Will Huawei E3372 work?

[questlover]

I am trying to use a usb modem but was unsuccessful with This Modem.

The modem simply does not show up when I “switch off router, then plug in modem and restart”.
When it is on and I plug in however, it shows “tethering” as usb and the the button. When I connect, it gives a connection error.

Considering Internet - GL.iNet Docs 3 page where Huawei E3372 is written as a modem tested, I am tempted to order it.

Since it is non-returnable, I want to ask the opinion of experts on the chances of the router working.

Also is there a difference in the risk involved while using router as “repeater” or “cable”. The purpose of router is using VPN with kill switch strictly.

[Johnex]

My best friend has the E3372 and it does work. However, be careful with the version you order.

If you order the E3372H, you will only have “tethering” ie, the router will detect it as an iOS device. The H version has the webui for settings. The downside is that the connection is emulated in a way, and there are lots of reports that it is slower than the following one.

If you order the E3372S, then the router will control all the settings as if it was an internal module, and you will also have a higher speed because the protocol is faster. The E3372S can also be changed from stickmode to “hilink” mode (like the H) using just some flashing tools.

To flash the H version, you must open the case and bridge a test point to ground EVERY TIME, and use a special firmware uploader via commandline (ie more hacky).

Unfortunately my friend has the H version and we are thinking about flashing it to stickmode for better performance.

[alzhao]

Pls get the hilink version, i.e. hostless or tethering version of E3372 and it should work.

[alzhao]

@questlover

The modem simply does not show up when I “switch off router, then plug in modem and restart”.
When it is on and I plug in however, it shows “tethering” as usb and the the button. When I connect, it gives a connection error.

What is the error? Tethering should work

[Johnex]

I disagree about the hilink version, its slower and harder to flash. With the stick version he can flash to hilink if he really wants.

The hardware is the same but the Ethernet emulation is slower.

[SmurfonToast]

Interesting discussion, I have an E8372H-153 which I could use in HiLink Mode (alzhao does not say specifically why it is better only that it will work). Are there any test results of speed differences HilInk vs Stick Mode (I think it is NCM?)

Rather than flash E8372H-153 to see the difference, I was thinking to get the E3372H (cannot find the S Version) and flash the 21.x firmware on it (I understand 22.x is the HiLink version). Before I embark on this, is it worth it, can it be reasonably easily done?

k.

[Johnex]

I also don’t know why alfie recommends the hilink ones, since the stick ones expose AT commands just like the Quectel internal modules GL uses and use yeah NCM for the connection itself. You get more options in the UI with cell info etc, while the hilink just says tethered and ip. Hilink also has it’s own NAT, so you are fighting with that to open ports as well if needed.

If you want to read about flashing hilink to stick for the E3372H see this:

https://www.0xf8.org/2017/01/flashing-a-huawei-e3372h-4g-lte-stick-from-hilink-to-stick-mode/

Try the top section “did not work for me” first, as there seems to be many different versions with different options for flashing, progressively harder to do. I say harder because for some people opening the stick and bridging the test point to ground would be considered no fly zone, while others would love to even desolder the entire MCU

[alzhao]

@Johnex

I also don’t know why alfie recommends the hilink ones,

Buddy, you always choose the hard (maybe better) way. Most people just want plug and play that is why I recommend hilink version.

[SmurfonToast]

Hiya,

I think there is room for both modem-only and tether-only options, but whether GliNET want or need to go the former (more tech-heavy) route is down to GLiNET’s business model for each router / device I guess. There are, as alzhao has pointed out before, options in the form of ROOTer firmware (OpenWRT).

For the record, whilst I am not as tech-savvy as most here, I am reasonably good at following directions so after many visits to various (and often dodgy-looking) russian modem firmware sites I did revert an E3372H to stock mode using the ‘needle method’; it was not altogether that difficult (but having said that I killed my E8372H albeit for a different reason) to beware

See also some input here on the same theme, I provided two E3372Hs, one in ‘Stick’ mode’ (flashed as above) the other in original HiLink ‘Tether’ mode. I will be interesting to see if GLiNET can advise any discernable real-word difference in speed. I agree with alzhao though, most (90%-95%?) of purchasers just want to plug and play any modem (or indeed phone) they may use to run their router.

GL-AR750S Slate 4G Modem Huawei E3372s-153

Hi I think a separate forum is a great idea but caveat that by saying that having GLiNET testing them all is unlikely as there are however literally hundreds of different USB Modems or modems that can be connected via USB and there are many different sub-models (country/band specific, see examples below) for each modem (I just sent alzhao 3 modems to test, but it is a drop in the ocean). What this sub-forum might do is allow a bigger database to be built up from user-experiences and have it on…

cheers

k.

[mkdr]

What do you need to do to make the E3372 work in Serial mode (fw21)? It wont show up in the GLInet web gui. Dmesg:

[alzhao]

Seems that there is interfaces ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB1 already. Can you try set up using Luci?

