Connect a wired network to the Verizon MiFi 2200

Many of you may be familiar with the MiFi 2200 wireless Wi-Fi hotspot device.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileb...;cid=BAC-bsrsch

This tip might not be helpful for many but for those of you like me who live in areas populated enough to have good verizon coverage but not enough to have decent Cable or DSL internet this may be a solution for you. So far we have connected 2 of these for customers just outside of the Danville, IL area which is mostly country and farmland since they did not have a good source for high speed internet.

The MiFi 2200 allows you to use the 3G internet speed and will act as a router to allow you to connect 5 wireless devices.
But what if you have a small office on a wired network and want to share the internet on those PC's without adding wireless to each unit.

Well I added DD-WRT to a Linksys WRT54G2 router. Set the Router in Client Mode and was able to configure it on the MiFi while still acting as the DHCP server for the small office network. The speed is not Spectacular but it's 10 times better than dial up and musch more stable than using individual WAN cards. It's also nice be able to do this on 1 line from Verizon as opposed to multiple lines, one for each PC. The connection between the MiFi and the router is excellant in fact much better than I thought it would be.

DD-WRT firmware will run on many routers Check it out here
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/


Here is the configuration I used

Mi-Fi Gateway ip = 192.168.0.1

SSID = Verizon

Linksys Router using DD-WRT firmware v. 24

Gateway = 192.168.1.1

Router Runs in Client Mode

Using Static IP configuration

WAN IP = 192.168.0.100
Subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.0.1
Static DNS = 192.168.0.1

Static Routing

Destination LAN NET = 192.168.1.0

subnet = 255.255.255.0

Gateway = 192.168.0.100

Interface = LAN&WAN

More info can be found here.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode

Thanks for posting that. That is awesome and a very interesting way to solve a problem that many have.

Mike,

I just got the Verizon 3G MiFi2200 and am trying to do the same thing as you. Thanks for the post. I'm dumping my WildBlue satellite internet with a pair of DD-WRT Linksys routers acting as a WDS. Now I want to create a wireless bridge to that I can connect the wired computers to the internet but also connect any wireless devices that connect to the Linksys. I haven't had complete success yet with that configuration. All of my computers can see each other and both routers, but -none- of them can get to the internet (even the wireless clients connecting direct to the MiFi).

I'm going to try your client mode configuration just to get all my wired computers online for the time being. I'll post back my success on that. But I was just wondering if you tried the wireless bridge mode, and any success with that?

Thanks,

Tom

Mike,

I just got the Verizon 3G MiFi2200 and am trying to do the same thing as you. Thanks for the post. I'm dumping my WildBlue satellite internet with a pair of DD-WRT Linksys routers acting as a WDS. Now I want to create a wireless bridge to that I can connect the wired computers to the internet but also connect any wireless devices that connect to the Linksys. I haven't had complete success yet with that configuration. All of my computers can see each other and both routers, but -none- of them can get to the internet (even the wireless clients connecting direct to the MiFi).

I'm going to try your client mode configuration just to get all my wired computers online for the time being. I'll post back my success on that. But I was just wondering if you tried the wireless bridge mode, and any success with that?

Thanks,

Tom

I'm not sure exactly why you want to bridge them if you are going to get rid of your satelite.
Is the mifi going to be your main source of internet? If so the configuration I spelled out should work. You say you can not get internet on the mifi at all, is the device activated using the Verizon software. I could not get mine to work until I used the Verizon software first, then I was able to connect to it like any other router. As for your question about the wireless bridge, I had no reason to try that with the mifi so no, but I can say wireless bridge mode is very tricky even when you have routers that are fully compatiable. All the setting need to be just right or nothing will work, kinda like the situation you currently have.

hey i know this is an older post but it's exactly what ive been looking for, i was wondering a few things about this set up

-does the router automatically connect to the Mifi when everything is set up or is a username/pass required? and if so where/how do i put them in?

-will any problems be caused if i set up a wired ip camera to the router? just standard port forwarding on the router or the mifi?

