Question Are you using Pepwave SpeedFusion?

[Gizmo]

@Gizmo have you read up on Magic?

What is that?

 

[redbaron]

Curious, as this was on my list, trying to get VPN to home either to my sonicwall (not ideal) or was thinking an extra max BR1 I have.

Not the only thing that might be a problem is I don't have a static IP at home. I have dyndns setup, but not static (though my lease will often last for months).

Does fusion hub require a static IP for VPN tunnel from peplink router.

Dyndns would work. It needs either a host name or IP.

 

[Tnedator]

Dyndns would work. It needs either a host name or IP.

Awesome. Will spin up a fusion hub in VMWare this weekend and start playing. Thanks.

 

["EZ"]

After reading this thread I took a look at the Pepwave MAX BR1 Pro 5G Router for use with a T-Mobile 5G SIM and Verizon 4G SIM but before I can order one from the 5GStore I have to click that I know that and I quote "I understand that T-mobile doesn't support consumer 5G plans for this device". Does anyone have any experience with T-Mobile 5G and the Pepwave 5G Router?

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I have a T-Mobile 5G sim card and I use it in my Peplink 5G CAT 20 router. The T-Mobile works just fine. I end up using it more than the AT&T sim card that I also have. The AT&T runs at 4G most of the time.

 

[Neal]

First experiences with Pepwave FusionHub:

I can't really gauge speed differences of hub vs. no hub as my location is heavily congested and inconsistent on speeds. This morning I was showing around 9 MB speeds on FusionHub and tried Verizon only (stronger of the two) and it went up to around 40'ish. But that was temporary, not long after it became unstable and slow again. I tried downloading an update to my macOS IDE and it kept failing. I turned on FusionHub (thanks for the outbound policy tip) and while no screaming speeds it was reliable at around 6-9 MB/s. So my observation to date (hours with it) is it's a more stable Internet connection. I have two WAN's in use: AT&T Mobley and Verizon Prepaid Unlimited.

 

[Tnedator]

OK, was having a heck of a time getting a stable connection at a new RV park/resort I'm leasing a spot at. I setup fusion hub on AWS and routed all (two cellular and two wifi wan) to it, and am going to experiment today and see how the results are.

 

[Neal]

Too early to jump to conclusions but I'm having issues with 1Password. It could be something on their end, an update gone bad, or it's Speedfusion/VPN that it's not liking. I google'd the problem I'm having and it seems they can block IP addresses on their end and I wonder if I triggered a block by using FusionHub? I submitted a support ticket and provided my IP and will see what they say. I also turned off FH and the issue remains so it may not be FH as the cause. Issue is occurring in Google Chrome on both Mac and Windows so it's not computer specific.

Edit: having a problem with another web page, something's wrong. Rebooting router and computers.
Edit2: Pep1 had a different firmware, I must have missed updating it the other day. FH and Pep2 were on 8.2.1, Pep1 8.2.0. I updated Pep1 which also triggered a reboot and now everything is working fine. No computer reboots.

 

[Tnedator]

I had a forum I visit regularly block me using fusionhub hosted on AWS. Setup an advanced outbound policy for that domain to use lowest latency (or whatever the one second to the bottom is).

Since I don't currently have a static IP at home, I decided to host in AWS. Seriously thinking about upgrading my suddenlink home cable to business, which will let me get a static IP, but more importantly, actually get real tech support (residential, if you call about an outage, they schedule an appointment for a week or two out, when it's always a line issue -- so now, I don't bother even calling, I just fall back to my BR1 at home).

Also, think I'm going to upgrade to a 5 peer paid Fusionhub and create a VPC of several peplinks.

 

[Neal]

I think I'll be discontinuing use of FusionHub. I've noticed it is throwing my iPhone for a loop, not receiving messages, phone calls, push notifications, etc. I reboot my phone and the flood comes in (cellular only). Happened to me twice now that I'm not sure what's going on but the iPhone is not liking this Internet situation.

 

[Tnedator]

I think I'll be discontinuing use of FusionHub. I've noticed it is throwing my iPhone for a loop, not receiving messages, phone calls, push notifications, etc. I reboot my phone and the flood comes in (cellular only). Happened to me twice now that I'm not sure what's going on but the iPhone is not liking this Internet situatio

You have a dedicated IP at home? That seemed to be happening to me in RV when I had all my WANs set to fastest response (same priority, using then ask but no fussing hub). I think it was getting confused somehow and had same issue you describe.

When I went to fusionhub in AWS with dedicated IP, I don't recall it happening again.

 

[Neal]

I am connecting to my server in a data center - dedicated IP. I don't know if it matters that this is through a firewall but FusionHub requires ports to be opened which are per docs.

