Greetings

I am considering a RouterBoard 230 to test with my Sierra Wireless 3G 860 Aircard. Currently I have this installed through a slot in my laptop. To get Cingular's 3G cellular network to work reliably is like trying to herd a roomful of cats. Since I need reliability more than portability I would like to install the 860 Aircard with WiFi backup in a roof mounted RouterBoard 230.

I have searched for drivers and posts to confirm compatability but have found nothing to ease my concern that this device will function reliably for UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM. The 3G wireless broadband market is huge, growing quickly, and well supported in many proprietary, dual carrier, commercial devices as a failsafe backup but I see nothing to confirm that there is software support for the Routerboard. I dont really want to buy one of these expensive commercial units but at the same time dont want to suffer the agony of trial and error which soured so many recent DIY Stompbox builders. I admit that I'm a newbie to the SBC world and Linux so.....am I missing something?

as you can see here, we do support some cdma/evdo cards:
http://www.mikrotik.com/testdocs/ros/2. ... php#1.2.15

* Audiovox PC5220 CDMA Dual Band 1XEV-DO PC Card for VerizonWireless
* Verizon Express Network PC5220
* Kyocera KPC650 (Verizon Wireless)
* Novatel Wireless CDMA card

and in addition, not yet on the list:

* added support for Huawei Mobile Connect Model E620 (3G);
* added support for Novatel Merlin S720 (HSDPA);

the 3g support is SO much appreciated!! tks

does anyone know of any low power (12v CPU board type so can be used off a battery) solutions or hacks that support any of these 3g cards (all are PCMCIA right?). I know the RB230 has a PCMCIA slot but those are impossible to find.

tks

Thanks Guys

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the most popular 3G cards sold in the US are supported. What does it take to get a driver? I have a few Linux files from various sources including Sierra but do not want to purchace a board and experiment, especially with unfamiliar code.

To give up on MikroTik because of such a simple issue seems a real shame.

BTW...jo2jo brings up another very good point which seriously limits this board for yet another huge market, the mobile WWAN market. I know this is a big plus for Soekris. I also noticed that Sierra Wireless has just released several dual band wireless mobile units which they describe as follows:
"Sierra Wireless is the rugged modem industry leader for in-vehicle applications. Police officers, field service technicians and others use wireless data MP modems to access databases or communicate with customers or colleagues when on the road."

These are very nice units but very pricey as well.

So much for the mobile VOIP fantasy.

Another item which should capture the attention of your hardware guys should be the rapid migration of 3G cards from the dreaded PCMCIA to the new mini pci express standard found on many new laptops. If you find a way to embed this socket on your PCB's you would have a major hit. Ubiquiti is a very clever, well funded startup who will be releasing a new software with "RF integration and firmware design to transform 802.11 silicon into a modular, powerful, state of the art radio platform capable of operation in any frequency imaginable." see link: http://www.ubnt.com/frequency_freedom.php4

This is mindboggling! Imagine wireless hardware supporting multiple 802.11 and 3G cards with multiple RF frequencies and variable transmit power settings.

Any chance of mini pci express support soon?

that's exactly what we are trying to do, but the 3G miniPCI express versions are still expensive and not popular.

Just wait six months.

IBM, Dell, HP, and Toshiba laptop sales should drive the price down real fast. Everyone and their brother would like to have a 3G enabled laptop with the ability to use VOIP. Hell, the savings in phone calls alone would justify a good bit.

The manufacturing costs of PCI express cards have to be a lot less than PCMCIA cards and with WiFi cards going to this new standard it shouldn't take long.

I doubt if it's possible to use a PCI riser card to accept the new express cards but you might know. It could make good use of the RouterBoard 230's PCI slot.

Normis

Thanks for the email

The reason that I'm devoting the time to this reflects my belief that MikroTik offers some very fine hardware and excellent documentation.

After talking to a MikroTik distributor here in the US I'm a bit more knowledgable about the driver issue. As I understand the situation, MikroTik's software is proprietary with built in driver support for listed devices which can be easily recognized and preconfigured on bootup without much user interaction

Before I give up on the RB 230 could anyone provide feedback on alternative solutions given the driver references listed below or a suggestion for another board manufacturer that would support both my device (in a PCMCIA slot) and of course the usual mini-pci slots for wireless WiFi cards?

So that others might benefit in the future, I have listed a number of 3G software references below. If I had a good working knowledge of Linux I'm sure all of this would be fairly straightforward.

==========================================
SIERRA WIRELESS INC:
==========================================

Guide to Sierra Wireless AirCard 850/860 on Linux
http://mycusthelp.com/sierrawireless/su ... &KEY=Linux

AC8xx/7xx workaround for a Linux OS with PCMCIAutils
http://mycusthelp.com/sierrawireless/su ... &KEY=Linux

==========================================
FORUMS with direct references to Sierra 860 / Linux drivers
==========================================

sierra wireless aircard 860 in a Soekris Stompbox
http://forum.stompboxnetworks.com/viewt ... ght=sierra

Sierra Wireless AC860 Aircard/My quest for the holy grail...
http://forum.club.mandriva.com/viewtopi ... 21d7bfb9cb

Using the Sierra Wireless Aircard with Linux
http://www.sacredsoulrecords.com/aircard/

==========================================
POSTINGS FOR OTHER SIERRA CARDS
==========================================
Linux and GPRS/GSM wireless cards ?
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/linux- ... cards.html

Sierra Wireless AirCard 555 for Linux
http://centerclick.org/aircard555/

Original Article StompBox Mobile 3G/WiFi Router Project
http://www.stompboxnetworks.com/intro.html

Verizon 5220 EVDO Card With Linux
http://www.ka9q.net/5220.html

==========================================
INTERESTING LINUX 3G UTILITY
==========================================

GPRS Easy Connect. A unique program which can connect to all GPRS, EDGE, UMTS system of world. For Linux and FreeBSD
http://www.gprsec.hu/modules/downloads/ ... category=1

This thread is a bit old now but I wonder if someone could tell me about installing the Novatel S720 card in the RB230. I have Level 4 O/S V2.9.39 and the card seems to power up OK (LED looks normal) but it does not appear in the list of interfaces. Is there some documentation on initializing this card with RB?

Thanks in advance!

Cameron

it appears as a new serial port, you can make ppp connection over it now.

Thank you for your response Normis. The card doesn't appear on my list of serial ports. What package do I need?

Cameron

The most common problem with pcmcia cell modems not showing up is because of the PCMCIA driver / chipset on the motherboard or addin card. I have found that some laptops with Ricoh pcmcia do not work. Laptops with texas instruments pcmcia work fine.

Sam

I'm not sure I understand. This is RB230 running OS V2.9.39, which is supposed to support this card. Wouldn't the driver be part of the package-- or are you saying that possibly I need to install a driver on the RB?

Cameron