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Stompbox - Howto #3 - First Boot
Boot Media
You’ll need a 128MB CF card and a card reader for your computer. I would think a larger card would work but many people say otherwise on the forums. I happened to have a 128MB card left from my last camera and a Sandisk USB reader so I didn’t have to buy either. I plan to make a 256MB verson just because the extra room might be handy in the future but I’m sure I won’t get around to it until I really need it.
Stompbox - Howto #2 - Getting The Hardware
General Hardware Requirements
You’ll need some form of EVDO card with an external antenna jack, an 802.11b card with the Prism 2/2.5/3 chipset, and a small computer with interfaces for both. The Soekris 4521 fits this need nicely without a lot of money. It’s configured with two PCMCIA slots and one miniPCI slot.
EVDO
Your best choice for EVDO service will vary depending on location and budget. I’m using Verizon’s Broadband Access for $80/mo which drops back to 1xRTT when I’m out of the broadband areas. I originally had the Audiovox PC5470 (no antenna jack) but switched it out with an older PC5220 that I snagged off eBay for $20. CAUTION: watch out for the auctions that sell the card cheap with a contract unless that’s what you want. There are “better” cards than the 5220 and they should all work, but make sure it’s got an external antenna jack. Google around to make sure the card and service work with Linux before spending the money and comitting to a contact. Verizon makes it easy to switch cards online, no need to talk to anyone.
Stompbox - Howto #1 - Before You Start
This is the start of my Stompbox Network howto. I have 6 parts planned so far, but may add a couple more later when I add GPS and a Webcam to my stompbox.
Why A Stompbox
The first thing to ask is if you really need one of these, and I suppose the second is can you really afford one. Odds are that you don’t really NEED mobile internet everywhere you go, but for those of us who do and anyone with money for toys, then this can be a cool project. This is not a cheap $50 Linksys router hack. It is built on a solid industrial grade platform and the cost reflects that. My total cost to date is around $400, excluding the initial cost of the EVDO and cellular antennas. The monthly cost for Verizon EVDO is $80 and you’ll most likely need to sign a two year contract to get a new card for cheap. If you have a voice plan with Verizon you may be able to get the monthly cost down to $60, check the forums for details.
I’ve got some pictures up on Flickr now.
The scripts are coming along and it now tells my webserver every time it reconnects. I managed to screw it all up once, but it only took half an hour to get the disk image back to where I was. Many thanks to the backups.
The miniPCI WIFI card is on the way and I’ve started looking for a PCMCIA to USB adapter. They are cheap enough on ebay and in surplus bins but I’m looking for one that isn’t too big.
I may eventually try to wedge a laptop drive under the pcmcia cards and power it with one of the small ide to usb adapters. If anyone has any experience with them please comment with a quick review.
I’m in the process of converting all the computers in the house to wireless so that silly Cat5 will soom be gone 
Stompbox Network - Soekris Net 4521 3G Hotspot
My Soekris Net 4521 got here Tuesday and I’ve now had a few days to play with it. I’m quite impressed with quality of the board and it’s perfomance. I’ve got it booting the Stompbox version of Pebble Linux off a 128MB CF card.
It’s equipped with two pc-card slots and one mini-PCI slot. The cpu is an AMD 486 at 133Mhz and it’s loaded with 64MB of RAM. The whole thing runs off of 12-54V DC so it can be powered quite nicely in the car or with most any wall wart you have laying around. One of the PC-Card slots is taken up with my EVDO card (cellular broadband internet). I hope to put a USB adapter in the 2nd slot and put a wifi adapter in the mini-PCI.
I had some issues getting dnscache to listen on port 53 so I tossed it out and installed dnsmasq. I’ve got it routing the local net to the internet over EVDO and just need to find a mini-PCI wifi card with a Prism2 chipset to make it replace my WIFI Access Point.
I’ll post a proper howto sometime in the near future and give some updates on how it performs when we’re camping this weekend.