Huawei B618S-65d .... flakey internet connection?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Huawei B618S-65d .... flakey internet connection?

AndyT

158 posts

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#289125 13-Aug-2021 20:32

I have run a Huawei B681S-65d combo LTE modem/router/switch/WAP provided by ISP Spark since May 2020. It feeds into an EdgeRouter-X which in turn feeds into Unifi switches and WAPs. The B618 was stable until late July / early August 2021but then it crashed inexplicably.

As noted in an earlier GZ recent thread, to simplify the whole system I have disabled all functionality on the Huawei B618 except:

Dialup connection (as on 4G wireless rural BB)
DMZ pointed at the ER-X WAN interface with static IP

Since late July / early August 2021 the B618 has started to randomly lose internet connectivity although when I look into the Spark / Huawei management software it says it is still connected and all status lights are on. I have to reboot the B618 to regain connectivity, which is OK if I'm at home bot not OK if I'm out and the household loses the internet until I get home.

It seems like the B618 is getting a bit "flakey" and I was wondering if anyone else on GZ has experienced the same or similar issues with this unit?

Thanks & regards,

1024kb

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#2759817 13-Aug-2021 20:51

No, not me. None of my clients using B618 have reported either.

Spark are keen to get a significant shift to wireless broadband, I'm sure they'll have a satisfactory solution for you. That's not an expensive modem & they've got a few of them - it won't be difficult to organize a replacement.

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AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2763219 19-Aug-2021 18:41

Many thanks.

The B618 "seems" to have settled down a bit. If it misbehaves again I'll speak to Spark about a replacement.

Is there "go to" LTE modem by Ubiquiti or other prosumer companies that you or anyone else know of that I could consider?

Thanks & regards

snnet

1410 posts

Uber Geek

#2763236 19-Aug-2021 19:19

AndyT:

Many thanks.

The B618 "seems" to have settled down a bit. If it misbehaves again I'll speak to Spark about a replacement.

Is there "go to" LTE modem by Ubiquiti or other prosumer companies that you or anyone else know of that I could consider?

Thanks & regards

You won't be able to BYO LTE modem on Spark (do any non-corp providers allow this? I don't think so last I checked)

It's generally locked to the IMEI range of the modems they supply

AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2765621 23-Aug-2021 18:19

OK, understood.

I thought this was likely to be the case as there seems very little / no availability out there at GoWifi, PBTech etc.

Being pragmatic, the wireless broadband is far better than the ADSL we had to endure for years out here in rural North Canterbury. But to be stuck with Spark's LTE modem now seems to be a frustrating limiting factor with no hope of a workaround when the rest of the home network is based on Ubiquiti gear of one sort or another, .

Thanks & regards,

AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2903115 16-Apr-2022 21:27

Updating my earlier August '21 posting as things are getting worse and frustrating. Partly my own fault Guess as I haven't yet contacted Spark to ask for replacement wireless modem.

However, per my earlier post, I run an Edge (ER-X) + Unifi (switches + APs) system , with the internet feed from an ISP provided Huawei B618s-65d modem.

Things had been fine until August '21, but since then I've been experiencing increasingly frequent (approx. weekly) and random internet connectivity outages, and I'm unsure if its the ER-X, the Huawei, or something else entirely that's causing the problem.

The only way to re-connect to the internet is to cold boot the Huawei, but that's not always practical or convenient if I'm not at home, with loss of security camera operation for example. I thought I had a workaround by putting the Huawei on an auto timer set to pre-emptively re-boot weekly, but that doesn't fully overcome the issue.

The ER-X WAN on eth0 is set to 192.168.1.20/24. The LAN on eth1 + switch0 has several VLANs for the normal suspects, e.g. IoT, Guest, security cameras etc., and reports an uptime in excess of 5 months.

The Huawei's functionality is generally disabled e.g. WLAN, DHCP, Firewall, etc., but DMZ is enabled at IP address 192.168.1.20.

When connected to the internet, everything is fine.

When the outages occur:

the ER-X GUI appears fine
the Huawei GUI appears fine and reports normal status with WAN connected by 4G with a 5 bar signal strength, logged in at 192.168.1.20

Has anyone experienced this behaviour and can offer insight as to what's going on and how to remedy the issue?

Thanks & regards.

michaelmurfy

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#2903117 16-Apr-2022 21:42

Just going to say - you actually sure you've got a static IP address? Moderators can see your IP address and yours changes with every post.

