Can I Use A Third Party Router To Connect to Spark LTE/4G ?

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isgq

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2337509 15-Oct-2019 16:38

jeffreyh: Hi
Ok so I will run up a base config we would use as I said we use a private apn and some object tracking as ours is also used as backup.

You can substitute the bits where relevant but it should point you in the right direction for the connection stuff

Great thanks a lot, that would be much appreciated.

jeffreyh

54 posts

Master Geek

#2337519 15-Oct-2019 17:02

What Model of router? Below is the bones of the stuff we use. We don't have to use NAT and when I check the object tracking is just to bring up some routes which arent relevent to you I think.

! for Cisco 1111-8PLTELA
! Start from exec mode
!
cellular 0/2/0 lte profile create 1 <your_apn_here>
y

!
configure terminal
!
!
controller cellular 0/2/0
no lte modem link-recovery disable
lte modem link-recovery rssi onset-threshold -110
lte modem link-recovery monitor-timer 20
lte modem link-recovery wait-timer 10
lte modem link-recovery debounce-count 6
!
interface Cellular0/2/1
description Cellular Interface Not In Use
no ip address
shutdown
!
dialer-list 1 protocol ip permit
!
interface Cellular0/2/0
description 4G Interface
ip address negotiated
load-interval 30
dialer in-band
dialer idle-timeout 60 <- you can make this value 0 which means the interface stays up
dialer-group 1
pulse-time 1
no ipv6 enable
no shutdown
!
!
ip route x.x.x.x y.y.y.y Cellular 0/2/0
!
! Your nat stuff follows

shanes

258 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2337724 15-Oct-2019 21:13

isgq:

The customer has put the Spark 4g sim into the Cisco router & I have set up a profile using 'Internet' as the APN and it seems to connect and get a NAT IP 100.x.x.x - but won't get access to the Internet at all. I asked the customer to put the sim in their mobile and it connects to the Internet with no issue and gets a proper public IP address 115.189.x.x. I called Spark support and they advise me that they don't support third party routers and the only compatible device is the Huawei b618. I find this hard to believe as I would expect as long as I have the correct details it would connect, unless there is some additional security they have on their network that locks it down to a MAC address.

Using the Internet APN connects you to a CG-Nat network, the 100.x.x.x is your "Internal" address, when you exit the Spark network the 115.189.x.x address is the Public address.

It won't be a case of Sparks network not supporting different routers, just their tech support can't help.

isgq:

Has anyone had any success in setting up a third party router/modem to connect to Spark's 4g network? If so can you provide me any guidance?

We have around 100 3G and some 4G routers we have a few different makes and models. Some of them have been an effort to get going...

Sorry, I don't have any experience with the Internet APN as we have a private one.

From your earlier comments, it seems you have confirmed the SIM (and credit) is ok in a spare phone, the router seems to be communicating with the Spark network as you are getting an address as expected, so probably ruling out signal strengths and bands.

I'd be looking closer at the routing within the router, or maybe any forwarding/firewall rules.

Earlier in the thread, I asked if anyone knew if the direct APN was still valid...

I just tested it with my laptop and it is valid, the reason I asked is that the direct.telecom.co.nz APN will give you a Public address rather than an address on the CG-Nat, it may work better for you.

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