General router question re number of devices

[johnjm]

Just a question. If one purchases a LTE router with a max device support of 32, does this apply to devices connected directly to it or over the network at home?

Reason why I ask is that I have 4 access points and 6 switches at home, but my main LTE router which provides the internet to all of these won’t ever be connected to more than 32 devices.

FWIW I have approx 90 devices at home on the network.

 

[Willie Trombone]

As long as no more than 32 access the web simultaneously it should be good

 

[johnjm]

As long as no more than 32 access the web simultaneously it should be good

Thanks. A lot of the devices are ip cams for example and don't access the webs. I just wonder why there is a limit then.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Thanks. A lot of the devices are ip cams for example and don't access the webs. I just wonder why there is a limit then.

Probably just a guideline since routing traffic costs CPU power and home routers aren't designed to handle traffic from 50 PCs all wanting the web.

 

[Rickster]

Just a question. If one purchases a LTE router with a max device support of 32, does this apply to devices connected directly to it or over the network at home?

Reason why I ask is that I have 4 access points and 6 switches at home, but my main LTE router which provides the internet to all of these won’t ever be connected to more than 32 devices.

FWIW I have approx 90 devices at home on the network.

You can have thousands connected in theory but it would probably catch fire at the end of the day.

 

[SauRoNZA]

As long as no more than 32 access the web simultaneously it should be good

How would it manage that and control it?

I would imagine the 32 device limit is with a locked DHCP client limit in which case it’s a true lock of 32 devices with IP’s.

Or a maximum of 32 wireless clients which really comes down to much the same thing.

I can’t think of another way you would restrict internet access to 32 devices on a consumer router device.

It can’t really be concurrent connections because those are in the hundreds, possibly thousands.

 

[Willie Trombone]

How would it manage that and control it?

I would imagine the 32 device limit is with a locked DHCP client limit in which case it’s a true lock of 32 devices with IP’s.

Or a maximum of 32 wireless clients which really comes down to much the same thing.

I can’t think of another way you would restrict internet access to 32 devices on a consumer router device.

It can’t really be concurrent connections because those are in the hundreds, possibly thousands.

Yeah, it's probably a wireless band limit. I assume it is 2.4 only at a guess. If it was dual they might double that. The other limit is usually the RAM but that limit is less about number of devices than number of open connections.

 

[upup]

The smaller mifi type can only handle something like 12 or so, so it is a hardware thing only

 

[johnjm]

I still haven’t replaced the router yet. The background is that I currently have Telkom LTE and recently ordered the business hours uncapped. So I am trying to figure out a way to automate the changeover to the other SIM card after 5pm.

I was thinking of having two routers on a timer so one switches off and the other on. Don’t want to have to swap out SIM cards.

Or I could plug one router into the wan of the other but I don’t think it has failover (B618).

I see dlink has a dual LTE router but I can’t find it locally, but it’s on their website.

 

[Willie Trombone]

I still haven’t replaced the router yet. The background is that I currently have Telkom LTE and recently ordered the business hours uncapped. So I am trying to figure out a way to automate the changeover to the other SIM card after 5pm.

I was thinking of having two routers on a timer so one switches off and the other on. Don’t want to have to swap out SIM cards.

Or I could plug one router into the wan of the other but I don’t think it has failover (B618).

I see dlink has a dual LTE router but I can’t find it locally, but it’s on their website.

What about one of these...

Dual SIM Card Adapter, Adv-one Nano Micro Mini SIM Adapter for Samsung Xiaomi Android (Micro to Nano) | WantItAll

Binding: Wireless Phone Accessory, Brand: Adv-one, Colour: Micro SIM, Categories: Cell Phone Charging Stations, Smartwatch Cables & Chargers, Wireless

www.wantitall.co.za

 

[Speedster]

I still haven’t replaced the router yet. The background is that I currently have Telkom LTE and recently ordered the business hours uncapped. So I am trying to figure out a way to automate the changeover to the other SIM card after 5pm.

I was thinking of having two routers on a timer so one switches off and the other on. Don’t want to have to swap out SIM cards.

Or I could plug one router into the wan of the other but I don’t think it has failover (B618).

I see dlink has a dual LTE router but I can’t find it locally, but it’s on their website.

There are a number of load balancers you could try, or any router capable of running ddwrt / openwrt will suffice.

 

[johnjm]

What about one of these...

