Jim,

> [Jim Intriglia wrote:]

> P.S. - Did you ever do a /. post and/or write a
> procedure for the Starband Linux hack?

No, I never did, because it turns out it's a lot easier to just remove
the USB daughter board in the satmodem, and just use it with a straight
10BaseT ethernet connection instead of the stupid USB connection.  I
discussed using the Starband satellite Internet service with Linux briefly
at the CLUE meeting on Tuesday.  The interest level was fairly high, so
I'm cc:ing this to the lists.

We are using the Starband service with the external Gilat Satmodem 180,
which has both a USB jack and an RJ-45 ethernet jack on the back of the 
case.

The USB daughterboard is easily identified and is clearly labeled with
a "Warning: this card is not removable" marking.  All you do is unscrew
the screws holding the USB card to the back of the case, pry up the
double-sided tape that's holding it down, and slide the USB card out the
back of the satmodem case.  I recommend installing some duct tape over
the hole left by the absence of the USB daughterboard.  :)

The satmodem becomes a 10BaseT ethernet DHCP server and router after that 
procedure is done, just like a cable modem or DSL modem.

That way you don't have to use any special drivers or kernel modifi-
cations to use the Starband system.  You can use a standard ethernet
card which is properly supported in the Linux kernel.

Hope this helps.

--
Jim Ockers (ockers@ockers.net)                     Ask me about Linux!
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/

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P.S. The Gilat Satmodem 180 is supported in USB mode in the Linux kernel
using the "kaweth" kawasaki ethernet USB device driver; I had to add the
Gilat Satmodem 180 device ID to the kaweth.c source code and recompile to 
get it to work.  I recommend getting rid of the USB stuff in the satmodem
altogether though, as that works way better.