Need advice on hardware for failover 4g lte connection.

[pgrommesh]

Hey there, I live in the midwest in the country and receive internet through a local 'WISP' at 25mbp/3mpbs.  The speed is fine when it works but lately the connection has been dropping all too frequently and no amount of calling and complaining will correct the problem.  I would like to buy some hardware and a 2nd connection through LTE over AT&T's network (closest tower).

I have read a few similar posts, but usually people are looking for greater bandwidth, my greatest concern is creating a stable connection as we play online games and connection drops can be quite frustrating.

 

I'm looking for recommendations on a few things:

• Experience with an LTE service provider such as this?  There are many options online, but most are atleast a bit shady, I likely will not use more than 25 GB of data over this connection.
• A good LTE modem with the option for an external antenna if necessary.
• Some device to join this connection with my other connection and perhaps create one more robust network.  Most traffic would need to go to the other connection as I am using about 450GB of data monthly and no unlimited LTE plan would likely accept that.

I do own a Nighthawk xr500 router, which I have been happy with, I'd like to continue to use that for WIFI Purposes, but if that is not practical I can get something new.

 

Budget is flexible, but 100/month for the 2nd connection, and maybe 500$ for new equipment is ideal?

 

Thanks.

[Windows7ge]

I can't answer everything but:

1. You'll need a router with 2 WAN interfaces with support for Load Balancing or Failover.
2. Be aware that a lot of LTE connections use what is called NAT64-CGN. If you use this for gaming you won't be hosting any servers (Port Forwarding is a non-option).
3. Switching between two ISP connections when one drops will likely cause a moment of packet-loss. It will also result in your Public IP changing for your session when Fail over kicks in. If you are in the middle of a game there's a high chance it'll kick you then force you to reconnect. It's not a seamless transition.

[mtz_federico]

Windows7ge is correct.

 

I would use a pfsense box as router with two WAN ports, a switch, and a peplink LTE router

 

I would setup in pfsense so that certain computers use a certain connection or that every computer uses both depending on where it is going. For example, you could set it to use the WISP for netfilx, youtube, twitch, etc. and to use certain games (I am not much of a gamer) through LTE

 

You could use a peplink router that has wifi and switch between wifi networks and/or ethernet cables. or rmaybe even connect your wisp to the peplink and do all the rules there but I don't know if that is possible.

[pgrommesh]

Thanks for the responses.  I did buy the Pepwave LTE router as, this is not the first I've heard they are good in reviews.  Once I get the service working I will likely purchase one of those prebuilt machines on amazon: Firewall Appliance, as they appear to be essentially designed for this purpose.

I will let you know how it all works!