On Nov 6, 2011 10:15 PM, "David Hubbard" <dhubbard@dino.hostasaurus.com> wrote:
Hi all, I am looking at cellular-based devices as a higher speed alternative to dial-up backup access methods for out of band management during emergencies. I was wondering if anyone had experiences with such devices they could share?
Devices I've found include Sierra Wireless AirLink Raven X, Digi's ConnectWAN 3G or 4G and Opengear's ACM5004-G. I have no experience with any but they all appear to support the Sprint network which I assume would be ideal due to not having usage caps on data (currently). The Opengear device runs linux and has four serial ports, a usb port for additional storage and ethernet, so it seems to have some small advantages over the others since it could double as an emergency self-contained management station you can SSH into and run diagnostics from. All appear to have VPN/gateway support.
What none of them are clear on is how you would connect to it over cellular since I assume you're just paying for a typical data plan and it will randomly obtain IP addresses. Maybe some type of dynamic dns service so you can easily figure out your device's current IP? How stable is the access to the device? Any idea if any of them can do ipv6?
Another good question is if the 3g modem is firewalled by the mobile provider so that incoming connections are blocked. Cb
Thanks!
David