GPRS/3G/HSDPA/UMTS USB modem Huawei E220 on Asus router - HowTo

[newbiefan]

The Huawei E220 modem is more and more used as a mobile internet access.
Well, wouldn't it be nice to have a cheap wireless-router, capable to be installed fast and elsewhere?
A mobile USB modem and a Linux-Router allows you to achieve it!
Whether at the alpine-cabin, at the car park, campground or Grandma's, everywhere internet for all!
The Huawei E220 modem is increasingly used from an unbelieveable amount of isp's throughout the world.
An adaption of Olegs grandiose firmware called Koppel FW gives you the unique opportunity to turn your low price asus router
to a full fledged gprs/umts wireless router in an easy way.
Please read the entire howto before any installation.
FIRMWARE FOR WL500GPV2 IS AVAILABLE NOW!!
The firmware is available for Asus Wl500gP, g, gx
-Download http://koppel.cz/cdmawifi/download (newest adapted, stable Oleg FW)
-Set at routers web interface, system setup to factory default. (of course apply & finish)
-Wait for reboot and click at menu system setup 'firmware upgrade' to upload your new firmware (1.71).
-Please wait several minutes and do not touch/unplug anything.....
THE LATEST FIRMWARE-RELEASE (1.69) SUPPORTS ALREADY THE HUAWEI E220 MODEM (SINCE 1.68).
Click on GSM / GPRS and input your data of your isp - done.
FOR ALL OLDER VERSIONS (<1.68) YOU NEED THE ATTACHED FILE 'dial.huawei.tar.gz' (or if your connection speed is too slow).
-After reboot choose USB Connection and select User defined.
-Upload attached user dial-up file 'dial.huawei.tar.gz'
-Then USB connection, dial-up Config, your username / password / APN / dialin number. (some isp don't need usernames/passwords)
Then apply and finish.

After each reboot the router connects automatically to inet. Use the webif to toggle between connect and disconnect.
Please note, that the modem must be switched with "windows mobile connect" to 3g preferred enabled and pin code disabled.
If you don't have your dial-in number and/or APN, just google for it or call support line of your isp.

With newer asus-routers (wl-500gp), perhaps you get a weak or no wireless signal. If this is the case, please log on (telnet) to your router (192.168.1.1) and add
to your post-boot (stored at /tmp/local/sbin/post-boot) with 'vi /tmp/local/sbin/post-boot' (if you are not firm with vi, google for vi manual, it's easy):

'wl antdiv 3'

This allows the router to select the best antenna.
As usual, store your post-boot with 'flashfs save && flashfs commit && flashfs enable && reboot'.

This HowTo is an excerpt from english Wl500g forum http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=7318
and (a german) UMTS Forum http://www.umtslink.at/3g-forum/showthread.php?p=528907
And last, but not least, many thanks to Oleg and Engy for such a grandiose firmware.
Have fun.........

[newbiefan]

If somebody want to have the "dial huawei" files with pin code, download from here:
http://wl500g.info/attachment.php?at...8&d=1206016319

[newbiefan]

If your usb modem does not connect or your connection is lost,
just do a

killall pppd

and wait a minute, the modem starts immediatly with a new dial in.

Later I'll post a script which checks inet-connection and reconnects when connection is lost.

Att.: there is no need to reboot the router!!!

[newbiefan]

There are several ways to go.......
1.) You reboot your router, but I strongly suggest don't use such a solution.
When you reboot your router by script, it can end in a continuous
rebooting device.
Sometimes it is hard to get a connection to your router.....
2.) You do just nothing - the regular fw recognise a lost connection within 5
minutes
then a new connection is established again.
3.) You can open a console on your router and enter 'killall pppd'. Wait a
minute, your router starts a new connection immediatly.
4.) You write a script to ping a website from time to time and when at least
dns connection is lost, your script kills pppd and a new connection is
established soon.
Below you find all needed files, store file address to '/tmp/etc/' and do
the appropriate entry in '/tmp/local/.files', then store script 'watch_wan'
to '/tmp/local/sbin/' and store everything with the well known commands:
'flashfs save && flashfs commit && flashfs enable && reboot'
If you want, you can change time between pings, your loglocation aso.,
just have a closer look at the file 'watch_wan', don't forget to store it
forever with flashfs....
5.) You change your gprs file. As written above, there is an automatic
detection in your koppel firmware, hence you can adjust the time where a
lost connection is recognized.
Open vi /tmp/ppp/gprs/gprs (or open gprs with any editor) and change in
the line lcp-echo-failure 5 the value '5' to '2'.
Then add to your '/tmp/local/.files' the full path of gprs
file '/tmp/ppp/gprs/gprs'.
To store your changed file, do a
'flashfs save && flashfs commit && flashfs enable && reboot'

ahhh... don't forget to remove the extensions of the files and rights!
A chmod 777 /tmp/local/sbin/watch_wan should do the trick.
Call your watch_wan just with: (post-boot or console)
'/tmp/local/sbin/watch_wan &' in order to run in background