This is very nearly PERFECT - thank you VERY much!
I actually did this last night, and it took, including all of the DD-WRT upgrade/config on a WRT54GL v1.1, about one hour.

I have linksys WRT54G2 that serves out wireless on 192.168.3.1 to the client's household;
The "Internet" line of the G2 is connected to a LAN port on the WRT54GL
On the GL, I upgraded to the latest DD-WRT and set it to client mode and it worked like a charm.

I wish I already had understood your tutorial because, at first, I thought you meant that the "Client mode" router (the GL in this case) was still able to give out WIRELESS DHCP addresses - and that is NOT the case! It only allows use of the 'wired' LAN ports on the GL, as far as giving out DHCP addresses.

At any rate, I figured out that part, and was able to hook the 2 Linksys routers together - G2 --> GL --> MiFi 2200 --> Internet
What I REALLY would like to see is maybe like a "brouter" setup - ? - where the 2nd G2 router is NOT needed and, instead, the GL router can be placed in a 'hybrid/brouter?' mode? What I mean is that it would be nice for the config to allow ONE Linksys router to act as BOTH a 'client' and also still give out 'wireless DHCP' addresses to the house, so it also would be acting as a router+switch+client - does anyone know if that is possible?

Also note that the portion of your tutorial about "destination LAN" seems to be totally unnecessary. It wasn't clear where that was even located, not even from the specific wiki for "setup of client mode" - but that portion with "destination LAN" is under "Advanced." I never even touched that part, and it works perfectly!

So, I am still able to use the MiFi's other 3 or 4 IPs, if my clients are in the area within about 50 to 75 feet of the MiFi. Otherwise, the Linksys G2 router has enough range for most of the household - and gives out wireless IP DHCP to them; and funnels them through the Linksys GL (client mode router) to the MiFi and out a single IP to the Internet. Not blazingly fast, but really not bad.

Mainly this was to give their Home Automation system and components the ability to pull updates and patches and new music, etc. from the Internet; in addition, this provides for a 'central router' with adequate range to reach all areas of the house that need wireless access (vs. carrying the little Verizon MiFi around the house and 'clustering around it'). If there are any blind spots with little or no access, I will setup a wireless bridge/repeater for the downstairs to reach the upstairs where the MiFi and Home Automation rack reside.

Again - thank you for this config! This was amazingly simple.

Verizon needs to provide (and probably does) a SINGLE-PORT model of the MiFi, like the Verizon Air Card, that can be configured in a similar manner. There are times and cases like ours where we don't need the other 3 or 4 MiFi ports, just one good port to funnel everyone to the Internet. At the same time, with the extra MiFi ports that aren't used by the Linksys, the client has a sort of "fallback" in case the Linksys routers are having issues - then they can just cluster upstairs near the MiFi or move the MiFi and use it as needed.

Losing the wireless ability is one drawback of that setup. I think, if you used a dual band router you may be able to use the 2nd band in AP mode. I have not tried this out yet, since I have not had another mifi to work on in a while. Glad it helped.

Has anyone had any success with dual band routers using one channel in client mode, and the other in AP mode?

Another idea is to see if one of those 3G USB routers like the Netgear 3G Mobile Router will accept the Mifi via the micro USB port. Then that would leave wireless open to be used as an access point. It could also reduce interference and increase speed.

AT&T is doing a deal right now where they're offering unlimited data on a Mifi contract. It's a great setup if you can somehow use the Mifi with wired AND wireless devices.

I'd prefer to go with an aircard and broadband router instead of the MiFi. A broadband router such as the Cradlepoint MBR-900 or MBR-1000 would work here and most aircards have the ability to add an external antenna. The lack of an external antenna jack on the mifi is a real shortcoming of the mifi. In addition, for an office, the mifi is seriously lacking by only allowing 5 wifi connections whereas the Cradlepoint routers allow 30 or more wifi connections. Easier setup, more or less plug and play. No need to find a compatible router for DD-WRT, download and install the new firmware or configure the additional router. I have no affiliation with Cradlepoint other than I own 2 of their routers and prefer them over the mifi.

