How do I use the LTE capabilities
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Can someone point me to how the micro sim card slot works? I've seen the section of the doc called cellular wireless. It just isn't very clear.
From the doc, it looks like I need to purchase a sata based m.2 sized card that provides radios? Then I need to run these out the back. These cards often have some sort of configuration that is needed it seems. Looking at the list of known good wasn't too helpful as a lot of it seems to be huwawei products. https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/cellular/modems.html
Has anyone done stuff with say Ericson or another major vendor?
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If you're interested in cellular wireless as a WAN, I recommend getting a separate Cellular modem device that serves the cellular signal to ethernet clients. You can plug that into a pfsense box and you can treat it like any other WAN connection (though most cellular connections are behind NAT).
I use the Netgear LB1120 (4G-LTE) for this. https://www.netgear.com/home/mobile-wifi/lte-modems/lb1120/ -
Thank you @gzorn --I move around a lot-- so my goal is to kind of have this as a network in a box solution. So I see that it has basically two card slots inside so ideally one would be for the 5G / LTE antenna device and the other would be for a low power radio good enough for a hotel room type of deal.
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@darkn3ssf4lls
Which computing hardware are you planning on using with pfsense? Are you going to use a Netgate appliance? Or will you roll your own with a Protectli box or similar? It wasn't clear from your OP.It seems there are cellular modems available in an m.2 format, but the availability of freebsd drivers may be an issue.
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@darkn3ssf4lls said in How do I use the LTE capabilities:
I move around a lot-- so my goal is to kind of have this as a network in a box solution.
If you don't want to use a separate cell router, you can tether to your cell phone. I've even configured an interface in pfSense for that.
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Sorry @gzorn , I currently own a Negate 2100.
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Thank you @jknott , I'm really just trying to generate a core device that can talk to the ISP (cable / DSL) and backup (LTE+ ). This product form factor is perfect but I am such a novice at this os that I don't know what the two sata m.2's are good at.
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@darkn3ssf4lls
Others have travelled this path and it seems difficult, particularly for a beginner.
Take a look at: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/175737/netgate-2100-micro-sim-4g-lte-5gThat's the limit of my knowledge. Good luck.
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Yeah that thread has most of the details.
It can work with the right hardware.
There is often some work to be done to the modem to prepare it.
When it does work the link speed will never be that special. The most I've seen is ~40Mbps.Steve
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@stephenw10 Thank you, it seems that the most efficient way might just be getting that second device. Seems like a waste of luggage space though to have to things doing similar tasks.
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It may be. An external Ethernet connected device will definitely work and will give you better speeds.
It can work using a modem in the 2100 though and the hardware to do it is relatively cheap as a used device. It really depends how much time you can afford to spend on the project. I did it for fun so...
Steve
