Getting the Alcatel Speedtouch USB Modem (ADSL) to work under Mandrake

These instructions work in the UK when using Mandrake 8.x and Mandrake 9.x.

• Login as root
• Install the Speedtouch RPM (you can do this when installing Mandrake Linux, or later on using the Mandrake Control Centre/ RPMdrake, or type "urpmi speedtouch" in a console as root).
• Download the Binary Driver and untar them (" tar -xvzf speedtouch-1_0.tar.gz "). You only need the mgmt.o file from this. Put this into /usr/share/speedtouch
• Run the network setup in the Mandrake Control Centre (or run draknet from a terminal in X). Click on Alcatel Speedtouch, and fill in all the boxes. Choose to have it connect to the internet on start-up.
• edit /etc/ppp/options and comment out (ie put a # at the begining of the line) the "default" and "persist route" lines.
• Have a look in /etc/sysconfig/network. If there is a line saying "Gatewaydev=something-or-other" then delete it.
• Have a look in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and /etc/ppp/pap-secrets. They should both have a line in with something like this (substituting your-dial-up-name and your-dial-up-password of course):

  'your-dial-up-name' * 'your-dial-up-password' *

• Have a look in /etc/ppp/peers/adsl. It should look like this:
  
  

  noauth
  noipdefault
  pty "/usr/bin/pppoa3 -vpi 0 -vci 38"
  sync
  kdebug 1
  noaccomp
  nopcomp
  noccp
  novj
  holdoff 4
  maxfail 25
  persist
  usepeerdns
  defaultroute
  user "your-dial-up-name"

  
  
  Note: the if you are not in the UK the numbers following -vpi and -vci will be different. Have a look at "www.eicon.com /support/helpweb/adsl/adsl_settings.asp to see what settings you should use.
• You should automatically be connected to the internet on startup - reboot and try "ping google.com". If you get a series of messages saying something like:

  64 bytes from www.google.com (216.239.51.100): icmp_seq=7 ttl=51 time=352.810 msec
  

  then you are connected. Exit ping with control-c and be happy.
• When you boot up, it will wait about 20 seconds while the modem initialises - this is normal. It may even return an error message telling you that it hasn't managed to connect. This is normal too, even though you did manage to connect to the internet properly.

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