As an FNB account holder, I feel pretty good about my bank switching to a Unix based operating system. Especially after being reminded of how utterly unusable and unstable windows often becomes, several times this month. The most recent incident involved a parking ticket payment station in the Neelsie which had to be power cycled after its windows (XP) operating system failed, displaying the notorious windows crash screen.

Riaan van Wamelen, CIO of FNB Branch Banking, says the rollout is already under way.
“We piloted our first branch in July of this year with great success and we are now proceeding with national rollout. The solution has proven to be stable and provides us with excellent centralised administration and deployment capabilities.”

FNB could have switched to Macs, which is just computers for dumb people, or they could have gone with Vista for the Hey-what-does-this-buttonOOH-LOOK-SHINY-THING! type, but they chose Linux. Configuration might require a bit more technical expertise, but it is unrivaled once set up properly. Linux is stable, secure and incredibly flexible by definition. FNB made the right choice, and made me more confident in their business as a customer.

On the 28th of September, the University of Stellenbosch will celebrate Software Freedom Day, handing out CD’s, demoing interesting stuff and installing Linux for interested people.

List of network GPRS details:

Notes:
1. Try leaving out DNS addresses first. DNS servers are usually assigned automatically to your device on connect.
2. If you are using Vodacom and GPRS does not want to work, first call customer support and make sure your sim is activated for the “internet” APN.

For windows:
1. Go to Control Panel->Phone and Modem options->Modems tab->Select the correct bluetooth modem->click properties->Select advanced Tab. In the field “Extra Initialization Commands”, enter: AT+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”internet” . Replace “internet” with the correct APN name from the table above.
2. Create a new dialup connection. Dialup number is *99# , and leave username and password fields blank.

For Linux:
You can follow my guide below, but first take a look at GPRS Easy Connect: http://easyconnect.linuxuser.hu/modules/index/
If you can’t get that to work for you, try following this guide:
http://www.iki.fi/mikko.rapeli/linux_gprs.html

I had to make some minor changes:
1. Select bluetooth(/dev/rfcomm0) instead of usb connection to phone
2. Select gprs-connect-chat script instead of wvdial.conf (connect /etc/ppp/peers/gprs-connect-chat)
3. Increased a timeout in gprs-connect-chat since vodacom takes a bit longer to connect.

Make sure to edit the following line correctly according to the table above, replacing “internet” with the correct APN name for your network:
‘AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”internet”,”",0,0′

Here is my config files from /etc/ppp/peers, tested and working with Vodacom&MTN and a Nokia 6600 via bluetooth:
gprs
gprs-connect-chat
gprs-disconnect-chat

Now get your phone’s HW address: hcitool scan.
Bind your phone’s HW address: sudo rfcomm bind 0 (phone 's HW address)
Dial up: sudo pppd call gprs

VERY IMPORTANT: Enable speedstep by compiling a custom kernel with intel’s speedstep driver as a module, set the default frequency governer to “userspace” and use the “powernowd” daemon. If speedstep is not enabled, your laptop will overheat and may get damaged.

Enable the blue ipw2200 wireless LED:
Create file /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200 or /etc/modules.d/ipw2200 depending on your distro.
Insert into file: options ipw2200 led=1

The following script will mute sound and turn on the orange LED:
#!/bin/bash
amixer set Master toggle
amixer set 'External Amplifier' toggle
exit 0


Here is a general guide on mapping the NC6120′s hotkeys for linux:
http://psichron.za.net/guides/nc6120keys.html
Interestingly, I found a link to my guide on the french ubuntu forums here: http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=153919 .Got to love the French.

The modem works with the sl-modem package which must be installed seperately or through apt. I’m not sure how I got this installed because installation instructions are incomplete, but it does work.

Here is my linux kernel 2.6.20 configuration nc6120.
To build, I use: make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-custom kernel_image modules_image
Alternatively, kernel version 2.6.15 config. Firewire and Infrared is disabled. custom-2.6.15.config

Here is a screenshot of my XFCE (4.3) desktop with translucency and shadows enabled: XFCE desktop screenshot(100Kb)