Cellular Phone/USB Modem as WAN connection

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Main Guide [Updated 3/2020]

USB Tethering with an Android phone, or USB Modem dongle, on your DD-WRT enabled router.

USB Phone Tethering

Tethering your DD-WRT router to an Android phone?

Here is a Step-by-Step, I did with a $40/m unlimited plan and a $5 router

Phone: Verizon Visible R2 (ZTE) $19 phone with a $40/m completely unlimited LTE-only pre-pay
Router: Linksys EA6400 running DD-WRT v3.0-r37012 std (2018/09/21) and also worked with r42819 (2020/03/30) Note: I had not used the router in awhile, and had no reason to immediately upgrade the firmware.

This assumes you have reset your router FIRST. If you have an existing custom config, back it up, then reset the router, and test this out. If you can get it working from a reset router, then you'll have to figure out what you need to do after reloading your custom config if it does not work.

  1. Phone: Turn on your Android Developer Options
  2. Search for 'Default USB Configuration'. Set it to 'USB Tethering'
  3. Turn off your screen lock (PIN or pattern etc). [testing this]. The phone must be unlocked for USB Tethering to turn on automatically.
  4. Router: Services, USB: Enable 'Core USB Support'. Apply.
  5. Android phone connected to router's USB port
  6. Phone: USB Tethering will turn on automatically.
  7. Telnet into the router. Run the following commands:
    1. cd /lib/modules/build
      • The last folder, e,g, .../4.4.157, will vary in name, depending on the build/version of DD-WRT.
      • For noobs: do a cd /lib/modules, then an ls to see what the name of the folder is. Or look in Status tab.
    2. insmod usbnet.ko
    3. insmod cdc_ether.ko
    4. insmod rndis_host.ko
    5. ifconfig usb0 up
    6. udhcpc -i usb0
      • You should be able to 'ping google.com' now from within the telnet interface, but not yet on any connected client devices. Noobs: CTRL-C to stop pinging.
    7. iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface usb0 -j MASQUERADE
    8. iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface br0 -j ACCEPT

You should now be able to also ping google.com from any client devices.

If the above works for you, then you can automate it by adding the first 6 lines to the Startup script:

  1. Go to tab Administration, Commands.
  2. Add above commands number 1 through 6, into the Commands box.
  3. Click 'Save Startup'.
  4. Paste commands 7 & 8 (iptables commands) into Commands, then click 'Save Firewall'.
  5. For good measure, click on (Administration) Management. Click 'Save'. Then:
  6. Reboot router, while

Credits: Users sydlexia and shenoyh on the forums.

See link: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1128616#1128616

USB Modem: dongle

There are newer methods, integrated into the firmware than the previous version of this wiki. The relevant threads: K26 NEWD-2 Mega/Big builds starting with 14414 now have the 3G/UTMS WAN connection option built into the firmware.

See the following thread for more information:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=69970

See also http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Mobile_Broadband for a list of directly supported device in K26 and K3.x builds.