3G USB Dongle via 3rd party device

Product Discussion Peplink Balance
1

Looking at a Balance 30 solution for an intended multi-wan solution for home office.
There’ mobile data signal within the house is essentially non-existent because the insulation in the walls is foil-backed. However in the attic, there’s an excellent signal capable of 9Mbits/s on the DL and 2.5Mbits/s on the UL.
I’d like to place the Balance in my server room on the ground floor (where the mobile signal is non-existant), and the dongle in a Raspberry pi in the attic, then connect the pi via the wired LAN (have Rj45 in the attic) to the balance.

Is this configuration supported? Is a dedicated router with USB Dongle support better for the attic?

2

The config via the Pi will work. It’s just that the stability of the Pi + USB dongle is an unknown to us.

If upmost stability is of concern to you, then you may consider the brand new Balance 30 LTE we launched yesterday. It is a B30 with embedded LTE. Of course, in this case, you need to place the B30 at the attic or you run a long antenna cable from the attic down to the basement.

Hope that helps.

3

Hey Keith, putting the balance in the attic is not ideal so I’m avoiding that. One thought I had after my original post was not to use a pi, but to use a usb 2.0 over cat5 extender. This would negate the need for a third party computer in the attic. Have you seen any cases where has been used?
This is what I’m looking at:
http://www.lindy.ie/usb-firewire-c4/usb-extension-c222/usb-2-0-cat5-extender-50m-p7307

4

Hi there,

In the past I tried exactly that kind of USB extender to connect an USB modem to a 3G router (it was not a Peplink device) and the results I got wasn’t what I expected. It always performed better with the USB modem connected directly to the router.

Did you already considered to install a smaller 3G router in the attic (like a Surf On-the-Go from Peplink/Pepwave) and them connect it to one of the WAN of Balance 30 by cable?

Best Regards

Nuno Olivença

5

Hey nuno,
Was the extender usb 1.1 or 2.0 based?
Thanks for the tip about the smaller router. Might look into that

6

Hi there,

To be honest, I am not sure about that. Need to check it, but I would need to find it and I don’t know if I still have it.

BR

Nuno

7

Hi Dawson,

I think the second best solution is already suggested by Nuno. Putting a Surf On-the-Go connected with the USB modem at the attic and run down a cat5 cable to the Balance at the basement is a good solution for you to consider.

Thanks.