Reliance Phone as a Modem

If you have a Reliance CDMA mobile phone, you can use it to connect to the

Internet using Linux. You can either use the software provided on Reliance’s

website (still in beta stage) or connect via a CDMA service provider.

Via CDMA service provider



To use your Reliance mobile phone as a modem, you first need to activate

data calls in it. To do so dial *412 and wait for a confirmatory SMS. Then get a

data cable (easily available for all Reliance CDMA phones) and connect your

mobile phone to your PC/laptop. We tested it using PCQLinux 8.0 with glibc 2.3.2

and a Samsung N191 CDMA phone. The Kudzu (hardware-detection tool for Linux)

will automatically detect the phone as a USB/COM modem, depending on which data

cable interface you’ve connected it with. Once your OS boots, you have to

configure the wvdial.conf to dial to the Net. For accessing the Internet, all

CDMA providers use a standard number (#777). Now create a dialer in /etc/wvdial.conf

which will dial to this number. Don’t use any graphical utility to create it

as it may not work properly. Modify the file so that it looks something like

this:

Modem = /dev/input/ttyXYZ


Baud = 230400


SetVolume = 0


Dial Command = ATDT


Init1 = ATZ


FlowControl = Hardware (CRTSCTS)





Username = your_phone_number


Password = your_phone_number


Phone = #777


Stupid Mode = 1


Inherits = Modem0

In the second line, replace ttyXYZ to ttyS0 (For Com1) or ttyS1 (For Com2) if

you’re using a RS232 port on your PC to connect your phone. If you are using

the USB interface, then replace it with ttyACMx. Here x is the number of devices

minus one, which you have connected to your USB port. You can find it by running

the usbview command. Now enter your mobile phone number with your STD code

without the first 0 in both username and password fields. Enter #777 in the

Phone field and don’t forget to enter the Stupid Mode = 1 option or your modem

will not work. Now, run the following command.

#wvdial cdma

Here cdma is the name of your dialer. Currently, the bandwidth available is

pretty good. We got 230 kbps.

Using Reliance software



You can download the binary .tgz tree from www.relianceinfo.com/Infocomm/html/rservices/rservices_

linux_rconnect.html. Since it is still in beta, it may be a little buggy. Unzip

and untar the file using the following command.

#tar —zxvf rconnect-0.5.tgz 

Change to directory rconnect-0.5 and run the shell script called rconnect as

follows. 

#cd rconnect-0.5



#./rconnect

Follow the instructions on the GUI for selecting and configuring the phone as

a modem. When the wizard is finished go to any terminal and run the following.

#rconnect no>

Here the first phone number is your username and the other is the password.

To disconnect, fire a command rdisconnect in a terminal window.