Floppy-disk-based router for Alcatel USB ADSL modem.

This is a disk image of a boot floppy that will make an old PC (386 or better) into a router that can be used with an Alcatel "Speedtouch" modem (the green "stingray" model or the newer purple or silver "330" model) for an ADSL connection.
Note: I haven't got the most recent (revision 4) modem, so I haven't been able to test with this. If you've got such a modem, please let me know whether you can get this working or not.

All you need is an old PC with a USB port, an ethernet card and a floppy disk drive. Plug the modem into the USB port and connect the ethernet card to a network with your other computers on it. Then boot the PC from a floppy made from this disk image. Your other computers will then have a working connection to the internet.

Network cards supported:

• 3c501 "EtherLink"
• 3c503 "EtherLink II"
• 3c505 "EtherLink Plus"
• 3c507 "EtherLink 16"
• 3c509/3c529 (MCA)/3c579 "EtherLink III"
• 3c515 ISA "Fast EtherLink"
• 3c590/3c900 series (592/595/597) "Vortex/Boomerang"
• AMD LANCE and PCnet (AT1500 and NE2100)
• WD80*3
• SMC Ultra
• HP 10/100VG PCLAN (ISA, EISA, PCI)
• EtherExpress 16
• EtherExpressPro
• NE2000/NE1000
• AMD PCnet32 PCI
• DECchip Tulip (dc21x4x) PCI
• EtherExpressPro/100
• Myson MTD-8xx PCI Ethernet
• PCI NE2000 and clones
• RealTek RTL-8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
• RTL-8139 rev. K
• RTL-8129/8130
• SiS 900/7016 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
• SMC EtherPower II
• TI ThunderLAN
• VIA Rhine
• Winbond W89c840 Ethernet

Instructions

• Download this floppy disk image. The image is of a 1.68M floppy disk. This is a non-standard size, but it will work in most disk drives.
• Copy the image onto a floppy disk. If you are running Linux, the following commands will do this:
  fdformat /dev/fd0u1680
dd if=floppy.img of=/dev/fd0u1680
  If you are running Windows, you will need a program that can write non-standard disk images. You could try winimage (shareware). Make sure to format your floppy as 1.68M before you write the disk image onto it.
• Make a zip file containing the firmware for the modem. This is not included on the floppy because it is copyrighted by Alcatel.
  To obtain the firmware, download this file and unzip it. Then choose one of the files KQD6_3.012 or ZZL_3.012 that you've just unzipped (see below for which one to choose), and zip it up again into a file named "firmware.zip". Copy this onto the floppy. Windows users should use a utility such as Winzip or PKzip to do this. Linux users should use "zip", not "gzip".
  If you use Winzip, you should make sure that you zip up the file without any path, i.e. when you open the "firmware.zip" file in the Winzip window, it should show the "path" for the "KQD6_3.012" file as blank. I think you do this by un-checking the "save extra folder info" box when you create the zip file.
• If you've got a revision 0 or revision 2 modem, you need the firmware file KQD6_3.012. If you've got a revision 4 modem, you need to use ZZL_3.012.
  Usually, the revision 0 modems are green, the revision 2 modems are purple, and the revision 4 modems are silver. But I've got a silver modem that is revision 2. So, to be sure what you've got, just try booting off the floppy without installing the firmware.zip file. You will see a line like this on the screen:
  P: Vendor=06b9 ProdID=4061 Rev= 2.00
  from which you can deduce what the revision of your modem is.
• Edit the file "system.cfg" on the floppy, and replace the login name and password with the values specified by your ISP.
  Windows users should use a text editor such as "Notepad" to edit this file. Linux users should note that this is an MSDOS-format file with carriage-returns, which may be safely removed using the "dos2unix" utility if you prefer.
• That's it. Make sure the ADSL modem is plugged into the USB port on the router PC and also into the phone line, and then boot the router PC from the floppy disk.

Source code

You only need this if you want to modify the floppy in some way, or if you are just curious about what it does.
Most of the code on this floppy was obtained from elsewhere. Please download files from the original owner's web site, if at all possible: downloads from this site will be very slow, as it is on an ADSL connection.
My own source code and build instructions are here.

John Williams