Sierra Wireless MC7411 /21 /31 - supported?
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Curious if anyone has tried the current 4G MC (Mini PCIe) Sierra product line and found these to work, or not:
MC7411 (North Am)
MC7421 (EMEA & APAC)
MC7431 (Japan)The pfSense docs list some of the 5-10 year old cards like the MC77xx. https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/cellular/hardware.html
I noticed that no EMxxxx (M.2 non-PCIe) Sierra cards are listed in the docs, so I guess none of those would work. Interestingly Sierra's current 5G cards listed on their site only come in EM form factors.
Thanks.
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Hello,
Curious if anyone has tried the current 4G MC (Mini
PCIe) Sierra product line and found these to work, or
not:Compared to older days the list is really nice and a lot
of modems are named on it. (Only my opinion)MC7411 (North Am)
MC7421 (EMEA & APAC)
MC7431 (Japan)You may be open to set up your own "modem" by an rapsberry pi 3B and a modern M.2 (B-Key) modem and
SIM adapter or add on board and connect it to your pfSense box, because Linux will be more suited and supported by the vendors with code and drivers then
FreeBSD will.The pfSense docs list some of the 5-10 year old
cards like the MC77xx.My MC7710 is arriving next week and I would say LTE as a fallback and GPS together on top of it, I could not await it will be arriving.
I noticed that no EMxxxx (M.2 non-PCIe) Sierra cards are > listed in the docs, so I guess none of those would work.
I can´t follow, pfSense is build on the base of FreeBSD and
so you should even better have a look what is going on there, first I mean. And then if the driver will be present there, you may be setting up a small FreeBSD VM and
copy the driver file.ko into your pfSense box and give it
a try. (pfSense = FreeBSD 12.3 and FreeBSD VM = 12.3)Compared to other OS options it is here a bit better I think.
Interestingly Sierra's current 5G cards listed on their
site only come in EM form factors.PCI (miniPCI) > successor is PCIe (miniPCIe) > successor
of this is miniPCIe 2 or in short term "M.2"You may not love to hear it, but if many customers will be
sorting the pfSense or FreeBSD team with old and new hardware they could better and more test it or organize
some drivers for it. If they all have to pay the hardware
other may at one day need, they must be all millionaires! -
@eduardr said in Sierra Wireless MC7411 /21 /31 - supported?:
I noticed that no EMxxxx (M.2 non-PCIe) Sierra cards are listed in the docs, so I guess none of those would work.
They are just not listed there. I have used the EM7355 and EM7455 frequently and they work well. The MC variants of those are pretty much identical and I'd expect them to work.
Without MBIM mode the available throughput is nothing spectacular but as a fall back it can work fine.
Steve
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Using a separate external Linux device with cellular module as a "modem" is interesting, had not even considered that. For now I prefer to have it all done inside my single (Fitlet2) small chassis, which I am trying to use with ethernet, wifi, and cellular at the same time as a nice all-purpose device for various uses.
It's hard to find out what FreeBSD supports but at least according to https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.0R/hardware/ they list only "Sierra MC5720 Wireless Modem" via the umodem driver. I'm not a big FreeBSD person so haven't looked into more than that.
I'll probably get one of the latest MC or EM Sierra modules and see how it goes. If it fails, at least I can use them with Linux.
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That sounds good, I'll get an MC or EM module, and even if it doesn't work with pfSense, I can at least use it with Linux.
I don't know the implication of "Without MBIM mode the available throughput is nothing spectacular", will have to look into it. At first look sounds like a mode to allow tethering (the way you can tether a phone to a laptop), I'll do some more reading. Thanks.
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'll probably get one of the latest MC or EM Sierra
modules and see how it goes.Pending on the slot you have free (miniPCIe or M.2) I would try out more the newer EM series with above mentioned MBIM support.
If it fails, at least I can use them with Linux.
A use d2nd hand rapi for around ~30 € and a daughterboard with sim and miniPCIe or M.2 (B-Key) might be good for that. It is a workaround, but Linux often support much more new hardware on the market.
For now I prefer to have it all done inside my single
(Fitlet2) small chassis, which I am trying to use with
ethernet, wifi, and cellular at the same time as a nice
all purpose device for various uses.I use at the moment actual a APU4D4 unit from PC Engines until FTTH is here available. But then again I will swap over to a Supermicro X12 (Intel Xeon-D 21xx) based unit, also with SIM and 3 free miniPCIe and M.2 slots.
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FreeBSD has no MBIM support. Nor does it support other proprietary interface types like QMI. So you can only use the PPP interface which is limiting and the modem must be configured to present an AT port which most rebranded ones are not. (they can usually be reconfigured to do so though)
I usually see 30-40Mbps. I've seen others report >60Mbps. You won't see the claimed 150Mbps or 300Mbps.Steve
