0

I have a big problem, I live in an area where there is no fiber or ADSL connection and I connect to the internet using a 4g+ sim in a 4g+ router (Tp-Link Archer MR600). The connection is just fine: ping ~50ms - dw 240mb - up 50mb but there are a couple of issues that are driving me crazy.

  • My ISP does not assign me a public static IP, I have a private IP maybe they are using a double NAT or CGN, I don't know.
  • My connection goes down and up, every 4 hours, they do some sort of IP update for I don't know what reason.

I can't open doors, host anything, access video surveillance cameras remotely and a lot of other things. I am paying a lot of money for the contract, and this is the only ISP with decent bandwidth and stability, but what I have listed above prevents me from doing a lot of operations. For example if I am connected to a VPN every 4 hours the connections are interrupted, and I have to reestablish it manually.

Maybe (surely) there is someone here who has a better knowledge and I will be happy if someone wants to give me some clarification or even better some tricks to make things work.

Ask me if you need some kind of output I will post it.

As another note feel free to give any suggestion, I don't know what can be useful. Some kind of connection mesh, VPN or any other solution should work I will give it a try.

Maybe could be a wrong configuration or something similar but I don't think so, the ISP is locking me in some way.

Things that I tried:

  • IP address reservation
  • Connecting 2 routers in cascade
  • MAC address cloning
  • DMZ
  • Static routing

Thanks.

Roberto Manfreda
  • 45
  • 9
  • Yes you are right, reading here and there I got the same idea. Anyway when i try to detect my IPV6 I get N/A. On my router I selected IPV4 as PDP type because if I select IPV6 it doesn't work, not astablishing any connection. Maybe the ISP doesn't support it at all. Or are you referring to something that I'm not understanding when you says: "You might be able to avoid it if all direct connections/VPNs are configured to prefer IPv6 addresses"? Thanks for your time – Roberto Manfreda May 11 '21 at 06:36
  • 1
    Your ISP is supposed to tell you how to setup your router.. and if they really are not letting you use IPv6 by now, switching to an ISP from the current millennia might be preferable anyway. – anx May 11 '21 at 06:39
  • Yes configuring VPNs and other stuff like this might be work. But for example I'm kicked out while playing on some game or if I'm live streaming. this is a real pain. I would pay to have at least a public IP but apparently the ISP just doesn't want to know, when I talk to the operators they don't even know what I'm asking. I've tried other ISPs and burned a lot of money but this is really the only one with a decent bandwidth. weird situation – Roberto Manfreda May 11 '21 at 06:42
  • Just for a laugh: one of the ISP provides a radio connection (FWA), but here the signal is bad because "there is a big tree between your house and the bts". They first activated the contract and then canceled it because the technician said there was a tree. (Yes, I live in southern Italy) :D – Roberto Manfreda May 11 '21 at 06:48

1 Answers1

1
  1. Many ISPs in their basic contracts simply have a limited consumer internet user in mind and will purposefully break things for everyone trying to use their uplink as a proper internet connection.
    • You might be able to switch your contract to one geared towards hosting.
  2. Many ISPs stopped caring about getting everything right for IPv4 users as soon as IPv6 became preferred and thus their carrier-grade NAT solutions for using their limited IPv4 pool will simply break everything but the most simple use cases.
    • Avoid CGNAT limitations by using IPv6: if necessary, configure your VPN client to prefer IPv6
  3. Manage your expectation. 4G is not a cable: Phone companies expect that they can online/offline towers however they please because phones can generally deal with that. Atmospheric influence on 4G is only partly mitigated.
    • Because of the uplinks inherent limitations in terms of reliability, making sure your VPN client can swiftly reconnect and just living with the occasional latency spikes may be more cost-effective than convincing your ISP to become as reliable as few other 4G customers are willing to pay for
anx
  • 8,963
  • 5
  • 24
  • 48
  • Thank you for yor time and good explanation. Maybe you are right I have to mitigate my expactations, maybe I'm expecting too much. I'll make another call to see if it is possible to switch to any business plan, I called to ask for a public IP and nothing but maybe there is some other plan that the operator hasn't told me about. – Roberto Manfreda May 11 '21 at 06:53
  • If the ISP is not telling you your options, you may be calling a consumer hotline.. most ISPs know there is little point in offering huge-upfront-fee contracts to non-incorporated entities. Thus the consumer-facing support personnel is not instructed to respond to business needs. – anx May 11 '21 at 06:58