How to display UMTS signal strength?

Question

Using a random UMTS USB stick (Huwei 160 or something like this) works an current Ubuntu pretty much out of the box and the setup via network manager (nm-applet) is convenient.

But it does not display the current signal strength or modes of operation (which speed-mode is used etc.).

What are useful tools to display/monitor such information?

Solution 1

Since version 0.8.1 of network-manager is already all-inclusive (http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager/ReleaseProcess).

Otherwise you can use umtsmon (http://umtsmon.sourceforge.net/)

or vodafoneMobileConnect (https://forge.betavine.net/projects/vodafonemobilec/)

or bcm (https://forge.betavine.net/projects/bcm/)

if you have a too old version of ubuntu that does not allow you to update network-manager.

Solution 2

modem-manager-gui gives that info on "info" tab:

In distros other than Ubuntu, the package name can be modem-manager.

Solution 3

There is nothing much that I am aware of that does this. I have written my own scripts that monitor the second usb serial connection and query for signal strength.

Send a AT+CSQ and you will receive:

+CSQ: n

n is in the range 1 - 31, to convert this to dBm subtract 111

This is detailed in the GSM / 3GPP spec http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/specs/html-info/27007.htm

Comments

[maxschlepzig]

Hm, does it really supports UMTS? This page does not mention UMTS.

[maxschlepzig]

Ok, this is a start. What is the most convenient way to send such control sequences from a script?

[Mladen Jablanović]

What does "all-inclusive" mean? I can't find any info about connection mode in network manager (it shows the signal strength in the icon).

[miyuru]

on ubuntu 16.04 modemmanager is already installed. it should be modem-manager-gui