[MountainX]

How to use a 4G phone to provide WAN/Internet service to a LAN?

I intend to use this as backup when my cable modem Internet goes down. (It goes down frequently and it is down now.)

My phone has a fast 4G connection, I pay for tethering with my provider and I have sufficient data per month available.

There are several possible different ways to solve this. I want to use a usb connection (in part because I read that WDS reduces bandwidth by half for each hop.)

Here is what my network looks like normally:

CableModem <-- dd-wrt router <-- 48 port GigE switch <-- LAN: many wired devices (printers and Ubuntu computers) plus several wireless clients that connect to the router.

Here is what I want it to look like when Comcast goes down:

Phone's 4G Internet <-- dd-wrt router <-- 48 port GigE switch <-- LAN: many wired devices (printers and Ubuntu computers) plus several wireless clients that connect to the router.

Step 1. connect my phone to the router by usb cable.
2. enable usb tethering in phone.
3. now what?

Is there a tutorial for this? If not, what are the basic steps in dd-wrt for accomplishing this goal?

(Also, what is the best router for this and which version of dd-wrt would be best/most stable for this purpose?)

References:
Mobile Broadband - DD-WRT Wiki
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Mobile_Broadband

Cellular Phone/USB Modem as WAN connection - DD-WRT Wiki
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Cellular_Phone/USB_Modem_as_WAN_connection

[MountainX]

I tried a few things yesterday and today.

1. I purchased a BUFFALO AirStation AC 1750 DD-WRT Router (WZR-1750DHPD). It came with firmware "DD-WRT v24SP2-(8/12/14) std"

2. I bought an Asus RT-AC68P.

3. I used Kubuntu on a laptop with an Ethernet cable to my router's WAN port.

#3 was the easiest to get working for me. I tethered my phone via USB and used Kubuntu's Internet sharing and I was able to use my phone as the router's WAN connection. This is easy and works great. But it ties up a laptop.

#2 was next easiest. The Asus firmware supports this functionality out of the box. Personally, I found the stock Asus firmware very frustrating compared to dd-wrt, but after an hour or more of playing with the finicky firmware, I got this working. It works well.

The #1 option (dd-wrt on any router) is my preferred option. But the dd-wrt firmware on the Buffalo doesn't seem to support this. (I couldn't get it to work.)

I have found so many different discussions on this topic that I'm not sure which is right. What does it take to get dd-wrt working? Based on the link below, I looked for a kong build for the buffalo, but didn't find one.

DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - 4G USB Modem
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=981336#981336
"I can recommend Kong Mod to achieve this. Works right out of the box, at leastt for me. I recently lost my wired internet connection and used a 3G dongle as backup. The only thing I did was to plug in the dongle, select '3G/4G' as Wan connection and filled in the APN. Everything worked directly, no additional modules to load. Success or failure is of course dependent on the dongle being supported."

What next?

[MountainX]

I tried more stuff.

I purchased an R7000 and installed 08/23/2015 dd-wrt from kong's site (http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/). I cannot make the USB tethering work with dd-wrt, and I tried a lot of different settings.

I have two working methods: 1) any recent Asus router, 2) using a laptop between the phone and router.

I have two non-working dd-wrt routers: 1) R7000 with very recent dd-wrt from kong, 2) BUFFALO AirStation AC 1750 DD-WRT Router (WZR-1750DHPD). It came with firmware "DD-WRT v24SP2-(8/12/14) std"

I'm not giving up on dd-wrt yet, but I could really use some suggestions.

[jenova314]

Hello, did you make any headway?

[sysh]

[jagster936]

Is there a modern way to do this with latest WWDRT build? I don't think you need commands but I cannot get it to work with my S4 verizon android phone