Cellular based routers for remote site connectivity - Telecom, 2DG or VF

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Cellular based routers for remote site connectivity - Telecom, 2DG or VF - anyone succeeded?

AVWMurray

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#105062 26-Jun-2012 15:47

Has anyone had any success, (or any network,) with remote site connectivity over the mobile networks?

Our remote located widgets have an inbuilt GUI and we want to access them from the office. So we need a cell based router to support a VPN so we can browse to the remote site and therefore to our widgets. The widgets gui's are http and https.

Sounds really easy but we cant get it to work! Naturally we cant get a static IP from the telco's so some sort of DDNS is required as the widget's location is unmanned and we need to initiate a session from the office.

Any ideas / suggestions appreciated!

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#646462 26-Jun-2012 15:51

You can get a static IP address on a mobile network you just need the correct solution

John

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#646463 26-Jun-2012 15:51

I am connected via Vodafone's 3G RBI wireless service and as part of the package have a Huawei B970b router. It has DynDNS as part of its firmware and I did try using it at one stage with good results. At $80 per month though, it might be more than you want to pay?

EDIT: I just noticed that Vodafone have hiked their prices by $20 per month since I last looked:

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/wireless/

You would now be looking at $100 per month if you went with them, but PM me for other options.

AVWMurray

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Wannabe Geek

#646469 26-Jun-2012 16:05

Thanks for the reply John, but what is "the correct solution" and where do I get it?

johnr

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#646470 26-Jun-2012 16:07

AVWMurray: Thanks for the reply John, but what is "the correct solution" and where do I get it?

How many connections are you looking at?

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#646471 26-Jun-2012 16:07

If you are using a widget with port 80 or 443 then you need to use an APN that allows inbound connections - default APNs block inbound connections. Make sure you use the correct APN.

Some routers support DDNS, so just need to configure that, use the correct APN and you're good to go.

If you really want static IP then you will pay for that ;)

AVWMurray

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Wannabe Geek

#646474 26-Jun-2012 16:12

freitasm: If you are using a widget with port 80 or 443 then you need to use an APN that allows inbound connections - default APNs block inbound connections. Make sure you use the correct APN.

Some routers support DDNS, so just need to configure that, use the correct APN and you're good to go.

So once signed up with the Telco of choice how do you find the"correct APN" - sure as shooting that wont be on the retail packaging

AVWMurray

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Wannabe Geek

#646480 26-Jun-2012 16:15

How many connections are you looking at?

John - do you mean:?

how many widgets per site ; answer 4-6
or
how many cellular router boxes around the country ; answer at least 2-3
or
how many static IP's ; answer 1 per cellular router box
or
how many concurrent connections to each cellular router box ; answer 1 or 3

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

freitasm

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#646481 26-Jun-2012 16:15

Easy...

Telecom: direct.telecom.co.nz
Vodafone: direct.vodafone.net.nz

Just look at the sticky post in our subforums.

You obviously also need to setup yout widget as a static IP in your LAN, and port forward from the router to that IP otherwise things won't get anywhere.

freitasm

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#646485 26-Jun-2012 16:18

AVWMurray: how many widgets per site ; answer 4-6

If this is the case you will have to configure each widget to accept http/https requests in unique ports. You can't have four widgets accepting requests on port 80 - the router wouldn't know where to send the requests to. The alternative is to put a load balancer between router and widgets and look at http request headers.

freitasm

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#646487 26-Jun-2012 16:20

Obviously my previous comments is if your widgets are acepting inbound connections/requests. If they are actually making outbound connections then you need not to worry about APN or headers.

AVWMurray

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Wannabe Geek

#646490 26-Jun-2012 16:23

freitasm:

If this is the case you will have to configure each widget to accept http/https requests in unique ports. You can't have four widgets accepting requests on port 80 - the router wouldn't know where to send the requests to. The alternative is to put a load balancer between router and widgets and look at http request headers.

Will these routers allow VPN's? I cant change the widgets ports.

freitasm

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#646492 26-Jun-2012 16:24

It will depend on the router. Most consumer routers will allow only one VPN. This will probably not solve your problem if you have more than one widget per router.

Zeon

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#646509 26-Jun-2012 17:03

I've done tis a few times successfully with PFsense on Vodafone/2degrees with the internet APN. It will support DDNS

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cisconz

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#646523 26-Jun-2012 17:48

I use Mikroki routers for this.
Get a RB750U or 751 and plug in a USB 3g Modem :)
They support multiple VPNS.

Hmmmm

Zeon

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#646535 26-Jun-2012 18:10

Be careful about the USB modem, only some are compatible with various devices. E.g. in PFsense the e1552 is the easiest to get working (standard 2 degrees 3.6mbps modem).

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