Edited by strolln, 08 January 2011 - 10:40 PM.

I'd prefer to go with an aircard and broadband router instead of the MiFi. A broadband router such as the Cradlepoint MBR-900 or MBR-1000 would work here and most aircards have the ability to add an external antenna. The lack of an external antenna jack on the mifi is a real shortcoming of the mifi. In addition, for an office, the mifi is seriously lacking by only allowing 5 wifi connections whereas the Cradlepoint routers allow 30 or more wifi connections. Easier setup, more or less plug and play. No need to find a compatible router for DD-WRT, download and install the new firmware or configure the additional router. I have no affiliation with Cradlepoint other than I own 2 of their routers and prefer them over the mifi.

I found this somewhat old topic in a Google search trying to find out whether (what I think is..) a MiFi card will work simultaneously for an application where users in the field will need a wireless and USB connection, and it didn't help with that. However I felt compelled to register and reply on seeing your post, as it seems to be a misleading statement once I looked into it.

Specifically, you seem to be saying that you would prefer an MBR-900 "instead of the MiFi," but the MiFi 2200 mentioned by the OP is among the list of compatible aircards with the MBR-900; it's not really an "either/or" choice at all. I wanted to help clarify what I like to imagine you meant to say for any future search-stumblers who happen upon this topic.

An unspecified "aircard" is better than the MiFi 2200 aircard, because the MiFi has no external antenna jack; a serious shortcoming compared to some unnamed other provider's cards. The Cradlepoint routers are better than DD-WRT compatible ones. They are far easier to set up, as you don't have to find compatible hardware and install new firmware, and they are basically plug-and-play with much less configuration than DD-WRT's many options.

If those are the things you meant to say, I agree with you. An aircard with an external antenna is likely to get better signal and have a more reliable connection, so if someone is choosing whether to get a MiFi card or something else, they should consider that. If you want a device which allows wired clients to connect over your 3G/4G connection, a Cradlepoint router looks like a pretty good option, and buying a DD-WRT compatible router and setting it up just to do that seems like a lot of hassle by comparison.

However, I think the majority of people finding their way here probably already have whatever kind of card they are going to have, whether it's a MiFi or something else, so they should check the compatibility of whatever they have with the Cradlepoint before considering that as an option. And many people may already have a DD-WRT compatible router laying around unused, or perhaps with DD-WRT already installed because they used to do something else with it; the Cradlepoint routers' $100+ price point doesn't stack very favorably against "free" unless the setup of DD-WRT is truly a nightmarish ordeal. If the installation is relatively painless, even buying a new DD-WRT compatible router for under $50 and installing free software on it starts to seem like a perfectly reasonable option.

The strongest arguments for a Cradlepoint router, though, are lost in your apples-and-oranges miscomparisons. You mention that the Cradlepoint allows upwards of 30 connections while a MiFi card allows only 5. The original tip is a way to use one of those 5 available connections on a DD-WRT router supplying access to an existing wired network, so additional wireless access was not really considered, and on top of that you are essentially comparing a router to a modem (which can be used by the router you are comparing it to.) For the originally considered purpose, the Cradlepoint actually looks stronger than you made it sound, as it can also connect to a wired cable or DSL connection, if it ever becomes available in your area, and keep the wireless provider as a "failback" solution. A mixed wired-and-wireless office/home would be even better served by a Cradlepoint, since the reality, from other posters' additions, seems to be that having wireless clients on the same network with the wired ones requires either a dual-channel router with one channel acting as client and one as host (IF that even actually works,) or a second router/WAP connected to the first one. This router-to-router comparison actually comes out further in favor of the Cradlepoint, since the MiFi's other 4 available client connections are moot: a device connected using one of those would be on a different subnet (192.168.0.x) from the clients of the DD-WRT (192.168.1.x). So, although you were incorrect to compare 30+ to 5, by sheer coincidence, the correct comparison is more like "The Cradlepoint router allows you to have wireless clients too, while the MiFi/DD-WRT solution does not."