To be perfectly honest I'd be removing the Edgerouter. They're basically unsupported now (just look at the last firmware update) and you'll be better replacing this with an alternative router like a Ubiquiti Dream Machine instead.

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MaxineN

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#2903124 16-Apr-2022 22:34

michaelmurfy:

Just going to say - you actually sure you've got a static IP address? Moderators can see your IP address and yours changes with every post.

To be perfectly honest I'd be removing the Edgerouter. They're basically unsupported now (just look at the last firmware update) and you'll be better replacing this with an alternative router like a Ubiquiti Dream Machine instead.

Think you misread.

DMZ pointed at the ER-X WAN interface with static IP

I believe OP meant that the ER-X has a static IP.

edit: OP have you looked at the logs of both the B618 and the ER-X to see if it's spitting out anything weird?

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AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2903126 16-Apr-2022 22:52

Thanks MaxineN.

No, I haven't dived into the logs of either the ER-X or the Huawei yet, and to be honest, I'm not sufficiently experienced to really understand what I'd be looking for within the logs as in indicator of the root cause of the problem.

But I'll give it a go and see what I can find.

Thanks & regards.

AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2903163 17-Apr-2022 10:07

So I have checked the system log on the Huawei for the time it last lost internet connectivity - screen shot attached.

One log entry is particularly noticeable on Friday 15/04/22 21.29.26 as a security warning: "Detect UDP port scan attack, scan packet from 122.56.237.1" 30 seconds later the WAN connection is disconnected, then reconnected and SNTP synchronised.

Not sure if this indicates the root cause of internet disconnections.

I'm afraid I've not been system logging the ER-X, but think I should start immediately, to have ER-X logs available the next time this happens .... in a few days time!

AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2903164 17-Apr-2022 10:16

Actually, when I filter the Huawei system log for security warnings, this UDP port scan attack appears to happen a lot .... screenshot attached.

I've not kept a diary of internet outages so I can't now tell if these warnings and attacks correlate to the outages, but I'll be tracking it from now on.

cyril7

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#2903166 17-Apr-2022 10:28

122.56.237.1 in ns1.xtra.co.nz which is Sparks primary DNS server, doubt its doing anything untoward.

Cyril

AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2903183 17-Apr-2022 11:20

Thanks Cyril, that's a relief.

I'll keep watching the system logs on the Huawei and ER-X (which I have now set up via Edge GUI and Mac OS "Console").

AndyT

158 posts

Master Geek

#2905862 23-Apr-2022 19:59

So, the internet connection dropped again at approx. 9.49pm Thursday evening.

No reason why it should; I was reviewing emails etc. on my iPad and my wife had already gone to bed. So there was no load on the system, and I wasn't "tinkering" with the system.

Anyway, when it dropped I was ready to test a few things:

I was able to ping the ER-X on 192.168.10.1 from my iMac on 192.168.10.143
I was able to ping the Spark / Huawei 4g modem B618 on 192.168.1.254 from my iMac on 192.168.10.143
Both ER-X and B618 appeared physically normal with all status lights on and the LAN LED on the B618 flashing (normal)
The ER-X GUI Dashboard appeared normal with all interfaces connected and receiving and transmitting data
The B618 GUI appeared normal, reporting "Connected", 5 bar signal, IP 192.168.1.20 (DMZ), and "Status" normal
I screenshot the B618 System Logs - copy attached
I screenshot an SSH into the ER-X via Termius - copy attached

I then rebooted the ER-X (as a change from rebooting the B618 which is what I normally do) and internet connection was restored.

My take on things:

Rebooting either ER-X or B618 restores internet connectivity
Both ER-X and B618 appear physically normal, and normal in their GUIs
I'm not sure what the ER-X SSH screenshot is telling me?
The B618 System Logs screenshot has some entries that puzzle me between 21:49:21 and 21:49:32, with WAN connection disconnected and reconnected, several CWMP inform messages (which I understand relate to WAN management), and then finally an SNTP sync fail

On this final point, is anyone able to advise whether the B618 System Log entries indicate something amiss with either (i) the B618, or (ii) the B618 / ER-X interface, and the way I've configured things with the ER-X pointing to the B618 DMZ at 192.168.1.20, with all other B618 functionality disabled.

Thanks & regards

michaelmurfy

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#2905878 23-Apr-2022 21:23

You've got a bootloader update for the Edgerouter X - you should do this.

Also, I would recommend for now removing the Edgerouter.