Make a 3G router with a NETGEAR WNR3500Lv2, Tomato firmware and HUAWEI E261 3G dongle

HUAWEI E261 WCDMA 3G Modem from China Unicom

HUAWEI E261 WCDMA 3G Modem from China Unicom

My ADSL connection broke down so I tried to bring the house back online with a HUAWEI E261 WCDMA 3G modem hooked up to my NETGEAR WNR3500Lv2 router running Tomato By Shibby firmware. It was remarkably easy and just took a minute. Here is how it goes:

My setup:

Enable USB support in the router:

tomato_usb_settings

 

After plugging the 3G dongle, it appears at the bottom of the “USB Support” page

tomato_huawei_3g_modem

Now that the modem is detected, we can change the connection type from PPPoE or whatever you were using to “3G Modem”, leaving all default worked for me.

tomato_3g_wan

Now we can see the status of the connection in “Overview”:

3g_connection_established

Yep, that is that easy! You now have a 3G router to connect your house.

Now you may want to configure the bandwidth limiter and the captive portal to keep your internet usage under control.

 

 

2 Comments

  1. Anne Donnelly October 5, 2016 9:35 pm  Reply

    this does not work for me! the netgear manual for this router says you can\’ use a dongle it\’s only for storage and I\’ve unsuccessfully been able to add my usb modem. it works on my tplink router but not this one. I bought this router flashed with tomato firmware so I could enable server vpn to use voip here in egypt. Any suggestions as I\’m out!!!

Leave a Reply