Deleted

Edited by strolln, 28 July 2011 - 06:08 PM.

I trying to set this up on a Linksys WRT150N. I can make a connection to the MiFi but can't get any internet connection to work. Any ideas what I need to do?

Edited by dbrowning1214, 28 October 2011 - 06:31 AM.

Okay, well I thought I had it down, but now the customer's router blew up, and I did not screen-shot the whole thing, so... a HUGE favor would be for someone who has this working (the wonderful author maybe? ;-), to screen-shot the actual config, because as decent a summary as this article is, it is lacking in a lot of detail.

The first setup went very well, quite easy, same router model, WRT54-GL v1.1, with DD-WRT v24; and it may have been SP1; well, the replacement router already had DD-WRT on it, v24, SP2. So, basically it was 'good to go.' But, I have yet to duplicate my initial success. I did get the point where I can ping the LAN interface on the client router, and the WAN interface as well, but I never fully get to the Internet.

I still have yet to get it to work fully on this latest attempt.

The part where you have: "Mi-Fi Gateway ip = 192.168.0.1" <-- I think this is the Mi-Fi's own gateway, right? And the MiFi gives out 0.2 through 0.5?
Or is it 1.2 to 1.5? I inadvertently gave my 'client router' a 1.1 address and browsed wirelessly to it, and ended up on the MiFi at the Verizon MiFi splash page, so...

I remembered back, and also looked at some other config, and saw that my 'client router' needs to be anything BUT 1.1 - does that sound right?

"SSID = Verizon" (Verizon's SSID for MiFis actually is longer, but I supposed it can be shortened, or you may have a version that has the name, "Verizon."
Mine was "Verizon Mifi 2200 0B57 Secure" - seriously, that was/is the entire SSID.

Linksys Router using DD-WRT firmware v. 24 <-- yep.

Gateway = 192.168.1.1" <-- This! This is what I am curious about - To 'which' gateway does this refer? There's a gateway for the WAN (potentially), a gateway for the LAN, a gateway for the 'wired LAN' side, a gateway for the 'wireless WAN' side, etc. Again, screen-shots would be a GREAT help here!

"Router Runs in Client Mode" <-- I thought, on my original success, I used 'Client Bridge Mode;' could you do screen-shots or please provide verification - does it use just 'Client' mode or 'Client Bridge' mode? Personally, I don't really know the difference, but I know that, effectively, the 'client router' is, indeed, acting as a 'bridge,' in its capacity of bridging a wired network to a wireless network.

Also NOTE: Once you place your router into "Client" or "Client Bridged" mode, you no longer will have the option on the initial router setup page to choose a Static IP for the WAN interface so, a point of clarification would be useful, such as: "WARNING! Set your WAN static IP information BEFORE putting the router into Client or Client Bridged mode!"

And one final question: Did you change the router at all from "Gateway" mode; i.e. to "Router" mode? It never was mentioned and I don't remember if I did that on the initial successful setup or not?

Any help would be greatly appreciated - and thanks again for an exceptional summary / cheat sheet!

Whether you do the screen-shots or not, when I get it working, I definitely will (acutally, I already screen-shotted everything I've tried so far, so I should be very close to having enough info for a "play-by-play, with screen-shots.")

Sorry, I also meant to ask why did you choose "0.100" for the ip of the client router's WAN interface? Can we use anything in the "0.nnn" range? (except 1 through 5)?


When I had my initial success, it seemed that I had to give mine a static of 192.168.0.5 (or 192.168.1.5)? In essence, I gave it one of the IP addresses that normally belongs to (is given out by) the MiFi - but, I may have dreamt that, because I was bleary-eyed during that initial success.

And the Wiki on the "Client mode setup," shows that we can actually have the client router obtain its WAN IP via DHCP, which just means that the MiFi will give the client router WAN interface an address in the ".1" to ".5" range (actually ".2" to ".5," since the router itself is ".1").

Again: Thanks!

