Looking for new LTE/5G router

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
23

ZTE F50 5G
Low power consumption
cdc_ether supported.
Working without any issue on 22.03.5
Cheap

24

and officially unsupported, great advice.

I can name drop several great, yet unsupported, 5G devices ...

25

Well I dont know what exactly it is understood as "supported".
You can't replace the firmware on the router, you can use it over usb as an ethernet device with its own firmware.
I am using it and I am pretty happy with it.

26

if there's no DLable image for it at https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=SNAPSHOT, it's not supported, here.

27

Then it is correct to say that it is not supported.
There is no need to change the default firmware on it. It is supported to be connected over cdc_ether or RNDIS but that's all.

28

Could you please share the output of
cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices

[from the connected router]

29

how are you using it ?

I read it's a mobile hot spot, but I guess you using it as a modem, connected via USB-C ?

30

Correct, you can you use it as a hotspot (not my case) and/or connect it via USB to use it via CDC_ether (as an ethernet router) or via RNDIS. The device supports both modes, you just choose the mode via the GUI.

root@OpenWrt:~# cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices

T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480  MxCh= 1
B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev= 5.10
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 5.10.176 xhci-hcd
S:  Product=xHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=xhci-hcd.0.auto
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 32 Spd=480  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=19d2 ProdID=1353 Rev= 4.04
S:  Manufacturer=Unisoc
S:  Product=F50
S:  SerialNumber=320673802478
C:* #Ifs= 3 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=500mA
A:  FirstIf#= 0 IfCount= 2 Cls=02(comm.) Sub=06 Prot=00
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=02(comm.) Sub=06 Prot=00 Driver=cdc_ether
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  16 Ivl=32ms
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=cdc_ether
I:* If#= 1 Alt= 1 #EPs= 2 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=cdc_ether
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
I:* If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=06(still) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=(none)
E:  Ad=83(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=84(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  28 Ivl=4ms
1 Like
31

My bad, I wrote "you can replace" instead of "you CANT replace the firmware"