Netgear R7500 Kernel Modules for cdc_ether and rndis used by couple of 4G Modem like Hilink

As I`m LTE / 4G user I tried to compile me some more kernel modules which I needed to get my ZTE MF823 Modem connected to my Netgear R7500 Router. The Router is running at the moment the OpenWrt from myopenrouter.com but there isn't much Kernel modules and additional software implemented. Anyway those modules also should work for the official Netgear R7500 Software as they are running there also OpenWrt (old) with the same Kernel Version as the myopenrouter.com version.

For the ZTE Modem above I need some additional modules to get the Modem working with the Router. The modules itself you can find here:

>>>>>>HERE<<<<<<

ZTE MF823 4G - change IP of Modem and get Public IP forwarded to the Router...

The ZTE MF823 4G Modem is a kind of Modem which you Plug in to the Router or Computer and it should just work. Yes it does.... You Plug it in and the connection is already established.

This makes since a bit more difficulty as the Modem has its own DHCP and IP Range which it uses. The Modem has also its own Firewall which blocks all incoming traffic. As I have a public IP and use the Modem with my Router, I would like to get the WAN traffic forwarded to my Router.

I couldn't manage (yet) to get the real "Port Forwarding" working, but as after the modification I could use the DMZ where I entered the IP of my Router. So this means that all the traffic coming to the public IP will be forwarded to the Router where the Router Firewall will block stuff if needed.

For the connection to the Modem we just need to do a telnet which can be done from Windows or Putty which I prefer. The IP for the ZTE MF823 4G is standard 192.168.0.1 what I didn't change yet.

The Login and Password are the below:

Username: root

Password: zte9x15

After successfully login to the modem it should look like this:

 OpenEmbedded Linux 9615-cdp  
 msm 20130829 9615-cdp  
 9615-cdp login: root  
 Password:  
 root@9615-cdp:~#  

Netgear R7500 what you get and what to expect ?

After I using the R7500 now for around 6 Month I can tell that this is a great Router. I was reading a lot of different Reviews and I saw that all complaint about the wireless Performance is very poor for this router to compare to other Routers. But well which FW version they was testing there ? I believe it was just the first FW Version which was available for this router. I`m just running now the Version 1.0.0.92 which is the latest available on the Netgear Page.

The Wireless Performance is working very good with my Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Adapter where I can copy files to my samba server with around 40 MB/s which is much more than I would expect from my configuration. Also the FW is very stable and I don’t see any wireless drop or reboot of the Router in Router Mode.

The only thinks me still making difficulties is running the Router in AP… When I get the R7500 in AP mode than I have strange timeout/drops to the WAN Ports. When this is the case I cannot open any page or ping any domain. It’s taking around 10 seconds and then its working again fine. Strange but in the next days I will check this issue and will find a way around this.

The Features for the R7500 are maybe not so much like f.e. on the Asus Router, but it has the most important features like VPN, Samba ftp etc. which I need on daily basis. 

Asus Router (Asus-WRT) LTE Modem Support ?

I baught some monh ago a router special because of the Support for 3G/4G, and printer sharing What Asus even advertise on the page.

Well it works fine but the issue they use the ppp to make the dial-up connection to the ISP. What we know about ppp ?

PPP has speed limits what maybe could reach max. 25 Mb/s of speed and more the protocol will not reach.

There was even a release where they added the cdc_ncm driver to the build and it worked fine. CDC-NCM is the high speed driver which is used for my Huawei Device E3267 which can reach the speed the ISP provides. The RT-AC56U with a external USB Plug (powered one) worked great and I didn't had and issues with this. The connection was stable and fast, so I could have reached 75Mb/s which is this what I should have (max 100 Mb/s).

Anyway they removed this again from the Build, but the driver was still there so there was one more workaround to use a script to get it connected with the fast driver but from this what I see that in the latest releases it isn't working anymore.

I opened even a case with Asus and the result was the 4G is not supported on the router as the Hardware can not handle it.....

So for what making advertisments about this, when Support later tells that this is not supported ? Good Work ASUS !

unbrick Netgear R7500 after bad firmware

Seeing a lot of people having issues with OpenWrt and stock firmware on the R7500 router. There is always a solution to tftp a good firmware to the router so it will do its normal job.