I stumbled upon this thread while searching more about the MiFi and was recalled that I had posted here (way back in 2009) and had never updated. So with recent activity, I figured I'd give an update and hopefully some more specific instructions for users wanting to set this up. Because, while back in 2009 I was having issues, I've since got it working and have upgraded my router twice more and am still successfully using a Verizon MiFi 2200 and an ASUS RT-N16 gigabit router in my house for a broadband connection.

I have setup the ASUS router using DD-WRT in "Repeater" mode. This allows me to have as many connections to the internet that I want to have, bypassing the limit of 5 of the MiFi. The MiFi only see's one connection (from the DD-WRT router) and that's it. All of my wired clients and wireless devices (phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) all connected to the "virtual" wireless connection on the DD-WRT router. In this manner, all of those computers can see each other on my home network.

To get the ASUS RT-N16 ready, first visit this page and perform the steps within it: http://dd-wrt.ca/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16 . I first loaded the "dd-wrt.v24-14929_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_RT-N16.trx" file. After that was flashed, I loaded the "dd-wrt.v24-16994_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega.bin" file. After that, I setup the repeater mode following these instructions: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater

I left my Verizon MiFi at 192.168.1.1. You should be hard-wired to the DD-WRT router for all these steps and NOT connected to the MiFi. In the DD-WRT router webpage (defaults to 192.168.1.1 in your web browser):

Under Wireless -> Basic Settings:

• Wireless mode: Repeater
• Wireless Network mode: G-only (since the MiFi only does G and not N like my router is capable of, this HAS to match!)
• Wireless Network Name (SSID): the exact SSID of your Verizon MiFi.
• Click the Save button.
• Add a new virtual interface
• Enter a new (unique) SSID of your choice. I used the MiFi SSID with the extension "_VAP" tacked on, but you can use anything. This is the wireless connection you will contect your devices to so that they can all see the wired connections too.
• Click the Save button.

Under Setup -> Basic Setup:

• WAN Connection Type group:
  
  • Connection Type: Automatic Configuration - DHCP
  • STP: Disable
• WAN Port group:
  
  • I checked the "Assign WAN port to switch" to give me an extra wired connection.
• Network Setup group:
  
  • Local IP address: Set to a different subnet from the Host AP you wish to repeat. I used 192.168.2.1.
  • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
  • Gateway: 0.0.0.0
  • Local DNS: 0.0.0.0
• Network Address Server Settings (DHCP) group:
  
  • DHCP Type: DHCP Server
  • DHCP Server: Enable
  • Start IP Address: 192.168.2.100
• Click the Save button

Under Security tab:

• Uncheck all items in the "Block WAN Request" section (except Filter Multicast)....THEN disable the SPI firewall
• Click the Save button

Under Administration tab:

• Go to the Backup tab and click the "Backup" button to save all your settings to a file.

Finally, go back to the "Setup" tab and click click the "Apply Settings" button to get everything to take effect. You may have to turn off the router and MiFi, turn on the MiFi and wait a minute for it to get setup, and then boot the DD-WRT router.

For verification, within a couple of minutes, you can log into the DD-WRT router and on the upper right of the webpage, see something like this: "WAN IP: 192.168.1.x" indicating that your router has successfully connected to the MiFi, and the MiFi has given it an address.

On the MiFI router webpage on the "LAN" tab, you should see that same address listed in the "Connected Devices" section. The MAC address listed here will match the MAC address of your DD-WRT router (which can be compared to in the Status->Wireless tab in the Wireless status->MAC Address of the DD-WRT router.

I currently have at this moment 3 wired devices connected and 5 wireless devices connected, all working great.

The only issue I am having recently is my MiFi keeps dropping its internet connection quite often and having to reinitialize and obtain a new IP address. AND, I have been trying for a year or more to obtain a Port Forwarding solution to get to my computers from the internet!? If anyone can help on these, let me know!

Now that our contract will be up soon on the MiFi, we're planning on upgrading to the latest MiFi through either Sprint or Verizon which has Wireless N capability, and hopefully better port forwarding configuration!

Edited by Gunn317, 20 January 2012 - 08:45 AM.