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4g newbie (plus LAN redesign)

Cluckingdeath

Regular Member
Hi All,

We’re about to move to a rural area leaving behind our lovely 70/18 FTTC. 4g broadband is a new concept to me, I have some idea about networking but this site has fried my mind.
I currently run BT whole home disks behind our R7000 and it does the job but I plan on upgrading this with some ubiquit Kit (any pointers welcome!)

We can get somewhere around 8/0.8 on FTTC in the new place so thats a no go.
We’re with three for mobiles and in the village I could hit 70down on my iphone but I am not keen to use them for broadband From what I have read.
From what I can fathom, there are two EE towers with bands 3 and 20 within about 1/4 and 1/2 a mile of the new place.
My main issue is I work from home and also run a server at home which needs a decent and reliable connection to the outside world as a fixed IP, but this could be achieved another way?

So I am wondering about sticking with Plusnet for home phone (emergencies) and to have the reliability (?!) and failsafe of a fixed line, along with “some EE plan” and “some 4g modem” (B535?) and “some twin WAN router”(something Vigor?) with automatic switchover

We’re currently using 200-300gb a month at the moment, mostly streaming and the odd bit of oculus or Fortnite gaming

Any assistance appreciated


/edit just leaving some notes
Mikrotik SXT LTE
 
Last edited:
Hey, welcome!

No mobile provider has static IPs. And even worse, all providers other than Three (using their 3internet APN) implement CGNAT, which means your connection ends up in a double-NAT situation and you do not have your own IPv4 address. You're also unable to forward ports for incoming connections (you have no control over the provider's NAT) so any internal 'servers' will not be accessible unless they use some kind of tunnel/proxy/helper like Synology/Plex etc may do.
For Three, on their 3internet APN, you do get your own public IPv4 address, which means you can then use your own router's NAT rules and port-forward as required, but there is also no guarantee that Three wouldn't switch to use CGNAT in the future - they have no obligation to how they deliver the service or inform you that they're switching something - they're not an ISP in the traditional sense, but even then I'm not sure ISPs are obliged either.

The other issue with CGNAT is that it can cause issues with gaming, however not being a gamer myself, I don't have any experience with this - I believe there are other forum posts here and on thinkbroadband around this topic.

The way around CGNAT is to use a VPN, which tunnels through all that and could also give you a static IP.
The downsides here is that this likely increases ping/response times as its more servers to go through, and is also likely to reduce speeds as the VPN encryption/decryption is processor heavy.
The VPN providers IPs can also be outright blocked by streaming providers (e.g. I know BBC iPlayer doesn't allow mine, so I cannot stream).
 
Thank you, I had seen CGNAT mentioned many places and it kind of made sense but that has clarified it for me thank you.

Interesting that you mention the VPN providers being blocked by the BBC etc, not something I had considered. I'm probably OK to spin up my own VPN on something like digital ocean so that might be an option as I guess it then wouldn't be recognised as such.

However it definitely sounds like we would need to maintain the fixed line for the server to ensure its robust
 
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I use my own OpenVPN on a Linode (eu-west) instance - this is definitely blocked blocked in iPlayer. I'd expect other VPS providers to be similar (though I don't know for sure!)

My Asus AC86U router uses the Merlin firmware and is connected with OpenVPN in Linode - this enables the whole network to tunneled through the VPN (rather than each device individually).

The Merlin firmware enabled hardware accelerated AES encryption so the CPU isn't maxed out and high speeds are maintained.
Merlin also has a VPN routing rules feature and this enables me to work around the iPlayer block - I have rules in place so that my Nvidia Shield (primary streaming device) is excluded from the VPN connection so that this accesses the web via the 'normal' (Three) WAN IP and so that maintains the ability to stream iPlayer, but only on that device.

Edit: perhaps if your server is the key thing that needs a static IP then setting up that device alone on VPN could make sense. Be aware of VPS network transfer limits if your server has big data demands - the Linode I have (nanode 1GB) has 1TB of egress network data per billing month.
 
I use AAISP L2TP to get static IPs on EE 4G. It works well for me. It isn't encrypted, so there isn't a compute penalty (although a good router would cope anyway). It emerges in AAISP address space, so appears exactly as any other AAISP user address would - so isn't blocked as an undesirable VPN.
 
