Using 4G USB Modem as backup for Virgin Media broadband line

John_Gray

I'd be grateful for any experiences people have had with ensuring continuance of broadband service should a Virgin Media FTTC coax broadband-only (no TV or phone) line fail.
I have a Draytek router (following my VM SmartHub 3 in modem mode) which would allow the connection of a 4G USB modem (such as the Huawei E3372-325 or the ZTE MF79N) as a fail-over.

For that I would want a data-only SIM which could be as cheap as possible while the VM broadband line was working - almost all the time - but allow for very sharp peaks of data when running in backup mode until the VM line got fixed.  Obviously one would want this to be Pay Only If You Use, if such a thing is available.

Any thoughts, please?

MattMattMattUK

John_Gray said:

I'd be grateful for any experiences people have had with ensuring continuance of broadband service should a Virgin Media FTTC coax broadband-only (no TV or phone) line fail.
I have a Draytek router (following my VM SmartHub 3 in modem mode) which would allow the connection of a 4G USB modem (such as the Huawei E3372-325 or the ZTE MF79N) as a fail-over.

For that I would want a data-only SIM which could be as cheap as possible while the VM broadband line was working - almost all the time - but allow for very sharp peaks of data when running in backup mode until the VM line got fixed.  Obviously one would want this to be Pay Only If You Use, if such a thing is available.

Any thoughts, please?

My first thought would be why, it seems excessive even for someone who needs data to work and works from home full time, most people would just go and make a drink whilst the broadband was down, 99.6% of all broadband "outages" are less than five minutes. Additionally, most connections will not fail over instantly, they will keep running on the primary channel and then when data is unavailable after a period of time they will then start using the backup connection, however nearly all sessions currently running will fail because the secure connection will be interrupted, eg. video streams will stop, VPNs will need to reconnect, any HTTPS session will need to log in again etc..

A better solution would be to just tether to your phone if the connection goes down for more than a few minutes, but in general do not worry about it. 

John_Gray

Thank you for your views!  

I have had Telewest -> Virgin Media here for the last twenty-odd years, and there have been a few occasions where the VM broadband line was out for up to a week.  You may be familiar with the legendary incompetence of VM Customer "Services"?

A SamKnows monitoring router gives me precise times when the VM connection is unavailable, and I agree that lengthy disconnections are rare.  My aim was, for a relatively modest outlay, to enable reconnection / relogon in 4G backup mode to keep all my data users (relatively - no pun intended) happy.

born_again

Can you not just tether your mobile for the odd time it drops?
That is all we do here.

Or other option is to get a business connection which has SLA & possibly a built in back up. Such as BT business broadband.

flaneurs_lobster

I'm guessing that the reason that you want to provide a mobile internet connection via your Draytek router is so that users (and devices) would not have to connect to a second device if your VM connection fails?

Does the Draytek have this fallover capability built-in or is the switch to mobile comms something that you would have to do manually? Not sure that the dongle format offers the best performance over a more conventional 4/5G modem but perhaps you have physical constraints.

There may well be specialist SIM plans that operate as you wish but the standard consumer ones don't. You can find an unlimited data SIM for around £15/month (but you don't need this data most of the time so wasteful) or a PAYG SIM for not much that will charge £££ for data when used (cheapest seems to be 1p/MB, most are more).

These SIMS and their usefulness is, of course, dependent on a good mobile signal from the particular network.

Have to say this does all sound like overkill for an occasional broadband outage unless you have some vital use that must be supported - in which case you should be looking at business-level contracts with associated SLAs and kit.