Verizon Jetpack® 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot - AC791L as a WAN

grogargh

I have been trying to get my mobile phone (Samsung S5) that has Wifi/USB Tethering capability to work through USB directly connected to my pfsense appliance and use it as a WAN.

I plug it in, FreeBSD sees it, but no Ethernet interface pops up. After some exhaustive Googling around, I found out that there is a kernel driver called "if_urndis.ko" that FreeBSD uses to enable USB Tethering. Forget trying to find it, I had to download the FreeBSD v10.1 full distro (same version that pfsense uses) and installed it in a VM, extracted the file, and then copied it to my pfsense box and put it in the /boot/kernel directory.

I then loaded the module using the command (ssh into pfsense box):

kldload if_urndis.ko

and it loaded - I then enabled USB tethering on my phone and voila! I now had the new ue0 network interface… but it had no IP Address for some reason.

I then exited the shell back into the pfsense ssh menu, and had to "Assign Interfaces" and this time selected "ue0" as my WAN and then I had an ip address assigned by my phone.

It worked great, hoewever for some unexplained reason my pfsense box keeps rebooting randomly. Running latest 2.2.6 - I also tried a 100% fresh install of pfSense and then added the if_urndis.ko file and it keeps happening - even more so if I start clicking random things in the webgui. When I remove the driver and reboot the box, problems go away.

I will save you the time in getting the kernel module. Here is a link to download it. Maybe it will work for you. Just be careful with those reboots. It took some time to recover because I had a small window after the reboot to ssh in there and delete the kernel module. pfsense was "remembering" to load it every time, despite the fact that I ran the command to load it manually in an ssh shell.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/e4ocyq

agentdesign

I think having this module available as standard would be generically useful to a lot of people, myself included. I filed a feature request for it…

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/6293

--
Ross

XGWill

Hello,

I have an Aircard 785S and i found a way to make it work with pfSense:

you could try the same:


usbconfig -d ugen1.2 set_config 1

if it show ue interface you can try dhcp on it

if it works i can show you the way to make it permanent

mikerockynet

usbconfig -d ugen1.2 set_config 1

This works great with my Verizon MiFi 5510L (but sadly, not with my AC791L). Is /etc/rc the way to make it permanent? I imagine upgrades will overwrite.

With the AC791L tethered (which works tethered on my Win10 laptop) I see this in boot output:

ugen1.2: <netgear, inc.="">at usbus1
ugen1.2: <netgear, inc.="">at usbus1 (disconnected)
stray irq7</netgear,></netgear,>

And get this trying to bring it up:

$ usbconfig -d ugen1.2 set_config 1

No device match or lack of permissions.

With the 5510 I see this at boot:

ugen1.2: <novatel wireless="">at usbus1</novatel>

And get this which works:

usbconfig -d ugen1.2 set_config 1

cdce0: <cdc ethernet="" control="" model="" ecm="">on usbus1
ue0: <usb ethernet="">on cdce0
ue0: Ethernet address: 00:15:ff:88:c4:da</usb></cdc>

(latest embedded release here on ALIX)

Incidentally, I get a related error in boot no matter which device is plugged in:

Starting device manager (devd)…kldload: can't load if_urndis: No such file or directory

urndis – USB Remote NDIS Ethernet device

Balanga

@mikerockynet:

usbconfig -d ugen1.2 set_config 1

cdce0: <cdc ethernet="" control="" model="" ecm="">on usbus1
ue0: <usb ethernet="">on cdce0
ue0: Ethernet address: 00:15:ff:88:c4:da</usb></cdc>

What does```
set_config 1


I want this ue0 to appear but I don't know how…

kyvpn

@XGWill:

Hello,

I have an Aircard 785S and i found a way to make it work with pfSense:

you could try the same:
usbconfig -d ugen1.2 set_config 1
if it show ue interface you can try dhcp on it

if it works i can show you the way to make it permanent

So glad I stumbled on this post…..have it working on 2.4.x with a Netgear Unite Explore 815s! (posting on the cell connection)

Thanks!

DexTroN

I would like to extend my gratitude to you all, I searched the internet far and wide and everyone is talking about usb_modeswitch an no where (except here) is it referenced that you can actually change the "config" of the 4G dongle, which made it work with my Alcatel MW40V

I will from here on out see if other posts on this forum need help with their 4G USB modems and refer them here

pfSense version 2.4.4 with copied IF_URNDIS.KO from 11.2 FreeBSD iso and moved to the server via WinSCP (don't forget to make the filename all lowercase), changed/added the /boot/loader.conf.local with nano to

if_urndis_load="YES"

so it loads the USB tether module on boot and after that i rebooted the server and it showed my device as ue0, like any other physical hardware port like WAN, LAN and OPT1.

visvic

@DexTroN, Thank you very much. Fortunately, people like you exist !!!

Rico

Here is the File: if_urndis.zip

-Rico

stephenw10

Some USB devices have multiple config indexes that result is different interfaces being exposed. You can check it using usbconfig -d ugenX.X dump_all_config_desc

If your device has multiple config indexes you can selet a different on at run time using usbconfig -d ugenX.X setconfig X.

If that gives you the interfaces you need you can add a device quirk to /boot/loader.conf.local to force that every time the device is connected. hw.usb.quirk.0="VendorID ProductID LowRevision HighRevision UQ_CFG_INDEX_X"

Steve