OpenBSD
Which cards will this driver support?
{ USB_VENDOR_AIRPRIME, USB_PRODUCT_AIRPRIME_PC5220 },
{ USB_VENDOR_DELL, USB_PRODUCT_DELL_W5500 },
{ USB_VENDOR_KYOCERA2, USB_PRODUCT_KYOCERA2_KPC650 },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL1, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL1_FLEXPACKGPS },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL_EXPRESSCARD },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL_MERLINV620 },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL_S720 },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL_U720 },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL_XU870 },
{ USB_VENDOR_NOVATEL, USB_PRODUCT_NOVATEL_ES620 },
{ USB_VENDOR_QUALCOMM, USB_PRODUCT_QUALCOMM_MSM_HSDPA },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_EM5625 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_AIRCARD_580 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_AIRCARD_595 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_AIRCARD_875 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC5720 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC5725 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC8755 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC8755_2 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC8755_3 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC8765 },
{ USB_VENDOR_SIERRA, USB_PRODUCT_SIERRA_MC8775 },I will be glad if others made available machines with serial consoles and FreeBSD if any other modems can be tested.
Since most drivers can support even more things but their ID's have not been tested. -
That's the one.
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Thats a nice list of cards!
"I'm still geeking out about it!"