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    Are you using a USB HSDPA/EDGE/UMTS 3G Modem on pfSense?

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    • G
      gnhb
      last edited by

      I found the utility. It doesn't look easy to extend to other devices, at least by me.

      Now, hijacking my own thread, I know . . .

      I've been thinking for a while about creating a (much simpler) tool to send a query to the diagnostic serial ports on a 3G modem to get the signal strength. I think AT+CSQ is a standard query and all the modems I've encountered support it. However, I wasn't planning on doing an historical graphing, just displaying current signal strength. This is from my Sierra Wireless C885
      –----------
      at+csq
      +CSQ: 20,99

      OK

      Here's a graph relating the CSQ # to dbm of signal strength. http://www.gprsmodems.co.uk/images/csq1.pdf

      I've testing using just
      #echo at+csq > /dev/cuaU0.3
      #cat /dev/cuaU0.3

      but the trouble is that the C885 modem never sends a character that makes cat finish catting if you know what I mean. Cat just sends an endless repeat of the same data from the serial port to the terminal.

      So . . . a slightly more sophisticated program is necessary to send the query to the serial port and get the response back. I thought it could be a command line program that could take the device and the command as arguments. (I would have done it already, but I don't have enough experience with unix programming in C.)
      Another upside is that this same program can be used to query the modems and automatically set  up the serial ports for the users based on the device type. Whaddyathink?

      GB

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      • C
        cmb
        last edited by

        @gnhb:

        I found the utility. It doesn't look easy to extend to other devices, at least by me.

        It's not, Andrew Thompson who wrote that for us (as well as a number of the 3G drivers in FreeBSD) said each vendor has a different way of doing that. Checking with him on the feasibility of at+csq. He could adapt 3gstat to pull that without a whole lot of trouble I think.

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        • M
          mlanner
          last edited by

          Has anyone tried either one of these two MiniPCI Express modems?:

          • Novatel 5520 Mobile
          • UMTS/HSDPA Sierra Wireless MC8775

          … with an Alix6B2 board?

          I know a bunch of USB modems would work, but I can't use one of those for this deployment. It will have to be an "embedded" module.

          I'm considering getting all the hardware to do some testing, but if possible would like to know which modem to get.

          Thanks in advance!

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          • T
            torontob
            last edited by

            Hi,

            Anyone using Alix boards in Canada in conjunction wtih USB keys?

            Thanks

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            • D
              dimi3
              last edited by

              I',m using Alix board with Huawei E220 working verry good.

              Last days I'm trying Vodafone k3765 USB stick, it has 7.2Mbit support, but doesent work with latest pfsense snapshot :(, I hope that this modem will be supported in future, becouse its much smaller and plugs directly to USB port it getets detected by the system but log says that modem does not respond to AT command?i

              regards,

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              • C
                cmb
                last edited by

                @torontob:

                Anyone using Alix boards in Canada in conjunction wtih USB keys?

                Yes, not in Canada, but the cards are the same regardless of where you are.

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                • M
                  mlanner
                  last edited by

                  Yes, but like cmb's reply, not in Canada. I've successfully used a Huawei E181 USB (GSM/WCDMA/HSDPA) stick with pfSense 2.0 BETA4 on the T-Mobile USA's network. The Huawei E180 should work too since it is has the same firmware as the E181, with the only difference between the two models being the WCDMA frequency bands they support. Chances are that many/most other Huawei modems will work too, but I have yet to test that.

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                  • T
                    torontob
                    last edited by

                    Is this supported in version 1.2.3?
                    Can it be used as a backup or in load-balance mode with a DSL PPoE?

                    Thanks

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                    • M
                      mlanner
                      last edited by

                      I haven't tried, but I don't think so. I think it would require loading drivers for those cards. In 2.0 it pretty much just works.

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                      • C
                        cmb
                        last edited by

                        @torontob:

                        Is this supported in version 1.2.3?
                        Can it be used as a backup or in load-balance mode with a DSL PPoE?

