running Sprint S720 as a system service

arthurdent510 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 5

I'm have a fleet of 25 systems that are all running the Merlin s720 cards, and I'm looking to add them to a windows domain so I can enforce group policies and make them a little more secure. Does anyone know or have experience with setting up the card to connect as a system service, so that the card connects before the user types in their credentials? Right now the cards don't connect till after a user logs in... I talked to sprint and I think I confused the heck out of the support guy, he said it wasn't possible with this card. But I wasn't sure if there was some 3rd party connection manager that might help me get around this, or if there's a completly different way. Any thoughts?

socksbb · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 1:36 pm Post subject:

They can not be run as a service... however if you switch them to NDIS mode it will connect just like any other NIC adapter as long as there is signal in the area...

Only thing you have to remember is to do manual update checks for the card's firmware, etc so you are up to date and can roam on new towers are they come online.

arthurdent510 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 5

How would you go about moving them to ndis mode? I've poked around the connection manager and I don't recall a setting for that, so I'm guessing you do it elsewhere? Thanks for the response!

edit: oops, just found it, but it's grayed out? Time to call sprint to find out what the deal is....

arthurdent510 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 5

Hmm, looks like ndis most still requires the connection software to be loaded, and that doesn't happen till after someone logs in to the system... any other thoughts?

arthurdent510 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 5

ok, got a way around it! Used a 3rd party tool to run the sprint connection manager as a service... now it starts up when the window does, and the connection is established before a user logs in. fun stuff!

preppykid · EVDO User Joined: 06 Apr 2008 Posts: 60

I'm not big on having stuff run at start-up. Not a fan of that at all. However I would be interested in what 3rd party proggie you found to do that. I might try it as well.

thanks

ralber · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 3

I'm an EVDO newbie and trying to provide wi-fi service to folks riding in a shuttle van. I've got a small PC and Sierra Wireless 595U aircard (by Sprint) plugged into a Cradlepoint CTR-350 that run off the power system in the shuttle. However, I find that I have to manually log into Sprint using the aircard each time I want to connect. I really need the aircard to automatically connect on its own as soon as the shuttle starts up. It looks like you solved a similar problem - can you tell me what program you used to achieve the auto-connection?

Thanks.
_________________
Rick T Alber

arthurdent510 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 5

I posted a link but it was caught in forum moderation.... let's see if I can post it correct this time... exetoservice.com is the program. It's not freeware, but oh well. I'm going to keep looking around to see if I can find a freeware program that works as well.

Victor · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 64

Sir,

What you need to do is simply take the power coming off of the Cradlepoint router and have it connected to the fuse panel of your van (Ignition or also known as the CTRSY)

Any Stereo shop or some place similar would easily be able to do this for you. The NDIS or placing specific software will not help your application at all when you have it plugged into a router.

Hope that helps your cause;-)
_________________
- Victor

ralber · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks Victor. I've got the Cradlepoint device wired into the ignition power of the vehicle. The problem I was having was getting the Sprint EVDO card to power on and connect to its network automatically when it received power. I got the answer finally from Sprint - it's easy to configure it for automatic logon using the Sprint Connection Manager that comes with the card. I'm still a newbie to this but learning.....

-------------- Rick
_________________
Rick T Alber

freshaire · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 15

I've done it two ways. If you just have the card plugged into the PC and you type cntl-alt-del to log on, check the little box underneath for "Log on using dial-up". You can select the dialer appropriate for the air card. Once the air card has made connection, windows will attempt to authenticate to a domain using the supplied username/password. This also assumes the domain you want to connect to is accessible directly from the Internet with no VPN required.

The other way we do it is to use a KR1 (or other router). With the air card in the router, you already have a solid connection to the Internet. I've configured our Cisco VPN client to launch immediately when you type cntl-alt-del, so you get a VPN logon window to authorize the connection, then provide your Windows domain credentials to authenticate to the domain. Works like a champ.