Huawei ME909S-120 setup help needed
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You need to leave a space between clog and the -f argument for answer 3. See:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Why_can%27t_I_view_view_log_files_with_cat/grep/etc%3F_(clog)That gateway is probably being given to you be you provider. Cellular carriers often use private IPs for their gateway or even CGN. It looks it doesn't respond to ping. If you have internet access via that you might set the monitoring IP to a different address or disable monitoring. It pings twice a second by default which can eat data over time. That configurable though.
Steve
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you might set the monitoring IP to a different address
Some candidates:
- your gateway, i.e. ISP side of the link
- ISP's DNS servers
- ISP's landing page address (the one you redirected to when your balance is low)
pr4499, try to ping them first from the router before configuring the monitoring.
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@stephenw10
Thanks very much for clearing that up, yes that helps a lot, here is the output of the command cu -l /dev/cuaU0.2Connected
^RSSI: 5
^HCSQ: "LTE",19,20,106,18
+CUSATP: "D00D8103010500820281829902090A"
+CUSATEND
but then after a few minutes it grew to this:
Connected
^RSSI: 5
^HCSQ: "LTE",19,20,106,18
+CUSATP: "D00D8103010500820281829902090A"
+CUSATEND
^RSSI: 6
^HCSQ: "LTE",21,25,111,24
^RSSI: 5
^HCSQ: "LTE",19,18,101,16
^RSSI: 6
^HCSQ: "LTE",21,23,101,22
^RSSI: 5
^HCSQ: "LTE",18,18,91,16
^RSSI: 6
^HCSQ: "LTE",20,23,91,22
What's going on here?
I'll attach the output of the command clog -f /var/log/ppp.log as it's pretty long.
Is it possible to have a widget on the dashboard showing signal strength (RSSI / RSRP), bands / channels / frequencies currently connected to, carrier connected to, carrier aggregation (yes/no) mentioning all bands it's using, bitrate/bandwidth and also usage in MB? Picture this - there's me and my fiancé in the upstairs bedroom testing this new router with dual (mimo) 16dBi yagi antennas about 1 meter long, fastened to the vacuum cleaner nozzle, pointing it out various windows in an effort to attract some 1800mhz packets. Very scientific.
@AndrewZ
Thanks for that. I googled the DNS servers for Telstra and found them for my state. However, I did notice what seems to be different dns servers that it's connected to in that PPP log. Not sure what that's about. But I tried pinging the ones listed first result on google, and here was the result:Petes-MBP:~ Peter$ ping 61.9.188.33
PING 61.9.188.33 (61.9.188.33): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
76 bytes from 203.50.108.47: Communication prohibited by filter
Vr HL TOS Len ID Flg off TTL Pro cks Src Dst
4 5 28 5400 ba16 0 0000 39 01 8502 10.20.63.42 61.9.188.33Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6
Request timeout for icmp_seq 7
Request timeout for icmp_seq 8
76 bytes from 203.50.108.47: Communication prohibited by filter
Vr HL TOS Len ID Flg off TTL Pro cks Src Dst
4 5 28 5400 7282 0 0000 39 01 cc96 10.20.63.42 61.9.188.33Request timeout for icmp_seq 9
Request timeout for icmp_seq 10[ppp log.txt](/public/imported_attachments/1/ppp log.txt)
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Mmm, well the recent parts of that log mostly look good. For example in your last connection attempt:
Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPCP: SendConfigReq #3 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPADDR 0.0.0.0 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] PRIDNS 0.0.0.0 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] SECDNS 0.0.0.0 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPCP: rec'd Configure Nak #3 (Ack-Sent) Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPADDR 10.96.148.91 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] 10.96.148.91 is OK Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] PRIDNS 10.4.149.70 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] SECDNS 10.5.133.45 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPCP: SendConfigReq #4 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPADDR 10.96.148.91 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] PRIDNS 10.4.149.70 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] SECDNS 10.5.133.45 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPCP: rec'd Configure Ack #4 (Ack-Sent) Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPADDR 10.96.148.91 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] PRIDNS 10.4.149.70 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] SECDNS 10.5.133.45 Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPCP: state change Ack-Sent --> Opened Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] IPCP: LayerUp Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] 10.96.148.91 -> 10.64.64.0 Apr 24 18:56:07 pfSense ppp: [wan] IFACE: Up event Apr 24 18:56:07 pfSense ppp: [wan] IFACE: Rename interface ng0 to ppp0The modem is responding and connecting. You are getting an IP address, gateway and DNS servers from the other end. All good. :)
It's a private IP so your provider is using Carrier Grade NAT which is common for 3G/4G.This looks like your pings are just being blocked. Do you have a current contract? Or credit available if not on contract?
76 bytes from 203.50.108.47: Communication prohibited by filterTry connecting to a web page across that link, does it ger redirected to Telstra's 'give us more money' page?
The ^HCSQ command should give you the signal strength.
It appears the first value there after "LTE" is the lte_rssi with higher numbers being better.You might be seeing that output on cuaU0.2 because pfSense is already running 3gstats against it. Check the system log when you connect for an line like:
php-fpm xxxxx /interfaces.php: Starting 3gstats.php on device 'cuaU0.2' for interface 'opt2'If it's there you might see the stats in Status > Interfaces.
Picture this - there's me and my fiancé in the upstairs bedroom testing this new router with dual (mimo) 16dBi yagi antennas about 1 meter long, fastened to the vacuum cleaner nozzle, pointing it out various windows in an effort to attract some 1800mhz packets.
We're gonna need a photo! ;)
Steve
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you should try this IPs for connection monitoring:
Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] PRIDNS 10.4.149.70
Apr 24 18:56:06 pfSense ppp: [wan] SECDNS 10.5.133.45 -
@stephenw10
Yes the Sim card is attached to the main account so always has credit. I can surf and can occasionally get up to 4mbps, but usually around 0.1 - 0.6mbps. So at least we've got the basics covered, thank you and all others that contributed. But I need to be able to troubleshoot - it's fine when it works but when it doesn't, I don't have any idea what's going on. Every other brand of cheap and nasty usb modem has a pretty Web interface and a live signal strength meter showing most of the detail I mentioned above, surely someone has invented something similar for pfsense?@AndrewZ
I pinged those addresses and it failed. And someone mentioned that gateway monitoring just uses pings to work out if it's up, so I guess that won't work. I used 8.8.8.8 and it seemed to work for a while (40 - 70ms ping, 2-7% loss) until I did anything, like a speedtest, then it showed gateway offline and never recovered. -
So no 3gstats.php line in the system log or actual numbers in Status > Interfaces?
That only works with Huawei cards and only some if them AFAIK. I have nothing to test with.
Steve
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Use a omni directional antenna, a yagi is far too directional, unless you have it bang on exactly correct you are going to not get a stable connection.
Here is a omni 12dBi.
https://www.eurodk.com/en/products/lte-outdoor-antennas/3g4g-lte-12dbi-outdoor-dome-antenna-800-2600mhz?currency=EUR&vat_state=incl&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_5DLtrLi2gIVr7vtCh1USAwnEAQYAyABEgJMmfD_BwE
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Still need help here - need some graphs or some indication to show what's happening for the 4G connection.
eg: signal strength, connection status, frequency using, band aggregation, etc.
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As far as i'm aware there is nothing out of the box for that. You'll have to build your own package.
