Router with failover to 5G

[Dog Star]

Hello all,

I’ve absolutely had it with Virgin Media and their continual broadband outages. They can be fine for months then it’s just up and down for a week. It is doing my nut.

I’m after a solution whereby I can have a setup similar to this…

- Virgin hub set in modem mode
- have this plugged into the WAN port of a router such as a TP-Link ER605
- these allegedly will allow failover if the internet from the hub goes down - however I need to be sure this will work
- this will also allow me to use my raspberry pi running pi-hole to filter ads (currently can’t do this as the Virgin hub is locked down to stop DNS changes
- have a 5G dongle thing plugged into the other WAN port for of the router

That way when Virgin BB goes down on a Friday evening (it’s usually a Friday on a bank holiday - and it won’t get fixed til the next proper working day) it’ll flip over onto the 5G internet. We both WFH too so we need a solution.

I’ve no doubt that loads of people have done this.

Can anyone recommend what kit…

- router (or is the ER605 ok to go for? They’re cheap enough)
- 5G dongle with RG45 so I can plug it into said router
- any good PAYG data only sims recommended?

Over to the PH massive…

[Church of Noise]

Not entirely the same as what you described, but I have a Firewalla Purple.
Next to being a router and firewall rolled into one, it also has a low range WiFi antenna built in, which came in very nicely when the internet connection in our area went down due to works, and I could use my phone as a mobile WiFi hotspot running on 5G, with the Purple just being a 'client' off of that serving the entire home. (also, I have pi-hole running on this device, meaning I don't need a separate rpi anymore)

If you want a more 'instant' failover, you could combine the above with an 'old' phone to do the same? (instead of using your 'main' mobile)

HTH!

Edited by Church of Noise on Monday 31st July 11:08

[Simbu]

Vodafone offer this as standard on our FTTP package. Router comes with a USB SIM dongle you plug into the router, which does automatic fail over if the connection fails. It never does though. We switched from Virgin to FTTP with Vodafone and it's more reliable and cheaper.

[Dog Star]

Church of Noise said:

Not entirely the same as what you described, but I have a Firewalla Purple.
Next to being a router and firewall rolled into one, it also has a low range WiFi antenna built in, which came in very nicely when the internet connection in our area went down due to works, and I could use my phone as a mobile WiFi hotspot running on 5G, with the Purple just being a 'client' off of that serving the entire home.

If you want a more 'instant' failover, you could combine the above with an 'old' phone to do the same? (instead of using your 'main' mobile)

HTH!

That looks like a really good idea - perfect, in fact (both I and Mrs DS have unlimited data).

Until I saw the price

[Mr Pointy]

Draytek will do it at 4G but aren't cheap.

https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/comparison/rout...

[Dog Star]

Simbu said:

Vodafone offer this as standard on our FTTP package. Router comes with a USB SIM dongle you plug into the router, which does automatic fail over if the connection fails. It never does though. We switched from Virgin to FTTP with Vodafone and it's more reliable and cheaper.

We don’t have FTTP here, we are “lucky” to have Virgin tbh; we are the very last house one the very last cabinet. I like their product (we have three of the V6 TiVo boxes) but the broadband has got flakier and flakier. Id love to ditch them completely and just have the tv (we don’t use the phone, not even plugged in).

I’m not sure just how difficult getting another provider is, either. Our house is about 100 yards from the road and up a hill. I know Virgin laid the cable when we first came here (six blokes turned up in a minibus the day we moved in) but we’ve had loads of stone flagging and a tarmac driveway since.

I’m seeing Starlink in my future….

[Captain_Morgan]

Your know that that device is a router which means you use your vm box as a simple modem only, & you will require an additional accesspoint & switch to combine to provide a wifi & wired service?

You might be worth considering a ER7212PC which combines firewall, router & controller in a single device allowing adding a accesspoint & wireless connectivity.

Failing that tp-link, asus & others offer devices that work with multiple sources but will still require you use the vm device in modem mode.

[Dog Star]

Yep - I don’t use the Virgin hub’s Wi-Fi anyway as it wouldn’t cover this house; we’ve a mesh system with 5 APs, three internal and two external.

[somouk]

I use one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285149328098?var=587020...

Thought the price was reasonable and even 4G is quicker than the Huawei I had before.