[mkdr]

Ive tried setting it up manually but it wont get a ip address, the same was reported years ago, please read this: Huawei E3372h-153 not showing up in Brume 2 Webgui

Huawei MS2732h-517 in NCM mode

Had some time for a bit more testing today. I can confirm ncm mode is working on a MT300N, MT300N-V2, and an AR300M all using stock gl-inet firmware version 2.264. Here is the syslog on the MT300N-V1 with firmware 2.264… modem is initialized (after what looks like one failed attempt first?), AT commands sent, and connection established automatically at boot: Sun Dec 16 17:58:19 2018 daemon.notice netifd: modem (1521): Timeout running AT-command Sun Dec 16 17:58:19 2018 daemon.notice netifd: m…

Seems it was working on older few but is broken after 2.27x

Something is blocking it getting a ip address.

wwan_4 (2390): udhcpc: sending discover
wwan_4 (2390): udhcpc: sending discover
wwan_4 (2390): udhcpc: sending discover

/etc/config/network

config interface ‘wwan’
option proto ‘ncm’
option ifname ‘wwan0’
option metric ‘40’
option delegate ‘0’
option disabled ‘0’
option mode ‘preferlte’
option password ‘tm’
option username ‘telekom’
option delay ‘20’
option ipv6 ‘0’
option dialnumber ‘*99#’
option pdptype ‘IP’
option apn ‘internet.telekom’
option device ‘/dev/ttyUSB1’

dmesg

[ 7528.856860] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 9 using xhci-mtk
[ 7529.053639] usb-storage 1-1.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 7529.075395] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.4:1.0
[ 7529.192736] usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 9
[ 7529.888661] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 10 using xhci-mtk
[ 7530.113262] option 1-1.4:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[ 7530.119765] usb 1-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[ 7530.127097] option 1-1.4:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[ 7530.133611] usb 1-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[ 7530.246981] huawei_cdc_ncm 1-1.4:1.2: MAC-Address: 00:1e:10:1f:00:00
[ 7530.253344] huawei_cdc_ncm 1-1.4:1.2: setting rx_max = 16384
[ 7530.266135] huawei_cdc_ncm 1-1.4:1.2: NDP will be placed at end of frame for this device.
[ 7530.274458] huawei_cdc_ncm 1-1.4:1.2: cdc-wdm0: USB WDM device
[ 7530.280855] huawei_cdc_ncm 1-1.4:1.2 wwan0: register ‘huawei_cdc_ncm’ at usb-11200000.xhci-1.4, Huawei CDC NCM device, 00:1e:10:1f:00:00
[ 7530.293556] usb-storage 1-1.4:1.3: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 7530.300146] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.4:1.3
[ 7530.305101] usb-storage 1-1.4:1.4: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 7530.311680] scsi host1: usb-storage 1-1.4:1.4
[ 7531.362761] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access HUAWEI TF CARD Storage 2.31 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 7531.372085] scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM HUAWEI Mass Storage 2.31 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 7531.382701] sd 1:0:0:0: Power-on or device reset occurred
[ 7531.398006] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk

lsusb

Bus 001 Device 010: ID 12d1:1506 HUAWEI_MOBILE HUAWEI_MOBILE
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0610 GenesysLogic USB2.1 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux 5.4.211 xhci-hcd xHCI Host Controller
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 05e3:0626 GenesysLogic USB3.1 Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux 5.4.211 xhci-hcd xHCI Host Controller

logread

Thu Jan 25 03:07:31 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → AT
Thu Jan 25 03:07:31 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → ATZ
Thu Jan 25 03:07:32 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → ATQ0
Thu Jan 25 03:07:33 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → ATV1
Thu Jan 25 03:07:33 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → ATE1
Thu Jan 25 03:07:34 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → ATS0=0
Thu Jan 25 03:07:34 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → AT+CGDCONT=1,“IP”,“internet.telekom”
Thu Jan 25 03:07:35 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): Configuring modem
Thu Jan 25 03:07:35 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): Setting mode
Thu Jan 25 03:07:36 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → AT^SYSCFGEX=“030201”,3fffffff,2,4,7fffffffffffffff,
Thu Jan 25 03:07:37 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): Starting network wwan
Thu Jan 25 03:07:37 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): Connecting modem
Thu Jan 25 03:07:37 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): sending → AT^NDISDUP=1,1,“internet.telekom”,“telekom”,“tm”
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan (3039): Setting up wwan0
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘wwan’ is now up
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: Network device ‘wwan0’ link is up
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: Network alias ‘wwan0’ link is up
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘wwan_4’ is enabled
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘wwan_4’ has link connectivity
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘wwan_4’ is setting up now
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan_4 (4242): udhcpc: started, v1.33.2
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 user.notice firewall: Reloading firewall due to ifup of wwan (wwan0)
Thu Jan 25 03:07:38 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan_4 (4242): udhcpc: sending discover
Thu Jan 25 03:07:40 2024 daemon.info avahi-daemon[5525]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wwan0.IPv6 with address fe80::21e:HIDDEN:0.
Thu Jan 25 03:07:40 2024 daemon.info avahi-daemon[5525]: New relevant interface wwan0.IPv6 for mDNS.
Thu Jan 25 03:07:40 2024 daemon.info avahi-daemon[5525]: Registering new address record for fe80::21e:HIDDEN:0 on wwan0.*.
Thu Jan 25 03:07:41 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan_4 (4242): udhcpc: sending discover
Thu Jan 25 03:07:44 2024 daemon.notice netifd: wwan_4 (4242): udhcpc: sending discover

ifconfig

wwan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1E:10:1F:00:00
inet6 addr: fe80::21e:HIDDEN:0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:51 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:15212 (14.8 KiB)

[alzhao]

Have you tried ttyUSB0?

[mkdr]

Yes no difference instead it will kinda lock up giving a permission denied / wrong at command and then have to unplug and plug in the usb stick again.

[SmurfonToast]

Any update on this please?

I don’t really want to convert my E3372 stick mode back to H as it’s a bear to go back to stick mode (needle method) and as other shave pointed out stick mode is faster than emulated.