4G USB Dongle for RT-AC86U

[juanantonio]

Hello everyone.

I've already posted this thread in Wireless General forum, but i think this is better place for it.

I would want to know if any of you have a USB 4g Dongle on router Asus RT-AC86U.

I have a house in my town with no fiber connection and I am connecting the router to the Internet via Android tethering, but I want to be free to take my phone when I left the house without having to reconnect when I come back.

I have read some posts in this forum and it seems that Asus' list of compatible devices is not up-to-date. For this reason, I would know if any of you have had luck connecting a specific USB 4G dongle to the router. If so, I would go directly to buy it.

I have read also some post that pointed me in the direction of Huawei E3276. Any of you have tried this dongle with the RT-AC86U?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'am using firmware Asuswrt Merlin release 386.7 in the router.

 

[metahome]

I recently moved from an RT-AC86U to an RT-AX86U both running Merlin 386.7_2.
I had a ZTE MF833U1, CAT4/4G USB with a Three Mobile Data SIM (24GB usable over 2 years) (I am in UK) which I use as a backup connection in case my main internet connection goes down.
Worked fine on both routers inc. automatic failover and failback.
The USB device is totally plug and play and recognised by both routers without configuration.

 

[juanantonio]

I recently moved from an RT-AC86U to an RT-AX86U both running Merlin 386.7_2.
I had a ZTE MF833U1, CAT4/4G USB with a Three Mobile Data SIM (24GB usable over 2 years) (I am in UK) which I use as a backup connection in case my main internet connection goes down.
Worked fine on both routers inc. automatic failover and failback.
The USB device is totally plug and play and recognised by both routers without configuration.

Many thanks! It just what I needed!

 

[Adooni]

I was fighting for 2years with USB LTE dongles for AsusWRT/RMerlin and Tomato/Fresh Tomato and to be honest if it even will be recognized sometimes depend of ISP and even if you connected to different BTS (different city etc) same pages will not load correctly like for example google maps etc - it is not always the same page it is not consistent, sometimes it is even number of web pages you are opening in the same time up to 5-10 is OK above not. I lost a lot time with it as my family needed and be honest would not do it one more time.

Huawei E3276 if it will be recognized by RMerlin - last time I tested it in 2015 will work very good
Huawei E3372 will not work with AsusWRT/RMerlin - all demand how model will be recognized as RAS or NDIS. E3372 as non hi-link version working very good with FT but your router is not supported. I have one at family location for 7years now no issues at all.

here is official Asus support list https://www.asus.com/event/networks_3G4G_support/ and it is depend of country and ISP.

but much better and reliable solution is to have separately 4g or better modem and set it as bridge - this one I have tested for long time no issue HUAWEI B535-232.

 

[juanantonio]

I was fighting for 2years with USB LTE dongles for AsusWRT/RMerlin and Tomato/Fresh Tomato and to be honest if it even will be recognized sometimes depend of ISP and even if you connected to different BTS (different city etc) same pages will not load correctly like for example google maps etc - it is not always the same page it is not consistent, sometimes it is even number of web pages you are opening in the same time up to 5-10 is OK above not. I lost a lot time with it as my family needed and be honest would not do it one more time.

Huawei E3276 if it will be recognized by RMerlin - last time I tested it in 2015 will work very good
Huawei E3372 will not work with AsusWRT/RMerlin - all demand how model will be recognized as RAS or NDIS. E3372 as non hi-link version working very good with FT but your router is not supported. I have one at family location for 7years now no issues at all.

here is official Asus support list https://www.asus.com/event/networks_3G4G_support/ and it is depend of country and ISP.

but much better and reliable solution is to have separately 4g or better modem and set it as bridge - this one I have tested for long time no issue HUAWEI B535-232.

Many thanks for you answer, I will take it into account.

 

[relgames]

I have Asus RT-AC86U and it does not work with Huawei E3372-325.
I reached to their support and they said it's not supported, despite their list says the opposite.

Interesting that I tried with Keenetic and it just worked.

 

[cowboy]

I was fighting for 2years with USB LTE dongles for AsusWRT/RMerlin and Tomato/Fresh Tomato and to be honest if it even will be recognized sometimes depend of ISP and even if you connected to different BTS (different city etc) same pages will not load correctly like for example google maps etc - it is not always the same page it is not consistent, sometimes it is even number of web pages you are opening in the same time up to 5-10 is OK above not. I lost a lot time with it as my family needed and be honest would not do it one more time.

Huawei E3276 if it will be recognized by RMerlin - last time I tested it in 2015 will work very good
Huawei E3372 will not work with AsusWRT/RMerlin - all demand how model will be recognized as RAS or NDIS. E3372 as non hi-link version working very good with FT but your router is not supported. I have one at family location for 7years now no issues at all.

here is official Asus support list https://www.asus.com/event/networks_3G4G_support/ and it is depend of country and ISP.

but much better and reliable solution is to have separately 4g or better modem and set it as bridge - this one I have tested for long time no issue HUAWEI B535-232.

