Huawei B535-232 4g/LTE Router Issue

[Darsuke]

L2TP is a pretty heavy VPN type for a CPU to perform the necessary encryption.
I assumption that the B535 just doesn't have a powerful enough CPU to allow sustained high throughput, whereas the 5G Pro that Frediche mentioned he uses, does.

You would likely see much better performance by using PPTP as it has the lowest level of encryption. PPTP is generally to be avoided if good security is the important, however in this instance just making the data look like VPN traffic to Three's inspector process is what's needed to avoid stalling and PPTP will do that.

InfoSec Handlers Diary Blog - SANS Internet Storm Center

End of Days for MS-CHAPv2, Author: Guy Bruneau

isc.sans.edu

I've used this installer before for all 3 VPN types:

GitHub - bedefaced/vpn-install: Simple PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN installers

Simple PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN installers. Contribute to bedefaced/vpn-install development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I may have borked it somewhere down the line as all this was beyond my understanding. Following guides are fine but when something goes wrong you're stuffed. Initially the router wouldn't connect but android would and my mobile saw full speed. Fiddling to get the router to successfully connect brought abysmal speeds and then the mobile would no longer connect so don't know what I did.

But I too changed mtu to 1500 after using an online mtu checker. Whatever I've done over the past days seemed to have stopped the stalling.

Still left with insane speed drops after being connected though simply reconfirming the band selection with any of the android apps brings full speed back again.

 

[Pwablo]

This might've been a good deal, but for the fact that NordVPN no longer support use of L2TP & PPTP, so you can't use it with the B535 router.

Question for knowledgeable people: I use a DD-WRT router as a Wireless Access Point just to extend my WiFi to the back of the house. It supports OpenVPN etc. Can I use NordVPN with relevant OpenVPN details in my DD-WRT router to create a 'tunnel' even though it's only acting as a WAP to my Three 4G broadband through the B535? Or does the VPN tunnel have to be set up on the WAN facing B535?

Incidentally, I set MTU to 1440 on the B535 and all 3 of the Wireless Access Points I have connected to it (not sure if the WAP routers on my LAN should have MTU set at 1440 or if it's only relevant to the WAN facing B535?)

I understand that the B535 does'nt support NordVPN however, you can run the VPN client on up to 6 devices on your LAN which may be sufficient for many folks.
On your other point, yes you can. Disable DHCP on B535, Set up DHCP on DD-WRT, Set Gateway on DD-WRT to B535 LAN IP. Set up NordVPN on DD-WRT, You may also need to amend the route table so LAN clients assigned a lease do not get pointed to the WAN side of the DD-WRT which is not in use.
You can download the server config files from HERE and save the keys and certificate as *.key and *.crt files and upload them to the router.
Or you could set all your devices to a static IP and point them manually to the new GW IP which will be whatever you have statically set on the DD-WRT.

Dont be too disappointed if you dont get full speed over the VPN though, it needs a decent processor in the router to handle all the encryption.
As I mentioned previously, I have a RUT240 which does support OpenVPN and on both Three and EE I only get 8mb up/down with VPN enabled. It will get rid of the web page stalling though on Three.
To get full speeds on my PC I simply use the NordVPN Client.

 

[XtractorFan]

Hi Folks, great forum post, loads of info - no doubt born out of so much frustration
I took delivery of a B535-232 and sim from 3 this week to try and find an alternative to my Boundless Networks WISP.
What a crock! - it's like herding cats! - so may issues...
I've implemented most/all of the suggestions, but site loading inconsistencies remain.
My current one is trying to use the Think Broadband Quality Monitor.
I set it up OK and initially got results - but now when I login to view, all I get is a 'spinning circle' when the graph tries to load.
Is 3 blocking it? - any ideas?
I suppose I've got 'till the end of the month (14 days) to send it back...
Many thanks.

 

[smithbill17]

My current one is trying to use the Think Broadband Quality Monitor.
I set it up OK and initially got results - but now when I login to view, all I get is a 'spinning circle' when the graph tries to load.
Is 3 blocking it? - any ideas?

I use ThinkBroadband BQM all the time - its working fine. Literally all it does is 'ping' your external IP address and log the latency and present it in a graph. So you need to make sure that your B535 is set to allow WAN port ping (I think under Advanced > Security > Firewall). And also your external IP address is needed - I think if Three have your account set up with that 'double NATing' thing, then you wont see what your external IP address is, you'll need to phone Three and tell them you want that switched off so you get an external IP address.

 

[XtractorFan]

Thanks for the reply - it did work this morning, but not anymore.
The B535 dis/re-connected and my Ip changed, so I modified the BMQ settings as I saw the solid red line. It started again.
But going back later I can't get get the graph 'png graphic' to load, see these pics.

I've switched back to my Boundless ISP and it's the same - perhaps the BMQ has a problem?

 

[XtractorFan]

Arrgh! - bluddy Kaspersky!!
It must have suddenly decided to block the site - why is everything such a pain in the ar.......

 

[smithbill17]

Thinkbroadband BQM is working fine here (see attached).

Oh, I see you've found the reason. It probably blocked it as it sees it constantly pinging your external IP and thinks it's some kind of attack (at least you know Kaspersky is doing something useful).

 

[Deanilson]

I forgot to mention that I set up port forwarding for the Switch in my router. You have to open a whole range of ports as recommended by Nintendo, which does bring mild security concerns. But worth doing if you have connection issues.

