SpeedTouchConf

Alcatel SpeedTouch USB Modem - Linux Configuration : History

Phase 1:
On 9th October 2002, I wrote a RedHat 8 review, (cache) simply because everybody else seemed to be doing it. I had been using a BSD installation to control access to the internet through this crap modem. With RedHat 8, and the kernel changes they had introduced (plus the official [kernel.org] changes), I realised that configuring a GNU/Linux system was now so easy, it could even be scripted.
I was so impressed by this, that I wrote the proof-of-concept script which could do this. (cache)

Phase 2:
To my surprise, people contacted me about the script; they seemed to expect that it might work for them. That wasn't my intention at all - I only meant to point out that following the instructions supplied by the speedtouch.sourceforge.net team was now incredibly easy, and no "special" knowledge was required.

Phase 3:
In December 2002, I created a SourceForge.net project for this script, since that seemed more sensible than hosting a growing project on my badly-written home-ISP site.

Phase 4:
Since then, a lot more people seem to have found the script to be useful.

Phase 5:
Having had some very short discussions with the speedtouch.sf.net team about integrating the two projects (which would seem to be the sensible way to go about it, and no response), I find that the speedtouch.sf.net team have bundled a similar script.
I thought that this was the end of the mailstorm I had inadvertently put upon myself - I am now freed of the burden of diagnosing the connection problems of everyone whose ISP is cheap enough to supply them with such a crap modem.
I flagged this project as obsolescing - the need to script some obscure commands was no longer required, as the driver itself included the script to configure it.
I was wrong - apparently the speedtouch-setup script doesn't work too well for some users (although, having looked at it briefly, it seems pretty good to me). The users must be right, though - if they say that speedtouch-setup doesn't work for them, and speedtouchconf.sh does work, then I'm quite happy to believe them.

Phase 6:
So this project lives on. By now it's late 2004, the script has worked for me on any distribution I've chosen to install, and I get lots of bizarre messages from users, using distributions my firewall (a 433MHz, 64MB laptop) can't deal with. I learn about these distro's (especially Mandrake 10) through these users, but don't have the ability to replicate their issues. I advertise on the sf.net site for developers who still care about this modem, and making it work on 2.6 distro's, and eventually somebody respondes positively.
I still lack the time to publish Billy's great ideas, and have commandeered a portion of my P4 machine to try out these newer distros, even though I no longer care (WBEL3 works fine for me, thanks!).

Where this project goes in future:
I don't know. Apparently some people still find it more useful than the speedtouch.sf.net project (which I recommend that current users try first). I don't have as much time to devote to this project that I used to have.
If somebody feels inclined to give any random Linux distro a bad review because this modem is a PITA to install, they would be instructed to point their cricism towards Alcatel/Thomson for not releasing their microcode, rather than assuming that Windows is superior simple because they can click-through a pre-signed license agreement between their ISP and the modem supplier.