Clive_A wrote

Hi @MonsterVic 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

MonsterVic wrote

Hi All !

 

I'm trying to use an Alcatel IKE41VE1  USB 4G Dongle as a Backup connection with the ER706W but it's rarely working. 

First of all I have two other ER605 and the same dongle is working perfectly with those. 

 

Problem #1:

 

ER706W is keep disconnecting as soon as it has got an IP address, see the log here. 
It is doing it especially when Load Balancing is Enabled, simply just clicked in. And it starts dropping the USB connection if I'm going to the USB Modem Menu then I can see that it is getting disconnected like if I would physically disconnect and the identifying again gets connected for 2 seconds and again disconnected.

 

Problem #2: 

 

If there is no Load Balancing Clicked in, then it is stays connected and not releasing the IP address and not getting disconnected. 

But. 

Despite that in Link Backup it's cleary stated that WAN2 is the Primary connection and USB is the Backup, the ER706W is still putting the USB Modem route to the first place.

WHY ???

 

 

 

While if Load Balancing Clicked in and there are some times when it stays connected for a while then the routing order is correct and WAN2 is in the first place and USB as Second, as soon as I unlick load balancing (but the link backup is configured), then it is starting to disconnect the USB and the routing order is changig to the incorrect order as shown on the picture above..

 

Again, on the ER605 the same dongle with the same SIM card in it is working fine,  no Load Balancing clicked in on the ER605, and it stays connected and the routing order is correct, and also nicely doing the failover. 

 

Devs, please check what's wrong with the ER706W Firmware as this is unusuable like this. (Unless I'm doing something wrong)

Tell me if you need any testing or more logs or more data. All the configs are default on the USB connection like MTU1480, all connection and authentication is on AUTO....etc

 

 

Prob 1, you might wanna check if your ISP is assigning the DHCP with a lease time of 2 minutes. Do you always get the 192. IP? ISP assigned or the USB modem(as a DHCP server?)

 

Prob 2, show me the tracert which shows it is routed into USB, WAN status and online detection result.

 

Network is 10.0.0.1/24 based? No overlapped subnet in WAN and LAN?

 

And finally, you really have to enable the load balancing if you need link backup and online detection to work. Or I don't have to troubleshoot as it is not configured correctly. The usage is not proper and correct.

And I don't know who told you that you did not have to enable load balancing but the CG and the KB explained this many times. These features are sub-features of load balancing. They base on load balancing.

  @Clive_A 

Hi Clive !

Prob #1. 

It's the USB modem who is giving the DHCP address and working well with ER605.  As you can see in the log the ER706W is immediately releasing the IP address after he assignment, but it's just a symptom if during this I'm looking the USB Modem status and then I can see there a Disconnect - Connect.  But somehow randomly maybe after 30 minutes sometimes after 1 hour sometimes after 5 minutes it's stays connected. And yes it's always a 192.168.1.0 / 24 range, I can'T influence that. 

Prob #2. 

Can't show you a tracert at the moment as I'm not near to the device, but trust me a I did tracert it. 

WAN2 is PPPOE and getting a public IP address, 10.0.0.1 is the provider's next hop. 

My internal main LAN is 192.168.3.0/24

Yes I have read also at couple of places that Load Balance needs to be enabled, but since I saw this working properly on the ER605 without having the Load Balanced clicked in I thought it should work like this on the ER706W as well. 

And the USB modem connect disconnect probelm is actually happening only when Load Balance is clicked in.

The reason I why I wanted to avoid Load Balance since it's a 4G Modem with prepaid certain amount of Network usage, so I really wanted to avoid to have any  traffic routed through the 4G unless it's necessary. But in the meantime I relized that I can control this with Policy routing properly, so now I have no problem to have the load balance clicked in where the routing order is correct, so I would say Problem #2 is not a problem anymore. 

Right at the moment it's working ok, but it's unpredicatble what will happen if I would need to reboot or if there would be a Primary WAN down. 

The point of the 4G to have a remote site still reachable at some level when the Primary is down, so I'm not there and that's why I would need this to be stable. 

Oh and one more thing what I forgot to mention, and that's another evidence that something is probably wrong with the FW. If you physically disconnect the USB modem, then the ER706W still says it's connected, and from that moment if I'm plugging it back again then nothing happens it is never getting really connected again, the whole USB modem connection thing is kind of frozen and only a reboot can fix it. 

See the below screenshot, when I made that screenshot the USB modem was in my hand for about 5 minutes already, and it still says Identify successfully

And it's again something what is working well with the ER605, I mean the physical plug in and remove.

  @Clive_A 

Hi !

