Need a recommendation for surf stick / dongle for LTE access

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello everyone

I am not really a techie, but due to the help of a friend I have an OpenWRT router at my home. Right now I have no internet connection via landline there. But I have a mobile phone contract with an ISP from which I got one extra data card. I hope I use the right terminology, here. If not, sorry! Anyway, I can also use that second card in order to not only surf on my smartphone, but I can also put the second card in other devices to give them internet connection via my regular phone contract.

Therefore I thought that it must be possible to put the card into a dongle / surf stick or whatever you call that and to connect that to my OpenWRT router, so that it gets an internet connection. I saw posts like this one: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/wwan/ltedongle, but I am afraid many of these things I do not understand.
If it is possible, it would be great if you could just tell me, if there are two or three dongles that you would recommend for use with an openwrt router.

Best regards
Martin

2

huawei e3276 works really well, i'm sure there are others too, but that's the one I've been using.

I also have a huawei e8372, which is excellent as well, but it's a mifi device, so you don't really need a router to use it.

1 Like
3

Thank you very much. I will google both of these devices and will ask if I have problems connecting them. But thanks for the advice. :slight_smile:

4

And one more thing. I am not paranoid or such a thing, but so many people are concerned about Huawei and spying out personal data. But I do not know if this is just politics and headlines for the rainbow press. What is your opinion on that?

5

My opinion is, most electronics are manufactured in China, what's stopping all the others from doing just the same.

but most data is sent via https nowadays anyway, making it hard to snoop.

6

Thank you very much!

7

Main thing with buying a LTE modem is to know which band number(s) your company uses in your area, and confirm that the new device supports those bands.

You can also press an old smartphone into service as a USB modem, especially if it is only for occasional use.

8

I use the Alcatel IK40V. It supports the LTE bands B1, B3, B7, B8 and B20 (bought in Germany, in other countries the bands may differ) and works flawlessly with OpenWRT (router must have an USB port).

9

Oh, I did not think of that before. That is also a cool idea. :slight_smile:

10

Thanks for the further advice.

11

I'm using a e3372s for backup connectivity ( mwan3 with fail-over ), easy to setup, and working great under openwrt.
You could use a e3372h ( cheaper, here in europe ) and really easy to convert to serial mode, as h model are hilink mode ( working fine with openwrt too, but with the nasty double nat )
As refereed previously by other users, check your provider bands, Not all e3372h/s provide all bands. Just look for the last 3 digits e3372h/s-XXX.
Here a example:
http://www.ltemobilebroadbands.com/huawei-e3372-lte-mobile-dongle.html

12

Thank you, nomadeh,

I will also look for that device. But I am not sure what the difference are (besides that mifi thing) to the above mentioned devices. And I have to see what this serial mode and double nat are, because I do not know which of these I need.

13

Dear moderators

I hope I am not going to far off topic, but for me that is related.

@nomadeh: I have now seen this explanation for double NAT: https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT. Just from the picture, I would say I had scenario 2 before. A modem/router from my ISP and then behind that an openwrt router, which a friend set up for me. Is that a problem together with the dongle?

14

Reread the question.

It's seldom a problem, but there might be more work/configuration involved if your openwrt device isn't actually running as a router, but an AP.