You can get fixed IP Sims from most of the mobile providers...however its a niche market and not for mainstream use. Mostly these are used for 3G/4G CCTV cameras systems and remote monitoring equipment on wind turbines and water pumps etc.. Anyone can subscribe to one of these SIM packages, however they are prohibitively expensive,

Have a look at Fixed 3G/4G Sim Prices ! if you have loads of money :D

By far the easiest way is to use a VPN. Some of the VPN Providers can even supply you with a fixed IP option which you can manage via a web interface.
 
I use AAISP L2TP to get static IPs on EE 4G. It works well for me. It isn't encrypted, so there isn't a compute penalty (although a good router would cope anyway). It emerges in AAISP address space, so appears exactly as any other AAISP user address would - so isn't blocked as an undesirable VPN.
ASISP L2TP is a good option, it might be £10 a month but as you say it isn't blocked by streaming services like other VPNs so it shouldn't need router workarounds. Merlin doesn't allow routing rules to be applied to L2TP connections anyway, only OpenVPN.

The Linode nanode VPS is ~£4.60/month ($5USD+VAT converted to GBP) and as I already had my Asus router was the cheaper option for me (and it gives me a VPS to play around with for other things).
 
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Thanks all, the server is pretty low load so I think based on all of the comments above, I'd look to simply route that down the fixed line via the dual wan router (tbc) and utilise that fixed IP.

Then use the EE 4G for the "bulk" of the housing load, hoping to get up near the house this weekend with an EE sim to see what speed I can get from the iPhone

I could create something on digital ocean using outline or similar but it doesn't seem worth it. I'd love to go full VPS but its an ESXI box running about 10 windows servers so the cost would be astronomical!
 
Considering your server is relatively low load, if you know someone on fiber with a server that was agreeable, you could always create a VPN between your servers and use their gateway IP/router? No problem doing this over the mobile network, and you could ditch the expense of maintaining the fixed line?
 
I did load balance 4G and ADSL2+ for a couple of years, but apart from the fixed IP the ADSL didn't bring much to the party. The latency difference between the two did cause some issues, so I had to restrict some connections to one or the other. In the end I decided I could save money and hassle by going 4G only. Moved the land line number to VoIP and ceased the fixed line altogether. Latency remains the only drawback really - and that is fine for everything except gaming.
 
Yeah I'm not too worried about the additional £20ish a month for the fixed line, the boss would prefer to have a fixed line for emergencies being in a rural area and its useful to have a failover for the server and security systems!

When it comes to EE, what is the best way forward? I read about possibly using unlimited phone sims (£35) but from what I have read it might be useful to have a proper broadband package so I can fall back on their decent support? for the extra £5 or £15 a month it feels like it would be worth it?
 
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I run a Draytek 2925 dual wan, its not strict bonding but you never see a difference. I have used it on.

1. ADSL and Three
2. Rural Wifi and Three
3 Three and Vodafone

Works best when the speeds and pings are close, can be a bit hit and miss if there is a vast difference.

Bought off ebay for £50 as its a superseded model.
 
I run a Draytek 2925 dual wan, its not strict bonding but you never see a difference. I have used it on.

1. ADSL and Three
2. Rural Wifi and Three
3 Three and Vodafone

Works best when the speeds and pings are close, can be a bit hit and miss if there is a vast difference.

Bought off ebay for £50 as its a superseded model.
Spot on thank you!
 
Thank you I haven't actually head of Mikro so will check them out.

Sorted out an android with cell mapper now so hoping to head to the property at the weekend and see what is what, EE's website suggests we'll get 30mb which should be sufficient!
 
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If a Draytek is seen as being NOOB unfriendly then a Mikro is double NOOB unfriendly. I have both and the Draytek is complex but all controlled from the GUI, the Mikro has a GUI but also needs command line instructions for some items.
 
There is also the TP-Link TL-R470T+ which can LB 4 connections. Could always use one of these and whatever other device's you wish for the WAN's?
TP-Link TL-R470T+
 
The advantages of the Mikrotik is that you can put it outside, it's pretty good as far as capturing a signal is concerned and it uses power over ethernet which makes putting it high up on a pole or the side of a house even easier. But everything about it - even putting in a SIM card and plugging in an ethernet cable - is more difficult than a Huawei, for example. Having said that the setup wizard does work well and is straightforward, but if you want to go beyond that, then you will need to spend some serious time on it.
 
I’m pretty comfortable with command line work, I spend a lot of time on Linux servers, but it’s more me having the time and patience :ROFLMAO:
 
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