Auto-VPN over 4G - no static IP

Johno_H
New here

Auto-VPN over 4G - no static IP

 

Does anyone have any experience with running Auto-VPN over 4G connections?

Need a Site-to-Site VPN that can run over a 4G connection at each site.

Both sites do not have Static IP's and can't use DDNS.

 

Hoping to run a MX67c at each site with a fail over 4G dongle in each running a different 4G network for redundancy.

 

Any input/help would be greatly appreciated.

 

5 Replies 5
NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

This is the beauty of Meraki Auto-VPN. You don't need static IP addresses to establish the tunnels. Since they are cloud managed, the cloud knows their public IP's and takes care of all the dark magic voodoo for you.

Each connection you have on the MX (WAN1/WAN2/CELL etc.) will build its own tunnel so fail-over should be smooth should one go down.

In theory your design should work though. I've done something similar, but the 4G was a backup. I'm sure your aware of the financial costs you could end up with using 4G as the main circuit 😃

I'd recommend you review this as well:
https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Site-to-site_VPN/Site-to-site_VPN_Settings

Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
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NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

@Johno_H

 

Actually after further review I'm not sure how it will work if your using that 4G dongle in addition to the built in. Not sure if you can use both to be honest

 

From this page: https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/MX_Overviews_and_Specifications/MX67_and_MX68_Overview_and_Speci...

 

Is this SD-WAN over LTE? Can LTE be used as the primary uplink?

No. LTE link can be used as failover or single-uplink only.

 

So I know you can use the built-in LTE by itself as I have done this. It will work, just not sure what will happen if you try to use that dongle 4G thing your talking about.  A backup for the backup etc.

 

 

Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
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NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

I can't find any documentation about using the new cellular models built-in LTE in addition to a USB dongle. I'm going to assume you can't. You'll just have to try it out lol.

What I do know will work (even though its not technically supported) is using two MX67C. Say one has Verizon and the other AT&T. So you have your redundancy carrier wise. And you can setup warm-spare with them (again not officially supported), but it does work. Fail-over won't be seamless, its about 5 seconds or more fail-over from my testing.

If your looking for more flexibility I think you could get two cradlepoints as your LTE 'modems', and plug them into WAN 1 and WAN 2 and the MX won't know they are LTE devices and just act like they are normal circuits. That would also allow you to mount them wherever you want via Ethernet cable, so they won't be stuck where the MX has to sit the way the built-in modem in the MX has to. Might get better signal that way etc.
Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
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Johno_H
New here

Thanks for the help.

Yeh running external 4G modems is the option I considered with the internal USB as the failover.

Mainly just need to make sure the VPN will work.

 

Australian 4G providers NAT and share public IP's for 4G services which is why I am keen to know if the cloud based VPN will get around this.

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

With the MX67C can use use either the built in 4G modem, or an external USB 4G modem, but not both.  If you plug in an external USB 4G modem then it disables the internal 4G modem.

 

If you want to use two 4G modems then the external one will need to be a 4G "hotspot" style, which an Ethernet connection.  Then you can plug it into "Internet 1".  Note that it will be the primary WAN connection.

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