Option Globetrotter Express card, Leopard, Roaming, IPCP

Question

Hello,
My Option 3G card works great at home (NL) however, whilst roaming, and with a data account which permits roaming, I am unable to get it to work with a 2.5G or 3G connection. The PPP session fails as such:
Tue Nov 20 07:55:10 2007 : Initializing phone: ATE0V1&F&D2&C1&C2S0=0
Tue Nov 20 07:55:10 2007 : Initializing PDP context: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","<my APN name>"
Tue Nov 20 07:55:10 2007 : Dialing: ATD99**1#
Tue Nov 20 07:55:10 2007 : Waiting for connection
Tue Nov 20 07:55:10 2007 : Connection established
Tue Nov 20 07:55:13 2007 : Serial connection established.
Tue Nov 20 07:55:13 2007 : Using interface ppp0
Tue Nov 20 07:55:13 2007 : Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/cu.wwan
Tue Nov 20 07:55:14 2007 : CHAP authentication succeeded
Tue Nov 20 07:55:29 2007 : IPCP: Maximum Config-Requests exceeded
Tue Nov 20 07:55:29 2007 : Connection terminated.
Tue Nov 20 07:55:38 2007 : Serial link disconnected.
A colleague thinks that the problem with the IPCP line is to do with header compression, which, when using the Leopard native Option drivers, you can not disable with "PPP" settings as you can if you were using the device as a Modem or under 10.4.
The device in question:
http://www.option.com/products/globetrotterexpresshsupa.shtml
Anyone have any thoughts on how to get around whatever is going on with the IPCP errors?

Answer 1

Having turned on debug mode for pppd, I've found out more about the problem and determined that a lot of people are having similar issues with HSDPA. The problem has, as far as I can tell, only been fixed by people who recompile pppd and put in some extra hacks...I'm hesitant to do that on my Leopard box, but if I must, I will.
Here's the main problem:
Tue Dec 4 20:07:13 2007 : CHAP authentication succeeded
So, CHAP all went fine, which means it's time to move on to IPCP
Tue Dec 4 20:07:13 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns3 0.0.0.0>]
I don't have a default ip, or dns, and ask the server to send me both.
Tue Dec 4 20:07:13 2007 : sent [IPV6CP ConfReq id=0x1 <addr fe80::0216:cbff:fe86:dcd7>]
Tue Dec 4 20:07:13 2007 : rcvd [LCP ProtRej id=0x11 80 57 01 01 00 0e 01 0a 02 16 cb ff fe 86 dc d7]
I also send a request for an IPv6 address which is rejected. Interestingly, you can't disable this in Apple's pppd with "noipv6" in your /etc/ppp/options file, it still requests it anyway.
Tue Dec 4 20:07:14 2007 : rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x1 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins1 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins3 10.11.12.14>]
This is the response from the 3G network. It Nak's my request, and gives me two dns servers and two wins servers to use.
Tue Dec 4 20:07:14 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Leopard's pppd then answers with the two dns servers that were sent to me, but again an empty IP address, which I believe is normal
Tue Dec 4 20:07:15 2007 : rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x2 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins1 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins3 10.11.12.14>]
Tue Dec 4 20:07:15 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x3 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
And again the request is Nak'd and again Leopard tries the same request...this goes on 12 times or so before finally:
Tue Dec 4 20:07:28 2007 : IPCP: Maximum Config-Requests exceeded
Tue Dec 4 20:07:28 2007 : sent [LCP TermReq id=0x2 "No network protocols running"]
Tue Dec 4 20:07:28 2007 : rcvd [LCP TermAck id=0x2]
Tue Dec 4 20:07:28 2007 : Connection terminated.
It seems that people with Linux have hacked their pppd to accept the ms-wins values and that worked. I've tried setting ms-wins to various values in /etc/ppp/options, including 0.0.0.0 and the value provided by the server, but as I understand it, this value is only used when you ARE the ppp server, not when you're the client, as I am...so I would need some way to accept those values and throw them away.
In the case where it worked, on my home (NL) connection, the session goes like this:
Mon Dec 3 17:30:09 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x2 <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14> <ms-wins1 10.11.12.13> <ms-wins3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x3 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x0]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : ipcp: returning Configure-NAK
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfNak id=0x0 <addr 0.0.0.0>]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x3 <addr 1.2.3.4> <ms-dns1 5.6.7.8> <ms-dns3 7.8.9.0>]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x4 <addr 1.2.3.4> <ms-dns1 5.6.7.8> <ms-dns3 7.8.9.0>]
Mon Dec 3 17:30:10 2007 : rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1]
I've changed the actual IPs, but after the second request from Leopard for the same values, the ppp server at my "home" provider sends back something which triggers another NAK and then a request for just an IP address (no ms-dns). At that point the other side sends back a valid IP for me to use, and valid DNS servers, I ACK that, and everything connects as normal.
Not sure how to proceed from here, short of trying to find Darwin sources and hacking pppd...