Is the Huawei B315s-607 still the only router to work with RBI?

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › Is the Huawei B315s-607 still the only router to work with RBI?

getontoit99

85 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 28

Lifetime subscriber

#229098 7-Feb-2018 16:04

Hi All.

After a brief trial of RBI and getting 40Mbps up and down, we have signed up and are only now confronting the limitations of the Huawei B315s-607 CPE. (LAN side IP address must be within the 192.168. range, no way to add a static route).

Vodafone markets this service to business and residential customers but the CPE works in only the simplest single-subnet environments.

Is there still nothing better available to get around these limitations?

Or is NAT required (using another box), to make our 172.16.32.0 /22 network (120+ PCs) work with RBI?

Could the RBI SIM be swapped to a SIM without the TAC lock?

How might a VPN help?

All ideas will be welcome.

Scott

coffeebaron

6304 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3567

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1953178 7-Feb-2018 18:18

Did you sign up through Vodafone or an RBI reseller?

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Broadband troubleshooting and master filter installs.
Starlink installer - one month free: https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-32845-88860-71
Wi-Fi and networking
Cel-Fi supply and installer - boost your mobile phone coverage legally

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

getontoit99

85 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 28

Lifetime subscriber

#1953247 7-Feb-2018 19:25

Signed up with Vodafone.

getontoit99

85 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 28

Lifetime subscriber

#1953249 7-Feb-2018 19:28

As it happens, I've just busted out my EdgeRouter X from the home network and set it up to NAT to the RBI router. This setup needs more testing but so far, so good.

coffeebaron

6304 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3567

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1953335 7-Feb-2018 21:43

You could try your luck going in store and asking to do a SIM swap.

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

getontoit99

85 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 28

Lifetime subscriber

#1956495 13-Feb-2018 18:30

Got the SIM swapped. The Vodafone shop wouldn't do it because my name wasn't on the account. They did however, give me a new SIM. The nice people at the RBI support number did the swap on the phone.

I bought a Huawei LTE E8372 wingle and plugged it into an ASUS router.

RBI is working fine with this setup, though we're not getting the same Speedtest results as the original B315s router. This isn't surprising given the antenna differences. I've got 700MHz antennas on the way, hopefully with the right connectors.

This setup is to provide an alternative Internet access for 100 users, for when our fibre service breaks. Which it did recently for a day. Typically, utilisation on the fibre is under 20Mbps so the RBI should cope fine.

I might still look for a router with 700MHz LTE built in to clean up the solution.

Thanks CB for your input.

getontoit99

85 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 28

Lifetime subscriber

#2016612 16-May-2018 07:58

To complete this story, the Huawei LTE wingle/dongle did not allow port forwarding when used with a router. (Port forwarding did work when the E8372 was plugged directly into a PC.

We purchased a Robustel R2000 LTE router which works well. With bundled antenna on the side of the building and less than 1km from an RBI cell site, we get 25-30Mbps up and down. The R2000 wasn't the easiest router to configure and the documentation isn't much more than a lot of screen scrapes. There are several LTE routers on the SnapperNet website who are the distributors. We purchased from Acquire.