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Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:53 am
by itgoes211
Need some help from the group here. A little background. I am looking to take a 2 week trip across Route 66. I currently do have some hardware I use for local camping in my Class C (I will list it below). The issue is with the Route 66 trip I will be staying in places one, maybe 2 nights at most. So spending time messing with antenna pointing, band locking etc will get really cumbersome and being able to use it while in motion is a goal as well. I have service from AT&T, Visible and T-Mobile. What I would like to do is just have all three providers/modems connected to one router and let the router figure it out. I am going to say something you never hear but massive speed is NOT my goal. I am looking more for stability and ease of connectivity. For me I have found that 10Mbps down is more than enough when I am camping. Also one other thing I would like is to have all of this be powered from 12 volt DC. I have a healthy solar setup and battery bank that would just make it easier with out having to do an inverter.
What I have: ( I am not married to this hardware, just what I have that I can easily re-use)
NEXQ6GO
EC25-AF
EP06
USB enclosure
Also have a Raspberry PI 3 I can use if this would be a good option.
As always thanks so much for you input and guidance.
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:34 am
by Didneywhorl
I think what you want to do is set up three different routers, like the nexq6 with three different modems, one for each SIM card.
Attach a 2x2 mimo Omni to each one.
Then run each router to a single bonding router or a simple load balancing router. The edge router X, though discontinued technically, is excellent at load balancing.
This will be the simplest setup in my opinion.
Otherwise you'll have to set up three modems on a powered USB hub, and then try to figure out how m13 packages work on the firmware. USB hub of course attached to the router via its USB port.
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 12:31 pm
by LoveMeSomeCALTE
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:14 pm
by Dr-BroadBand
Before I knew better I got a MoFi 4500.
Now only use it for road trips.
See picture, imagine replacing the MoFi with a
WG3526-P, 4G LTE, WiFi PoE Router
The MoFi Runs on 12VDC I think the WG3526 also will.
I have a WG3526 that will replace the MoFi soon.
I just need to pick a modem, like to have Band 71
but that limits my choices. Oh me life is hard
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:03 pm
by Dr-BroadBand
itgoes211,
To answer your question they do make what your are asking for.
But it maybe cheaper to have Qty-3 setups like Didneywhorl mentioned.
The only down side is space that three systems would take up
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2021 10:55 pm
by Tuna8er
I have 2 mofi4500 Sim7 about 7 months ago. I use a TP link VPN WAN/LAN router/spliter. You will need 2 SIM cards to do this, I recommend Vis*b1e. You would need 3. You get a $5 discount per SIM, B66 works best for me. You do not have to set it up for VPN, and it is pass through on default settings. It comes stock with 2 WAN Ports and 3 LAN ports. You can go into settings and change the WAN to LAN or Vice versa (you must keep a minimum of 1 WAN and one LAN) It works fairly well but I get only 15 mbps, it does not combine the 2 mofi's. It just makes more devices that can be running. You turn on one device it routes through to one mofi, turn on another device it goes to the other mofi, turn on another device it goes back to the first mofi, then the second, then the first,....
You could plug in 1, 2, 3, or 4 WAN (mofi) lines into it, and come out 1 LAN. As far as Wifi, just run the LAN to a home router to make the wifi signal.
The TP link LAN router runs $60-$100, and is yet another 12V device. I got the VPN so I could use the same DNS on the whole system.
OR
Did you mean 3 Internal modem modules installed on 1 router. Not sure how to do that or why? You may be able to find a USB adapter to get one additional or an internal adapter to split the module connection 3 ways. But Mofi firmware doesn't support carrier aggregation, it sure won't aggregate between modems. IMEI confusion may be a thing also with one SIM card. And the there is speed caps on most Carriers for SIM Cards, so one will never get you more enough speed for 3 modems. They do this to try to ensure there is enough bandwidth for everyone. 5G on Vis*b1e is capped at 200mbps for example, that is per SIM. Remember, to get 5G service you need to register a 5G phone with the carrier and SIM, otherwise it is just 4G.
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2021 11:04 pm
by Tuna8er
Follow up, sorry I misread the question by reading an answer first. The answer is no. Verizon, AT&T, and Tmobile all use different APN's you could google them but they would have to be manually changed each time you switched out a card. I am guessing your going on this trek with a couple friends, and you all have different companies. You could use B66 for two of the carriers, but Tmobile uses a different band also I think. There are usb adapters if you changed the bootup sequence to make dual possibly triple SIM, but you still have 3 different APN's. So my first Idea, where you use 3 mofi type devices going into a WAN router with load balancing, coming out LAN to just a plain router would work. Or you may find a router that can be reset to accept 2 wans, both of my Asus router can have one LAN output setup as a WAN input, in effect haveing dual WAN, but I am not sure about the load balancing that way.
Re: Router to support 3 modems at once
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2021 9:51 pm
by Tuna8er
I just learned you can daisy chain mofi devices since it has a built in router. You hook the LAN from the First one to the WAN on the Second, and the LAN from there to The WAN on another, and so on, and so on. Not sure how it runs.