Newbie struggling with internet dropping

@apepuser It was quick to setup speedfusion, I only have the one cell connection currently so it was only using that. Installed firmware 8.1 and it appeared in the GUI. Enabled NYC connection and click to add the clients you want to tunnel through.

@Matthew_Rice connection still working?

Do you need FusionHub to set up Speed Fusion (I’m assuming your router/modem talks to a FusionHub instance you setup, and that enables you to use Speed Fusion)? or did you do it another way? and you are just using the PepVPN with SpeedFusion?

ty

We are using speedfusion cloud. Which doesn’t require anything except setting up the trial and upgrading the firmware.

@apepuser I am using speedfusion cloud, as @Daniel_Barnett says - upgrade to newest firmware and you will see that option at the top of the GUI admin page.

I got the AT&T sim installed and it was lousy slow horrible - I emailed the provider to find out whats up.

Can I set my peplink to auto-reboot on a schedule in the middle of the night so when I wake up the internet is back up ?

See Schedule Reboot peplink Balance 380 - #2 by zegor_mjol (afaik, this works the same across the product lines)

Z

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Does anyone know if there is a way to schedule reboot multiple times a day. The link @zegor_mjol provided (thank you) works but only allows for (1) scheduled time daily.

Thanks

@apepuser just an update. I got another AT&T SIM this one is from another reseller and is throttled at 8mb up/down. I still have problems dropping off the internet. I had a talk with someone at AT&T after I complained to the FCC, basically they told me I was at the edge of cell service (not true) and without an “official” AT&T plan they couldn’t help me. I’m not inclined to buy an official plan since the data caps are laughable. I’m in a holding pattern now until I can figure out what to do next.

Its possible the tower is overloaded. In some locations I am lucky to get 1-2mbps out of AT&T during the day. Other locations I see 50mbps. As for edge of service, how do you know that isn’t true?

@mystery I have two sims, one works fine and has 50+ MB’s speed but after 3-5 hours I have to reboot the LTE modem and reconnect. Then it’s fine.

Second sim is consistent 8mb but also kicks me off after 3-5 hours.

I can see the tower and my signal is strong so I’m pretty sure my service signal isn’t to blame.

I live in a town with less than 2k people and the majority of local users aren’t AT&T since this tower was only put up last year

@Matthew_Rice

Do you think you can open a ticket for this ? Support team will be able to help you to trace the issue. I being working with @Legionetz for similar issue but the issue really depend carrier , data plan , SIM card and cellular bands used that including peak hours , weekend vs week days, night time and others. You can ATTN the ticket to “sitloongs” if you want me to have a look on it.

I have spent painful months understanding and navigating this AT&T problem. Summarizing my outcomes here in hopes of sparing others.

As @spiceweasel shows from AT&T Community Forums, this is a very widespread and widely discussed AT&T problem. I have experienced it on my iPhone 8, my MOFI4500’s, and two different models of Peplink router (one a CAT-12, the other a CAT-18).

However, it does not occur in all geographic locations. I spend time in one particular PA location and one particular VA location. It happens consistently in PA and never in VA.

The best overall solution, if possible in your case, is to use a different carrier. It turns out that Sprint has cells on the same nearby tower I was using for AT&T, so I only needed to find good Sprint data plans. For a small one ($55/month for 40GB), I have been happily using Mobility Help Desk for several months. For a huge one ($129/month for 800GB), I’ve gotten a great impression of EvdodepotUSA during my first few weeks with them.

As many in this thread observe, one work-around with AT&T is to use a VPN or SpeedFusion. These have downsides. Notably, they change your IP address in ways that entertainment streaming may not accept.

Another work-around with Peplink is to run two AT&T SIM cards and an HTTP health-check. Peplink notices when HTTP fails on one SIM card and switches to the other. This does mean you get a couple-minute outage every one to several hours. Presumably, if you have backup internet connection such as a second cellular router, you could set that up as a WAN and have a downstream Peplink router automatically fail over to it.

Dean

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you could try to use google DNS instead of ATT DNS services. If DNS is down or inaccessible, it can look like a link is down. Next time it craps out, try doing a DNS query to see if it succeeds. You can also try to bypass DNS by trying to ping an IP directly (8.8.8.8 is google DNS and it can be pinged)

If not, you can go back to the old firmware (I think the max mini still has two firmware slots) and see if it makes things better.

You can always submit a ticket to the Peplink team to have them take a closer look. Peplink Ticketing System

Both SIMs are on the same exact same plan?

As for a majority not being AT&T, don’t forget about MVNOs and other carriers might be letting their subscribers roam on AT&T.

When this newer firmware (I think 8.1.1) is released some of these peplink devices should then have a OpenVPN client. If I am understanding it correctly any VPN provider that is not blocked by the streaming services should eliminate that problem and I think most the other issues would be taken care of.

Anyone else know the latest info on this newer firmware ?

I am having a very similar issue here with an AT&T SIM card. MAX Transit with latest 8.1.0 build 4943 firmware. Only thing that seems to fix it is a reboot. Started about 1-2 weeks ago.

Edit: Purchased and going to try tunnelling traffic via Speedfusion Cloud shortly.

I’m curious to hear if using SpeedFusion cloud is reliably preventing this issue from happening?

I am also curious to hear if someone has a health check “recipe” that can reliably detect the issue?

@Travis, using SpeedFusion Cloud did resolve the issue with the AT&T proxy for me.

I do not think it can be reliably dealt with using the health check feature. At least I have yet to see a recipe that does it.

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That works but mainstream site will block you. (Netflix, Prime, etc .) when this firmware comes out we should be able to use OpenVPN like I stated above

Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad to hear we at least have one workaround here.

@deansher
@Matthew_Rice

Is SpeedFusion Cloud reliably working around this issue for you as well - any reliable health check mechanisms you have seen to detect this issue?