I have a home network setup using a Draytek Vigor 2860 router with two ISP connections feeding it for load balancing and redundancy. One of the connections is via ADSL (using the built-in modem); then other via an external 4G modem connected via the WAN2 ethernet port. the 2860 pings a couple of DNS addresses every second in order to detect WAN2 (the 4G internet connection) is alive.

Everything works as it should, apart from when the 4G modem drops the connection and required a re-boot. This seems to happen once a week and i've put it down to the 4G network/modem requiring a "kick up the arse" every now and then. This is a separate issue that will be addressed in due course.

Problem I have (and I can see this applying to other scenarios than the one listed here), is that when the 2860 detects failure of the 4G connection, it disconnects the WAN2 port and I can no longer access the 4G modem's GUI to reboot it. The only way is to power-cycle the modem. What I require is access to the WAN2 port from the LAN *at all times*, so I can re-boot the modem and interrogate other details.

How can I go about achieving this?

Many thanks for any help.

Dan

Assuming the 4G modem has/can have a fixed IP address different to your other LAN subnets try this https://forum.draytek.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=21861

Works for me.

(and it is in the post below yours in this forum at present :wink: )

Thanks for the reply; however that wont work for me as the 2860 shuts off the WAN2 connection and also there is no VLAN tag on the ISP connection which is apparently required.

Dan

Turn Ping detect off (always on), or change the ping to the local gateway and when it fails, you should have access still, to debug, when you have rectified the issue, go back to ping detection.

The router will drop the connection on ping timeouts, thus loosing the local gateway connection.

Thanks - if I do this, will the Route Policy pickup the fact that the 4G connection has lost internet connectivity and direct to fallover WAN1 - even though the 4G modem/gateway is silll accesible?

Many thanks,

Dan

Yes because it will not be able to ping an external address, and in turn disconnects. Upon disconnection, it will attempt reconnect, which may cause a double outage, as it fails back. Note that the load policy have no adjustable method, like that WAN settings, hence they use them.