There are a lot of different version on how to tftp a different firmware version to the Netgear R7500 but this way I use here is the most simple for me. I tested this on my R7500 and it works, but this is just a Guide and I take no responsibility if something goes wrong.

What you need:

• the latest Netgear Stock firmware for R7500 found on the Netgear support pages
• a tftp client where I choose pumpKIN as it is the most easy client for me
• a laptop with static IP 192.168.1.3 / 255.255.255.0 GW and DNS 192.168.1.1
• and a bit of time to follow the process

1. Configure you PC/Laptop with static IP 192.168.1.3, netmask 255.255.255.0, and DNS and default gateway: 192.168.1.1
2. Connect the Laptop / PC to one of the LAN Ports on R7500
3. Open the tftp client and choose the image which you downloaded from the Netgear Support site and add the remote IP of the router which should be 192.168.1.1
4. Turn off the router and disconnect it from the energy 
5. press the reset button on the back on the router and keep is pressed
6. plugin the Energy from the router and still keep the reset button pressed
7. first the router will have the LED in orange blinking and when the lights changes to white color, than you can release the reset button of the router (not sure if the white is blinking also but I guess not)
8. In pumpKIN start the transfer of the file and the file should gets copied to the R7500
9. Router will upgrade the firmware and restarts automatically after this is done.

When you use this after a messed up revert back from OpenWrt than you could see also the issue that the 5GHz network is missing after reboot. in this case you should follow this steps mentioned here as this is a known issue after revert back to stock firmware.

Netgear R7500 OpenWrt revert back to Stock 5GHz network missing

I was in the situation that I had to revert back my Netgear R7500 from myopenrouter.com OpenWrt version to the native Netgear Genie version (Stock).

There is a revert back file available here:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/56959/Stock-Firmware-for-NETGEAR-R7500/

file name: openwrt-ipq806x-sysupgrade which is a strange name for the revert back file but anyway it contains the Netgear Genie Stock firmware. The file can be Upgrade from the OpenWrt web Gui and should revert back to Stock Firmware with some issues.

I tested this on my R7500 and it works, but this is just a Guide and I take no responsibility if something goes wrong.

After you applied this file and the rooter reboots, than probably you will miss the 5GHz network from the router or you can not get DHCP address from the Router.

We need to set up a static IP address for the client PC / Laptop:

IP: 192.168.1.3
netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway and DNS: 192.168.1.1

Download the NETGEAR-Telnet-Enable-Utility  which allows you to enable the telnet access to your Netgear R7500 router.

To fix the 5GHz issue after reverting back to Stock firmware you need to run the following commands in a telnet shell (telnet connection established to router (192.168.1.1)):

Method-1=> Steps from Stock firmware:

• Upload Stock firmware and establish connection to the router with telnet
• telnet 1.1.1.2 [soc1 login: root]
• cd /mnt/jffs2/
• rm -rf /mnt/jffs2/*
• echo "1.1.1.2" > ipaddr
• echo "mode=ap&bw=80&vht=1&region=us&channel=153&bf=1&pwr=19&scs=0&vsp=0&staticip=1&" > wireless_conf.txt
• sync
• exit
• reboot [reboot the router]

Check if able to connect the 5GHz interface (Should be able to do that successfully)
After this steps you should be able to configure and use the 5GHz network again.

Netgear R7500 - OpenWrt

Netgear R7500 is a pretty new router and still lacks of OpenSource firmware because of the new chipset. Anyway there is already an OpenWrt version available for use what can be downloaded from here:

OpenWrt for R7500
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/56958/OpenWRT-FINAL-for-NETGEAR-R7500/

Revert back to Stock:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/56959/Stock-Firmware-for-NETGEAR-R7500/

The version is still a bit limited as there can not be installed any new packaged like OpenVPN, LTE support, ftp etc. But at all the firmware is pretty stable and the performance is acceptable to compare to the native firmware.

Unfortunately there isn't any source code available yet, so it is not possible to build any additional packages for this router.

Before you Upgrade / install the OpenWrt read the above post in details as there are still issues which are not resolved.