Hope it helps...

[againmoon]

Dear all, thank you very much for your work.
I am starting using WL-500GPV2 with my modem in Italy with a contract.
I have a limit of 5Giga of traffic per month. Is it possible to control the traffic from the router?
Is it also possible to check if the connection is with my mobile operator and not with other operators in roaming?
thanks very much

[newbiefan]

Well, this is hard to answer.....
but let me tell you the following:
with a bit scripting, it should be possible to control amount of traffic.
But what do you want to do when limit is reached? Switch off everything?

Further, a control of roaming or change to an other provider should be possible. For instance - check out the DNS-server addresses of your provider, when dns-addresses are changed, your are in a roaming area. Then you can switch off any connection or allow a connection at a certain time aso. - but everything with scripting.

Best would be to learn a bit linux and scripting.....

Hope it helps

[againmoon]

Dear newbies,
I think I will try to learn some linux.
On this forum http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=90959,
I found the following solutions for ubuntu, concerning traffic control in linux

Add to Panel > Network Monitor and System Monitor
Run netmeter in wine under Ubuntu.
iptables work fine
vnstat seems
darkstat,bandwidthd

do you think those solutions can work for WL500GPV2?
thanks

[newbiefan]

No, it will not work that way.....the systems are totally different.
An Asus router is an embedded linux device. Of course you can install a lot of different linux software like webserver, fileserver, ftpserver, printserver, torrent, videoserver and so on, but everything must be compiled (crosscompiled) for a so called mipsel-cpu. But there is an unbelieveable amount of precompiled packages - just have a look at this list:
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Optware/Packages

or a complete list: http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/op.../cross/stable/

Isn't it amazing?

[againmoon]

I really would like to thank you for your support. I will have a look to those package. I think it will take a while...

[againmoon]

Usb interfaces problems WL-500GP v2
When I connect usb modems to my router, it does not recognize nothing, no vendor id , product id.
I tried with modem onda HS600, nothing,
SAMSUNG U700(HSDPA) , nothing
Siemens P990 (UMTS), nothing

WHen I connect hard disc no problem. I connected HDD IOMEGA 120 Giga no powered, ok.
I connected 500 G LANCE HDD, external supply, ok
I also connected an Iphone (it is not a modem) and it was recognized, even without external supply.
I tried with powered usb hub, but nothing changed.

Initially I tested with Koppel wl500GP v2 software (see http://koppel.cz/conferences/viewtop...r=asc&start=30). Afterwards I upgraded directly to oleg firmware 10 for WL500GPv2 and I have the same problem.
Did you ever tested file log with an usb modem in v2?
Is it a problem of firmware 10?
I used killall but nothing...

thanks

[newbiefan]

I'm sorry, but I do not own a V2, therefore I can not test it....

[againmoon]

Сообщение от newbiefan

I'm sorry, but I do not own a V2, therefore I can not test it....

I am very newbie
Maybe the problem is the the same you discuss in http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=...highlight=e220
Where you suggest "In any case keep a sleep 30 in your post-boot".
If I correctly understood maybe the modem needs more time to send its information to the system. I will test next days...

[againmoon]

For any person interested here http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=15468 I posted and howto about hsdpa with kamikaze.
It worked for me. Probably koppel and oleg firmware are better for stability and simplicity, but I think it is interesting the possibility to have a backup solution

[rhai]

Hi guys,

Does this support load balancing between 3G HSDPA and Internet thru WAN port?

[darius]

Hi,

I really appreciate your efforts but please write your HOWTO
step by step with scripting/ scripts
editing, directories and naming working usb modems/ operators and more.

Can I use USB hub to have usb harddisk, usb bluetooth or usb gps, usb cell modem in one.
Do I ned to use extra power supply source ?

Darius