 

[Tnedator]

The AWS setup is super easy, as they have an image (AMI) for the install. It will cost 5, 15 or 30 a month, depending on size EC2 you choose. They now recommend medium, they used to recommend micro. I'm in medium, but an going to try reducing size and make sure it stays responsive. I think small or micro will be fine.

 

[Tnedator]

I am connecting to my server in a data center - dedicated IP. I don't know if it matters that this is through a firewall but FusionHub requires ports to be opened which are per docs.

Hmmm. I know the issue you describe. The last two days I was at the park, I was cashing my wife's phone every hour or so to make sure it was no longer a problem.

 

[Neal]

In order to use FusionHub and protect the issues I've had with phones/tablets I modified the outbound policy to only use FusionHub for a specific computer (IP address). As I have manual IP's assigned to my computers this is easy. Now I can use the VPN when needed for the computer work and not affect phones/tablets.

 

[Neal]

What I'd like to figure out is how to separate my networks without over complicating my life so that all "wired" (LAN port) connections go through FusionHub and all Wi-Fi (phones/tablets, etc.) do not use FusionHub.

I've had the case in the past of using multiple routers such as Pepwave then an internal Wi-Fi router and it becomes a pain with separate networks. Trying to find the simplest approach to segregate LAN from Wi-Fi traffic to easily get devices to use FusionHub without screwing up the phone/tablets from issues I had.

 

[Neal]

I think I can do this by creating a new LAN (vlan) with an IP address range that covers the wired devices and would have to make sure wired devices use manual IP's as I can assign the LAN port to a VLAN I don't think. Then use that IP range .... wait a minute...it may be easier to just create an outbound policy for each IP (device) instead of doing this... hmmmm

 

[lemondrop9344]

Interesting thread.
IMHO if you have a good cellular connection or a good WIFI connection or a good Starlink connection, I'm not sure what advantage SpeedFusion or VPN (not withstanding the security) affords a RV'er. Emphasis on 'good signals'.
I have a MAX BR1 PRO LTEA (the 4G version with CAT-20) & have found if I place by strongest cellular signal (I was using AT&T & Verizon) & the RV park WIFI (I have really good RV park WIFI) in Priority 1 I can attain enough speed & bandwidth to stream media, participate in ZOOM meetings & still use a PC for regular work activity over the internet. I am still not convinced 5G is ready for primetime in the RV environment. Personally, for the price difference, I will invest in Starlink.
I have played with my son's Starlink at my location (residential plan with roaming) with similar results.
In addition to incoming bandwidth on the Peplink device, you should consider the through put of the processor. There are some interesting posts on the Peplink Forum where the CAT-18 devices were consistently outperforming the CAT-12 DUO. In the particular post(s) the difference was attributed to the processor in the CAT-18.
Of course all of this is my subjective opinion based on my particular needs. What works for me makes me happy & I share it with others as hopefully being informative. One really needs to look at their particular requirements & assess what they are willing to spend.

 

[Neal]

IMHO if you have a good cellular connection or a good WIFI connection or a good Starlink connection, I'm not sure what advantage SpeedFusion

I googled that very question this morning and it landed me on this page which explains it at a high level. It's been working well for me this morning bonding AT&T and Starlink. I am experiencing solid and reliable Internet including YouTube and other social media content.

FusionHub

FusionHub is the virtual appliance that extends your SpeedFusion to the cloud. Discover, how you can leverage cloud servers or offer SpeedFusion as an MSP.

www.peplink.com

 

[Neal]

CAT-18 devices were consistently outperforming the CAT-12 DUO. In the particular post(s) the difference was attributed to the processor in the CAT-18.

Maybe, in my non cellular engineering opinion it's due to CAT 18 and higher uses 4x4 MIMO, i.e. twice the number of cellular antennas and therefore two bands of cellular connection. This is why I advise anyone getting a cellular router these days I suggest CAT 18 or better if it fits your budget.

 

[lemondrop9344]

I think I can do this by creating a new LAN (vlan) with an IP address range that covers the wired devices and would have to make sure wired devices use manual IP's as I can assign the LAN port to a VLAN I don't think. Then use that IP range .... wait a minute...it may be easier to just create an outbound policy for each IP (device) instead of doing this... hmmmm

Neal,
You are on the right track with VLANS. This is what we did in our home/office to separate the business part of the network, from the media part of the network, the personal use portion of the network & finally all that IOT crap that connects to the network (cameras, appliances & god know what else at this point in time).
I'm not sure how many devices are on your LAN. In the home office it was a bunch & we really wanted to isolate the business from the people that were surfing the WEB.