Joined: 28 Jul 2016 Posts: 5 Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 15:59 Post subject: [Closed] Netgear WNDR4500v1 USB cellular modem as WAN
Background: I have recently moved to a place, where internet can be accessed only via cellular/mobile broadband. I already have a Wi-Fi router Netgear WNDR4500v1, but the stock firmware doesn't support USB cellular modem as WAN connection. So to save money I choose to change it's firmware to dd-wrt instead of purchasing a Mobile Wi-Fi or a router that supports USB cellular modem. The flashing procedure was followed in spirit and no other build versions was used. Caveat: Found Peacock thread's Note 3 to be irrelevant and Note 4 wasn't fully understood.
The wiki mentions that dd-wrt for this particular HW is supported from build# 21606 and instructs to initially flash newer build# 26138 mega and then recommends to flash an older build Kong 25015-SP1! Was it intentional to flash an older build ?
Wasn't successful in establishing WAN connection via neither IPhone tethering nor Mobile Broadband. The following web-GUI settings was followed for each.
Mobile Broadband:airtel 3G UMTS as service provider in India
Setup > Basic Setup> WAN Setup> Connection Type: Mobile Broadband
Username: <blank>
Password: <blank>
Dial String: *99#
APN: airtelgprs.com
PIN: <blank>
Connection type: Prefer 3G
Force Reconnect: Disable
In both cases connection wasn't established as evident from Status> WAN> Configuration Type> Login Status: "Disconnected". Clicking "Connect" in both the cases wasn't helpful either.
Does this implicitly mean android mobile phone tethering isn't supported? If so, is there a plan to support Android phone ?
Need help in finding a stable version (need not be latest) of dd-wrt for which USB cellular (2G/3G/4G dongles) Modem works? Please also share the link to the particular build thread.
Last edited by AKPrashant on Sat Aug 20, 2016 5:12; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 28 Jul 2016 Posts: 5 Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:52 Post subject: Re: Netgear WNDR4500v1 USB cellular modem as WAN connection
After reading about 3G & 4G Broadband Modems broken in r25948 and later, upgraded to 25760 and was able to access internet via USB cellular modem using Mobile Broadband option in WAN Set-up Web-GUI. More over, this worked even when an USB extension cable (140cm) was used b/w router and USB modem for better cellular reception.
For the record:
According to the bug report as 25015 < 25760, I assumed that 25015 might also support USB cellular modem, but didn't.
After checking that the Mobile Broadband works for 25760, I curiously upgraded to 26138M and surprisingly the mobile broadband worked, though it is later to r25948.
According to the discussion in this post, the fix isn't being worked on. (that discussion is dated Jan 09, 2016)