Asus support for 3G/LTE USB devices

[wayner]

I see the supported list of 3G/4G USB devices here. But that list is actually pretty short.

Have people had luck using other devices with their Asus modems? For example, I have a Sierra Wireless 754S 3G/LTE Wifi hotspot. This device can also be used tethered to a PC. Any idea whether this would work with my RT-N66U router?

I guess the other option is to buy one of the officially supported devices used as they can be pretty cheap. For example the Sierra Aircard 313U is supported and it looks like you can get them for $20ish on eBay.

It is kind of tricky searching for 3G based threads as those items are too short to search. Can anyone point me to a thread with more info on using a 3G/LTE USB modem?

FYI - I live in Canada and ideally would be connecting to Rogers' wireless network as my backup ISP in case my wired connection goes down.

 

[stevech]

I've long used Cradlepoint's products. MBR95 for home use is a candidate. All do fail-over, fail-back, if you have cellular + wired ISP. A USB cellular modem also has the advantage that you can plug it into a laptop when on travel. Or get a Cradlepoint travel router with WiFi.
Often found like-new on eBay/Amazon at a discount.

Or older near end of life is the MBR900, on the cheap.

All these have a huge feature set as compared to consumer routers.

 

[wayner]

Interesting - my goal is to use 3G/LTE as a backup and really only use as it a way to notify me if my main internet has gone down and allow me to take actions. I do subscribe to a service which emails me when my internet is down so that isn't an issue. But it would be nice to be able to log in and do stuff like reboot devices, etc. I now have a power switch that has a web UI so I can power cycle my cable modem, router, etc - but you can't do that when you can't connect to the device.

That is why I was looking at the USB stick as it works as a failover if the main WAN connection fails. Ideally I would get a Pay-go SIM card that doesn't have a monthly charge.

But having a 3G/LTE router is an interesting possibility but then how would I switch over to use this as my WAN connection when my main connection goes down? Could I use this router as just a 3G modem in a dual WAN type of configuration? And do these routers have built-in 3G/LTE radios? If you ahve to plug in a USB dongle then what does that gain you over an Asus RT-N66U?

 

[stevech]

The Cradlepoint home/SOHO routers I referenced have fail-over and fail-back. this means it will quickly and automatically switch to cellular (USB modem) if the WAN service fails- and you can define "failure" to your choosing with their config. Could be x seconds of no ping response from some IP address in your ISP route to the internet like the first-hop router as shown by tracert, or some reliable host like 4.2.2.2.

Or a loss of the ethernet link light will cause a fail-over.

Fail-back means to automatically revert to the WAN service when it seems to be up again.

Cradlepoint and Sierra Wireless make routers with WAN and internal cellular modems. These tend to be a bit too expensive for home users - like $400 and up, whereas the routers I listed above are much less, esp. if bought on eBay. My like-new MBR900 was $65 and its been in use for years here.

The firmware in these kinds of routers with WAN/Cellular is very robust, as they are sold into Machine-to-Machine (M2M) such as point of sale, ATMs, libraries, schools, in the trunk of a police car, etc. They are "unattended" and just have to work, and cope with flaky WANs or cellular without human intervention, else the products wouldn't sell.

IMO, Cradlepoint and Sierra Wireless have enough years fine tuning their firmware for reliability in M2M, that others that have tried M2M, like Netgear and D-Link, quit M2M. I don't know what ASUS is up to.

 

[wayner]

Thanks for the info - but I already have an Asus RT-N66U, and this IS the Asus Wireless forum, hence the reason why I want to use the Asus router rather than buy a new one.

I also have a Sierra Wireless Wifi Hotspot which is pretty much a full fledged router and 3G modem as well.