                        No and yes.

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                        • T
                          torontob
                          last edited by

                          Any plans to get it working with version 1.2.3.

                          By the way, when would version 2.0 become stable?

                          Thanks

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                          • C
                            cmb
                            last edited by

                            @torontob:

                            Any plans to get it working with version 1.2.3.

                            By the way, when would version 2.0 become stable?

                            No, and sometime this year.

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                            • M
                              MADI
                              last edited by

                              hi i have the usb modem: huwai cdma. i want use it to pfsense . but pfsense don't see it as a usb modem. pfsense see it as a storage mass. somoene can help me to use it. think

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                              • M
                                mlanner
                                last edited by

                                What version of pfSense are you using? And what's the model number of your Huawei card? If you are on v1.x.x, chances are it won't work without a lot of hacking, or at all. Try upgrading to 2.0 BETA and it may work out of the box. However, beta is beta …

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                                • M
                                  mlanner
                                  last edited by

                                  Successfully tested T-Mobile webConnect Rocket, aka Huawei UMG1831, an HSPA+ modem with pfSense 2.0 BETA4. Got very low speeds up and down (despite it being an HSPA+ card), but my coverage was really bad so that was most likely at least part of the problem.

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                                  • M
                                    mlanner
                                    last edited by

                                    Also tried a miniPCI express card, Huawei EM770U, and got the following message during boot:

                                    ugen1.2: <huawei technology="">at usbus1
                                    u3g0: <huawei 0="" 2="" technology="" huawei="" mobile,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 2.00="" 0.00,="" addr="">on usbus1
                                    u3g0: Found 6 ports.

                                    So, I'm guessing it should work … but I can't get it to connect.

                                    If anyone has any ideas, I'd be grateful.

                                    Thanks in advance.</huawei></huawei>

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                                    • W
                                      wallabybob
                                      last edited by

                                      @mlanner:

                                      Also tried a miniPCI express card, Huawei EM770U, and got the following message during boot:

                                      ugen1.2: <huawei technology="">at usbus1
                                      u3g0: <huawei 0="" 2="" technology="" huawei="" mobile,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 2.00="" 0.00,="" addr="">on usbus1
                                      u3g0: Found 6 ports.</huawei></huawei>

                                      This suggests the modem is recognised by the u3g driver so it should work Did you follow the steps in the documentation at http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Configuring_3G_modems

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                                      • M
                                        mlanner
                                        last edited by

                                        wallabybob,

                                        Thanks. Yes, I did follow those steps. I've got a few other modems to work before. However, those have all been USB modems, plugged in directly to the standard USB ports on the board. In this case it's a miniPCI express card sitting in the miniPCI connector on the board and with the SIM in the SIM slot directly on the board.

                                        Although the OS seems to properly recognize the card, maybe there's some setting I need to change on the board? The board is an Alix.6E1.

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                                        • W
                                          wallabybob
                                          last edited by

                                          Mini PCI express is compatible electrically with USB 2.0.

                                          Rather than hijack the original topic how about creating a new topic for your particular issue and include in that the status of your interfaces as displayed by the shell command # ifconfig -a and any other information that might give some more details of why you say "I can't get it to connect."

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                                          • F
                                            fabifri
                                            last edited by

                                            @mlanner:

                                            Successfully tested T-Mobile webConnect Rocket, aka Huawei UMG1831, an HSPA+ modem with pfSense 2.0 BETA4. Got very low speeds up and down (despite it being an HSPA+ card), but my coverage was really bad so that was most likely at least part of the problem.

                                            Did you tested that in Germany? I am from Austria and i recently got an Huawei E182E stick from A1 which is also HSPA+ and i assume (reffering to the USB-slide-mechanism) that it is the same Hardware. I have a spare ALIX here and will set up pfSense 2.0BETA on it today, and try it out…

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