USB tether to Novatel 5510L

[getch]

I'm trying to connect my pineapple to the 'net by tethering to this USB hotspot, and having no luck.

The pineapple does USB tethering to my Android phone just fine, using the same wire.

The hotspot is set for Ethernet over USB tethering, and tethers my Win 7 laptop with no issue.

When I connect the Pineapple to the hotspot, the hotspot asks me it I want to charge only or tether, and then I get nothing. The hotspot does not increment the connected devices counter. The pineapple does not show a usb0 interface.

Can someone with a clue help me figure out what to poke?

EDIT: output from logread:

Jun  7 21:02:47 Pineapple kern.info kernel: [  772.040000] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 12 using ehci-platform
Jun  7 21:02:47 Pineapple kern.info kernel: [  772.200000] rndis_host 1-1.2:1.0: eth1: register 'rndis_host' at usb-ehci-platform-1.2, RNDIS device, 00:15:ff:57:86:30
Jun  7 21:02:47 Pineapple user.notice usb-modeswitch: 1-1.2:1.0: Manufacturer=Novatel_Wireless Product=MiFi_5510 Serial=0123456789ABCDEF
Jun  7 21:02:47 Pineapple user.notice usb-modeswitch: 1-1.2:1.1: Manufacturer=Novatel_Wireless Product=MiFi_5510 Serial=0123456789ABCDEF

Edited June 10, 2014 by getch

[Darren Kitchen]

Looks like it registered an a RNDIS_HOST rather than CDC_Ether so you're going to need to look for an ETH interface rather than a USB interface. Try these commands:

ifconfig -a

and look for a listing for eth1. If it exists then it's simply a matter of setting up the interface. I don't know the IP range of the MiFi 5510 however it should be something like this:

udhcpc eth1

Which will attempt to get IP information from DHCP. It may fail. Mine does on a Huawei modem. Rather I must enter static IP information such as

ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

This assumes the MiFi is using a 192.168.1.x network. Change this depending on the IP scheme. Next you'll need to make it the default route:

route del default
route add default gw 192.168.1.1 eth1

Again assuming the MiFi is 192.168.1.1, change accordingly. Lastly setup iptables to allow connected clients to use the new default gateway:

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -d 172.16.42.0/24 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -j ACCEPT

That should get you going.

[getch]

It works very well. Speed & stability are great.

You were right about the IP needed & DHCP not working.

Thanks so much!

[Smart-Aswood]

Holy crap yes! This makes the MiFi 5510l,

1. Usable tethered.

2. VERY usable.

3. Easily!

This information should be in the Modems thing. The MiFi 5510l (Verizon) is confirmed. Just run the commands Darren wrote above. Solid as concrete. Fast concrete.

[Smart-Aswood]

MK5 has been running for 14 hours powering the MiFi 5510l and running everything in the PineAP window as well as sslstrip, using the stock power supply. Completely stable. Just did a speed test and got 11 down and 8 up, but the upload had an initial two-second burst of 22. This is the sort of functionality I was looking for. Just made a trip to the Hak5 store for more gear.

I no longer care about Client Mode, at all. It's become irrelevant for me. I know I can run the MK5 via Ethernet on my laptop running Kali OR tethered to the 5510l. Heck of a useful tool now. Thank you, Darren.

[lunarbinary]

Add the config below to the end of /etc/hotplug.d/usb/40-supported-modems and the Novatel 5510L will work without having to configure it whenever you plug it in or unplug it.

1. nano /etc/hotplug.d/usb/40-supported-modems
2. scroll down to the bottom
3. paste the config below
4. Ctrl X* to close and save

Cheers,

Ian

# Support for Verizon Novatel MiFi 5510L
[[ $PRODUCT == "1410/b00b/228" ]] && {
  [[ $ACTION == "add" ]] && {
    ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
    route del default
    route add default gw 192.168.1.1 eth1
    iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
    iptables -A FORWARD -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
    iptables -A FORWARD -d 172.16.42.0/24 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -j ACCEPT
    logger Pineapple.modem:  Verizon Novatel MiFi 5510L Added
 } || {
    iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
    iptables -D FORWARD -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
    iptables -D FORWARD -d 172.16.42.0/24 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -j ACCEPT
    /etc/init.d/network restart
    logger Pineapple.modem:  Verizon Novatel MiFi 5510L Removed
  }
}

[lunarbinary]

Also know that some USB cables will work for this device and some wont. So if you go to lsusb and you don't see the USB device you plugged in it may just be that the USB cable isn't what the device would like to use. I spent a full day troubleshooting this and at the end I used a drop cam USB cable and the device showed right up. Does anyone know which types of USB cables will work for this and which wont?

[FuNkYt3cHm0nK3y]

Add the config below to the end of /etc/hotplug.d/usb/40-supported-modems and the Novatel 5510L will work without having to configure it whenever you plug it in or unplug it.

1. nano /etc/hotplug.d/usb/40-supported-modems
2. scroll down to the bottom
3. paste the config below
4. Ctrl X* to close and save

Cheers,

Ian

# Support for Verizon Novatel MiFi 5510L
[[ $PRODUCT == "1410/b00b/228" ]] && {
  [[ $ACTION == "add" ]] && {
    ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
    route del default
    route add default gw 192.168.1.1 eth1
    iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
    iptables -A FORWARD -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
    iptables -A FORWARD -d 172.16.42.0/24 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -j ACCEPT
    logger Pineapple.modem:  Verizon Novatel MiFi 5510L Added
 } || {
    iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
    iptables -D FORWARD -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
    iptables -D FORWARD -d 172.16.42.0/24 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -j ACCEPT
    /etc/init.d/network restart
    logger Pineapple.modem:  Verizon Novatel MiFi 5510L Removed
  }
}

This worked perfectly. THANK YOU ! ! ! ! !

[miner_tom]

Hi,

I came across your post as I am having some difficulty tethering my Novatel 5510L to my router using openwrt. Theoretically this should be little different than tethering it to any other linux system.

I believe that I only need some help with respect to the iprouting described at the end of the post.

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -d 172.16.42.0/24 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -j ACCEPT

I am not really that network savvy (61 year old hardware engineer) and would like some explanation regarding the ip addresses shown above. I expect that they would be different for my system but I am not at all sure of how to determine them. Yes, I an able to log into the 5510L (when attached to my fedora system) and see the advanced tab and see the DHCP range etc. I expect that the last two lines in the above relate to ip forwarding.

Thank You

Tom