Does anybody know of a 4G USB that works well with the SG1100?
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I want something I can use in my EQC as a 4G modem with a firewall. The reason is that what I'm going to run a Pi 4 with Home Assistant and the MercedesMe integration, with ESPresense to create a keyless entry, which the previous owner in Germany for some strange reason didn't specify for the car. But ESPresense can sense the BLE tags on my keys coming within two meters from the car and automatically unlock the doors. I know some of the 4G sticks do very simple firewalls, but I want something I'm used to and I want something that will not use any data when it's not necessary, so I have to block all but a few Mercedes addresses. The low power consumption of the 1100 makes it an interesting unit.
Does anybody know of an LTE USB that works well with this unit, preferably out of the box (yeah, I know I'm optimistic there...)?
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A LTE USB what? Are you talking about connecting to the cell network? I can use my cell phone for that, though there are mobile hotspots? Anything that supports a USB connection should work. I have tried with my pfsense firewall and got both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Same with my desktop and notebook computers. Also, these days it might be an idea to start looking at 5G. There are a lot of items in the news about things that will fail when 3G is shut down. Given cell generations are about 10 years apart, I expect 4G may also be shut down in 10 years or so. If you're running pfsense, you don't need to worry about a firewall in a USB stick.
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@jknott I mean that I am looking for a 4G USB modem (5 G isn't necessary for this, actually 2G would probably have been enough, and 4G will be most likely have to be open i Norway for 20 years because of all the cars and other stuff that uses it) that I can plug into the Netgate SG1100 mentioned in the topic (I should probably have written Netgate SG1100, not just SG1100). A phone is too much hassle to have on 24/7 in the car, they also tend to use data by checking and logging to Google, so I only want an USB LTE/4G modem to plug into the little box.
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I expect any USB cell connection will work, as they all have to work to the same spec.
Is 2G still available in Norway? It's long gone from North America and 3G is pretty much gone too. There have been recent articles in the news about things, including cars, that will lose their connection when 3G is gone. My carrier, Rogers in Canada, has already dropped 3G on 1900 MHz and will be maintaining it on 850 MHz for another 4 years, only because of the all the devices that still need it. Another major carrier, Bell, dropped 3G a couple of years ago. This is why I suggested 5G, as older tech will die sooner than it.
BTW, I just checked Amazon to see what they have and see they're selling some for 3G that will be useless now, as they're aimed at the U.S. carriers that are currently shutting down 3G.
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Of note: I do not have a list of supported USB-based modems...
But ... @jknott ... the USB drivers would need to be supported by FreeBSD and bundled in the ARM build for the 1100.
@stephenw10 do you know of a list?
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Ryan
Repeat (after me): MESH IS THE DEVIL! MESH IS THE DEVIL!
Requesting firmware for your Netgate device? https://go.netgate.com
Switching: Mikrotik, Netgear, Extreme
Wireless: Aruba, Ubiquiti -
The only list is this: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/cellular/hardware.html
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@mastiff so you want this sg1100 in your car with a cell connection via a usb modem?
What is going to power this sg1100, what is going to correctly shut it down. Power just going away on a sg1100 is not going to bode well for it booting every time power is restored..
Is it going to have power all the time? What if your not in your car for say 4 or 5 days?
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I just connected my phone to pfsense with a USB cable. Pfsense found it and created an interface for the USB connection.
ue0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
ether a2:42:1f:96:38:8e
nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>Once you have that, you can assign a name, which you can use to configure rules etc..
The above is my Google Pixel 6 phone. No drivers required. It just works.
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@johnpoz Well, a keyless entry system would be rather useless if it wasn't up 24/7, don't you think?
As for the power, as I said in the first post it's an Mercedes EQC, so it's a fully electrical car. And if the high voltage battery is so bad that it runs out of power to supply the 12V battery because of a 4.8 watt unit (10 watt all in all with the Pi that has a 2 TB SSD for media storage and is running both media playback and the Home Assistant instance, and the ESP for the ESPresence) , I would have a lot more expensive problems than what an improper shutdown of a pfSense box can give me. 
The car's own systems use a lot more than that just to keep the ap p info, position, alarm and so on up to date.@JKnott I apologize, it's the 2G that isn't going to be closed for a few years yet. 3G was actually shut down last year. But most older cars with apps only use 2G, so they will be working for a few years more. My Mercedes has 4G, and from what I can see they estimate that it won't be closed for another 15 years. And that phone connection thing sounds very promising, I guess it can be a backup if I don't get the other stuff to work. I have a few old 4G phones laying around. i just have to block everything from updating and even checking for updates.
@stephenw10 Thanks, that helped! I will order the SG100, a Huawei E3372s, a data SIM and test that out. In Norway there's a 14 day no cost return rule, so if that doesn't work I'll try another one.
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2G is still available in Norway? WOW! Those cars wouldn't get very far in North America, as 2G is long gone from here and 3G not far behind.
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T-mobile still offers 2G in the US it looks like. At least until 2025 here in the UK, definitely gone by 2033. I guess I'll have to upgrade my phone at that point!
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T-Mobile's 2G GSM network is tentatively scheduled for shutdown on 31 December 2022, although this date is subject to change, with T-Mobile admitting: 'We've also shared that we plan to retire T-Mobile's older GSM 2G network … but no date has been set. '
for a little while...
--
Ryan
Repeat (after me): MESH IS THE DEVIL! MESH IS THE DEVIL!
Requesting firmware for your Netgate device? https://go.netgate.com
Switching: Mikrotik, Netgear, Extreme
Wireless: Aruba, Ubiquiti -
I guess the U.S. is a bit behind Canada on this. Bell shut down 2G & 3G a couple of years ago. Rogers shut down 2G & 3G on 1900 MHz last June and 850 MHz 2G on Dec. 31, 2021. I suppose one reason for the difference between Bell & Rogers was that Rogers had GSM, which was used all over the world, but Bell had CDMA which was pretty much limited to Canada, U.S. and Australia.
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@jknott Just T-Mobile.
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The date I've found for Norway is that 2G dies in 2025. But they've said that before, and the amount of alarm installations, oil plattform applications and other stuff has stopped the deadline for 2G before, so I'm guessing around 2030.
And 4G I'm expecting to have longer than my car. I like to keep new cars that I buy for at least five, preferably ten years, and with this Mercedes EQC I can't see myself needing anything else as long as the battery lasts. The warranty is 8 years/160 000 km (100 000 miles), so that's probably when I start looking for something else. By then I'm sure the cars are flying drones! 
