Can we have one or both LAN ports on a Peplink AC One enabled for NAT?

Product Discussion Feature Requests
1

Here’s a summary of my situation - I’m trying to setup a Closed network on location somewhere (for filming). Many modern 360 video cameras (such as the Z-cam S1/S1 Pro, Liveplanet and more to come) require two things

  1. Power
  2. Gigabit ethernet

In an effort to control these kinds of cameras on location - many of us (myself included) have been using small wireless routers. However in some cases a more hardcore solution was needed - namely the Pepwave AC-One.

The problem is that there is NO WAY that I can see (and I asked 3G Store and Frontier US for help - they came up empty also) to enable the LAN port to issue IP addresses from the same pool as the DHCP on the Wifi Access Point.

In other words - here’s what I’m trying to connect (on a remote location)

Multiple Wi-Fi devices (e.g. Laptop and iPad Pro) and 2 wired devices (specifically the Teradek Sphere and the Z-cam S1).

On any normal router - when I go into router mode - there is a downstream LAN port and an upstream LAN port.

So long as I ignore the upstream LAN port the downstream LAN port(s) are on the same subnet as the devices connected to Wifi (for the sake of argument 192.168..) - so they can all see each other.

However the Pepwave AC One cannot be configured that way.

So in my configuration (which on location in a desert shoot looks a bit like this)

667×1000 156 KB

My network is as follows:

iPad connects to router via WiFi
Teradek Sphere connects to router via Ethernet cable
ZCam S1 camera connects to router via Ethernet cable
Windows laptop connects via WiFi

All these devices need to see each other.
And my only solution (using the Pepwave One) is to use it in Bridge mode…but the ONLY reason this worked is because it so happens that the S1 camera can be set to act as a DHCP server rather than client.
So the Camera itself is issuing IP addresses to all other devices (including laptop) from the same pool.

This works - but is inconvenient - because it means that in other environments I have to keep changing camera settings (e.g. in the Office) - because the camera needs to be a DHCP client (as with most devices) when connected to a regular network.

The solution to this seems easy - (and I suspect can be done in software as a flag) - when the user selects ROUTER mode for the Pepwave ONE - one or more ports should be enabled as a downstream port.

Perhaps there is some way to “hack” the router settings into doing this - but if so - I don’t know what it is.

Curious if other people think this is useful or if I’m an edge case.

1 Like
2

Seems like a SOHO would be a better solution for what you are doing, why the AC one? The SOHO would also allow you to do cellular with its USB port and WiFi wan. Maybe even a Max BR1 or Pro with built in cellular.

I use a SOHO Mk3 in my RV, it runs right off 12v power, has strong fast AC wireless, 4 LAN gigabit ports and issues DHCP to everything in the RV. I have a Mac, 4 iPads, 2 iPhone, an Apple TV and OBD2 engine monitor on WiFi and a IP camera, solar controller and Synology on gigabit and it works great with the SOHO acting as router for everything and doing DHCP.

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3

I agree with jharrell. If you’re using a Pepwave AP in router mode (which I have done, and found the same limitation), you’re not going to get this working the way you want.

Use an actual router. As jharrell mentioned, some of the MAX models would work well for your situation, and I think some of the higher-end models support POE.

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4

I agree with both of you. What drove me to getting the AC One rugged was was the small size and the external antennas (otherwise I’d have gotten the non-rugged version - although of course it has the same limitations with regards to NAT - and only one port - way cheaper though)

The thing is that I had NEVER come across a product that advertised a router mode that couldn’t do what I wanted - even the $25 Xiaomi Mini AC (http://bit.ly/2q4lAVn) can do it easily.

So yeah - you are right - a SOHO router would easily do what I want - but I’m fairly confident that enabling one of the LAN ports on the AC One is possible in software - and since I already own one and can’t return it (I hacked off the sides and bolted a clamp from within) I was hoping there might be a secret way of doing it that I was unaware of :wink:

5

btw the way I ended up solving the problem was to configure the camera as a DHCP source - in this case everything worked correctly :wink: