SURF SOHO MK3 VPN Issues with L2TP IPSEC

Hello everyone, I have been fighting connectivity issues for a couple days and I am posting hoping I am overlooking something, or other suggestions to fix my problem.

Platform: Pepwave Surf SOHO MK3 running 8.0.0 firmware purchased from the 5G Store and a Google Pixel 3A running Android 11. Router is about one year old and has been rock solid. The router event logs do not show any events when trying and failing to connect.

Problem: Connection unsuccessful message on the Android client after trying to connect for about one minute.

I followed the attached guide which is very straight forward. I have triple checked passwords, security key, user, etc; To include correct characters permitted and length of password for user spotted in the pepwave surf manual.

Honestly I am guessing it is the phone. The phone has been buggy and temperamental from day one and everything that should be easy is a pain in the rear.

I have not tried openvpn and if anyone has a link or guide to openvpn for android for the Surf that would be great!

Any thoughts on the fix or trouble-shooting tips?

Thank you.

L2TP Guide

Pixel L2TP problems is not uncommon