Is Android Tethering reliable over long periods of time?

Product Discussion Peplink Balance
1

I have been using the Balance 30 LTE. The failover to cellular is rock solid. Simply insert the SIM and the device takes care of it. I have never had any issues.

Due to internal speed limitations in the Balance 30, I am looking to move to a Balance One or Balance 305. Since there is no SIM slot in those models, I have been trying to determine the best failover method. Finding the right USB stick that will work right out of the box seems challenging after reading posts on this forum and I’m not sure how much longer the carriers will support those sticks. So I thought I would simply try Android tethering via USB. It is enabled on my account and I got it to work. However, a day later I noticed that the USB device was no longer showing in the Peplink Dashboard.

I checked the Android phone and the USB tethering option was off despite it being previously on and me having made no change. I have made an assumption that this was due to the device powering down somehow so I enabled developer mode on the phone and set the option for the screen to never turn off. Now I have to wait a few days to see if this will work. Has anyone else gotten Android tethering to work reliably over the long haul without having to periodically touch the device? Is there a better solution?

2

Android tethering is an option, but a reliable one it is not. If the phone decides to stop working for any reason, nothing but user intervention would get it back connected. You can try setting the USB tether as an active connection instead of a cold standby, and an active ping may keep it connected longer. You’d have to setup new outbound rules so that WAN doesn’t get used unless you need it to though.

A better option if you have a spare WAN port would be to use a MAX BR1 in IP Passthrough mode. Let that be your cellular modem and the Balance will treat it just like another wired WAN. Infinitely more reliable, plus you can still use InControl to keep an eye on it.

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3

Hi,

Another suggestion, you can convert the existing B30LTE as the cellular modem/router to handle the cellular WAN. For more information regarding to the setup:

--------------------> Ethernet WAN —> ISP router
Balance One/B305
--------------------> Ethernet WAN ----> B30LTE —> Cellular

Thank You

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