[hanskloss]

With recent 4G rollout. WiMAX seems like a good backup alternative to DSL. Dw/Up speeds are ranging from 2-10Mbps/1-2Mbps depend on the distance and coverage.

Friend of mine brought one of the early version of modem for apple devices that still have USB port enabled to play with it over the weekend.


Linux boxes have no problem recognizing and connecting to internet. Windows box needs RNDIS driver that is also easily available.

DD-WRT router with USB support once have two extra modules usbnet.ko and cdc_ether.ko will create usb0 interface to which IP address and gateway can be assigned.

Attached modules are for 2.6.24.111 kernel.
Check your version with
uname -r

Once transfered to router usbnet needs to be insterted first followed by cdc_ether and then device can be plugged-in.

dmesg output:

sb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
usb0: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:04.1-1, CDC Ethernet Device, d6:c8:11:22:33:44
usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether

[hanskloss]

Part 2
Setting-up Internet Connection

Once USB dongle is recognized is time to make it default internet connection.
First, please follow wiki guide how to change router into "switch"
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Switch

Let's start by changing router's access IP to 192.168.1.2 to avoid conflict with USB modem.
Change WAN connection type to disabled.
DHCP server and DNSMasq settings need to be disabled as well. USB modem will be handing out IP assignments.
Reboot may be required.

Now, make sure both modules are loaded

root@DD-WRT:/opt/tmp# lsmod
cdc_ether 4096 0 - Live 0x87284000
usbnet 16384 1 cdc_ether, Live 0x872a0000
usbcore 106496 5 cdc_ether,usbnet,usb_storage,ehci_hcd, Live 0x81240000



let's bring usb0 interface up

ifconfig usb0 up

usb0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr D6:C8:11:22:33:44
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:54 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2052 (2.0 KiB) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

and the last step making usb0 part of the ethernet bridge

brctl addif br0 usb0


If everything went well running DHCP on the computer should get IP directly from the modem.

[gobbledigook]

hi there! i struggled to follow what 4g was so i went to look at the wimax page etc... very interesting

thats a good and clear how-to on setting it up

[matt300]

[matt300]

I got this to work on my Asus RT-N16 following hanksloss's instructions. Thanks hanksloss!

Took me a while because I had to learn telnet and WinSCP and how to insert modules (used insmod). Works fine and the speeds are much better over USB than over Wifi. My only issue is that if the router reboots I have to reload and configure everything again. I think I'm going to try to use a startup script to overcome this. I'm a total newbie though so it may take awhile.

Also, I'd prefer to use this in regular a regular router mode instead of a switch, but I'm not sure that is possible.

Any suggestions appreciated!

[colk]

Will this work with the Sierra wireless 250U I am thinking its recognizing it but not initializing it

[matt300]

OK, I enabled jffs2 (see http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Journalling_Flash_File_System )and copied usbnet.ko and cdc_ether.ko into /jffs/tmp with WinSCP. Then in the Administration...Commands Shell section of the web gui I entered the following:

insmod /jffs/tmp/usbnet.ko
insmod /jffs/tmp/cdc_ether.ko
ifconfig usb0 up
brctl addif br0 usb0

Then click Save Startup.

Works automatically upon power failure/reboot now and you can leave the usb device plugged in!

I'd still like to figure out how to do this in a regular router mode instead of switch mode. I can't seem to get my Slingbox to connect in switch mode.

[zhitch]

Here are the usb-rndis-lite modules I cross compiled for DD-Wrt kernel 2.6.24.111.
Included is rndis_host module that was the key to connecting my RNDIS USB connection from my Treo Pro 850

[matt300]

Hi Zhitch,

Can you tell me what your module does and how to use it? Are you using it in switch mode or router mode?

I'm trying to figure out a way to connect using the 3G/UMTS option for the WAN port instead of using switch mode. For some reason a lot of websites hang when loading and I'm thinking it may be because I'm using switch mode. It could just be an iSpot issue though.

Thanks.

[zhitch]

The modules I compiled are from the SynCE project used for connecting an RNDIS based 3/4G connection. The method I use is to first copy the modules to jffs, then insmod them with usbnet then cdc_ether and last rndis_host. As far as the extra steps needed to configure... ifconfig rndis0 up...then follow the wiki here...
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Cellular_Phone/USB_Modem_as_WAN_connection

[Jmeier]

[Jmeier]

Awesome work guys.. I was just looking to see if I could use Clear as a backup!

[FinalF137]

I know this is reviving a really old thread, but hoping the original posters are still watching it.

I want to finally try this setup as a possible replacement to my house’s cable internet connection, two questions:
1. The iSpot is charged through the USB cable, does the router give enough juice from the USB power to power the iSpot, or do you use some type of splitter, if so can you provided an example of one.
2. You mention the router is in switch mode, does that still allow the 4 LAN ports on the back to let devices, like a VoIP box or desktop, access the Internet? Or does everything have to be connected through WiFi for an Internet connection?

[matt300]

I've been using this setup for a year now. It's been quite reliable...more than my cable modem used to be.
1. The Asus RT-N16 keeps the iSpot charged via USB...no splitter needed.
2. All the Lan ports can be used on your router. Initially, I had some trouble getting my Slingbox to work plugged directly into the Asus because it is used as a switch instead of a router. So I connected a Linksys router to one of the Asus Lan ports and then connected all devices to that: Slingbox, Tivo, VOIP phone, laptop.

The only issue I've had with this setup is the occasional "hang" on loading of some websites. I've wanted to try to get this working with the Asus in regular router mode instead of switch mode...just haven't gotten around to attempting it. For now, when I have trouble loading a certain site I just connect to the iSpot's wifi signal directly and the site loads fine.

Good Luck!

[x64Jimbo]

I'm getting the same issue a couple other people have mentioned with the connection lagging and/or timing out on certain sites. Some applications fail entirely, such as if I try to do an Android Market update on my phone while it's connected thru the router.

I have noticed a trend where it appears that certain connections lag or time out when they are trying to connect to more than one site at once, like if there's an iframe or a banner ad in the page I'm trying to load. Simple sites seem to work better. A couple other things worth mentioning are:
1) If I try to install this Chrome browser extension (http://socialfixer.com/socialfixer.crx), the whole thing downloads except for the very last kilobyte, and it just hangs there.
2) YouTube videos will sometimes buffer part of the way, then stop buffering until I manually advance the progress slider to the next "section" and then it happily buffers that section before hanging again.

Everything else is pretty much fine, but I find this little bug quite annoying, and it would be nice to know what was causing it so I could work around or try to solve it. I'm not too experienced with network traffic analysis... anyone have any pointers on where to begin looking for the culprit? I have access to Mac, Windows, and Linux, so feel free to suggest any packet analysis software you think might help -- I'm just a little lost on where to start.

(I would just connect straight through my 4G modem's built-in WiFi, but that kind of defeats the purpose of this mod, and its range is quite short, which makes it difficult to use as my main Internet connection)