Trying to set up new pepwave surf soho at campground

Product Discussion Pepwave AP & Surf
1

Hi all - just rec. My new pw soho & trying to set up using the camp wifi which has a poor signal. Router is on & wifi is blinking. When I purchased, they said I can set this up using my iPad but I can’t get a good enough signal to open the Brower. Do I have to connect to the router using a computer to set up router or does it see the campground wifi on its own & convert to its own network? I tried using the pw utility for my android phone but says router is unreachable. Any suggestions?

2

Hi,

Seem you have issue to access the device using WIFI connection, you should connect to the SOHO using a computer (Device LAN Port) to further investigate the issue.

User Manual: http://download.peplink.com/manual/pepwave_max_surf_v6.3.1_user_manual.pdf

Below are the steps that you may consider to setup the device:

  1. Factory reset the Surf SOHO device - Page 177

  2. Try to connect to Surf SOHO default SSID
    Peplink | Pepwave - Forum

  3. Connect to Surf SOHO LAN interface using computer if you fail access the device using WIFI connection.

  4. Enable WIFI WAN to connect to campground wifi - Page 66 - 69

  5. Redefine the WIFI AP settings for the WIFI AP connections - Page 135 - 136

Thank You

3

Initial setup of the Surf SOHO is an offline thing. You should not be dealing with the WiFi in the campground until the initial setup is complete.

That said, initial setup can be done using the WiFi output from the Surf SOHO. All you need is a web browser which an iPad offers. An Ethernet connection is preferable though.

4

Hi Mike234. I wasn’t able to do it with the iPad so I bought up a laptop & did it that way. I connected to the campground wifi & set up the pep wave network but I keep getting intermittent drops. Went in to dashboard & went it drops it says "WAN failed DNS test ". Not sure how to remedy this - any suggestions?

5

I have only used the WiFi as WAN feature in an emergency, so I have no long term experience with it. Your error is a health check error. There are many options for health checking an Internet connection, I suggest you look into them. You may even want to disable them altogether. Also, if you can move your Surf SOHO around, you can use an Android app or a laptop computer to find the locations where the signal is strongest.

6

Hi,

Can you provide detail info how you connect the Surf Soho to the campground wifi ? Are you using WIFI WAN or Ethernet WAN ? When you connect your laptop/Ipad to campground wifi are you connect to SSID that broadcast by Surf Soho ? Suspect the issue may related to connection from the Laptop/Ipad to campground wifi instead of the connection from the Laptop to the Surf Soho.

For WAN health check issue, you need to further check whether this is related to the health check servers stability issue or WAN stability issue.

  1. What is the DNS servers IP define for the health check ? Make sure the defined health check servers is reliable.

  2. Try to change the health check using other method (Example: Ping) and see whether this will help.

  3. If you connect Surf Soho using WIFI WAN to campground wifi, make sure WIFI signal for the Surf Soho WIFI WAN connection is stable.

Thank You

7

I am running a similar setup; surf soho w/external antenna and do all setup with iPad or iPhone. I have been using the soho like this for about 8 months (fultime RVer). I have learned that unless the noise level is closer to -70dBM I too experience health check drops. my experience is that it is the campground wifi and not the soho. I regularly get -80dBm based on number of other wifi users, trees, wind, distance from access point, etc. Once the dBm level drop to 70 or below I have no issues. Hope this helps;)

8

Thanks for sharing! :up: