I’m using an esim under BYO esim, and that works perfect in the GSM network of The Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Spain. But in a lot of parts in France, the esim gets stuck on “Connecting”.
The 4G/5G reception then, is almost always 80-100%.
All esim network settings are set to Auto.
Roaming is set to any country.
Tried forced LTE network only, no effect.
Tried Dynamic DNS settings to OFF, no effect.
Tried to reset the cellular modem, no effect.
Tried manually change to another carrier, no effect.
And when I drive further for about 500km’s, to another part of France, or another country, the connection comes back, and all works perfect.
I’ve contacted the esim provider, and they contacted Orange France, their supplier for this esim, for technical support:
Orange France checked the esim and it should be fine, no errors or any problems seen.
They told that the Peplink router is not accepting an IP adres, and therefore hangs on Connecting.
I find this hard to believe, because in other parts of France the connection works flawless, and outside France, the esim connection always works.
And even then, what should I change in the settings to accept an IP adres then? Nowing that the router always works with all the esim cellular settings to auto.
Any idea what this might be, or what I could charge in the settings to solve this issue?
Are you 100% sure the APN is correct?
Based on your notes of troubleshooting, this is almost certainly a roaming enablement issue. Since you’ve enabled roaming on your device (make sure you enabled roaming on the correct SIM in the local device admin), it leaves the remainder of the issue to your provider and their underlying provider(s).
It’s as simple as, if the device is working most places, but some places are having issues, the issue is not with your device but with the network.
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The esim gets its APN automaticly as soon as it is online. Can’t think of any reason to change this.
(See attachement)
Roaming is also set correctly at the BYO esim, as “Any Countries”.
Proof of correct settings, is that the esim works in a couple of parts in France, and in all the countries outside France. Then the same “Auto” settings and APN are applied.
The esim seller told me that at this moment 1900 of their EU data esims are active in Europe, and I am the only one with problems connecting. And they don’t know what the issue might be.
As a double check I activated a fysical simcard from another provider, active in slot 1. And when that one is prio 1, it connects in 20 seconds time, and works flawless. On the Orange France network…
@theo.vanwessel ,
May I know which roaming SIM provider you are using?
I agree with Chris that since the device is working normally in most locations but having issues only at certain locations, this points more toward the network or roaming provider rather than the device itself.
The best way to further isolate the issue would be to test with another roaming SIM at one of the affected locations. If another roaming SIM can connect without any issue using the same device at the same location, this would strongly indicate that the issue is related to the original roaming SIM provider or its roaming network.
This comparison would help us clearly determine whether the issue is coming from the device or the network/provider side.
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The esim provider is Orange France, the esim it self is sold via GoSim, as a wholesaler/reseller for different data esims.
When the esim is stuck on Connecting, and I switch to a hardware simcard from another simcard provider, this one connects to 5G in 20 seconds time, to the GSM network of Orange France.
For me its clear that this is a network issue, but GoSim can only say that I’m their only customer experiencing this issue. They’ve contacted Orange France Support, and they say my router does not accept the IP adres during handshake/connecting.
Why this only happends in certain parts of France, and in not in any other country, is not answered.
@theo.vanwessel ,
You can create a support ticket here:
https://ticket.peplink.com/ticket/new/public
The intention is to allow the Support team to check the device and make sure the cellular connection process is working as expected when using the Orange roaming SIM .
We may need your help to bring the device to one of the problem locations and, if possible, provide an additional WAN connection so that the Support team can remotely access the device while the issue is occurring.
If the issue is related to the roaming carrier/network at that particular location, it may not be easy for Support to pinpoint the exact cause. However, we can at least verify whether the Peplink device is performing the cellular registration and connection process as expected. This would provide stronger evidence when following up with the SIM/roaming provider.
One last question: at one of the problem locations, if you insert the same Orange SIM into a mobile phone , is the phone able to register and establish a cellular data connection successfully?
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Today I came home from France, so checking the connection there will unfortunately not be possible anymore.
The connection issue is regarding an esim, and not a fysical sim. So tranferring the esim to, for example, an iPhone, is not possible. (One time install only)
When I was at a certain place in France where the router with Orange France esim got stuck on Connecting, I inserted my fysical simcard from provider KPN (Dutch), and that one made the connection to 5G in about 15-20 seconds. And funny enough, this fysical simcard from KPN, made connection with the 5G network of Orange France.
When I would make a ticket for this issue, would it be possible for Peplink support to check the log file history on those failed connections, to see where the handshake got stuck?
The Orange France esim is still active for about a short week, but now it’s connected to a Dutch provider over here in The Netherlands. This esim was used during our RV holliday.
@theo.vanwessel ,
The Support team will need to investigate the device while the connection issue is occurring. This will allow us to verify the connection state from the device side and confirm whether the device is operating as expected.
Maybe you can arrange this during the next visit to the problem location.
For devices with a Peplink eSIM , you can also enable the Peplink eSIM to test the connection at the same location. Since the Peplink eSIM is a roaming SIM, if it is able to connect successfully while the other SIM cannot, this would potentially indicate that the issue is related to a restriction or limitation with the other SIM/provider rather than the device itself.
Going back to the ‘problem locations’ will not be possible for the coming time, so unfortunately we can not continue making a ticket for further live investigation.
Is there no logfile in the router in which you can see historic connections with a cellulair network? So that you can see which general connection problem there was?
And the Peplink esim, is this always usable? So when I would check the box “Peplink esim” this one will become active, no matter in which country you are? And how much data in GB is (free) availabel then?
