Hi,
I’m having a massive issue of excessive data usage with the MAX BR1 Mini devices even they are in stand by (I’ll call them MAX devices the rest of this posting). We have a private network with Verizon, so we use private IP addresses.
We use the MAX devices to communicate with a series of controllers (PLCs) in remote locations… all across the USA. Every two ours we connect to the PLCs through the MAX devices to check the status of about twelve 16-bit tags or variables.
Up until August of 2017 we used only 3G devices, and when we switched to the MAX devices we saw a CRAZY jump in data usage. Finally I took two MAX devices, powered them up and let them sit on my workbench without connecting to them - physically or wirelessly. To my surprise, the devices used as much data daily as the devices that were being connected to every two hours, and some days even more. To give you a point of comparison, some of my older 3G devices use about 400KB (four hundred kilo bytes) daily and my newer 3G devices use about 1.7KB (one-point-seven kilo bytes) daily by just sitting there, while my MAX devices use between 1,200KB (one-thousand two-hundred kilo bytes) daily and 3,400KB (three-thousand four-hundred kilo bytes) daily by just sitting on my workbench - Multiply that times 80 (eighty) and you’ll get big picture.
All of my MAX devices have WI-FI disabled, the HealthCheck function disabled, and the Disconnect when in stand-by option checked - so where is this data usage coming from?
Now, the steady state data usage of the MAX devices is very consistent from device to device at about 1,200KB (one-thousand two-hundred kilo bytes). Do you see the issue? How can a device to which I’m connecting every two hours to fetch about 24 bytes of data every time be using 1,200KB a day, and a device that is sitting idle on my workbench be using between 1,200KB and 3,400KB daily???
I’m not looking for a way to monitor data usage, I’m looking for an explanation to why the MAX devices are using so much data, and I’m looking for a way to reduce data usage to the absolute minimum.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
You may do the Network Capture via http://LAN-IP/cgi-bin/MANGA/support.cgi to check what traffic is sending in/out. I suspect this is related to the settings.
Is the standby cellular connection hot or cold? The standbv states ‘remain connected’ or ‘disconnected’ (hot/cold) can be set in the cellular details page.
I suspect its ‘Remain Connected’ in which case you are seeing traffic generated by the health check functionality on the cellular WAN to make sure it is up.
Martin,
the Standby State is set to “Disconnect”, and the HealthCheck function is also disabled.
Verizon just let us know that the devices are trying to connect to Remote Assistance, and are also trying to time sync - the devices continuously try to reach ra.peplink.com, but since we have a private network, those servers cannot be reached, nor should they be reached.
Any ideas on how to make the devices stop trying to connect to remote assistance?
If you’re not using InControl you should disable it in System > InControl | 'Allow InCOntrol Management" hopefully that will stop the outbound connection attempts to RA. You could also add an outbound firewall rule to deny access to *.peplink.com just to be sure.
NTP requests on a disconnected WAN sounds like a bug to me.
TK_Liew,
I can’t reach http://LAN-IP/cgi-bin/MANGA/support.cgi - is this URL located in the BR1 Mini web server? is it a public site?
Replace ‘LAN-IP’ with the IP of the device ie 192.168.50.1
Yup, InControl is disabled as is “Remote Assistance”. And a rule was added to the outbound firewall… no difference. The device continues to try to connect - I was reading the manual this morning and it seems to me that the outbound firewall rules apply only to traffic generated on the LAN side and not to traffic generated by the MAX modem… but I don’t know for sure.