Strange problem with Huawei B618s-22d (RAIN) modem

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949BFN

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Bloemfontein. South Africa
I received this modem as part of the RAIN (Mweb) LTA-A package.

After doing an initial basic setup, I connected my laptop to the router's AP and (obviously) did a speed test. The D/L speed was pretty disappointing (sometimes less than 10Mbps). I went back into the interface page and started setting up the other router settings like port forwarding etc. Within 15 to 20 minutes after first turn on, the modem lost connection with the tower.

Initially, I thought I messed up some of the settings and first reset the modem to factory defaults via the interface. The modem was however still losing signal, so I did a hard reset by holding the reset button. That did not help either. The modem boots fine, showing full signal on the router with a light blue Mode LED. As soon as I connect a device to the modem, the modem loses signal (all signal LED's go out and the Mode light turns to Red.)

I took the modem with me to work to report the issue to MWEB. They without hesitation indicated that they would replace the modem (but that will take up to 5 business days). When I had a few minutes during the day, I plugged the modem in and to my surprise, it didn't crash (loose connection), when I connected my laptop. I left it on all day with my laptop connected, doing some more configuring as the day went on without any issues With just 3/4 bars displayed at my work address by the signal meter in the interface, I still managed download speeds of more than 60Mbps.

Got home, plugged the router in with the idea of connecting it to my ethernet network. First I had to turn off the router's DHCP server, and as soon as I had done that, the router lost connection to the LTE network. Same as last night. At first, I thought disabling the DHCP server was the issue, but even after a hard reset of the router, it is still displaying the same issue - as soon as a device connects to the AP, the router loses connection to the LTE network. No matter what I try, the router will not stay connected to the LTE network when I device is connected.

I know I have perfect signal at home, because if I put the sim in a B315s modem, I get download speeds of at least 60Mbps, sometimes touching 70Mbps.

I again spoke to support - the guy suggested that we replace the modem to see if that makes a difference. If not, they'll have to look at the tower.

Has anyone else perhaps experienced similar problems?
 
Whether or not the DHCP server is on or off should not affect the connectivity. Friend down the road received an iBurst LTE modem and asked me to connect it to the WAN port of his router

He was getting about 22mb/sec before and after the connection. Since the router has DHCP, I disabled DHCP in the Huawei modem
 
I'm waiting for the replacement B618. My issue is a strange one:
With the RAIN sim in the B618, the router (with all settings set to default, apart from the interface password), it loses signal at home as soon as a device is connected to the router. At my work address, it works 100%.
Putting the RAIN sim in my B315 at home works fine. (Router configured to be a second gateway for my home network, so no DHCP, with DDNS set up and many ports forwarded on the router. These do however not work with the RAIN sim in the router.
If I put the Telkom sim (which is usually in the B315) in the B618 (without changing any of the settings of the B618), it connects fine to the Telkom (LTE) network without any issues, even though the signal strength with the Telkom is substantially worse than with the RAIN sim.
As far as Port forwarding and DDNS are concerned: The issue seems to be linked to the RAIN sim and not the B618. With the RAIN sim in the B315 (which normally works fine with the Telkom sim as far as DDNS is concerned), DDNS reports the router IP as 10.88.4.###, and I can't reach my IP cameras from outside the network. (Don't know if that is because of the strange IP reported by DDNS, or whether access is blocked by RAIN.
 
949BFN said:
The modem boots fine, showing full signal on the router with a light blue Mode LED. As soon as I connect a device to the modem, the modem loses signal (all signal LED's go out and the Mode light turns to Red.)
Click to expand...
What means a blue LED? I assume it means LTE or LTE-A connection.

Interesting case. After reading aditional information in your second post, I think the above gives a clue. I found that Rain LTE signal in the band 1800MHz is present in my area for more than two years, however I am not under Rain official coverage map. I can't check their signal in 2600MHz band, as my B315s which do not support this band. Network in 1800MHz band is detected and definitely in use, as they wouldn't afford to maintain towers for so long without getting revenue. So I think it is a private network, which might be different to the public offering. Now consider the following scenario. You have strong 1800MHz LTE signal, but no or a weak 2600MHz signal. Router registers to the Rain, as it is the same network, a light confirms it. Once the user is connecting using WiFi or Ethernet cable, router requests opening data channel using default APN stored on the SIM. APN is not supported by the tower, so user is kicked out from the tower.