[Dog Star]

somouk said:

I use one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285149328098?var=587020...

Thought the price was reasonable and even 4G is quicker than the Huawei I had before.

I was just looking at these on the 3 site - we’ve already got our mobiles with them so we’ll m wondering if I can negotiate a cheaper rate - currently they’re 20/month with the first 3 months free.

[TonyRPH]

Dog Star said:

<snip>

- this will also allow me to use my raspberry pi running pi-hole to filter ads (currently can’t do this as the Virgin hub is locked down to stop DNS changes

<snip>

If you can disable the DHCP server in the Virgin router, you can enable the DHCP server on the Pi Hole and allocate your own DNS addresses.

This assumes that Virgin doesn't block outgoing DNS queries (I wouldn't put it past them though!).

[Bikerjon]

The Three 5G router does dual WAN failover, or at least the Zyxel branded one they currently supply does. So you could have that as your main router, configure it it to use the VM connection as the default then 5G should kick in when it fails. £20 a month is a decent offer I reckon.

[megaphone]

OP, you do have 5G signal available at home?

[cobra kid]

Dog Star said:

Hello all,

I’ve absolutely had it with Virgin Media and their continual broadband outages. They can be fine for months then it’s just up and down for a week. It is doing my nut.

I’m after a solution whereby I can have a setup similar to this…

- Virgin hub set in modem mode
- have this plugged into the WAN port of a router such as a TP-Link ER605
- these allegedly will allow failover if the internet from the hub goes down - however I need to be sure this will work
- this will also allow me to use my raspberry pi running pi-hole to filter ads (currently can’t do this as the Virgin hub is locked down to stop DNS changes
- have a 5G dongle thing plugged into the other WAN port for of the router

That way when Virgin BB goes down on a Friday evening (it’s usually a Friday on a bank holiday - and it won’t get fixed til the next proper working day) it’ll flip over onto the 5G internet. We both WFH too so we need a solution.

I’ve no doubt that loads of people have done this.

Can anyone recommend what kit…

- router (or is the ER605 ok to go for? They’re cheap enough)
- 5G dongle with RG45 so I can plug it into said router
- any good PAYG data only sims recommended?

Over to the PH massive…

Continual? I can't remember the last time ours went off to be honest.

[TonyRPH]

cobra kid said:

Dog Star said:

Hello all,

I’ve absolutely had it with Virgin Media and their continual broadband outages. They can be fine for months then it’s just up and down for a week. It is doing my nut.

<snip>

Continual? I can't remember the last time ours went off to be honest.

OP probably lives in a street where some bright spark has decided to extend their Virgin coax cable without using the proper connectors / terminations.

This is known for causing outages.

[dickymint]

Isn't this what BT Halo+ does if you're mobile is with EE/BT/Orange?

[smn159]

cobra kid said:

Continual? I can't remember the last time ours went off to be honest.

Same here. Last time it went off for a couple of hours I just used 5G via the personal hotspot on my iphone

[Dog Star]

smn159 said:

cobra kid said:

Continual? I can't remember the last time ours went off to be honest.

Same here. Last time it went off for a couple of hours I just used 5G via the personal hotspot on my iphone

It went off for about half an hour just before lunch. Yes - I continued working with my iPhone hotspot, but that doesn’t help with the rest of the house; almost all our lights are smart now, plus alarm system, cctv, consoles, dishwasher etc etc. it has got much worse over the last few years (we’ve been in this house for 20). I believe there’s only us on the cabinet (outside our gates). I get a text telling me they are fixing it/it’s fixed etc. but it’s getting on my nerves.

Worst ever was it going off on the Thursday night of Easter weekend - they didn’t fix it til the following Tuesday.

[somouk]

Sounds like one of those scenarios where there is only you on the node so it doesn't trigger more investigation based on user numbers.

Frequent disconnections are often a fault somewhere else caising noise problems. Don't suppose the under ground section where you are connected up is liable to flooding and you get disconnected after it rains?

[Dog Star]

somouk said:

Sounds like one of those scenarios where there is only you on the node so it doesn't trigger more investigation based on user numbers.

Frequent disconnections are often a fault somewhere else caising noise problems. Don't suppose the under ground section where you are connected up is liable to flooding and you get disconnected after it rains?

Funnily enough…. Yes.