PFSense with USB-Dongle 3G as failover?
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Hi!
I'm sitting here in the office with a router which is very soon gonna drive me mad. Every time any1 in the office prints out anything on our printserver (running ubuntu server 8.04) the router cuts the internet connection for about 3-5 seconds (and effectively kills every single program using the internet, except for email clients).
Therefore I thought maybe I'm gonna use that old comp just standing in a corner as a pfsense router (I've got very nice experience from using m0n0wall at home). And the moore I think of it the moore I like the thought. After looking around in the forums a very interesting thought came to my mind, what if I arranged so that we could use the companys portable USB 3G modems as a kind of failover?
So my question is basically if it's possible to use the USB-Dongle as an NIC in a pfSense-machine? (My network provider on the 3G is 3 by the way, if that's of any help..)
Great thanks in advance!
//AtreX aka. Emil -
There was a bounty open on this, but it was never completed. The necessary PPP stuff is in 1.3, but the problem was with every 3G modem needing a different driver and kernel patch. AFAIK, no one is working on this anymore.
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Bah, crap.. Uh well.. I guess I'm still able to put some old comp on winxp, set it up to autoconnect and let it share the connection or something.. Just disturbing to have to have another comp running 24/7..
Thx for the response anyway! -
I believe they are still working on this for pfSense 1.3. I saw recently in the commits they had added a few additional drivers.
Until then you might take a look at the Cradlepoint CTR350 or CTR500. I've got the CTR350 and its very nice. Or on the other hand you could install pfSense 1.3 and just give it a try and see if your usb 3g modem is supported.
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@mcrane:
I believe they are still working on this for pfSense 1.3. I saw recently in the commits they had added a few additional drivers.
Until then you might take a look at the Cradlepoint CTR350 or CTR500. I've got the CTR350 and its very nice. Or on the other hand you could install pfSense 1.3 and just give it a try and see if your usb 3g modem is supported.
Great thanks mate, you've given me hope! ;)
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We are 'playing' with them and the more cards we can have the more it will be stable.
