Vodafone RBI Huawei B970b Ethernet bridge

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nathanbiz

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#106446 24-Jul-2012 16:04

Hi

We have signed up for Vodafone RBI (over 3G) and have been supplied an Huawei B970b router. My understanding is that Vodafone is pretty firm on that router being the only one supported for the purpose.

Router documentation here: http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwide/downloadCenter.do?method=toDownloadFile&flay=document&softid=MzQ3NTQ=

We wish to implement a Mako Networks 6500-E firewall and it prefers a public IP address on its WAN interface to use the cloud-based management portal with it. Trouble is that the Huawei will have that.

Is anyone aware of a way to configure the Huawei router to achieve this? Bridging?

thanks

cyril7

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#661112 24-Jul-2012 16:28

Hi, I see the B970 support a DMZ, that may be a reasonable solution.

Cheers
Cyril

Beccara

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#661133 24-Jul-2012 16:58

We've run into this problem before and the Mako REALLY doesn't like not having a public IP on it's WAN port directly, It can't do dhcp on the WAN and it's VPN section will not work at all (From Mako tech support directly) unless it has the public IP on it

We've had some clients have to switch away because the Mako can't run for them without the public IP and we did tell them they would have to fix it with things like the RBI and UFB coming

Most problems are the result of previous solutions...

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Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek

#661591 25-Jul-2012 11:19

This is typical of Vodafone not thinking of business environment requirements with their products.

One option is to use Mako's 3G hardware but that would add to the cost. Also, not sure what APN is used for RBI connections but you want to check that its not a NATed APN. Good luck.

grant_k

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#661612 25-Jul-2012 11:39

I'm in a similar predicament not being able to use my Cisco SRP521W router for its intended purpose any longer. Have had to switch all cables over to the Huawei which means I no longer have the USB data stick connection available as a backup unless I shift the cables back again.

I noticed that the Huawei has separate firmware available for its modem vs. its router functions. Somewhere on the net, I found mention of running the router as a bridge, but could not see any way of doing that with the standard firmware. If anybody finds the key to the puzzle, I would like to know about it too.

Underneath the hood, Huawei's B970b runs Linux, with a cut-down shell called Busybox. There are all sorts of things you can do through there, but hardly any documentation so I guess it would be a matter of experimenting.

grant_k

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#661614 25-Jul-2012 11:42

Kiwipixter: One option is to use Mako's 3G hardware but that would add to the cost. Also, not sure what APN is used for RBI connections but you want to check that its not a NATed APN. Good luck.

There doesn't seem to be any APN, so far as I can see. You just have the standard Dial String: *99#

It doesn't seem to have any NAT in the way, as I did have DynDNS running OK at one stage, but with the latest firmware, it no longer works.

nathanbiz

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#661669 25-Jul-2012 12:18

Thanks all for your input. We are working on this over the next week and will post our results.

nathanbiz

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#664582 31-Jul-2012 13:45

Mako Networks now reckon their 3G capable 6500 can do the trick. We attempted to get this working to no avail however. Seem slike we are stuck with the Huawei having the public IP address.

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grant_k

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#664621 31-Jul-2012 14:31

How is your connection going in general?
Do you get any disconnects or pauses in traffic as I mentioned on the other thread?

Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek

#664624 31-Jul-2012 14:33

nathanbiz: Mako Networks now reckon their 3G capable 6500 can do the trick. We attempted to get this working to no avail however. Seem slike we are stuck with the Huawei having the public IP address.

you can try PMing "johnr" or post the issue on Vodafone Forum for a response. In general, voda doesn't like customers using non-approved hardware on their network, and hence do not provide config info for non-voda hardware. But your requirement is not unique in a business environment which their solution doesn't cater for.

Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek

#664641 31-Jul-2012 14:43

grant_k:
Kiwipixter: One option is to use Mako's 3G hardware but that would add to the cost. Also, not sure what APN is used for RBI connections but you want to check that its not a NATed APN. Good luck.

There doesn't seem to be any APN, so far as I can see. You just have the standard Dial String: *99#

It doesn't seem to have any NAT in the way, as I did have DynDNS running OK at one stage, but with the latest firmware, it no longer works.

The APN doesn't have to be in the dial string but should be defined somewhere if not in the connection profile within the router OS. I am not familiar with the Huawei B970b OS whether the APN settings is visible from the standard UI.

grant_k

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#664647 31-Jul-2012 14:50

Kiwipixter:
grant_k:
Kiwipixter: One option is to use Mako's 3G hardware but that would add to the cost. Also, not sure what APN is used for RBI connections but you want to check that its not a NATed APN. Good luck.

There doesn't seem to be any APN, so far as I can see. You just have the standard Dial String: *99#

It doesn't seem to have any NAT in the way, as I did have DynDNS running OK at one stage, but with the latest firmware, it no longer works.

The APN doesn't have to be in the dial string but should be defined somewhere if not in the connection profile within the router OS. I am not familiar with the Huawei B970b OS whether the APN settings is visible from the standard UI.

Good tip, thanks.

Via Telnet, you can use shell commands from Busybox. One is them is NVRAM, and if used with the SHOW option, it lists out screeds of internal parameters not visible from the GUI. One of them is this:

p_Vodafone■NZ■WWW=Vodafone■NZ■WWW *99# 0 www.vodafone.net.nz 1 0 1

So it looks like there is an APN after all. Is that a NAT'ed APN?