Any way to tether an iPhone to a Firewalla Gold router?
Working from home is been pretty painless since I added a Gold to my network. The only problem is during severe storms we'll lose internet from XFinity/Comcast from time to time. However, my phone (iPhone + AT&T) always continues to work even during power failures.
Is there anyway I could use the Personal Hotspot on the iPhone to tether to my Firewalla Gold router to get the whole-house network internet access during these situations? Surely, someone has thought of this before?
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I was able to get my iphone to show the blue hotspot connection via USB to the Firewalla Gold. I could not get a ping to go out, but didn’t spend a lot of time with it. (Family doesn’t like it when I tinker with the Firewalla).
I have in the past used a Netgear WiFi extender with Ethernet ports to connect a hotspot to the extender to provide Ethernet access. That would probably be the easiest and simplest way to do what your are asking.
If it is due to power failure then get a UPS and connect your essential devices to it. That is what I have set up. My server, switch, AP, modem, and Firewalla are all connected to a UPS to provide power in case it goes out momentarily. It runs all my devices for about 25minutes until which point my server (DNS) turns off and the UPS can continue to provide power for an additional 30 minutes.
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Thanks James, but it is often XFinity that loses power at their side that kills off my net during any power outage that is more than an hour in duration. I already have UPS protecting all of my equipment and a whole-house backup generator. I'm just not familiar with the right way to bridge my iPhone to my Firewalla (running in Router mode). It would be a very nice feature if we could just plug the iPhone into the USB port and have it just work...
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Ahh, for me it’s the other way around. I have issues with power and not xfinity. The wireless extender should work for you.
When I get some time I’lol mess around with the usb connection. I did get a blue tethered link but could not get it to go out. Firewalla might have to provide a little insight to the routing and all. The iPhone does add a new Ethernet connection via usb (eth4). I might have to add some firewall rules possibly, or @firewalla might be able to chime in.
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So installing those packages you can tether a iPhone to the Firewalla. But there is a issue with iOS 14. It apparently broke the Linux side of USB tethering. There is a long list of people having this issue on Apple Forum,
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251841768?page=5
I can install those packages, ask for a ip address (dhclient eth4) and I can ping Verizon Gateway with a successful response, but going out into the world (google, 8.8.8.8) there is no response.
So yes, you can tether a iPhone to the Firewalla Gold as long as it is not running iOS 14 (I can't test thoroughly since all my Apple Devices run iOS 14). As for being able to use all the features Firewalla can provide will be a different matter. Those 3 packages will get you connected, but Firewalla would have to assist you in applying all the rules correctly since there is no Port 4 (really 5 since it starts as 0) to assign as a WAN.
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If the USB port on the firewall could be used for tethering, it would make for a great backup WAN connection using an iPhone. Is it possible?
I got ahold of a lightning to ethernet adapter and hooked that up to my iphone, but it seems that these adapters only let your iphone access a LAN using ethernet. It does not seem that there is a way to use this type of adapter to let you use the iPhone as your WAN access via ethernet. But, it was worth a shot.
Otherwise, the only other option I can think of to use an iPhone as a backup internet connection is to get something like a WAP that would access the iPhone's wifi network and share it back to the firewalla via ethernet. I have a TP Link AC2600 laying around and will give this a shot.
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Our engineering doesn't recommend tether to iPhone or iOS via a USB cable, it is likely to be a maintenance problem for us. But if enough people interested in this capability, we can get a USB wifi working with our box. Given you have to get the wifi adapter from us, reason is, we can not support everything on amazon and it will drive the software mad.
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Still no interest in adding a feature for USB tethering for iPhone? This is the only missing feature preventing me from buying a Purple for travel to pair with my home Gold Pro. Seems most travel routers from other brands have this feature. My use case is I have a Starlink Mini mounted to my vehicle and I want the router to connect the Purple to it wirelessly and to my phone via USB for dual WAN capabilities. I know I could connect Starlink via ethernet and my phone via wi-fi, but that is less convenient. Thanks!
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