Static IP now available on Spark RBI !!!

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Static IP now available on Spark RBI !!!

millst

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#224362 14-Nov-2017 18:29

Spark launched their static IP today available on RBI.

Yayyyy,

I ordered it and it was provisioned with an hour, pretty impressive.

But there is a massive BUT with it.

BUT....

The stupid crappy B315s huawei modem they supply doesn't support bridge mode, so you still can't create a site to site VPN.
Otherwise the static IP works fine and you can port forward using the crappy modem. But if you want to use your own router with VPN function's at this point you are still out of luck.

Has anyone managed to get another modem working on spark wireless?
Or has anyone managed to hack a capable version of the firmware into their stupid crappy modem.

SO Frustrating Spark!!!!

chevrolux

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#1900896 14-Nov-2017 19:08

If you can port forward, then couldn't you just put your VPN server behind the router and forward to it? Probably not helpful for IPsec but L2TP or OpenVPN should work ok?

I would just use baby Mikrotik's, and then just routes on the spark gateway routers telling each end how to get to the other subnet.

Or maybe the cleaner way would be just to DMZ all the traffic from the spark router to your own router... assuming it can do a "proper" DMZ?

hio77

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#1900933 14-Nov-2017 20:00

I'd personally love to see a bridging modem for Wireless services, there are some valid reasons this is a little difficult to provide.

As @Chevrolux suggests statically routing this or forwarding would be a go.

Static IP took a little while to lock in place, to ensure stability but its great to see it out there :)

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kornflake

409 posts

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#1900937 14-Nov-2017 20:14

@hio77 is the Static IP also available on the 4g wireless fail over plan?

msukiwi

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#1900976 14-Nov-2017 21:09

How much do they charge for the static ip?

millst

26 posts

Geek

#1900977 14-Nov-2017 21:16

$15

msukiwi

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#1900979 14-Nov-2017 21:22

millst:

$15

per month I assume?

millst

26 posts

Geek

#1900984 14-Nov-2017 21:30

yeah per month.
a wee bit on the pricey side, but when you have no other options...

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

hio77

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#1900986 14-Nov-2017 21:33

kornflake: @hio77 is the Static IP also available on the 4g wireless fail over plan?

Valid question. I'd suspect no. However i can see the argument to be made (just could become costly fast)...

I'll make some enquires with the guys
To be totally honest this release hit gz before my inbox.

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BarTender

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#1901148 15-Nov-2017 11:01

We can all thank @cbrpilot for his hard work on Static IP.

It should be available on all Wireless Broadband plans as it is just delivering Static IP the same way that Static IP is delivered in the fixed broadband world.

And before you ask if it's available to anyone on mobile, the answer is no. For the moment.

And also you must use the Huawei B315 on Wireless Broadband or be able to change the IMEI on your device to align to the B315 IMEI range.

millst

26 posts

Geek

#1901176 15-Nov-2017 11:36

That is useful information. I won't bother ordering another modem then as changing the IMEI is really not a great idea.

Hopefully spark move fairly quickly on alternative modem options. Surely businesses must be screaming at them about the poor quality modem.

It certainly rules RBI out as a business solution.

I've managed to get my VPN up and running on OpenVPN, certainly not ideal but it will do for now.

sbiddle

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#1901187 15-Nov-2017 12:01

millst:

That is useful information. I won't bother ordering another modem then as changing the IMEI is really not a great idea.

Hopefully spark move fairly quickly on alternative modem options. Surely businesses must be screaming at them about the poor quality modem.

It certainly rules RBI out as a business solution.

I've managed to get my VPN up and running on OpenVPN, certainly not ideal but it will do for now.

The current offering is a residential connection and aimed solely at residential users. There are a number of options for business customers serious about RBI options (both Spark and others).

BarTender

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#1901373 15-Nov-2017 16:13

millst:

That is useful information. I won't bother ordering another modem then as changing the IMEI is really not a great idea.

Hopefully spark move fairly quickly on alternative modem options. Surely businesses must be screaming at them about the poor quality modem.

It certainly rules RBI out as a business solution.

I've managed to get my VPN up and running on OpenVPN, certainly not ideal but it will do for now.

It's a tough one as you don't want to support a myriad of different devices especially since Voice over Wireless Broadband is provisioned on the same device so the end to end management of it is certainly non-trivial.

I can't see different devices on the immediate roadmap or allowing BYOD as it needs to be tested on the network to not negatively impact cell site performance and not all devices were created equal.

I know of a number of people who just setup the connection and DMZ to an internal router. Then you can do whatever you want. Most people are just happy to have faster than dialup or super slow DSL when rural so I don't hear a lot of complaints about the CPE.

tcabw

68 posts

Master Geek

#1928399 3-Jan-2018 10:50

It is interesting to note Spark are offering a static IP with RBI. Vodafone apparently do not. I have been connected to a local Wireless internet provider with a free of charge static IP for about 7 years and have just changed over to 4G through the same provider with much improved speeds. They say they can provide a static IP, but at a charge of $10 per month which presumably is passed on to Vodafone as the 4G signal is from their tower. A Huawei B315 modem was supplied and as I already have a DDNS account with Dyns.com, I attempted to program that into the modem, but couldn't find where to do it. After consulting Dr Google I found that in South Africa the same modem has an entry under the Security tab for DDNS whereas that is missing from mine. I am curious as whether this is the case with the B315 supplied by Spark and indeed, all the Huawei 315's supplied by RBI providers?

I commented on this omission on the Vodafone forum with an aside that "The more suspicious minded of us might think that this has been purposely removed or omitted in order to extract a further $10 per month for a fixed IP." This drew a quick response from a Vodafone engineer that they didn't offer static IP's with RBI.

If the B315 is capable of updating DDNS providers with IP changes, why is this not included in the software currently installed in the modems?? Country folks have need to access their equipment remotely and the fact of their isolation, even more so. I overcame the problem by installing a small updater program provided by Dyns.com which sits on a PC running weather station software 24/7.

regards,
Tony C.

hio77

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#1928404 3-Jan-2018 11:02

tcabw:

If the B315 is capable of updating DDNS providers with IP changes, why is this not included in the software currently installed in the modems?? Country folks have need to access their equipment remotely and the fact of their isolation, even more so. I overcame the problem by installing a small updater program provided by Dyns.com which sits on a PC running weather station software 24/7.

Sometimes certain firmwares built for a RSP can have some features put in the unwanted/unsupported etc category.

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.