You can verify the above by forcing router to use specific frequency band. How to do it is described on first page in this thread: https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showth...x-for-new-Huawei-HiLink-devices-(E5186-B315s)

As for the external IP, it s separate issue. I can't advise without getting more info how you do it. 10.x.x.x is a Class A private address space. To get DDNS working properly you should register to the DDNS server your external public IP address for the current connection, not this address. Reserved private address is not going to work. You can use Web services to get your real public IP address.
 
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I'll leave it to RAIN to sort out. They insisted that our first step would be to exchange the modem, but from my experiments, I don't believe that is going to solve the problem

Regarding the DDNS issue - I'm running a DDNS (dyndns) client on the modem and the 10.x.x.x IP is reported by DynDNS.

I was told by one of the MWeb technical support staff (when asking about an open/unrestricted APN) that they don't make use of an APN. I have too little knowledge to understand how that would work. (Looking at the modem settings, the APN field is indeed empty.)
 
949BFN said:
I'll leave it to RAIN to sort out. They insisted that our first step would be to exchange the modem, but from my experiments, I don't believe that is going to solve the problem

Regarding the DDNS issue - I'm running a DDNS (dyndns) client on the modem and the 10.x.x.x IP is reported by DynDNS.

I was told by one of the MWeb technical support staff (when asking about an open/unrestricted APN) that they don't make use of an APN. I have too little knowledge to understand how that would work. (Looking at the modem settings, the APN field is indeed empty.)
Click to expand...
Do you mean dyndns client on B618s router? Then it is a bug in the router firmware which is assuming that router's auto assigned WAN IP is a public IP. As Rain supplies the router, demand from them to configure network that you will receive a public IP every time you connect, it will solve your problem. When I connect to Cell C or Telkom I get public IP at times, in most cases it is a private IP.

Regarding empty APN field, it doesn't negate what I say. It means that router is using default value. On the tower side a wrong value can be ignored on the public network, while a private network do this checking. It is why you are getting kicked out.
 
Sorry, that was not clear at all what I was trying to convey. The short version is : The DDNS issue seem to be sim and not modem related. With the RAIN sim, the IP is reported as 10.x.x.x by DynDNS, regardless of the modem in use.
I have DDNS set up on both modems. With the Telkom sim in the B315, DynDNS reports the correct IP and I can access my security cameras from outside the network. If I put the RAIN sim in the same router, without changing its setup, DynDNS reports the funny 10.x.x.x IP.
If I put the Telkom sim in the B618, DDNS also reports the correct IP.
I know nothing about these things, but is the fact that RAIN does not use an APN (according to MWEB Techie), not an indication that their network is setup differently and would that not explain why DynDNS reports the wrong external IP?
 
949BFN said:
Sorry, that was not clear at all what I was trying to convey. The short version is : The DDNS issue seem to be sim and not modem related. With the RAIN sim, the IP is reported as 10.x.x.x by DynDNS, regardless of the modem in use.
I have DDNS set up on both modems. With the Telkom sim in the B315, DynDNS reports the correct IP and I can access my security cameras from outside the network. If I put the RAIN sim in the same router, without changing its setup, DynDNS reports the funny 10.x.x.x IP.
If I put the Telkom sim in the B618, DDNS also reports the correct IP.
I know nothing about these things, but is the fact that RAIN does not use an APN (according to MWEB Techie), not an indication that their network is setup differently and would that not explain why DynDNS reports the wrong external IP?
Click to expand...

The 10.x.x.x is not a valid public IP address range, which is why you can't access it, it's reserved for private networks. My theory is that there is a bug in the Huawei modems which is reporting a management VLAN IP or something instead of the real public IP when used with how RAIN is setup. At first I suspected the service was using carrier grade NAT, and that is what WebAfrica told me in what I suspect is an effort to get rid of my questioning, but based on my ability to access services in my network (when getting the real public IP) this is definitely not the case.

I did respond to your question in the other thread, but my solution was to use DynDNS from a computer within my network which could get the real public IP instead of the service built into the modem.
 
