Wifi tethered Client Gateway

[TJAus]

Hello Guys/Gals,

In my home environment I use a virtual Sophos UTM device as my router/firewall/gateway on ESXi with multiple physical and vlan interfaces. This works very well (as does pfsense I recently migrated from, another story). Anyway, I had an interesting situation where my main internet link was down and I thought it would be nice to use the 4G Telstra Dongle I had as another backup Internet gateway, albeit slower and more costly. Anyway this wasn't a problem, the UTM recognized the device and was ready to go, alas I found several basic problems. The size of the sim card, different from the 3 phones we currently have in the house. I managed to put an Optus card in it which was fine, but the unit was locked to Telstra. Bugger. So I gave up on that idea.

Next I thought it would be much more convenient to be able to use a wifi client that tethers to any of the phones but then connects via Ethernet to my UTM. I tried using an older Billion 3100N (one of those 240V plug wifi extenders with an Ethernet port on it as well) with WDS (unsupported by phone but was experimenting and failed) and direct bridge modes but I could not get it to work. My plan was basically to tether the 3100N to my phone, then use the ethernet port as the Gateway for my network to the internet.

So, does anyone have any suggestions on a way to do this or a cheap device that would cater for this (I'm not tight, this was just a backup link experiment so I don't want to spend a lot on it)? I would prefer to do it this way than bother with the 4G USB modem because it makes the backup connection sim card and provider independent which is nice. I guess if I could unlock the Telstra 4G Dongle that would work too but then the Sim card has to fit as well.

Regards,

TJ

[ol' boy]

I do it multiple ways.

Why not just use your Phones as the Modem, and connect it either via USB or WIFI to the Router?
I have done both, recently moving to a USB to Router tether for a faster connection with fewer hops.
Works perfectly and charges your phone at the same time and no piss farting around with SIM card removal

EDIT: A wifi tether has its advantages though, as you can walk around the house, still using the phone.
Or if someone calls, you can grab it to answer or text.
Its a bit hard doing the above in a USB tether.

However, using a USB modem, does allow you to send AT commends direct from the router, which might be handy for you.

[TJAus]

I must admit i have not tried using the phone plugged in directly with USB to the UTM (essentially a linux back end) but I'm not sure it would recognize it for use this way unlike the dedicated 4G device which is supported (and controlled with AT commands as you say).

I did debate this last night but liked the idea of the wifi connection instead to divorce trying to get a 3g/4g device going directly and fiddle with sim cards etc be it a modem or one of the phones if supported. If it was a single Windows box I'd do just that, plug it in with USB (or tether of course) like when im away.

I thought it would be quite nice to have the UTM connected to X Box which when connected via wifi to whatever gives an alternate internet connection. Much versatility

[ol' boy]

OpenWRT will allow it to happen

But if you like the idea of a WiFi tether, just do that, its an easy set up, i did it with 2 bits of hardware.
Phone > AP (Infrastructure Mode) > LAN out to WAN of Router. Jobs Done

It just sits there waiting for your phone to be in range, then Auto connects.

PS: There is OpenWRT firmware that will allow for 2 modems to be connected at once and load balanced.
Might be what you are looking for.

[TJAus]

OpenWRT will allow it to happen

But if you like the idea of a WiFi tether, just do that, its an easy set up, i did it with 2 bits of hardware.
Phone > AP (Infrastructure Mode) > LAN out to WAN of Router. Jobs Done

It just sits there waiting for your phone to be in range, then Auto connects.

That's it exactly what I was thinking, I tried to do it with the 3100N I had but it wouldn't cut it. From what I've read from others doing something similar having it operate this way have also run into problems but that's the fun of experimenting.

PS: There is OpenWRT firmware that will allow for 2 modems to be connected at once and load balanced.
Might be what you are looking for.

Nah not at all, I've done this wonderfully with an NBN and DSL2 connection with pfsense and the current Sophos UTM which I've replaced pfsense with supports multiple balanced links easy as well. In this case, its just a secondary backup link incase the primary goes down.

Thanks for your replies.