Asus AC68U IPhone Tether

[Mardimus]

Took on a new project to improve wireless networking at my cabin in the mountains and need a bit of help.

Setup:
AC68U running Merlin 384.14
or
AC68U running DDWRT v3.0 R41813 std
(I have two routers so either one can be used. Testing two different builds to get this to work)

iPhone is a 6S Plus on Visible (Verizon prepay)
Phone is jailbroken via CheckRain and using the tetherme app

So the goal is to tether the phone to the router via usb and use the router to connect multiple devices.

I got this working on a TP link router using repeater mode. So the phone sits in the window and the hotspot is on and the router then takes the signal and distributes it to the remaining wireless devices. The issue is that the signal drops in and out and then you have to turn the hot spot off and back on to reset the connection.

What I would like to do is have it tethered via usb to keep the connection intact or at least try to test the difference, tether vs hotspot.

On DDRWT I go into settings and select iPhone tether, Phone is plugged into usb3.0 port, and when plugged in the phone asks to trust the (device), I click trust and it shows on the phone its tethered. The issue is the the router does not have a network connection coming in.

When I connect/tether the phone to my PC I get a ip address and can run speed test with no issue.

On Merlin I only get the option for Android or USB Modem (i think) and run into the same issue except it doesn't even show the usb port has anything connected to it.

Looking for some insight, searched for the last three days and have tried a lot of little tricks or techniques but no solution. Let me know if you have any insight as I would like to get this worked out before I go back to my old method.

 

[Chuckles67]

Did you manage to get iPhone working as USB connection on Dual WAN?

I've spent a bit of time trying to do this, without success. Seems to me the router is not able to initiate the connection with the iPhone, despite iPhone Personal Hotspot being set on and AT&T plan with data tethering for the same iPhone (data tethering works fine on USB connection with a Mac).

 

[doczenith1]

My suggesting is to get a cheap, used Android device. It's pretty much plug and play. I signed up for Visible and did the swap with an old Android phone and got the ZTE A7 for free to use for my testing. Depending on your location and if the tower you are accessing has multiple bands (and you are close enough to access them) you will get better speeds with a phone that supports carrier aggregation. The A7 does not. Here are some speedtest results which show the Pixel 3a with carrier aggregation doing better than the A7. You will also see that the 5 Mbps tethering throttle is not strictly enforced.

 

[Chuckles67]

Thanks - that's helpful.