I am using the Netgear LTE 4G Cellular Modem with AlarmSIM. The AlarmSIM is $5/mo for 250 MB (less if talk or text is used). As described above, in one configuration, the Modem connects directly to the Cellular and also inputs the WAN signal. If WAN drops, the modem switches over to Cellular and then back when the WAN is working. The transition appears to take about a minute. This works, but risks running up Cellular bill for other activities when the WAN drops. Also this requires that everything connection between the HE and the Internet is working and especially complicates battery backup.
I also tried the Hologram SIM card. It is 20x more expensive per MB than AlarmSIM. Hologram is very Sales oriented and has a fancier web interface; I found their Support capabilities to be weak.
In a different Modem configuration, I added a Nighthawk 6700v3 router and small UPS ... created a dedicated Internet Connection for the HE (no WAN input). Now I only need two cables and power to the Modem, Nighthawk, and HE - fewer points of failure. Although the Home Automation complexity has been greatly decreased, having two networks has increased the home network complexity and trickier configurations. More details if anyone is interested.
Does the Netgear cell modem have any smarts in it that can be configured to allow for some filtering of traffic. I'd like the fail over but only for certain IPs or MACs in the household?
I have Google Fi for phone service and as previously posted, the data only sims are free , I'd like to take advantage of that. Monsoon season in AZ just knocked out internet since last night. Lights and stuff are working but nothing is getting communicated outside the home
Have you played with the failover portion of this device? I read a couple of posts about it not being able to switch back to main internet but that's about it, not a whole of discussion about failure.
My experience is the overall failover procedure is poor. Maybe that is because the way I was trying to use it. I found that it was pretty good detecting the network outage but never would switch back, just as you said. The other issue is when I try and use it in bridge mode it would failover but then the unit would re-boot over and over. Using it in the router mode it works much better but then there is the issue of a double NAT.
For me I just have it on standby and if my internet connection goes down I run a script on my router to direct traffic through it. I'm sure it could be automated in some way but that is above my pay grade.
Thanks for the info. I went ahead and ordered the single port version so I can use it with an Asus router I have stashed somewhere that I believe has failover/balancing features. Currently using the CenturyLink provided modem/router so I will put that on bridge mode.
