Thompson Alcaltel SpeedTouch 330 ADSL USB Modem

[Sage]

I stuck this on Barry's Forum a week or more ago with very little interest. Maybe correspondents on this Forum would be able to comment or take a greater interest?

Two very recent events in the UK, and probably reflected elsewhere in Europe, possibly more widely, have conspired to force me to revise earlier views on USB ADSL modems and place a request with Barry and the developers.
In Q4, we saw a massive uptake of broadband, mainly due to more realistic pricing structures as the former monopolist's monopoly finally started to breakdown under increasing regulatory pressure. Along with this, ISPs seem to have universally accepted the Thompson Alcaltel SpeedTouch 330 as the 'free' modem supplied to new customers. It is almost impossible to refuse this device in exchange for a discount when supplying one's own 'proper' networking modem/router. Of course, most folks reading these Fora will likely junk these devices and fit their own (at extra cost). However, all is not lost. A visit to Thompson website is most instructive. They claim that their USB modem is not OS dependent (? -depends how you read their somewhat ambiguous text!). They even supply a Linux driver, and, although they clearly state that they do not support Linux, they give quite detailed advice (for those that can understand these things!) on using their modem.
In view of the foregoing, I would now strongly urge that a .pet be developed and included in future versions of Puppy.

http://www.speedtouchdsl.com/dvrdownload_lx.htm

http://steve-parker.org/speedtouchconf/

and this might be a good time to revisit, eg the contribution by Fuzz:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... speedtouch

[Gekko]

I use a Thompson Alcaltel SpeedTouch 530, it has no support whatsoever for Linux, I cant use the ethernet cable on this computer from it, only the USB, its a catch 22 i say!

Regarding the 330, I've heard that that drivers already work and I make look into making it into a .pet, .pup or whatever within the next couple of days. I'm on a roll at the moment

[Sage]

If my guess is right, your efforts would make a lot of folks very happy.

[Gekko]

Due to the Alcatel license, you must download this
yourself - see Alcatel's Site.

Alcatel is a horrible, horrible company. Although it doesnt seem to require too much effort to install.

[mikeb]

Hi,

I'm typing this on puppy using a speedtouch330 directly onto the net.

Steve parker's script does the trick...the main problem is getting the right minicode file....they kept changing the file format so...

1.hunt around to find the right code...you cannot use the windows file for later modems

2. steve's code may need slight hacking to recognise the file

Installation took 1 minute...by the way the compiling library for the puppy used (devx) is needed but not once the driver is made

I'm running on puppy 2.02...I originally tried a year ago with 1.08 ..was close but no cigar at the time...not sure why.

This is a recent sucess as up to now I could only run through a proxy network..

regards

mike

[Gekko]

I noted that when using it earlier, you have to specify the home folder, then it's all good.

[timarlop]

This is my experience with the reddish-purple SPEEDTOUCH330
using the SteveParker SPEEDTOUCHCONF script:

The first Puppy I used was 2.16 and all I can get was lots of modem_run errors and the message
* Don't seem to have connected. *

After talking to mikeb and emailing SteveParker (Steve recommended removing all other USB devices I could get away with, to avoid conflicts) I tried older versions of Puppy using a modded script provided by mikeb but still with no success.

I was about to give up when a new Puppy 2.17 woofed at me,
the connection was made and I am now posting this happily.

I think the major advances with hardware support in the new Puppy 2.17 were the main reason to solving this.
I also switched the modem usb connector to another usb port but I think that wasn't relevant.


To connect first you will need 3 files:

- speedtouchconf.tar.gz http://steve-parker.org/
(The SteveParker handy script for configuring it all)

- Alcatel Microcode file
(Either speedmgmt.tar.gz, mgmt.o, alcaudsl.sys, or the .zip file)
Depends on the model you have.

- Get the addon file < devx sfs > to convert Puppy into a complete compiler environment



After loading < devx_217.sfs > copy speedtouchconf.tar.gz to HOME
and follow the instructions provided by SteveParker

Don't forget the Microcode.