I get excellent throughput with my SOHO sharing a radio so long as its connected to a WAN source. Also on a AC radio the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz are actually separate radios so you don’t see the issue and get great throughput if your LAN device is on 5Ghz and wan is 2.4Ghz which is typical but I use a 5Ghz wan source sometimes which is where I noticed it. Also some of my device are 2.4Ghz only so they where silently suffering from the problem.
Peplink said 2 years ago in this thread they would add the option, I still don’t see it and still have the issue as do many others I have helped many who where puzzled at the poor performance which is typically noticed when the device switches over to cellular after leaving somewhere that had WiFi wan working.
Again this behavior is not even documented let alone fixed, yet this thread was started touting campground wifi which in a mobile situation is when you would see this the most after driving to the next campground.
FYI, the reason I brought this up again is because I was helping out someone who was testing Airstreams Connected offering which is a Peplink Mini BR1 and antenna which cost around $1500-2000 installed: Airstream Connected | Airstream 4G LTE-A Plans Powered by AT&T
My understanding is Airstream locks down the UI so you can’t even enable/disable WiFi Wan, and its enabled all the time so campground wifi can be easily setup, you have to get Airstream to disable it remotely, probably through InControl.
IMO Airstream should have done a dedicated interior AP for that setup but I understand them wanting to keep it simple and less power hungry and again the speed is fine so long as WiFi WAN is connected or disabled. I don’t blame Airstream for missing this issue since its not documented and Peplink seems to be recommending using it for campground use.
I use both the web version and the iOS whatever is most convenient at the time. Many times leaving a campground or going down the road is when I remember that WiFI WAN is still enabled and needs to be turned off due to this issue, that’s typically when I use the app:
OH, gosh, Justin…so sorry, where’d I get John from?
Thank you very much; you were right…I was using the InControl app!! Uh, er, wow…the Router app is exactly what I need for doing what you and I want.
So, why the heck am I even trying to use InControl, ESPECIALLY since I’ve completely jacked my router’s configs at least several times, trying to get Web Management to work. Ugh.
Now, going back into the InControl app, I see absolutely NO purpose for someone managing a ONE router install in their RV.
So what is the lowest model that does support this function? I just want to be able to bond WAN sources, be it Wifi WAN on different bands, or Wifi with USB, etc.
Really should be able to just install an add-on to enable that on the Surf SOHO at least for USB/Wifi combined.
you want wifi as wan as priority 1 or to bond multiple wifi as wan connections using speedfusion or just have multiple wifi as wan connections in priority 1 using outbound rules for which is utilized? please be more clear on exactly what you want.
I would like to be able to do what this thread was started to describe primarily, though, if I need a new device I would like to consider other options for combining WAN connections simultaneously for more bandwidth. I travel fulltime in an RV, and being able to combine Wifi WAN connections, be it from mobile hotspots, campground wifi, or whatever else is available, would be great.
For instance, right now I am in a campground where both ATT and Verizon are not all that great, but combined they could get me consistently to 5 or 6 Mb speeds consistently, as they vary up and down each. So having both hotspots connected via WAN over Wifi, or one on USB and the other with Wan over Wifi, using bandwidth from both would be a great solution.
speedfusion bonding has overhead so depending what you are trying to combine, it might not be worth it. you will also need another peplink device hosted somewhere like in a data center or setup a solo hub in the cloud
standard load balancing or having multiple connections ready and available does not usually combine bandwidth. i.e. if you run a speed test, you will not see a higher upload and download speed. its based on which path/connection the data is flowing.
The simplest approach to increasing the capacity of your connection in the Verizon+AT&T scenario is to have a dual-WAN device with load balancing. Peplink has a number of different ways to achieve that, the simplest probably being a Max Transit Duo. It has two cellular modems which can work simultaneously, and you balance the traffic across both carriers.
For a single-cellular option there are devices allowing two SIM cards, and you manually or (somewhat) automatically choose which carrier to employ, depending on their availability wherever you happen to be.
To combine a USB modem with WiFI as WAN for two connections strikes me as a bit of a jury rig, and unlikely to be satisfactory as a regularly employed solution for continuous use (the carrier-marketed hotspots seem - in my experience - not to be trustworthy for continuous 24/7 style use).
As @mystery points out, going to the next level with a speedfusion bonding setup requires a bit more infrastructure (you need the other end - another peplink device or a SpeedFusion hub in the cloud), but is a tad more robust under certain scenarios.
OK, so this whole thread is based on the initial post about using both 2.4 and 5 Ghz WiFi connections simultaneously, for what I assume would be more bandwidth available over the single connection, and it says it will load balance the connections. In my case I just want to do that but the 2 WiFi bands would just be from different hotspots to provide a little more bandwidth and stability by having the two sources live at the same time to cover when one or the other is running slowly or drops. My current setup with the SOHO is just providing failover in failure, and it would be great to get a little more capability for resilience and speed.
"*What is it?
On select devices with dual active radios, 2x Wi-Fi-as-WAN connections can be defined, placed into the same connection priority , utilizing both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands simultaneously.
Example:
You are in a RV. The campground you’re parked at broadcasts “Campground WiFi 2.4Ghz” and “Campground WiFi 5Ghz”. You use the “Campground WiFi 2.4Ghz” as the WAN source on the 2.4GHz frequency and at the same time, use the second “Campground WiFi 5Ghz” Wi-Fi SSID from the campground as the WAN source on the 5GHz frequency.
When placed in the same connection priority, these two Wi-Fi WAN connections can be active at the same time and load-balanced."
It would appear that the Surf SOHO model does not do it though, so I am trying to figure out which model I would need to upgrade to for this capability.
I dont need the cellular modems, just want dual WiFi connections at the same time. The Surf SOHO has Wifi WAN, just wont let me put both 2.4 and 5 Ghz in priority 1 at the same time.
maybe there is a hardware limitation? if not, maybe submit a feature request for them to change it so it does it? i think they would sell quite a few of these units if they changed it to allow. i know some folks that would buy them for their boats!
