LTE Connection using Netgear MBR1516 Router on Bell Network in Canada

[VE7VR]

I would like to use a cellular router on the radio end of my RemoteRig installation. I have so far been unsuccessful making this work. Mike at Microbit assures me that others have this working in certain parts of the world so some cellular ISPs work. If anyone has experience specific or close to my request I would like to hear it. Some have warned that certain LTE networks have what is know as "Double NAT" which stops the true IP address from showing up to the outside world. I may be able to contact Bell here in Canada (wireless provider)  if this can be resolved by them. I am using the dynamic DNS service at RemoteRig and it detects the IP address at the router or at least what it thinks is the IP address.

[K6HP]

Hi VE7YR,
I am having similar problem with Verizon 4g LTE modem (the 3g modem worked fine). I get a sip error on the Control side and the usual multi-tone indicating a problem. I had it working once (receive only) but when keying the PTT the sip wouldn't handle the PTT and the radio would go off line.

The 4g modem is a Novatell MiFi 5510L. The router it connects to is a Cradlepoint MBR1200B (allegedly designed for use with 4g modems).

Now, I can't seem to even get the receive to work. I've tried my dyndns service as well as ddns.remoterig.com. There are three IPs associated with the modem. The public IP (that you see if you do a "What is my IP" search. The DNS server IP and the IP allegedly assigned to the modem. All three are different.
Public IP: 70.211.69.xx
IPv4: 10.171.132.xx
DNS: 198.224.174.1xx

The second and third IPs are from the 4g modem and the first is from the IP search, so it is the public IP generated by Verizon.

If I try doing a port search the results are that none of the ports required are open on any of the three IPs.

The status page on the control indicates that it has the correct IP for the radio(at home) and everything else appears fine. Yet, now I get no connection, even on receive.

If I figure this out I'll come back and let you know what I found.
73,
Ed
K6HP

[oz1rh]

If I understand it correct IPv4: 10.171.132.xx is the the WAN address of your 4G/LTE-router as shown on the status page of the router. Your 4G/LTE router must be given a public IP-adr open for incoming traffic as its WAN address. Private IP addresses like 10.x.x.x does not work.

This has been a problem several times in this forum, and I suggest it is mentioned in the RR-manual:

If you plan to use mobile broadband make sure your ISP will provide your router at the remote site with a public IP address, either dynamic or static. This might not be the IP address you get on the Internet, that is the one you can check at www.myip.dk as many ISP's especially on mobile broadband NAT's many customers private IP WAN addresses to a single public IP address on the Internet.

Your router at the radio site have to get a public addressable (and routeable) WAN IP address from your ISP and it must be open for incoming traffic. Private IP addresses on the WAN side like 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x or 172.x.x.x can not be accessed from the Internet, thus you can't connect to it and manage your radio. Contact your ISP and request a public IP address open for incoming traffic.

This has nothing to do with static=fixed IP addresses or dynamical IP addresses. There is no need to pay for a static=fixed IP address. If you get a public dynamic IP address you use DDNS to find the actual public IP address of the radio site.

Notice that ISP customer service often does not know the difference between public and private IP addresses, they keep talking about dynamic and static IP address which is not our issue.

The speed of a 3G connection is more than enough for RemoteRig, but ping time/latency/jitter might not be adequate. In this respect 4G/LTE is much better, so get a 4G if possible. If only 3G is available some tweaking of the advanced parameters in RemoteRig is likely to be needed.

73, Palle, OZ1RH

PS, In theory your ISP can give you a private IP adr and do a 1:1 NAT to a public IP adr so whenever the public IP adr is addressed from the internet all traffic goes (=is NAT'ted) to the private IP address, but I do not think any ISP will use their firewalls in that way for millions of customers.

[VA2MM]

I can shed some light on this. I use the RRC on the Bell network and it took me a while to get it working (they don't make it easy).

What the others say is true, there is double natting so the WAN side of your router has a private IP address. That is a problem, but not the only problem. Unfortunately, just using DDNS to map to a public address is not sufficient because Bell seems to block incoming connections to the public addresses.  The only way I was able to get it to work is to set up a VPN between my remote site and my control site. There are different ways of doing that, including routers at each end that have site-site VPN capability. Another way is use a computer at remote site that hosts the VPN session. I use LogmeIn Hamachi and some router software on a desktop computer at the remote site for this, but you should also be able to do it with a raspberry pi running free RemoteQTH server software to do the VPN.

I hope that helps, and that it doesn't completely discourage you.

73 Mark VA2MM