Some additional thing just happened in the last 1 hour.

USB modem was stable for about half day, nothing special happened, there was no WAN down,,,etc and it was renewing DHCP hourly I guess the USB modem has a 60 mins lease time. 

But then all of a sudden it started to disconnect and connect again, did it about 10 times, and now it's connected again. 

Clive_A wrote

Hi @MonsterVic 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

MonsterVic wrote

  @Clive_A 

 

Hi !

 

Some additional thing just happened in the last 1 hour.

USB modem was stable for about half day, nothing special happened, there was no WAN down,,,etc and it was renewing DHCP hourly I guess the USB modem has a 60 mins lease time. 

But then all of a sudden it started to disconnect and connect again, did it about 10 times, and now it's connected again. 

 

It should be a cellular problem. Not a problem with the system.

  @Clive_A 

I don't think so, since when this is happening it's like a physical disconnect connect, I can see it's disconnecting and connecting in the USB modem menu. 

I'll try to test this out more over the weekend when I'll be there. 

Clive_A wrote

Hi @MonsterVic 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

MonsterVic wrote

Clive_A wrote

Hi @MonsterVic 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

MonsterVic wrote

  @Clive_A 

 

Hi !

 

Some additional thing just happened in the last 1 hour.

USB modem was stable for about half day, nothing special happened, there was no WAN down,,,etc and it was renewing DHCP hourly I guess the USB modem has a 60 mins lease time. 

But then all of a sudden it started to disconnect and connect again, did it about 10 times, and now it's connected again. 

 

It should be a cellular problem. Not a problem with the system.

  @Clive_A 

 

I don't think so, since when this is happening it's like a physical disconnect connect, I can see it's disconnecting and connecting in the USB modem menu. 

I'll try to test this out more over the weekend when I'll be there. 

If you believe this is a hardware issue, you can consider the RMA or contact the retailer for a quick exchange.

The log which shows the 1-minute reconnection is clearly a software-level thing. As the system can work normally but not for a certain period of time, it means the software of the router works. The cellular could be the perp.

  @Clive_A 

So I have tested this through a little bit deeper. 

Now it's working of for about 48 hours,  sometimes it's still happening that it's disconnecting and connecting but then gets stable.

BUt after about 48 hours it's completely losing the connection, and it's not the carrier connection what is lost, it's a local complete disconnect on the USB level and you can't do anything with it. If I physically remove the USB Stick it's sill says Identify successfully. As soon as you reboot the whol device then it's working okay again. 

So this has nothing to do with the 4G provider, it's a local USB handling issue. 

Can you imagine if I would take it back to the seller with this error ? Where you can't even properly reproduce the problem... 

Understand this, we may not have the same USB dongle like you have. We may not be able to get the same result as you do. The product was tested with the compatible USB modem before we released them and we have a list of compatible modems. If possible, we still recommend considering the compatible models we've tested. Or you gotta pick one by trial and error.

 

For other USB modem, they may work as long as their specs fit in the router but it does not mean we would guarantee you any of the modem would work perfectly. Based on the previous description, it seems to be a 4G provider issue.

Now with the new information provided, it looks like a software issue.

 

Second, AFAIK, there is no debug for the USB modem. But will check this with the team. Even if we are gonna do a debug, I will require a remote session and get you on the line with the dev to check that.

As you stated, it happened after 48 hours, not sure if there is a log in the device that can review what happened.

There is no similar feedback on the forum.

 

Can you confirm?

During the 48-hour test, there is no reboot to the system at all. Correct? Only the reboot happened after 48 hours where it appears to be completely disconnected.

USB WAN is on bridge mode or NAT mode?

  @Clive_A 

Hey. Thank you for being helpful mate. 

I chose the USB modem based on your compatibility list so it's an Alcatel IK41VE1. 

And really if I plug i in into an ER605 it works flawless without any flapping any disconnecting, no problems at all, that said to me that it's not the USB modem which might have a problem. 

Yes, there was no reboot within the 48 hours, and yes I have rebooted since the USB modem was reported completely disconnected, while it was connected, and the USB modem says identify successfully, and if I remove it physically then it stays the same, really it's kind of frozen when this is happening and reboot is solving only. It has happened now twice after about 48 hours.  The last reboot was yesterday about 19 hours ago,  so at the moment it is sometimes still getting and releasing DHCP (which is caused by disconnect connect on the USB modem menu) but after few tries it's ok, I just tested a simple ping to 8.8.8.8 over the USB modem and it's ok, replying. 

I will wait now to have the hang up to happen again, will save the logs and let you know what happened. 

USB WAN is on bridge mode or NAT mode? --> I don't see such option to setup