Issue setting custom APN and PPPoE credentials

Jason7
Here to help

Issue setting custom APN and PPPoE credentials

Is anyone else having issues setting custom APN details on MX (and Z3C) units with in-built cellular modems?

 

We have had an open case since early May relating to being unable to set custom APN details. Details can be set within the dashboard and locally on the device status page. They appear to be set however they do not apply and the connection does not come up. This seems to be an issue introduced in the last 6 months as we never had this problem previously.

 

Support identified a bug and now whenever we need to set custom APN details we have to contact support and they have to get the dev team to set in the backend. We are told this will be fixed but so far no sign of this happening. There is a workaround but this is a real management overhead. I am surprised that there is not more noise about this from others?

 

A few weeks ago we had a need to introduce some new devices and we have now found almost the same issue with PPPoE WAN credentials. These can be set and appears in the local device status page but the connection does not come up. This is only an issue with devices with cellular modems which makes me think the two issues are related. We have had to raise a separate support case for this one but support don't seem to see that these issues may be related. They have even RMA'd our test MX under this case twice suggesting the issue is device related. Our team has spent days on this issue troubleshooting and testing but so far this is stuck with support. Again this was never an issue in the past. 

 

I am struggling to get any traction from support on the PPPoE issue or a perm fix for the custom APN bug.

 

Right now we are in a position where we cannot set APNs without dev making a backend change and we cannot set any PPPoE details at all. This means we have to run MXs with a third party router in front when used with DSL connections.

 

We have the added issue that our dashboard license has 60 days to run but we cannot add our renewal key as this was generated on the basis of swapping our older hardware. We have all the new devices but we cannot install them as we cannot set an PPPoE credentials. 

 

What used to be an easy to mange platform has turned into a real headache plagued with software bugs in the last 6 months and right now I wouldn't recommend.

 

We have nearing 150 devices but we're left feeling very frustrated with this and we are at the point of looking at a full rip and replace of all MX kit.

 

Anyone have any tips for getting some ownership from support or had similar issue? It doesn't appear there is a formal escalation process like there is with Cisco TAC and we find the support very hit and miss. 

3 Replies 3
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Wow, that is crap!

 

I haven't had any issues setting a custom APN (this on MX67Cs).

I've never needed to configure PPPoE details, so don't know about that one.

Tell me about it. We have MX67C and MX68CW's and cannot set APNs on either, not sure if it relates to a specific carrier perhaps. The only way we have is to set the APN and then get support to instruct dev to make a backend change. Out of interest when did you last set a custom APN as we used to be able to do it but that was over 6 months back.

Jason7
Here to help

PPPoE sorted at least. Turns out there is a bug which was fixed in 18.107.3 which causes the WAN port to be disabled when the PPPoE credentials are set. The challenge with that is you have to re-enable within the dashboard but unless you connect up a second (direct) WAN connection you cannot connect the device to the cloud.

 

All good now but we have to upgrade the firmware of all of our boxed new MXs using a direct connection prior to deploying them to site with PPPoE.

 

Jason7_0-1694788324181.png

 

Now just waiting on a fix for the custom APN but for which we do at least have a workaround. 

 

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