I believe the Balance 20X are “legacy” products now, so the answer may be “you can’t do it” but I wanted to confirm with the hive mind first.
The location I have a 20X has lousy cellphone internet service. Only AT&T and Verizon work at all; the other carriers have zilch. I went to both carriers’ “bring your own device” pages and entered the IMEI from my 20X and both carriers say “IMEI not found”. Also, neither carrier has much in the way of USB-based 4G/5G modems anymore, and what they do have is not listed as compatible on the Peplink modem support page.
Assuming those options are not viable, is there any way to add redundant internet service to the main WAN port on a 20X? No way to change one of the LAN ports into a second WAN port?
There doesn’t seem to be, but I wanted to be 100% sure before I recommend replacing the 20X with something newer.
Also, any suggestions on what a direct replacement for the 20X would be? Especially to establish a SpeedFusion VPN to another 20X at an offsite location?
Replacement would be B One 5G or B One Plus depending on if you wanted 5G or LTE radio (honestly I can’t see buying the Plus as the 4G networks are being phased out, perhaps not completely due to IOT services, but they’re losing capacity rapidly as spectrum is refarmed)
There’s USB to Ethernet, capped to 100Mbps.
If you put the device under PrimeCare you get a vwan license so you can use a vlan on the LAN side to act as another WAN port.
USB to Gigabit LAN adapters still work, limited to around 300Mbps speeds.
VLAN WAN is still supported by the B20X (as is on all Peplink models with PrimeCare).
You can than map the VLAN WAN to a VLAN on LAN and a LAN port to Access VLAN for that specific VLAN, to use a specific LAN port as WAN 2.
Do keep in mind that the speed will be limited to the shared LAN bus of all ports, as only the WAN port has a direct path to the SoC.
We still have several B20X in the field that work fine with the built in CAT4 modem as back-up. We are not in the US though, the ISP’s in EU don’t limit specific IMEI, as it’s not allowed in EU.
I have 2 balance 20x routers that have been on AT&T cellular “data connect” plans for years now. one has a CAT18 mini modem (with external roof mounted 4x4 mimo antenna), the other one is using the stock CAT4 modem.
I just switched to verizon this month. Entered the IMEI on their website (it was recognized by their system as a peplink device) and ordered the SIM cards on their website.
So yes you can still get cell service for peplink routers.
the website you probably entered the IMEI on is for “bring your own cell phone” NOT a router. That happened to me at first, until i realized i was on the wrong page.
Both my routers are getting service from Verizon just fine now.
If you need help finding the correct website, let me know
The B20X is legacy? It was the hot thing last year.
I just plugged a regular cellphone chip (T-Mobile) in my B20X, and it works fine. I think I did the same with an AT&T chip at one point. The good thing about that is it works with my cell plan phone data (unlimited), not hotspot data (quite limited), and (at least on T-Mobile) runs a lot faster than a router specific chip.
I have found at least one chip (XFinity) which didn’t like doing that though.
As for the second port, did you try the WAN on VLAN option? You should have one if you have active PrimeCare (and 4 year PrimeCare+ is the biggest bargain). That’s currently how my 20X is doing redundant connections.
You can also plug a USB-Ethernet adapter into the USB port, for a third connection. Or buy more WAN on VLANs (but they’re very expensive).
The B One is the obvious replacement, and is a significant performance upgrade. Also has 2 WAN ports off the bat, and one WAN on VLAN, and the USB. I have a couple of B Ones talking to a couple of B20X’s.
I also use a Netgear Nighthawk M6 cellular router, connected to the USB (or WiFi WAN, which is quicker for some reason). They were selling refurbs for a ridiculously low price last year.
