Recommendation for USB WAN backup

[Col8eral]

My cable broadband provider let me down and I've had no Internet connectivity for just over two days now.

I notice that the ASUS router has a dual WAN fail over feature and I could use some form of USB dongle with a mobile SIM card.

Does anyone have a recommendation for such a dongle? Maybe something with a decent antenna to get a good mobile signal.

Many thanks.

 

[Adooni]

this is niche subject and you will have big challenge with it.

be very careful about LTE dongles as Asus (AsusWRT) do not support those - for example did not fix issue/ add support with NDIS and work only on few models as RAS.
There is bug in Broadcom chips not fixed from 2014. The only Asus that is free of it is Asus RT-N10U

depend of LTE model AsusWTR (RMerlin) will not recognize it at all or can have challenge to download full pages like for example google maps.

not sure what Asus router you have but if it has support of FreshTomato you can use LTE modem e3372s-153 (non hi-link) - this works perfect I have in 2 loc now, in one from 2014.

There is not issue with it using Tp-link routers with gargoyle soft. Therefore if your router is not support by FreshTomato you can purchase tp-link router with gargoyle + LTE dongle and connect to Asus router as LAN and setup then in AsusWRT/RMerlin dual WAN.

this could be solution interested to you https://mikrotik.com/product/lhgg_lte6_kit and this you connect to Asus Router and set dualWAN.

 

[Col8eral]

Hi. Many thanks for your reply.

I have an ASUS RT-AX88U and I'm running stock ASUS firmware.

Does this model have the bug that your refer to or is it OK?

 

[Tech9]

I have an ASUS RT-AX88U and I'm running stock ASUS firmware.

Asuswrt WAN+LAN dual WAN fail over is broken. Asus offers it as a feature, but it doesn't work. The issue goes for years and was never fixed. Some people have better luck with WAN-USB fail over, but you have to wait for someone to provide exact models equipment he/she had good luck with.

 

[Adooni]

Hi. Many thanks for your reply.

I have an ASUS RT-AX88U and I'm running stock ASUS firmware.

Does this model have the bug that your refer to or is it OK?

yes, it will not work with E3372S-153 modem at all.
cannot help more as basically I spent with @Shibby and the team more than half year to make it operational for tomato and as it niche subject it is pointless to waste so much time (I needed this solution for 2 loc but if I knew at beginning what I know now I would go with TP-Link or solutions like MikroTik or similar).

it is likely your router will work with e3276 modem (this one is older compering to e3372s) but I do not have a way to confirm it. This one was working with RT-AC68U and AsusWRT.

As @Tech9 mansion "Asuswrt WAN+LAN dual WAN fail over is broken" your options are very limited.

 

[Col8eral]

Many thanks everyone.

 

[Col8eral]

Does the e3276 have to be configured on a pc before plugging in to the router?