Configuring the Alcatel SpeedTouch USB modem on RedHat 7.3 - 9.0 and Fedora

After spending a long time trying to get my ADSL modem working on RedHat Linux I stumbled upon the following procedure at devshed.com. I take no credit for the contents of this article, I just reproduced it so I would never have trouble finding it again.

If you are using Fedora Linux you must delete the speedtch.o file from the kernel and reboot before following this procedure. The file can be located using:

find /lib/modules/ -name speedtch.o

Download the following files:

Copy the files to the /root directory and perform the following operations as the root user.

Run the ppp-2.4.0-2.i386.rpm file to update PPP to use PPPoA:

unzip ppp-2.4.0-2.i386.zip
rpm -i --force ppp-2.4.0-2.i386.rpm

Extract and make the code in the speedtouch-20011007.tar.gz file:

tar xvvzf speedtouch-20011007.tar.gz 
cd speedtouch-20011007 
./configure 
make 
make install

Extract the code in the speedmgmt.tar.gz file, but do not make it:

tar xvvzf speedmgmt.tar.gz

Create the adsl file as follows:

cd /etc/ppp/peers 
vi adsl

Add the following information into the file:

debug 
kdebug 1 
noipdefault 
defaultroute 
pty "/usr/local/bin/pppoa2 -vpi 0 -vci 38" 
nodetach 
sync 
user "username@provider" 
noauth 
kdebug 7 
noaccomp 
nopcomp 
#nomagic 
noccp 
#passive 
#lcp-echo-interval 5 
#lcp-echo-failure 30 
#persist

Your service provider should be able to give you the values for -vpi, -vci and user. Most of the service providers in the UK use the -vpi and -vci settings listed.

Add the username and password to the chap-secrets file:

vi /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

The third line should be added with the appropriate values:

# Secrets for authentification using CHAP 
# client server secret IP addresses 
username@provider * yourpassword

Create a startup script:

cd ~ 
vi startadsl

Enter the following information:

#!/bin/sh 
/sbin/modprobe n_hdlc >& /tmp/pppd.log 
/sbin/modprobe ppp_synctty &> /tmp/pppd.log 
/usr/local/bin/modem_run -f /root/mgmt/mgmt.o -m 
/usr/sbin/pppd call adsl &> /tmp/pppd.log 
/sbin/route add default ppp0

Save the file then change it's permissions using:

chmod 700 /root/startadsl

Create a file to reference your DNS servers:

vi /etc/resolv.conf

Enter the addresses of your DNS servers like:

nameserver 158.43.240.4 
nameserver 158.43.240.3

Create a stop script:

vi stopadsl

Enter the following information:

#!/bin/sh 
kill -INT `pidof pppd`

Save the file then change it's permissions using:

chmod 700 /root/stopadsl

The ADSL connection can then be started and stopped using the following commands:

# Start ADSL
/root/startadsl&

# Stop ADSL
/root/stopadsl

Output from the pppd process is logged in the /tmp/pppd.log file. This can be viewed using:

tail -f /tmp/pppd.log

Provided you receive no errors you should now have an active ADSL connection.

For more information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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