SG-1100 dropping WAN connection
-
I apologize in advance for the lengthy explanation, but I want to provide all the potentially relevant information.
My installation is a somewhat remote farm barn and cabin with very poor cellular coverage. I wanted very basic internet service with VoIP phone, SMS, and email with streaming video a nice bonus if the service was fast enough.
I erected a 70' tower with a Netgear LB1121 LTE modem equipped with a T-mobile SIM card mounted near the top of the tower. The tower has two external LTE antennas mounted 90 degrees in cross polarization feeding the modem.
The modem GUI is very basic, but can be switched between "Router" mode and "Bridge" mode. Bridge mode disables the DHCP server and enables IP passthrough for use with a downstream router. The default modem GUI address is 192.168.5.1. The modem is powered over PoE with a PoE injector.
After transitioning from wireless to Ethernet at the modem, the signal travels down the tower to the data cabinet where it fed the ORIGINAL EdgeX router.
From the EdgeX the signal fed a UniFi switch with a CloudKey controller. The network includes Ethernet drops to the barn and to the cabin. There is also a wireless AP in the barn and another in the cabin.
About a month ago, the EdgeX router died. I decided to replace it with an SG-1100 on Lawerence Systems recommendation because I wanted to learn pfSense.
As a newbie with pfSense, I struggled to get the SG working with all the settings. But I finally worked through most of the obvious settings and got the system working with internet access. I'm using the default LAN address of 192.168.1.1.
PROBLEM 1: The WAN connection keeps dropping soon after establishing a WAN IP. Sometimes it drops after a few minutes; other times it occurs after a few hours.
The logfiles show a "sendto error 65."
PROBLEM 2: I can't access the modem GUI at 192.168.5.1 with my computer as a client on the network.
TROUBLESHOOTING: I replaced the SG-1100 with another brand new SG-1100 with no improvement. I removed the SG-1100 and replaced it it with an old Linksys WRT-54GS.
The WAN connection is solid and I can access the modem GUI.
I'm sure I'm missing something with pfSense settings.
Thanks in advance for any insights to my "use case."
-
@scooterwa Error 65 info is here. Sounds like it has lost connection to the modem?
-
@steveits Thanks for the reply.
The description does not really help. Is there a pfSense setting that needs my attention?
-
@scooterwa Generally the 65 error is if the cable is unplugged, the other end isn't responding, etc. No communication.
You might try putting a switch in between the pfSense and the Netgear just to see if that helps? I've seen posts occasionally that it does.