Unlocking USB Modems

[Balanga]

Has anyone had any success unlocking a USB modem using any do-it-yourself guide such as those on YouTube?

I have a Huawei E3372 Hilink modem which is locked onto the O2 network and am wondering how to get it unlocked…

[Grimson]

And how is this a pfSense issue, check boards related to Huawei modems.

[SammyWoo]

USB modems still exist? Aren't they like dial-up era?

[Balanga]

@SammyWoo:

USB modems still exist? Aren't they like dial-up era?

Google seems to think that USB modems still exist  :)

[Balanga]

@Grimson:

And how is this a pfSense issue, check boards related to Huawei modems.

I asked here because I want to use it with pfSense , and there are a lot of knowledgeable people read these forums, and quite a few people use Huawei modems…

[kpa]

@SammyWoo:

USB modems still exist? Aren't they like dial-up era?

USB 3G/4G modems.

[johnpoz]

They still pretty much suck ;) their only draw is that they are inexpensive… Better to get a LTE/4G/3G modem that hands off to ethernet..  Then you take the whole have to have a driver, usb connection speed, etc. out of the picture.

edit:  I had to run at the moment..  But for example the netgear LB1120 hands off to gig ethernet.  So will work with anything..  $100 and your done with all grief of having to have usb driver, support for such connection in your firewall/router/pc etc. etc..

Its a plug it in and it works sort of thing.  Why would anyone want to deal with usb drivers and such..

[Balanga]

@johnpoz:

They still pretty much suck ;) their only draw is that they are inexpensive… Better to get a LTE/4G/3G modem that hands off to ethernet..  Then you take the whole have to have a driver, usb connection speed, etc. out of the picture.

edit:  I had to run at the moment..  But for example the netgear LB1120 hands off to gig ethernet.  So will work with anything..  $100 and your done with all grief of having to have usb driver, support for such connection in your firewall/router/pc etc. etc..

My Huawei E3372 is configured as an ethernet device so what would this Netgear device provide?

Not sure what relevance gig ethernet has to do with anything since you won't get anywhere near Gb speeds over 4G… In fact I'd be surprised if anyone gets anywhere near 100Mbps.

[Derelict]

The difference is handing off Ethernet instead of USB. This device will likely work with anything that has an Ethernet port available to use as a WAN. USB requires specific operating system support for that specific device.

(As an aside, which one of those screen caps is "better?" Just went to 5K/4K and really can't tell..)


[johnpoz]

The point of gig interface was not so much that you would get gig over 4g.. But the ethernet you connect too… Also if its just 100 you limit to like mid 90's  4G LTE touts 150mbps... Could never ever get that if your interface was 10/100

It has ETHERNET!!!  Is what it provides not some usb connection that can be made to "look" like ethernet... It will work with anything that has a nic...

[stephenw10]

Yes, it's an actual Ethernet connection which means it will work with anything you can load pfSense on and it won't have any issues if the modem fails or is unplugged for whatever reason.

That is not true of a USB Ethernet (ue) type device where unplugging it will prevent pfSense booting fully without modifications to allow that. pfSense sees that the same as if you'd removed a PCI card. It's unhappy!  ;)

Steve

[Balanga]

@stephenw10:

Yes, it's an actual Ethernet connection which means it will work with anything you can load pfSense on and it won't have any issues if the modem fails or is unplugged for whatever reason.

That is not true of a USB Ethernet (ue) type device where unplugging it will prevent pfSense booting fully without modifications to allow that. pfSense sees that the same as if you'd removed a PCI card. It's unhappy!  ;)

Steve

pfSense should be able to boot once FreeBSD is configured correctly to recognise the modem… devd should be able to handle that as I understand it... I am able to run usb_modeswitch as soon as the device is inserted, just need to work out how to run dhclient when ue0 is assigned.

Are these 4G routers  able to generate higher connection speeds?

[johnpoz]

Yeah depending on which ones you get…  The netgear nighthawk modem has

http://www.netgear.com/landings/nighthawk-mr1100-mobile-router/

Max 1 Gbps download speeds, and 150 Mbps upload speeds
• LTE CAT 16, 4-band CA and 4x4 MIMO
• Up to 4X Carrier Aggregation and support
for LAA in future firmware upgrades
• LTE/4G Bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 29, 30, 66
• 3G Bands: 2, 4, 5

Do that with POS usb modem ;)