Hitron Chita Router + modem mode + 4G?

[Orlandodawn]

I have the new Business Broadband router and also signed up for the 4G backup.  I have the supplied USB 4G modem + SIM plugged in.

The router interface has extra sections where I can look up the 4G status and config and everything looked great.

However, I have my own router and mesh wifi kit and have now switched the Virgin router over to modem only mode.   When logging into the Chita now all the 4G settings have disappeared.  Im not too bothered about this.   Whats more important is will the Chita router still failover to the backup 4G connection if the main cable connection fails, while operating in modem only mode?

[legacy1]

likely not you need the 4G to your own router.

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

The forum is for UK residential services only. Business users have different equipment, so help may not be as forth coming on here - but you never know.

[AMCross]

does virgin business have a community hub as VMB certainely have no tech support

[Orlandodawn]

I think Im going to have to Magic 8 ball the answer to that one 😁

[jem101]

Although I can’t be 100% sure (although I am very close to it), the answer is no, it won’t be able to seamlessly fail over to a 4G connection whilst in modem mode.

Incidentally ‘modem mode’ is a bit of a misnomer, it’s closer to a bridged mode than just a modem. But I digress. The lack of any config setting when in modem mode is probably a bit of a give away to saying that the entire failover is disabled. 

So why not try it? Have everything working and then disconnect the coax cable from the Hitron hub and see what happens.

If it works (hint it almost certainly won’t work), then you have your answer. If it doesn’t work then you can set your expectations accordingly.

As an aside, I recall working in a large data centre some years ago, commissioning a colo setup for one of my clients - they wanted a certain degree of redundancy so two of us literally spent two days monitoring connectivity  while we pulled 40 Gbit/s fibre and copper cables out of the back of a server and switch cluster to see what it took to take it down. Only then could we report back with confidence that the expected degree of redundancy was in place.

What I’m saying is that you can’t take anyone’s word for it, actually go and test it - it works or it doesn’t.

[John_GS]

Hi @Orlandodawn

Thanks for posting, whilst we're not able to assist as it's a business account, please see the following; 

If you have a Twitter account, please contact them @vmbusinesshelp

https://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/help-and-advice/get-in-touch/contact-us/ - contact methods for the business team.

Hope you're able to sort it.

[Orlandodawn]

After a bit of testing, you are correct yes. 

I put the hub in gateway mode, disconnected the coax.  The internet dropped and my Asus router reported the disconnection.  After a couple mins the Asus reported the connection was recovered and the internet was back up, now clearly on the 4G backup.    I reconnected the coax and after a couple of mins it seemed to switch back over to the main line without a hitch.  I did some speedtests to verify.  So I know the 4G dongle works at least.

Then put the hub in bridge mode and again disconnected the coax and the Asus reported the wan disconnection.  After 15 mins, it was still down and no internet so doesnt appear to failover to the backup.  Reconnected the coax and after a minute or two, things were back to normal.

I called tech support and had a healthy debate with the tech on what constituted an outage.  He insisted it should work in the event of a true outage on the Virgin side of things.  He couldnt understand that yeeting the coax was the same as an outage.

The 4G backup was a nice to have for me, not a necessity so I called back to Customer Services and cancelled the 4G backup service.

[chermie]

Hello everyone,

A few days ago, I switched to Virgin Media Business Voom 800 package with an O2 backup 4G dongle.

Virgin Media has recently scored a severe internet outage in my area, and the 4G dongle didn't kick in. I have called technical support, and I've been told that the 4G backup would not kick in until there's a network connection fault (uplink or downlink connection is down). It would not kick in if there's simply an internet outage. That makes the 4G backup totally useless for me. I need the internet connection for my business, it's essential for me, and it was the main reason I ordered the 4G backup.

Does anyone know if it's possible to force their Hitron Chita router to use the dongle without physically unplugging the coaxial cable? I tried to connect the dongle to my other router (I have a static IP, so I can't use Hitron in modem mode, but I have another router behind it in double NAT). Still, the O2 SIM card VM has provided is PIN protected 🫤 Is there possibly any way to get that PIN somehow, so I could connect the dongle to my other router, which is clever enough to use it when there's no internet connection?

I'll be grateful for any tips. 

Peter.

[notdodgy]

I am looking at the 4G backup.  We have had several outages that have interrupted live streaming.

From the discussion it does sound like it won't help us.   

The Hitron router is configured with 5 static IP addresses - we have 4 routers connected to it, so we can operate 4 separate networks isolated from each other. It is therefore bridging and not routing!

Happy to be told otherwise.