New ISP Issues at CEO's Home

garak0410

I'm not only the IT Director for my company but for the CEO's home and it seems like when it comes to his home, I run into quirks all the time.

He lives in a huge home in a rural area:

The "X" on the far left is what we call the "boot room" and that is where the internet comes into the home. The other X's are where the other two Ubiquity switches are.

He best option the last year or so has been a Pepwave modem with a Verizon signal from a cell tower. We simply plugged in this Pepwave Modem, set a few things on it and plugged it into the switch in the boot room and the internet would propagate down to the other switches and WiFi devices, all Ubiquity devices. 3 Months ago, that tower went down and Verizon has no ETA so broadband has been horrible, 1meg or less.

So, the CEO tasked me with finding a new solution. I hesitated on Satellite Internet but weighing the only options we had, I decided ViaSat was the best option.

Well, the modem that came with Viasat has no granular control over the network, meaning no way to set or change IP, DNS, DHCP, etc, as the Pepwave had. So simply plugging in the ViaSat modem to the network resulted in no internet. I plugged my laptop directly to the ViaSat modem, and this is what it pulls (with much of the info masked for security:

   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : ASIX AX88178 USB2.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : ****
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : ****
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 67.**.**.***(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, September 5, 2019 3:19:37 PM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, September 5, 2019 4:19:36 PM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 67.**.***.*
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.**.**.***
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : ***
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : ***
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 99.196.**.**
                                       99.197.**.**
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

It pulls a 67. IP, from a 10. DHCP and DNS is a 99.

Our local network on the current modem is on a 192.168.1.1/24 range.

The ViaSat's default IP is 192.168.100.1

I did have someone say I could link up the Pepwave to handle LAN to WAN routing and DHCP like this:

I humbly will admit not sure how to get started on this...the Pepwave does offer a lot of customization but not sure where to start since the ViaSat pulls all kinds of IP's outside the 192.168.1.1/24 range...

Any suggestions?

JasGot

Unless I am missing something, you need a router with DHCP on the WAN side and set the LAN side to 192.168.1.1/24

Consider adding some firewall protections too. Most firewalls are also routers, so you can do both with one piece of gear.

garak0410

@JasGot said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

Unless I am missing something, you need a router with DHCP on the WAN side and set the LAN side to 192.168.1.1/24

Consider adding some firewall protections too. Most firewalls are also routers, so you can do both with one piece of gear.

That is an option I will consider... thank you.

marcinozga

You need a router between ViaSat modem and switch. From your description it looks like Pepwave is a router/modem, but I'd get dedicated router, Ubiquiti has many options.

marcinozga

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

DustinB3403

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Sure it might only cost a few hundred thousand. . .

garak0410

@DustinB3403 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Sure it might only cost a few hundred thousand. . .

I tried using our clout...all they said it "might be end of September" when they get it fixed. He couldn't wait that long...

JasGot

@garak0410 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

I tried using our clout...all they said it "might be end of September" when they get it fixed. He couldn't wait that long...

If you need it running this afternoon, any d-link or netgear router from best buy will get him online until you can get the product you want for the job.

garak0410

@JasGot said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@garak0410 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

I tried using our clout...all they said it "might be end of September" when they get it fixed. He couldn't wait that long...

If you need it running this afternoon, any d-link or netgear router from best buy will get him online until you can get the product you want for the job.

Luckily, we are still running on the poor Verizon internet and he is at his beach house this weekend, so no rush for today but I did want to try to get it going. Will work on a solution now...

garak0410

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

You need a router between ViaSat modem and switch. From your description it looks like Pepwave is a router/modem, but I'd get dedicated router, Ubiquiti has many options.

So in theory, could I not pull the SIM card out of the Pepwave, bring in the ViaSat connection, route in the PepWave and then send back to the main switches? Wasn't sure if the SIM card would be a problem...I do see you can have a secondary WAN in the settings:

JasGot

@garak0410 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

You need a router between ViaSat modem and switch. From your description it looks like Pepwave is a router/modem, but I'd get dedicated router, Ubiquiti has many options.

So in theory, could I not pull the SIM card out of the Pepwave, bring in the ViaSat connection, route in the PepWave and then send back to the main switches? Wasn't sure if the SIM card would be a problem...I do see you can have a secondary WAN in the settings:

If it is capable of a physical ethernet connection on the WAN side, then perhaps. Would pepwave offer any help in using an ethernet connection for WAN access until the 4g is back online?

garak0410

@JasGot said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@garak0410 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

You need a router between ViaSat modem and switch. From your description it looks like Pepwave is a router/modem, but I'd get dedicated router, Ubiquiti has many options.

So in theory, could I not pull the SIM card out of the Pepwave, bring in the ViaSat connection, route in the PepWave and then send back to the main switches? Wasn't sure if the SIM card would be a problem...I do see you can have a secondary WAN in the settings:

If it is capable of a physical ethernet connection on the WAN side, then perhaps. Would pepwave offer any help in using an ethernet connection for WAN access until the 4g is back online?

It's worth a shot...it does have a WAN port...

JasGot

@garak0410 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@JasGot said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@garak0410 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

You need a router between ViaSat modem and switch. From your description it looks like Pepwave is a router/modem, but I'd get dedicated router, Ubiquiti has many options.

So in theory, could I not pull the SIM card out of the Pepwave, bring in the ViaSat connection, route in the PepWave and then send back to the main switches? Wasn't sure if the SIM card would be a problem...I do see you can have a secondary WAN in the settings:

If it is capable of a physical ethernet connection on the WAN side, then perhaps. Would pepwave offer any help in using an ethernet connection for WAN access until the 4g is back online?

It's worth a shot...it does have a WAN port...

Go for it. It can hurt..... You will need to configure that port. It looks like it can be LAN or WAN.

1337

Don't change the working config you have even if the tower is down. When it comes up you still want it working. Your CEO is likely going to want two connections in case one dies.

So try to see if Viasat can put the modem in bridge mode.

Then you need to add a router/firewall that can handle dual WAN configurations, aka redundant internet.

People here like edgerouter.

BTW, when the tower comes up you want to put the pepwave in bridge mode as well. Most devices do have a bridge mode.

IRJ

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Yeah he just needs it done right.

IRJ

@DustinB3403 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Sure it might only cost a few hundred thousand. . .

I wonder how much of company resources he is using by having his IT people constantly at his house?

garak0410

@IRJ said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@DustinB3403 said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Sure it might only cost a few hundred thousand. . .

I wonder how much of company resources he is using by having his IT people constantly at his house?

Since I'm IT in IT, I can say I've lost about 2 days of office time by working on this and I'm behind...

Emad R

@garak0410

time to find another job if you dont sort this out

scottalanmiller

@IRJ said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Yeah he just needs it done right.

Or just move to some place practical.

IRJ

@scottalanmiller said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@IRJ said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

@marcinozga said in New ISP Issues at CEO's Home:

And can't your CEO get Verizon or whoever is in the area to run fiber to his house? Judging by the size of the house it looks like he could afford that.

Yeah he just needs it done right.

Or just move to some place practical.

First world ceo problems for sure