Did you manage to resolve the problem....
I have a similar problem with my (RAIN) modem, purchased through Afrihost. It worked perfectly for over a month, but for the last week it did exactly the same as your modem. LTE active (blue light), but as soon as I try and connect a device the (red light) goes on. I put my rain sim in a different router and it worked perfectly. I tested the Rain router with a cell c sim and it also worked perfectly.
Im also located in BFN - Pentagon Park to be specific, didn't take it to work, but assume it will be the same case as in yours.
Please assist, as Afrihost is struggling to resolve it. Was it the router?
What is weird is that it happened overnight!!!!
 
dev19 said:
Did you manage to resolve the problem....
I have a similar problem with my (RAIN) modem, purchased through Afrihost. It worked perfectly for over a month, but for the last week it did exactly the same as your modem. LTE active (blue light), but as soon as I try and connect a device the (red light) goes on. I put my rain sim in a different router and it worked perfectly. I tested the Rain router with a cell c sim and it also worked perfectly.
Im also located in BFN - Pentagon Park to be specific, didn't take it to work, but assume it will be the same case as in yours.
Please assist, as Afrihost is struggling to resolve it. Was it the router?
What is weird is that it happened overnight!!!!
Click to expand...

We probably use the same tower.
What they had me do is to connect to the router via an ethernet cable and change the SSID of the wifi network to a name not used before. Once I had done that, the router stopped losing connection to the tower. Afterwards, I could change the SSID back to what I wanted it to be.

This solution worked after almost two weeks of moaning and complaining. The support guy basically admitted that they had no idea why the router was losing connection until someone (at support) suggested that we should try this - apparently the guy had a similar issue with another brand some years prior and changing the SSID resolved the issue. They suspect that the settings get corrupted in some or other way, but the corruption does not show in the web interface and all appears to be normal at that level.

Hope this help.
 
Herr_SturmGeist said:
The 10.x.x.x is not a valid public IP address range, which is why you can't access it, it's reserved for private networks. My theory is that there is a bug in the Huawei modems which is reporting a management VLAN IP or something instead of the real public IP when used with how RAIN is setup. At first I suspected the service was using carrier grade NAT, and that is what WebAfrica told me in what I suspect is an effort to get rid of my questioning, but based on my ability to access services in my network (when getting the real public IP) this is definitely not the case.

I did respond to your question in the other thread, but my solution was to use DynDNS from a computer within my network which could get the real public IP instead of the service built into the modem.
Click to expand...


Up until the last week the RAIN router did get assigned a 10.x.x.x ip and then they performed NAT on the breakout, but now thankfully they are assigning the routers a proper public ip
 
949BFN said:
We probably use the same tower.
What they had me do is to connect to the router via an ethernet cable and change the SSID of the wifi network to a name not used before. Once I had done that, the router stopped losing connection to the tower. Afterwards, I could change the SSID back to what I wanted it to be.

This solution worked after almost two weeks of moaning and complaining. The support guy basically admitted that they had no idea why the router was losing connection until someone (at support) suggested that we should try this - apparently the guy had a similar issue with another brand some years prior and changing the SSID resolved the issue. They suspect that the settings get corrupted in some or other way, but the corruption does not show in the web interface and all appears to be normal at that level.

Hope this help.
Click to expand...

why? did you find the reason to do so. maybe Huawei software is not good enough. did wired things
 
Hi all,

I am having a similar problem and Axxess support has not been of a great help so far.
All the lights are green, connectivity appears to be good but then when I try to navigate, i get no response.

I have rebooted and also restore the factory settings, create a new SSID. Initially the new SSID seemed to have worked. Now again, i can browse on my mobile, but then my laptop can't reach the internet. I have tested the sim on another router and it worked.
I also have another Rain sim card (off peak unlimited) and I have no issues with the network.

If you guys managed to resolve this, any feedback will be welcome.

Thanks
 
Eventually, I resolved this by changing the network setting in the modem and changed from Auto to 1800GHZ.
Modem is Huawei B618
 
On Rain you need to manually set the network to 4G 1800Mhz.

I had a similar issue with the connection dropping like that on Cell C fixed wireless and as soon as I set the APN to Afrihosts' apn it was fine.

Try setting the APN on your router to "internet" or "rain" with no username and password and the IP type to IPv4.
Also set the network to 4G 1800mhz or just 4G only and see if that resolves it.
 
Hi


I'm having a similar issue a new tower was erected in our town on Thursday and since then my LTE router keeps dropping the signal. If you reset the router it works for about 15 minutes before losing signal. What can I try do to fix it as telkom says there are no issues with outages. Thanks
 
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