Wireless Joint

Hi everyone:

I would like to add a USB 4G dongle to my router running FreshTomato 2021.7 .
I'd like to use something other than a ZTE or Huawei-based dongle.

I asked on the forum there, but even the lead developer can't tell me for sure which dongles will work
except for a couple of of the above models, which I don't want to use.

In this case, direct experience would be needed. Has anyone tried any dongles
on FreshTomato that don't contain Huawei or ZTE chipsets?

Thanks.

It would require driver support for the modems you want to use. It sounds like they only built in support for those specific modems chipsets.

Well, the lead developer really isn't sure. And he's so busy working,
he probably won't have time to look into it for a long time.

I may just end up trying a bunch of different modems and seeing
what works and what doesn't. But that's going to be pricey.

When I searched for this thread I had just started, it did not show
up in the search results. Is search working properly?

I searched the forum for

Freshtomato


And this topic was the first 3 results. Just depends on how you use it I guess.

It didn't work the first few times I tried it. Maybe something wasn't
properly saved yet, I dunno.

I will be testing at least 3 different USB dongles on FreshTomato.
If anyone is interested, I'll be happy to post back with my results.

Post back!

Well, I tried my Novatel/Verizon USB730l, and it was recognized by FreshTomato, but didn't work properly. I gave the Device codes to the lead FreshTomato developer and he wrote a code commit, so that modem will very likely work in the next FreshTomato release.

As soon as I get my Novatel USB800 modem (it's delayed in shipping), I'll do the same thing for it. So there's a good chance the USB800 will also be supported in the next release.

Oh, BTW, a "Dongle Compatibility" page was created on the FreshTomato wiki. In it, I listed 3 other USB modem dongles which are known to work well.
https://wiki.freshtomato.org/doku.php/d ... patibility

I suggest people keep an eye on that page, as I will be testing at least one more dongle after the USB800. Also, there's a thread on the www.linksysinfo.org Tomato forum about dongle compatibility in which a user has reported one of the more common 4G hotspots is working well for him.

So, theoretically, the next release may support 5 different dongles. Probably more, but we haven't tested others yet.

I received my usb800 in the mail today. I'm testing it on Windows first to make sure it works properly. After that, I'll test it in FreshTomato.

Also, there are a few people on the Tomato forum who are about to try testing other USB dongles soon, so you may expect more models to be incorporated into the firmware. The goal is to get the modem running from the web interface/GUI with zero to minimal effort at the command-line.

I started testing the usb800 today in FreshTomato. It's recognized by FreshTomato, and the WAN interface gets set up, but there's a problem. The FT programmers will likely have that patched soon. So for now, I've added it to the Dongle compatibility page on the FreshTomato wiki, and added the comment "scheduled for (release) 2022.1" .

In other words, it will probably be officially supported in the next month or two, and possibly sooner in an an unofficial, interim build.

By the way, two more people have reported successfully tethering their Android phone to FreshTomato routers. They worked with just a few clicks from the GUI. No fussing needed. Now a total of about 7 different Android phones have connected with minimal effort.