Connecting a LTE modem LB2120 to a Telstra Gateway Max cable modem/ wifi router

[gp1746]

Just bought a LTE modem - LB2120 and trying to connect to my cable modem/ wifi router (Telstra Gateway Max by Netgear. Power light on modem is flashing green and IP address cannot be found.

[schumaku]

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@gp1746 wrote:

LB2120 and trying to connect to my cable modem/ wifi router (Telstra Gateway Max by Netgear. .

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Using just the mobile broadband network?

Aware you need to connect to the LB yellow (amber) LAN port to the router WAN port?

@gp1746 wrote:

Power light on modem is flashing green and IP address cannot be found.

The LB2120 has a fail-over capability. It allows to connect to a wired (xDSL, CableTV, Fibre) network [WAN port] and use the mobile broadband just as a backup. If only the mobile broadband is active, and the LB2120 can't reach the Internet over the WAN port, it does bring up the mobile broadband network - by default, this setting is wireline broadband with automatic failover support to mobile broadband. 

The LED Description says (LB2120 User Manual, p11, table 10):

Power - Blinking green bar. The modem uses mobile data because the wireline connection is down and the modem failed over to the backup Internet connection over the mobile broadband network.

The failover method and preference can be configured on the LB, for more information, see Manage Automatic Failover Detection on LB2120 User Manual, p.20.

If you have a WIndows or Mac system with an Ethernet connection, I would suggest to esablish a direct network cable connection to check if the LB2120 does serve the Internet, and that it can be reached using it's "magic" IP address URL  http://192.168.5.1/ - if you just will run mobile broadband, change the failover preference as described. This will make the power LED no longer blink if the Internet is connected by the mobile broadband.

If this works, there should be nothing that stops you from changing the cabling from the LB2120 LAN port to the router WAN port.

Regards from the other side of the planet, from the heart of Europe!

[gp1746]

Thanks for your help. I had the network cable plugged into the yellow LAN port on the modem and the red WAN port on my router, so tried connecting the cable into the blue WAN port on the modem and a yellow LAN port on my router. That stopped the power light flashing! Also did a reset before changing over. Still can't access the modem thru my browser, whichever way I connect. Think this unit is simply not compatible with my modem/ router - although both are made by Netgear. Was considering testing the mobile broadband as an alternative to Telstra cable - very expensive and somewhat unreliable. Have used my mobile as a hotspot on many occasions with good speed and reliability, but nothing else on my network works with this connection. That's why I want to run mobile broadband thru my router. Looks like Telstra and Netgear have blocked this, so I'll have to pack the modem up and send it back.

Cheers, Graham

[schumaku]

Hello Graham,

@gp1746 wrote:

I had the network cable plugged into the yellow LAN port on the modem and the red WAN port on my router,

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Perfectly right - that's the correct cabling, as I've tried to suggest above. No need for a change.

@gp1746 wrote:

...so tried connecting the cable into the blue WAN port on the modem and a yellow LAN port on my router. That stopped the power light flashing! 

As stated before, the blinking is related to the loss of an Internet connection on the LB2120 WAN port where any kind of a wired broadband network can be connected. In the LB2120 default configuration, a wired broadband WAN is the default, and mobile broadband is the backup (in case the wired broadband does go down. Therefore, without a mobile broadband device connected on the LB2120 WAN port, the power LED does blink. When connecting the router LAN port to the WAN port, the LB2120 does see a working Ethernet connection, and has a IP address assigned - this seems to be sufficient to convince the LB2120 fail-over logic and the LED does stop blinking.

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@gp1746 wrote:

Was considering testing the mobile broadband as an alternative to Telstra cable - very expensive and somewhat unreliable.

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Just to proof the above, you can plug the Telstra cable modem network port to the WAN port of the LB2120.

@gp1746 wrote:

 Have used my mobile as a hotspot on many occasions with good speed and reliability, but nothing else on my network works with this connection. That's why I want to run mobile broadband thru my router.

Similar, for testing (and changing the config to set the mobile broadband as default), you can connect the LB2120 LAN port direct to a computer (Apple, Windows). You can expect the computer to get a public DHCP address assigned from the ISP, and can access the Internet. While connected, it must be possible to access the LB Web UI on http://192.168.5.1/  - certainly from the Windows system. The Mac might need a "trick" to allow the access - but I have to find the details.

If this does not work, you have to check with Telstra the 4G contract does allow the usage in a 4G modem to connect a computer (thats all you tell them when querying - no word of a NAT router!).

@gp1746 wrote:

Looks like Telstra and Netgear have blocked this, so I'll have to pack the modem up and send it back.

Telstra can't "see" a difference between a single computer and a router doing the NAT.

We have deployed a bunch of LB1111 (after the opportunity to get involved in it's Beta testing) - essentially the same functionality without the WAN fail-over capability, so only one port - on multi-WAN NAT routers/security appliances handling the fail-over and in European Alps sites where no wired broadband was available, and always paired them with various NAT routers (simple Netgear, ZyXEL or a few with hospitality gateways). Really "no brainer" plug and play installations with the correct data SIM.

There are some Netgear moderators in the community with more experience on the Australian mobile and ISPs @ArodiD or @mdgm-ntgr - I'm convinced together we are able to make your installation fly.

Regards,

-Kurt