Netgear MBR624GU Wireless 3G router on Vodafone (UK) using Ubuntu or Windows

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A 3G router takes the 3G dongle in its own USB socket and the firmware operates the dialling process. Several PCs or tablets etc with any OS (Windows, Mac, Linux etc...) can share the internet access and connect to the router by Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
You must however check that your dongle is supported by the router's firmware, and the manufacturer's website will list supported dongles and will usually frequently add more.




There are a number of 3G routers available at time of writing, but the MBR624GU by Netgear now (2010) supports the UK Orange Huawei E160E and the Vodafone Huawei K3565 and O2 E1752cu dongles which I use. When I moved to Vodafone I decided to get the K3565 because newer dongles like the ZTE 3570-z are not yet supported. Probably never will be.

Note about firmware: I would not assume that the latest firmware is the best. You may need an older one to support your dongle if it is very old like E220 which Netgear dropped from the latest firmware.

Other available routers are the Aztech from Solwise, the Edimax, a couple from Billion and more are coming online all the time.
Note that the Vodafone SureSignal is not a 3G router at all - it's simply a way to connect 3G dongle to a home ADSL or Cable fixed line broadband. HAndy if you have a 3G phone and lousy signal and an existing broadband line.

I went for the Netgear because I have used their routers before and they are top notch. Since being ported for Europe they seem to provide good web based support including firmware update downloads.


I ordered the Netgear router (in 2010) from one of Amazon's dealers and it arrived within a few days. Having downloaded the user manual as a pdf beforehand from the Netgear site, I knew in advance how to set up the router as follows.

Setup manually

Connect your dongle to the router using the extension.
Connect your PC to the router using ethernet cable (Yellow)
Power up Netgear then PC.
Don't run any software from the supplied CD, it isn't needed and may be a hindrance.

Next make the router safe from wifi access by others in the neighbourhood.
I went to http://192.168.0.1 and entered the default credentials of "admin" and "password".
I went to Wireless Settings and enabled WPA-PSK encryption and added a suitable passphrase. Something like "I am not a number I am a free man. Who is number one?" makes it easier to remember, and use all spaces, case and punctuation up to 63 characters.
Then I changed the default admin password to something other than "password".
These two simple measures ensured the router was secure from potential hackers.

I went to Broadband Account Settings to enter ISP info.

Note that you should NOT select your ISP (e.g. Vodafone, Orange) from the drop-down box as it will probably have the wrong APN for domestic use, especially in UK.
So I selected country "UK" and "other" under ISP and simply typed in the APN for my UK 3GB domestic pre-pay Vodafone (i.e. "PPBUNDLE.INTERNET") and I also noticed that the correct dial number was already entered as *99#
Vodafone recommends PPP so I changed from IP to PPP and I then hit Apply and it was all done.

For other providers the required APN will need to be obtained (e.g. Three is "3internet" , Orange contract is "consumerbroadband" etc) BUT you should ask your provider rather than Googling as there is a LOT of simply incorrect data out there on the web. They tend to confuse APNs for web enabled phones with 3G dongles and they are not the same. Also contract and PAYG are often different.
If you are lucky you may find the APN in the settings menus in the dongle connection software yuou normally use with your original dongle.

Above shows the setup for my "Vodafone" PAYG dongle.

Everything was saved with "Apply" and then I backed up the configuration in the Backup menu and then powered down the router, plugged the 3G dongle on the extension into the back of the router and powered back up again.

You can then either keep the ethernet cable in, or disconnect it to connect by WiFi.

Once the Netgear is booted I connected the PC wirelessly using the WPA passphrase in the normal way.

Note to both Windows and Ubuntu users - if you change the encryption or wifi passphrase, go into network connections and delete the connection and start again.

The default setting is connect to internet on power-up but if the internet connection is not made on power-up then go to Broadband Settings and click on Connect. You can also manually disconnect here if you want to be kind to your ISP.


I suggest you disable the "Check for New Firmware on Power Up" as it wastes a valuable 90 seconds on boot-up

Simples - no CDs, no wizards, though the Wizard option is there if you want it.

Pros:
Reconnection is simple. None of the usual Windows problems getting a dongle detected. You can swap dongles or use different prividers relatiovely easily whereas Windows will usually reject any newer dongle's modem device and require a purge in device manager.
The router based routine now is simply switch on the router with the dongle in, switch on the laptop, then by the time they are both up and running you are online.
Will also run on any version of any operating system that supports ethernet or wifi.

Cons:
Wireless-g only but plenty for 3G!
Firmware possibly has a few bugs, some are identified in the website (see problems below). It is best NOT to exit browser or power down PC with browser open in Netgear Broadband Account Settings or you may corrupt the settings and will need to recover them from the cfg backup!

Suggestions
I suggest you untick the box that does a check for new firmware each time it powers up as it always fails until you have actually connected! Even then it says you are up-to-date which is not true - I have spoken to a Netgear engineer on this (Jan 2011) and they are looking at it, but I am afraid the non-USA (WW) firmware support appears to be low priority.

Remote Management - not possible!
Well at least in UK. Even though this router has the programming to allow remote management, and it gives a remote access IP address, because Vodafone shares one IP adress amongst many users it is not possible to access your network or the router itself from elsewhere. I had a very helpful Netgear engineer try and fail. That also means things like network cameras or NAS drives can't be accessed. That is not a fault of the router but of the way 3G works in this country.