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[DaveC]

[Weaver]

[burakkucat]

We have had a discussion about your USB dongle and the "active" cable in the past. I seem to recall that the end result was that you scrapped the "active" cable.

I'll try to find your earlier post, when time permits. 

[jelv]

This thread? https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,23777.msg401387.html#msg401387

[burakkucat]

This thread? https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,23777.msg401387.html#msg401387

Thanks, jelv. That could well be it. (Or there could be others . . . )

[Weaver]

Thank you both ! The ME/CFS and pain drugs have destroyed my memory completely, a problem that you will have repeatedly noticed here. I beg your indulgence.

[burakkucat]

Would you like me to merge both threads? If yes, would you like the new merged into the old or the old merged into the new . . . (My personal preference would be the former.)

[Weaver]

[burakkucat]

[aesmith]

We've found really poor performance with USB dongles, maybe OK if you only get 3G but rotten on 4G.  Does your firewall have an Ethernet port available?  A better solution would be a standalone 4G router, configured to pass through it's IP address.  However if you're using A&A L2TP then maybe double NAT wouldn't be an issue as you'd be routing to/from your A&A issued addressing.  Double NAT makes it easier as most 4G routers want to issue DHCP addressing on their LAN ports, and you'd also be able to access the router for management.

[Weaver]

[Alex Atkin UK]

Its perfectly understandable in your position.

As you pointed out, you have 4G on other devices and your current setup works without yet another external device and having to fiddle with the Firebrick configuration.

Combined with the one time you need it (lightening strikes) you saying the local mast goes down, its understandable not to want to put the effort in to change things that already work, when your "good days" are limited and better served to other things.

I haven't had the energy to tidy my room in 2 years.  I mean I do bits, but its such a mess nobody who doesn't see it every day would notice its improved.

[tubaman]

I would set up a standalone basic 4G solution to start with and see how it goes in terms of speed and usability. Once content that it is a viable solution then I'd look at integrating it into the rest of the system.

[risk_reversal]

Perhaps I can also add some thoughts to this thread, especially as I am looking to upgrade my fail over system which uses a USB mobile dongle.

I have a TP-Link W9970 which has fail over capabilities via USB connection.

I currently have a Huawei E367 dongle (3G).

The major bug with this set up is that when the fibre connection to the W9970 drops the USB dongle does not automatically switch over. I have to unplug the phone line to the W9970.

I think that the W9970 is repeatedly trying to reconnect on the fibre connection and this prevents the Huawei dongle from kicking in. The W9970 is a cheap unit and perhaps this is the issue. If I pull the phone line from the W9970, then the mobile dongle works.

The other issue is that speeds are not that good on the dongle usually 5 down and 2 up (on Three) but it's a back up so that is ok. I did try to plug an internal antenna on the Huawei 3G dongle but that was a total waste of time.

I did think of upgrading to a 4G dongle but they virtually all come with the HiLink software installed which creates a double NAT, as they behave like a router. There are some 4G dongles that are just modems and some can be flashed from HiLink to become just modems.

These 4G units also consume over 3Watts, so I could not just plug them into the W9970 as it would blow the USB 2.0 port and so there would need to be a powered USB hub installed.

I then tried the Huawei B535 since it is a CAT 7 device capable of Carrier Aggregation (CA) as a standalone unit. Tried all the mobile networks and EE was the best 50 dn 25 up and steady (but it has CGNAT which maybe an issue). Three's service with no CGNAT is clearly oversubscribed in my area as speeds where cr*p. During the day speeds all over the place, mostly 10 dn and 5 up. After 1am speeds were great 75 dn 25up !!

I was also using LTE-H Monitor to set the CA bands manually having looked then up on cellmapper.

So am now looking to get a Ubiquiti router (started a thread) to be able to get fail over that actually works. From the YouTube videos I have seen it's worth a stab and the unit is reasonably cheap. The YouTube video below says load balancing in title but discusses fail over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYLvcr1f6Do

If you get a 4G mobile router then be careful as most will not have bridge or IP Passthrough mode.

Good Luck and Hope you feel better

[Weaver]