Dual SIM Card Adapter, Adv-one Nano Micro Mini SIM Adapter for Samsung Xiaomi Android (Micro to Nano) | WantItAll

Binding: Wireless Phone Accessory, Brand: Adv-one, Colour: Micro SIM, Categories: Cell Phone Charging Stations, Smartwatch Cables & Chargers, Wireless

www.wantitall.co.za

The device needs to support dual.sims.

 

[johnjm]

There are a number of load balancers you could try, or any router capable of running ddwrt / openwrt will suffice.

I'll have to Google load balancers. I've got a router or two that I could load ddwrt but my time is limited nowadays

 

[Speedster]

I'll have to Google load balancers. I've got a router or two that I could load ddwrt but my time is limited nowadays

The threads below might help.

Note that the TP-link load balancers only have ethernet ports, so if you're wanting internet speeds above 100mbps this will be problematic. The other dedicated device often used is an Edgerouter X which has gigabit LAN ports.

The dd-wrt setup is super easy, and I found mine to be rock solid for the year or so that I was running it.

Connect two Huawei B618 routers, one capped Rain sim on during 6PM-11PM and one uncapped Rain sim during the rest of the day

Hi, I want to connect two Huawei B618 routers, one capped Rain sim and one uncapped Rain sim, and only use the capped Rain data when the uncapped data is not available. Is there a solution for this? Thank you!

mybroadband.co.za

TPLink Time Load Balancing Guide with B315 LTE Routers

Ok so quite a few folks have asked about my home setup with time based routing, so here's a brief guide. I may update as I go so please bear with me. The Need: Cost is obviously a factor for folks these days and I wanted to see how best I can leverage my bang for buck. ADSL became a pain with...

mybroadband.co.za

 

[Johnatan56]

I don't think the 32 is a hard limit, rather that's when either the device doesn't have enough compute performance to manage all of them or if it's wifi it's because splitting the wifi bandwidth that much usually ends up with really bad performance (remember, pre wifi 6, all bandwidth will be split by the number of connected devices, regardless of whether you're actually using it).

My old D6 started giving up at about 25 devices and got super hot, so pretty sure it was a CPU limit for it.

 

[johnjm]

The threads below might help.

Note that the TP-link load balancers only have ethernet ports, so if you're wanting internet speeds above 100mbps this will be problematic. The other dedicated device often used is an Edgerouter X which has gigabit LAN ports.

The dd-wrt setup is super easy, and I found mine to be rock solid for the year or so that I was running it.

Connect two Huawei B618 routers, one capped Rain sim on during 6PM-11PM and one uncapped Rain sim during the rest of the day

Hi, I want to connect two Huawei B618 routers, one capped Rain sim and one uncapped Rain sim, and only use the capped Rain data when the uncapped data is not available. Is there a solution for this? Thank you!

mybroadband.co.za

TPLink Time Load Balancing Guide with B315 LTE Routers

Ok so quite a few folks have asked about my home setup with time based routing, so here's a brief guide. I may update as I go so please bear with me. The Need: Cost is obviously a factor for folks these days and I wanted to see how best I can leverage my bang for buck. ADSL became a pain with...

mybroadband.co.za

Thanks. It looks simple enough, unsure how my port forwarding would work and why Dmz is unlisted etc.

Seems to be a lot of work... if there is a LTE router that supports ddwrt let me know...

 

[johnjm]

I don't think the 32 is a hard limit, rather that's when either the device doesn't have enough compute performance to manage all of them or if it's wifi it's because splitting the wifi bandwidth that much usually ends up with really bad performance (remember, pre wifi 6, all bandwidth will be split by the number of connected devices, regardless of whether you're actually using it).

My old D6 started giving up at about 25 devices and got super hot, so pretty sure it was a CPU limit for it.

Does it still apply to a setup with multiple switches etc?

 

[Johnatan56]

Does it still apply to a setup with multiple switches etc?

In terms of Wi-Fi having issues? No. You could probably set up your entire system so the LTE router just acts as a dumb modem.

You should be fine though, if you're having issues, you can fix it down the line as it would be to just add another layer, so rather try without and see how it goes.

 

[johnjm]

In terms of Wi-Fi having issues? No. You could probably set up your entire system so the LTE router just acts as a dumb modem.

You should be fine though, if you're having issues, you can fix it down the line as it would be to just add another layer, so rather try without and see how it goes.

Thanks