Wasn’t it easy in the good old days?!  You’d receive a new device, connect via wired Ethernet, browse to the admin console, login with a default password, then happily configure and test the device before plugging it in to your prod network.

So when my old Huawei B525s-65a RBI modem/router started giving trouble in reliably connecting to OneNZ’s Te Aroha tower, Farmside kindly sent me a replacement TP-Link Deco X58-4G unit.  All pre-configured according to the instructions – just plug it in, wait five minutes for connectivity to the cell tower and it’s done.

But wait – it might be configured ok for a home network for a couple of DHCP-connected devices, but not for MY network where the LAN addressing, DHCP configuration and port forwarding are carefully crafted for dozens of cloud-connected devices.  I want to configure and test this baby ahead of time, then cut over with minimal downtime.

The first very obvious thing with the X58 is that there is no admin console.  Ah no – you’ve got to download the Deco app to an IOS or Android device and configure from there.  But to use the app you need Internet connectivity through the device so you can log in with your cloud account.  But you don’t have Internet connectivity until you’ve configured the device – Farmside don’t allow two SIMs active on the same service.  That’s a Catch-22 if ever I saw one!

Ok Farmside, what are we going to do here?  I’m not going to plug the modem into my live network and have it down for hours while I configure it!

To their credit they saw my problem and set up a temporary service for testing – if you’re in a similar situation to me then ask for the same solution.

Once the Deco’s SIM was live I was able to use the Deco app to configure it, and it only took a few minutes to cut over successfully.

But I still have a grievance with the X58 – I shouldn’t need a cloud account and Internet connectivity to configure a device.  A few other issues with it too, but they’re relatively minor and I won’t bore you with them.

I just hope that when Farmside gets round to delivering 5G RBI kit that they make a better hardware choice.

So not asking for advice – just a warning/solution to others, and perhaps to initiate a discussion.