4G Backup for internet not performing well

[alexsmith2709]

I recently bought a Draytek 2865ac (based on needing to create some VLANs to have a printer on 2 networks as per a thread i made last year). It has the ability to use a 3G/4G connection if the main connection fails (which it did this morning) and when connecting a mobile either via USB tethering or a WiFi hotspot to a phone the internet barely works. I tried 2 phones, both on different networks and both with near full signal strength for 4G. Using internet on the phone had no issues. On any computer connected to the network many web pages did not load at all and the ones that did were very slow and it was pretty much unusable. Also our card terminal didnt connect either.
Does anyone have any experience with these routers and tethering to mobile internet as a backup? It was one of many handy features i was looking forward to being able to use!

Thanks

 

[britechguy]

This is far more likely, in my opinion, to be some sort of throttling that your cell service provider is putting on the hotspot feature of the phone.

For a long time here in the USA even if you had a phone that supported a hotspot you had to pay a separate fee to have the data service to allow it to be used functionally activated. Even when that's not the case, there are many plans that put very low data caps on high-speed hotspot data while data on the phone remains unlimited at high speed.

Whether you tether or use a WiFi connection, it's the hotspot's throughput to the internet itself that's a strong possibility as the culprit.

I actually use my smartphone hotspot as my primary internet connection these days. In my area we have 4G LTE service, but no 3G service at all, and if you hit certain spots in the area it's not got 4G LTE and drops to 2G (which is unusable). I'd check with your cell service provider if a speed test from a computer hooked up to the hotspot comes back crappy.

 

[Mick]

Maybe just co-incidence?

 

[alexsmith2709]

I think you've partially answered my question, it doesnt look like it is any kind of throttling. I just did a test connecting my laptop to my phone as a wifi hotspot. I ran a speedtest and was getting 50mbps down and 7mbps up and websites were loading fine.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We use these quite often, behind Untangle, which does a GREAT job at failover....
I've done speed tests when behind this, indoors, in a difficult building, and gotten near 30 megs still.
Nice large antennas on these to help out the signal.

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[alexsmith2709]

Maybe just co-incidence?

This was at a similar time but i tested on sites that dont use fastly and i dont believe our card terminal using anything like that either.

@YeOldeStonecat Im trying to avoid buying a separate data plan and SIM and just use my/another employees phone if/when the internet goes does, which is rare.

 

[nlinecomputers]

This was at a similar time but i tested on sites that dont use fastly and i dont believe our card terminal using anything like that either.

Reports are that AWS and Google had issues as well. It wasn't just Fastly that went down. I’d do another test.

Im trying to avoid buying a separate data plan and SIM and just use my/another employees phone if/when the internet goes does, which is rare.

Are you certain that your carrier isn’t blocking your SIM? I’ve tried to use my Verizon cell phone SIM in a cradlepoint and after calling Verizon I found out they block it.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Just from a purely networking/engineering standpoint...having a "bridged" 4G modem (so it passes the public IP) connect via ethernet to the WAN port of a router is superior for performance. Via connecting USB or wireless hop. Also avoids that double NAT. The above device comes default in router/NAT mode, but you can log in and flip it to bridged mode.

Can just pull the SIM from a phone for the time being.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Reports are that AWS and Google had issues as well. It wasn't just Fastly that went down. I’d do another test.

I'll test that shortly. Websites that i knew were working direct from a phone were not working over the hotspot so i dont think that was the issue.

Are you certain that your carrier isn’t blocking your SIM? I’ve tried to use my Verizon cell phone SIM in a cradlepoint and after calling Verizon I found out they block it.

As i mentioned above, i can use it as a hotspot only connected to my laptop just fine, it is when it is connected to the router that it doesnt work/work very well.

 

[nlinecomputers]

A router like that needs its own ethernet connection not USB. You should have two modems, one on landline(dsl, cable, fiber...) the other a cell modem like @YeOldeStonecat suggested. One goes into wan1 and the other into wan2.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Just from a purely networking/engineering standpoint...having a "bridged" 4G modem (so it passes the public IP) connect via ethernet to the WAN port of a router is superior for performance. Via connecting USB or wireless hop. Also avoids that double NAT. The above device comes default in router/NAT mode, but you can log in and flip it to bridged mode.

Can just pull the SIM from a phone for the time being.

Thanks for the advice. Bit of a hassle pulling the sim as then he phone is not usable for what could be hours. Yes, it would mean business could go on though so a small price to pay.
As this router allows a 4G connection to be used this way, i imagine there is no double NAT issue, but i cant be sure. My first choice was to connect by USB, but for some reason my phone kept shutting off the USB tether like i had a dodgy cable but the cable is fine for everything else.

 

[alexsmith2709]

A router like that needs its own ethernet connection not USB. You should have two modems, one on landline(dsl, cable, fiber...) the other a cell modem like @YeOldeStonecat suggested. One goes into wan1 and the other into wan2.

This router can use a 4G connection over USB or WiFi hotspot. My main connection is connected to WAN2 as its ethernet from my ISP modem.

 

[britechguy]

Bit of a hassle pulling the sim as then he phone is not usable for what could be hours.

Don't be so sure it's usable anyway. I cannot place a call and use mobile data at the same time, it's one or the other (I don't have a dual SIM phone). I know that I'm not alone as far as that configuration goes.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Don't be so sure it's usable anyway. I cannot place a call and use mobile data at the same time, it's one or the other (I don't have a dual SIM phone). I know that I'm not alone as far as that configuration goes.

I have been on the phone at the same time as its connected as a USB tether before

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

This router can use a 4G connection over USB or WiFi hotspot. My main connection is connected to WAN2 as its ethernet from my ISP modem.

I've seen some routers that allow USB or wifi on the WAN interface, I just don't like them due to the poor performance of those approaches. I don't know of any wifi hotspot solutions that do not NAT, so...if your router uses wifi on the WAN to another wifi hot spot, you'd double NATing without choice. Ugh...yuck!

 

[nlinecomputers]

This router can use a 4G connection over USB or WiFi hotspot. My main connection is connected to WAN2 as its ethernet from my ISP modem.

And you have seen how well that works...