I need actually a LTE 4G Modem in Greece, I found the "HUAWEI E3372-325 MODEM LTE 4G", but reading your post I see the it probably wont work.

Now I am looking for a LTE modem, maybe the one you suggested.

 

[juanantonio]

I need actually a LTE 4G Modem in Greece, I found the "HUAWEI E3372-325 MODEM LTE 4G", but reading your post I see the it probably wont work.

Now I am looking for a LTE modem, maybe the one you suggested.

Currently, I'm using a ZTE-MF833U1 on my RT-AC86U with zero issues.

 

[cowboy]

Currently, I'm using a ZTE-MF833U1 on my RT-AC86U with zero issues.

Thanks, I will look into it. I hope that it works with Cosmote Provider.
I am also thinking about Netgear LB1110, which as I see is just a modem and takes a SIM Card.

I am right now in Greece and the SIM Card is from COSMOTE provider.

 

[juanantonio]

Thanks, I will look into it. I hope that it works with Cosmote Provider.
I am also thinking about Netgear LB1110, which as I see is just a modem and takes a SIM Card.

I am right now in Greece and the SIM Card is from COSMOTE provider.

My ISP is DIGI. I live in Spain.
It seems to me that, as long as you are using a valid 4G SIM card, any 4G modem should work.

 

[cowboy]

My ISP is DIGI. I live in Spain.
It seems to me that, as long as you are using a valid 4G SIM card, any 4G modem should work.

Yes I was thinking that too. But looking at this list I am not sure anymore:
3G/4G USB Adapter Compatibility List

I actually wanted to buy the E3372 Stick, but some say that it is not working. So I am not sure anymore.

Now I am thinking about a LTE Mode like Netgear LB1110, or some other but maybe just a LTE Modem.

 

[cowboy]

Now I am thinking about a LTE Mode like Netgear LB1110, or some other but maybe just a LTE Modem.

I bought the Netgear LTE Modem LB2120 and will try it out with my RT-AC86U Router in few months.

 

[Qbcd]

Currently, I'm using a ZTE-MF833U1 on my RT-AC86U with zero issues.

Hi, I found this thread because I'm looking for a decent 4G USB dongle. The ZTE MF733U1 that you're using seems to be one of the most popular choices. There's another popular one that's slightly more expensive which is the ZTE MF79N, and I can't figure out what the difference between them is...

Can I ask you, do you know if the ZTE MF733U1 is only a modem or also a Wi-Fi router? And can it also function as a 32GB flash drive? That's claimed on Amazon, which I think is strange, but would be a nice bonus if true.

Overall how's the performance, are you happy with the reception? How does it compare to your phone?

Thanks.

 

[cowboy]

Just wanted to post a update here. I bought the LTE Modem LB2120 and connected it with my RTAC68U router.
The SIM Card is a from Greek provider Cosmote.
Everything works perfectly.

 

[cowboy]

Just wanted to post a update here. I bought the LTE Modem LB2120 and connected it with my RTAC68U router.
The SIM Card is a from Greek provider Cosmote.
Everything works perfectly.

View attachment 53595

I'd like to share a brief update regarding the LTE Modem LB2120. Initially, it functioned correctly, but I encountered an issue when switching it to Bridge Mode, where I received a private IP address in the 10.55.XXX.XXX range. Upon investigating, I discovered that this is a common problem among users, stemming from our provider, COSMOTE, employing Double NAT.

Following a discussion with COSMOTE's customer service, they advised altering the APN settings from 'internet' to 'vpn-internet'. This modification successfully assigned me a public IP address in the range 149.XXX.XX.XXX, enabling the use of VPN services.

 

[device]

Hi All!

Actually I have 2pcs of RT-AC68U with huawei e3372h-153 and they were working well but I had to upgrade them to 388.12_4 merlin to prevent version mismatch with openvpn ( I made a 4 router site-to-site network). One of the 68u is working flawless but the other one is doing usb unrecognizable thing, which it did not do before.

How can I resolv this issue? Do you have any hints?

Syslog said usb unrecognizable on both usb3.0 and usb2 ports then after half/one hour it was online again. Then it gone wrong again after 24h approx.

Did anybody noticed something similar like this before?

 

[device]

This is interesting. The "lost" router came back to online this morning after its scheduled restart at 4am and started to send syslog to my log server. The weird thing is that the only client which is active there is an xmeye camera dvr which generated 14000x of this in only 49 minutes!

2023-12-31

04:49

Információ

RT-AC68U-

daemon

dnsmasq-dhcp

DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 255.255.255.255 00:12:31:2c:52:d6

2023-12-31

04:49

Információ

RT-AC68U-

daemon

dnsmasq-dhcp

DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.7.2 00:12:31:2c:52:d6

Can it somehow cause the breakdown? I'll try to catch it at 4am and setup a rate limiter, lets see

 

[gfondeur]

Inseego USB8 4G LTE Global USB Modem | 4G LTE-A, HSPA+/UMTS | CAT 18

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095Q68CBP?tag=snbforums-20

Works perfect for me on my RT-AC86U