LTE USB Dongle as Failover WAN

[d3dl3g]

Hi all,
1st post here, been struggling for a few days now with trying to get ISP provided LTE USB Dongle to "work" in OPN.

I'm running OPN in Proxmox. I have USB device passthrough to OPN VM (vtnet3), I have setup Interfaces:<vtnet3>, I have set up System:Gateway:Single for vtnet3.

in Gateway:Single i have "defunct" Priority and "Offline" Status. From how i understand it that means I have a setting wrong somewhere, but please correct me if I am over looking something.

I am unable to set up GW Groups as vnet3 isnt listed (probably due to defunct/offline status?)

LTE USB Dongle model is : ZTE K5161z
Service Provider is: Vodafone UK (not sure if this makes any ounce of difference. but its here for the sake of completeness)

- Dongle will work in ISP AIO Router (Technicolor THG3000) as designed
- Dongle will work if plugged directly into Fedora 37 Workstation running on an HP Probook G1 and show as an ethernet connection in the task bar as well as give internet connectivity.

As i see it, because of the behaviour of the dongle in fedora, it presents itself as a usb ethernet adapter, so my thought is that i shouldnt have to set it up as a cellular WAN as outlined in OPN Documentation. I may be wrong though, thats why i am posting here

Any help warmly recieved, because i have hours in this upto this point :)

[tiermutter]

First of all, USB modem support by BSD is not the best, maybe you should search for specific device to see if it will work under BSD.
Then I guess you will do good not to block private networks, as cellular mostly is CGNAT.
I never used USB LTE modems, but i guess you need to set up PtP connection in your sense (providing APN, etc.). Have you done this and missed to provide screenshots?

[d3dl3g]

First of all, USB modem support by BSD is not the best, maybe you should search for specific device to see if it will work under BSD.
Then I guess you will do good not to block private networks, as cellular mostly is CGNAT.
I never used USB LTE modems, but i guess you need to set up PtP connection in your sense (providing APN, etc.). Have you done this and missed to provide screenshots?

I have not checked BSD Compatability... I will do that in the first instance

I will unblock Private Networks regardless if device is compatible or not.

I have not set up PtP or anything more than i have provided screenshots for. I shall look into this.

[tiermutter]

Setting up PtP and unblock private networks should be the first an easiest way to go I guess :)
Also see https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/cellular.html

[d3dl3g]

further searching on my end resulted in finding this https://github.com/opnsense/umb-freebsd addon, not sure if it may be relevant or not.

i think i tried to do the cellular set up you linked to but because im in a vm and sharing the USB Dongle via a "network bridge" in proxmox, rather than a straight USB Port forward, i think i have numerous levels of issues going on.

i will first adjust Proxmox pass throughs, then work on OPN. sometime you cant see the forest for the trees, thanks for the 2nd set of eyes

[tiermutter]

Whether VM or bare metal, OPNsense needs to talk with you modem (AT commands).
When this is working, you can go a step ahead and set up PtP, facing much more problems ;)

[d3dl3g]

USB Passthrough from Proxmox results in a ue0 interface (Passing Through the actual device rather than the USB Port, as then it wont matter if i switch USB ports in the future it *shouldnt* break)

from OPN CLI i can see usb device is recognised properly but unable to "cu" with it as per provided link

as for PtP stuff, i assume its PPP i need to setup, but i dont get the option to pick a device.

apologies if this all really n00b stuff that i am asking/providing, but for me it is something completely new.

[d3dl3g]

Code Select Expand

ue0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        description: OPT2 (opt2)
        options=80000<LINKSTATE>
        ether 34:4b:50:00:00:00
        media: Ethernet autoselect
        status: active
        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

is this pertinent?