Hi, I am currently testing a MAX HD2 router and have used the 2 of the same 3G SIM card from the same ISP. I used those SIM cards to setup VPN. The issue I am experiencing is the drop out of Cellular 1. I suspect it is a hardware issue or perhaps firmware or ISP, because I have swap the two SIM cards around and I still get the same drop out experience. The two services are both checked by PING. Has anyone have experienced similar issues? I may have missed out on some details perhaps I can fill in as we discuss. Cheers
Does the drop out persist with the same SIM card or with the same SIM slot on the MAX HD2?
If we have two USB dongles handy, we could pop the SIM cards in them and see if they still drop out without the USB dongles – this way we could eliminate problem with the MAX.
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It is the SIM slot on the MAX HD2. I will try a few different methods to find the root cause of the problem, and I will also try your suggestion and let you know.
During testing today, I have ran into another issue. I have connected two PEPWAVE MAX HD2 to a PEPLINK BALANCE 820. Below is the screenshot of my problem: PEPWAVE 1 VIEW: Peplink | Pepwave - Forum PEPWAVE 2 VIEW: Peplink | Pepwave - Forum PEPLINK VIEW: Peplink | Pepwave - Forum It is shown as “Connecting” from pepwave 1, but I accessed the PEPLINK through 3G links from PEPWAVE 1. Can someone explain this issue? P.S. I am currently recording the number of disconnects during an 8 hour period for the SIM slots of both pepwave for my previous issue. This is part of my tests, more to come.
Got you. Both 3G on Pepwave 1 are fine and SpeedFusion reported “Established” on the Pepwave web admin page but somehow Peplink sees this SpeedFusion connection “Connecting”. I am not entirely sure of what happened but one reason could be the 3G were experiencing some issue (e.g. bad signal or packet drop) to a degree that Peplink consider the connection is no longer established hence re-trying to connect - this is more likely to happen with both 3G coming from the same carrier.
I think this would be a right time to submit a support request at http://www.peplink.com/contact/support/. We will need some diagnostics information from your devices that might be better exchanged directly to our support team by email.
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So after I did another full day of testing. I have concluded that it is not the PEPWAVE’s problem but in fact it is an ISP issue. Also the connection establishment issue was the cause of the same subnet. My next question is - can two PEPWAVE MAX HD2 be connected through SpeedFusion? I am having some troubles with that right now.
They should. In our setup the two Pepwave MAX HD2 should be inter-connected through the Peplink box. Can you ping through from one MAX LAN to another MAX LAN?
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So I have to have the PEPLINK to be able to SpeedFusion both PEPWAVE? In a PEPWAVE 1 (192.168.2.1)-> PEPLINK (192.168.1.1)-> PEPWAVE 2 (192.168.3.1) setup, I am in PEPWAVE 2 System>Tools>Ping, and Enter Destination 192.168.2.1 and it fails to ping. Is my method incorrect? The 192.168.x.x are my LAN addresses. UPDATE: I connected a PC to 192.168.3.1 and ping from the PC to 192.168.2.1 and it works. So the remaining question is, am I able to connect two PEPWAVEs without a PEPLINK? And, is it possible to have one MAX with two SIMs aggregate them with another MAX with two SIMs? So in another words a total of 4 SIMs aggregated?
Yes we can connect two MAX directly by a SpeedFusion VPN but we might not want to because:
- MAX 700/HD2 supports 2 SpeedFusion peers - meaning that one MAX can connect to up to 2 other MAX devices by SpeedFusion. For a hub-spoke scenario, we want a Balance device supporting up to 800 SpeedFusion peers depending on models as a central hub to connect all spokes altogether.
- It is not recommended to have both ends of the SpeedFusion tunnel on cellular links with fluctuating and often high latency - SpeedFusion performance is optimised on links with low and comparable latency.
- Depends on where we are but cellular links do not often provide fixed and public IP address outside the states - SpeedFusion needs at least one public IP on one link at one end to establish.
Would you mind sharing more about how the MAX will be used? It is not often we come across a need to connect two MAX directly together with cellular links at both ends.
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Our main purpose is to use a MAX HD2 to stream video whilst controlling the camera from a computer at a balancer. We can only obtain the 3G links through one ISP.
Our second purpose is to explore controlling the camera at a second remote site which is where the second MAX HD2 comes in.
But currently we are at a stage where one PEPWAVE MAX HD2 can not provide a practical solution to stream video, ie. latency too high, upload bandwidth not enough.
Which leads to my next question, how can I aggregate 2 PEPWAVE MAX HD2 together so I can bond four 3G links?
Ok I see where you are coming from. Having the camera-controlling site on landline will definitely yield better bonding performance than having it on cellular links. Proposal 1 is preferred. Proposal 2 will work if 1 of the 4 Telstra links gives us a public IP to connect to, but performance will largely depends on field environment now that both ends all 4 links are Telstra’s.
Will we have many camera sites? If we have more than 2 camera sites then proposal 2 won’t be practical given the number of SpeedFusion peers MAX supports.
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It will be only 1 camera site, and the ideal situation is to have the MAX at the camera site and controlled from the balancer. So is it possible to aggregate two PEPWAVEs ie. aggregate 4 3G SIMs?
Are we talking about this?
It will work - Cell #1 and Cell #2 will be bonded as well as Cell #3 and Cell #4.
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Thanks for the fast response. Below is what I am trying to achieve. The blue outline is ideal, but because our telstra links can not provide us a practical solution due to the upload speeds, I am thinking of adding 2 more SIMs which is in red. So in another words to have 4 uplinks to telstra internet. Peplink | Pepwave - Forum I don’t know how to add the additional power. Thanks again.
Ah I see what you are looking at. I think that calls for a model with 4 cellular interfaces. We do not have one today but there is plan for it - for applications just like yours.
The MAX 700 does have 4 USB cellular interfaces so I believe the choice of HD2 means we want all cellular to be embedded instead of external USB, yes?
And there might be a concern for Telstra because there will be 4 SIM cards right next to each other fighting for 3G bandwidth at the same time - from our experience sometimes mobile carrier dedicates a fixed pool of bandwidth to nearby SIM card transmitting to the same cell tower in a way that 1 SIM gives 1Mbps but 2 SIM give 500kbps each = total 1Mbps still. This is something we might want to look closer at with Telstra as well.
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So currently I can not aggregate two pepwave hd2 routers?
You can. Say if your camera sends two video streams - one to MAX #1 bonding on Telstra #1 and #2 - and another stream to MAX #2 bonding on Telstra #3 and #4 - then yes this should work given Telstra does provide full bandwidth for all four 3G links.
But of course the ideal setup would involve a single device that connects to all four 3G links from Telstra.
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I am pretty interested in taking this further. We are planning a model with more cellular interfaces, and with more use case reference, we can develop a product that fits your requirements just right.
Let me know if you want to explore further.
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Yes, our application also needs 4 SIM Max, let’s name it HD4… currently we use external modems connected to WAN ports - but this adds complexity for monitoring and cost for operating due to the problems with external modems. USB modems can crash entire device, as our case shows clearly.
Yup USB interface is insecure and commodity USB modems are not as reliable as some applications need them to be.
Could you please share more of what your are trying to achieve with a HD4? The better we understand your application, the better we can shape it to your needs.
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