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Category:FireBrick USB Dongles: Difference between revisions
Category:FireBrick USB Dongles (view source)
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<indicator name="FireBrick">[[File:Menu-FireBrick.svg|link=:Category:FireBrick|30px|Back up to the FireBrick Category]]</indicator>
3G dongle information has been removed from this page due to 3G being removed from the UK!
== Note - installing a dongle ==
To insert a SIM into a Huawei 3G dongle, for example, you will need to have a large-size SIM, so do not pop out a small-size SIM from its enclosing card. You remove a SIM-carrier tray from the dongle, fit the SIM into the tray and reinsert it into the dongle.
=
Nowadays though (2024) An Ethernet mobile-data router is recommended over a USB dongle as ethernet routers would offer faster speeds (eg 5G where available) and easier configuration setup.
The FB2900 models has a USB port that can be used with a 4G dongle for connectivity and/or fallback. Note: 4G dongles and some ethernet devices may have a problem with routing public IPs to the FireBrick as they act as a NAT device. In these cases using a L2TP tunnel will enable the IPs to be routed.
==Working 4G Dongles==
A 4G dongle will usually work as an ethernet device, and so the FireBrick will need an interface on the IUSB port, set as a DHCP client. If your config doesn't have an Interface already, then add one such as:
<syntaxhighlight lang="xml">
<interface name="Dongle" port="USB" graph="Dongle">
<subnet name="DHCP Client" nat="true" comment="Dongle"/>
</interface>
</syntaxhighlight>
==Unknown or not yet working==▼
▲==Unknown not yet working==
▲*Huawei E3272 LTE Surf-Stick (still testing)
▲*Huawei E3276S-920 (still testing)
▲*Alcatel One-touch L850 (still testing)
*Alcatel One-Touch 800 (Does not work, seems to only support RNDIS Interface which FireBrick does not support)
Many 4G LTE dongles work by acting as an Ethernet device and perform NAT between the mobile network and the interface presented to the FireBrick. These types of dongles should work OK. If your A&A IP blocks need to be routed to the FireBrick whilst on 4G then using L2TP would be a way to achieve this. We’ll be expanding this section with more details and information as we test further dongles.
==A Note on Bonding
Multiple
Using multiple dongles with SIMs from different providers may provide extra resilience in the case of one having a problem.
=Basic Config=
If you have an AAISP data SIM, the FireBrick can be configured to use this as a backup connection, by using a
The example below is all you need to get the dongle configured. If your main broadband connection goes down, the FireBrick will automatically switch to use the 3G connection, then back again once your main connection is back.
<route ip="::/0" gateway="81.187.81.6" comment="IPv6 default route using IPv4 tunnel"/>
</syntaxhighlight>
=== Configuration and testing ===
When you plug a usb dongle into the Firebrick, to test if it is working you can use the CLI ‘<code>show dongle</code>’ command in a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telnet Telnet] session. However, unfortunately this command fails to detect the dongle if <usb> and <dongle> elements have not been added to the XML configuration file. You can at first just add the following to the XML by using the web UI of the Firebrick, under Config > XML Edit:
<syntaxhighlight lang="xml">
<usb>
<dongle name="AA" />
</usb>
</syntaxhighlight>
If you prefer not edit the XML, then you can make the change by using the web UI commands Config > Edit choose ‘Interface’ and then ‘USB and 3G/dongle settings’. Drill down until you see whole lot of options in a number of ‘3G/dongle config settings’ fields. Set the option fields appropriately, at a minimum fill in the ‘Name’ field, and then hit ‘Save’. This will add the <code><usb></code> and <code><dongle></code> elements for you in the XML configuration.
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