Hi I sorted the NAT type problem so let me know if your still having problems and I will tell you what needs to be done my problem now is still the up and down with the speed I have a pointing 4G Xpol 1 antenna now and tested it this morning and was receiving 25 down 7.5 up but this is so temperamental its a joke I stayed with three because of the problems with vodafone and online gaming for a kit that has such basic setting the general configuration is poor lucky I have time to play around otherwise I would of sent it back

 

[smithbill17]

was receiving 25 down 7.5 up but this is so temperamental its a joke

If you mean that your download/upload performance varies a lot, then I don't think you're going to be able to do anything about that - its almost certainly down to the number of subscribers using your local mast (or accessing Three's network in your local area).

The only thing that might help is to reboot your B535 - for some reason, when you reboot & reconnect to Three's network, you seem to get better download performance, which then drops-off after a period of time. I've no idea why this happens. You could perhaps have a script or some kind of app that will auto-reboot your B535 every day or so. Unfortunately the B535 doesn't have its own facility to do this, so you'd have to have some kind of PC or other device on your network that can do it.

 

[XtractorFan]

If you mean that your download/upload performance varies a lot, then I don't think you're going to be able to do anything about that - its almost certainly down to the number of subscribers using your local mast (or accessing Three's network in your local area).

The only thing that might help is to reboot your B535 - for some reason, when you reboot & reconnect to Three's network, you seem to get better download performance, which then drops-off after a period of time. I've no idea why this happens. You could perhaps have a script or some kind of app that will auto-reboot your B535 every day or so. Unfortunately the B535 doesn't have its own facility to do this, so you'd have to have some kind of PC or other device on your network that can do it.

LTE H-Monitor has a re-boot option, don't know if it's supported in the 'free' version though...

Maybe do it at midnight every day?

 

[kommando828]

Only saving the connection data is missing from the free version, so regular auto reboot is supported.

 

[Deanilson]

If you mean that your download/upload performance varies a lot, then I don't think you're going to be able to do anything about that - its almost certainly down to the number of subscribers using your local mast (or accessing Three's network in your local area).

The only thing that might help is to reboot your B535 - for some reason, when you reboot & reconnect to Three's network, you seem to get better download performance, which then drops-off after a period of time. I've no idea why this happens. You could perhaps have a script or some kind of app that will auto-reboot your B535 every day or so. Unfortunately the B535 doesn't have its own facility to do this, so you'd have to have some kind of PC or other device on your network that can do it.

Yes like clock work late evening three has a problem with this in my area so I know I cant do anything about that I'm in hope once they open up there 5G mask this will help there 4G. It is odd why it proform better after a reboot

 

[Buggerlugz]

Anyone else come across the problem with your mast assigning IP addresses connecting to different Three hubs all around the country, so google thinks you are someone else and then signs you out of its services periodically?

Its like your IP address can be located in different places every time your router is rebooted.

 

[XtractorFan]

Anyone else come across the problem with your mast assigning IP addresses connecting to different Three hubs all around the country, so google thinks you are someone else and then signs you out of its services periodically?

Its like your IP address can be located in different places every time your router is rebooted.

It's not just when you re-boot, mine just lost connection speedtest showed <11Mbps before and came up with a different ip, now it's up again >40.....

 

[kommando828]

Anyone else come across the problem with your mast assigning IP addresses connecting to different Three hubs all around the country, so google thinks you are someone else and then signs you out of its services periodically?

Its like your IP address can be located in different places every time your router is rebooted.

Had that from the very beginning with 3 and on Voda too, I thought it was standard mobile behaviour, even had it on adsl with BT.

 

[Buggerlugz]

Yes like clock work late evening three has a problem with this in my area so I know I cant do anything about that I'm in hope once they open up there 5G mask this will help there 4G. It is odd why it proform better after a reboot

I can't see that happening, if anything they'll supplement the 5g service with bandwidth from 4g I reckon. I mean its not like three haven't already ran out of mast bandwidth on 4g so what makes you think their 5g service will be any different?

 

[TTJJ]

Set up one of TBB quality monitor on my Three B535 to monitor it. It’s not great but there’s no loss at least.
I’m going to be changing one of the B535’s over to Vodafone today and would be interesting to see how it compares - but they use CGNAT so I’m thinking it’s not going to be possible?

 

[XtractorFan]

Set up one of TBB quality monitor on my Three B535 to monitor it. It’s not great but there’s no loss at least.
I’m going to be changing one of the B535’s over to Vodafone today and would be interesting to see how it compares - but they use CGNAT so I’m thinking it’s not going to be possible?

Looks similar to mine - hard to keep it going as 3 keep changing my ext IP so it stops.
Still major problems with my connection - even though I had one test result of over 90Mbps - usual is 10 - 15.
I expect the high latency ~70ms causes problems with pages not loading in a browser without a refresh. Oh and Prime video taking ages to start up....
Finally spoke to someone in 'technical support?' - they called me back - seems even with a 5 bar signal, they consider a >5Mbps as adequate.
Bit of a crock really - looks like I'll be cancelling within the cool off period.

 

[smithbill17]

Set up one of TBB quality monitor on my Three B535 to monitor it. It’s not great but there’s no loss at least.

Yours is worse than mine! Mine is probably 40-60ms, whereas yours appears to be 60-80ms'ish.

But I notice you have IPv6 in your TBB Quality Monitor chart. I believe, if I contact Tech Support it's possible to request Three issue me with an IPv6 address, but is it worth doing? Is there any benefit?

 

[TTJJ]

Yours is worse than mine! Mine is probably 40-60ms, whereas yours appears to be 60-80ms'ish.

But I notice you have IPv6 in your TBB Quality Monitor chart. I believe, if I contact Tech Support it's possible to request Three issue me with an IPv6 address, but is it worth doing? Is there any benefit?

Oh that’s not an IPv6 address it’s just some kind of identifier for TBB, it removes the real IP.

The Vodafone was set up today and the performance is excellent - speedy and reliable it seems compared to Three. Do they support IPv6? If so I can set up a TBB monitor that way.