We’ve got a Balance 305 with a Comcast primary connection and Verizon AC791L backup. This is a failover connection with the AC791L on standby.
We’ve got this set up and tested working for a few weeks. However, after about a week of standby time, we start getting frequent connect & disconnect events. Has anyone had a similar experience? The only thing that stands out on the modem is a message about battery longevity mode.
The verizon AC791L is not intended to be always on, they tend to be really hot.
I would recommend a pepwave BR1 mini linked from lan to WAN2 of your peplink balance 305.
Second that - we gave up employing AC791Ls because they would not reliably stay up (and would require a manual intervention to be made operative again).
Hello and Good Day
We used one for about three years. They can run all day.
Make sure it’s in tethered/charge mode if that’s the way it’s connected.
Eventually the battery will swell from being connected all the time. It should be replaced if that’s happening.
Also make sure it’s firmware is updated.
@Jonathan_Pitts & @zegor_mjol, thanks I’ll look into that option. One of my concerns was long term band support. Our 4G LTE LG VL600 USB modem that we used before was deprecated in our region because it doesn’t support the bands offered here. When I check with my Pixel 3 XL, I see B2, B5, B66 being connected to. I don’t see a mini that offers B66, just B2 & B5.
I see MAX-BR1-MINI-LTE-US-T offers B2 & B5 for $299 and MAX-BR1-MINI-LTEA-W-T offers a lot more bands for $399 but not B66. The only B66 support I see is the BR1 Enterprise MAX-BR1-ENT-LTEA-R-T which takes a substantial price jump to $649.
With that information, what would you recommend? I’m leaning to the BR1 mini LTE or LTE-A at the lower price points because 5G is coming down the pipe in the next few years.
@Ballistic, I wish we had the same behavior as yours. Are you on Verizon? I researched the issue and apparently it’s a common AC791L problem. I am on the latest Verizon supplied firmware. Did you update to a Netgear firmware or similar to achieve this?
I cannot speak to the LTE B66 question - our experience has been limited to a few locations in California and Europe, and aside from the North America v. Europe divide, bands have not been an issue.
FWIW, Verizon recently upgraded their equipment in our part of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and where we used to be a B13 only region, we now additionally have B2, B4 and B5 with LTE-A support. That suggests to me that B2, B4, B5 and B13 are likely to be available on Verizon for the foreseeable future.
To get LTE-A support (well worth it in our region - speed improved literally 5-10 fold) we have been replacing BR1 US LTE models with BR1 Mini LTEA W models, and happily so. There is the added benefit that we can deploy these in Europe as well.
And they provide the integrated management structure of IC2 (and if you don’t use IC2, then you still benefit from the fact that the user interface and underlying technology presents similarly across all Peplink devices).
Cheers,
Z
PS. The BR1s have been rock solid in our experience - the only reboots we have required are for FW upgrades and the like.
@zegor_mjol thanks! That is very helpful. Sounds like MAX-BR1-MINI-LTEA-W-T is the best choice. The BR1 Mini Core sounds nice but doesn’t list its band information and maybe isn’t the best choice now as its just been released Introducing the BR1 Mini Core! (for US region) - #2 by vtjballeng .
Thanks! Looks like it’s the MAX-BR1-MINI-LTEA-W-T for us.
