Anyone using a Smarty SIM in a 4G Router?

[Roger Mills]

I have a 4G router at my holiday flat, to which I need remote access -
so I need a routable external IP address. The router currently has a '3'
Data SIM in it, but that's a bit expensive, and I'm considering moving
to Smarty.

The external IP address provided by '3' is 188.29.x.x which is routable
(as long as I use 3internet as the APN). If I were to use three.co.uk
instead I would get a non routable address of the form 10.x.x.x

I'm interested to know whether Smarty can provide a routable address
and, if so, what APN I would need to use. I have asked Smarty and they
are saying that I can't have a routable address - but I not sure that
they understand my question fully. I have seen claims elsewhere that
Smarty CAN provide routable addresses.

Any first-hand experience greatly appreciated.
--
Cheers,
Roger

[Chris Green]

An alternative to having an externally routable IP address is to set
up something at the 4G router end that makes a connection outwards and
sets up a reverse tunnel to allow you to connect.

I do this on my boat in France whose internet connection is via a
proprietary NATted WiFi so there's no way you can directly get any
sort of connection to it.

I know how to do this on a Linux system (a Beaglebone Black in my case
on the boat), I'm sure it's also perfectly possible with MS Windows or
whatever using putty or some such. A cheap and simple way to do it with
the Linux approach is to use a Raspberry Pi, cheap and low power.

Search for 'reverse tunnel'.

--
Chris Green
·

[Kofi Libon]

On 2021-04-25, Roger Mills <watt....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a 4G router at my holiday flat, to which I need remote access -
> so I need a routable external IP address. The router currently has a '3'
> Data SIM in it, but that's a bit expensive, and I'm considering moving
> to Smarty.

I'm using Smarty sim in a 4G router. Its public ip address is currently
in 92.40.188.0/23. I assume I share the address with others through
NAT. Whois reports the network belongs to "H3GUK".

The term "APN" is new to me and I haven't knowingly set or used one
anywhere. Computers attached to my router at home are part of a
Wireguard VPN. The VPN server is an outside VPS with its own public ip
address. So for example I can take a phone or laptop "on the road" and
reach a computer at home, behind the 4g router, via the VPN. So I don't
care about the router's public ip address, I don't think it matters so
long as the VPN works.

HTH
--
Kofi

[Theo]

Kofi Libon <ko...@example.net> wrote:
> On 2021-04-25, Roger Mills <watt....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have a 4G router at my holiday flat, to which I need remote access -
> > so I need a routable external IP address. The router currently has a '3'
> > Data SIM in it, but that's a bit expensive, and I'm considering moving
> > to Smarty.
>
> I'm using Smarty sim in a 4G router. Its public ip address is currently
> in 92.40.188.0/23. I assume I share the address with others through
> NAT. Whois reports the network belongs to "H3GUK".

$ host 92.40.188.3
3.188.40.92.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer 92.40.188.3.threembb.co.uk.
$ host 92.40.189.77
77.189.40.92.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer 92.40.189.77.threembb.co.uk.

They could be anything, but they don't look like NAT endpoints to me. It
also suggests the IP is on Three's network rather than anything
Smarty-specific. 'threembb' means Three Mobile Broadband, which offers
public IPv4s, so I would guess these are too.

Theo

[Roger Mills]

That sounds hopeful to me. AIUI, non-routable addresses start with 10 or
192.168 or 172.[16-31] - so an address starting with 92.40 should be
routable.

--
Cheers,
Roger

[Roger Mills]

On 25/04/2021 16:56, Kofi Libon wrote:
> On 2021-04-25, Roger Mills <watt....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have a 4G router at my holiday flat, to which I need remote access -
>> so I need a routable external IP address. The router currently has a '3'
>> Data SIM in it, but that's a bit expensive, and I'm considering moving
>> to Smarty.
>
> I'm using Smarty sim in a 4G router. Its public ip address is currently
> in 92.40.188.0/23. I assume I share the address with others through
> NAT. Whois reports the network belongs to "H3GUK".
>

Thanks. That sounds to me as if it should be routable.

> The term "APN" is new to me
>

Access_Point_Name (from Wiki)
An Access Point Name (APN) is the name of a gateway between a GSM, GPRS,
3G or 4G mobile network and another computer network, frequently the
public Internet. A mobile device making a data connection must be
configured with an APN to present to the carrier.
--
Cheers,
Roger

[Theo]

Roger Mills <watt....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The term "APN" is new to me
> >
> Access_Point_Name (from Wiki)
> An Access Point Name (APN) is the name of a gateway between a GSM, GPRS,
> 3G or 4G mobile network and another computer network, frequently the
> public Internet. A mobile device making a data connection must be
> configured with an APN to present to the carrier.

It seems the APN for Smarty should be mob.asm.net (which curiously is a
domain not owned by them - something to do with steel mills in Jeddah).

According to here:
https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/mobilebroadband/4651961-smarty-apn-vs-3-apn.html?fpart=all&vc=1
the Three APNs (three.co.uk and 3internet) also work (or did at that time).
The picture is a bit muddied in that we don't know who got which APN, so it
may be some people are natted and others aren't. Smarty have a page saying
to use the mob.asm.net APN when roaming, so maybe the others only work in
the UK?

Perhaps worth getting a SIM for a month to try? I note that if you are
referred by someone you can get a free month (and they do too), which would
be a good opportunity to try and then cancel.

Theo

[Andy Burns]

Theo wrote:

> It seems the APN for Smarty should be mob.asm.net (which curiously is a
> domain not owned by them - something to do with steel mills in Jeddah).

APNs are unrelated to domains, one of my larger customers used to pay
Orange to have their own APN, this gave quite a lot of flexibility such
as running DHCP servers to allocate private IP addresses to mobile
devices) it used a leased line direct to orange so data avoided going
over the public internet and which could also be used for call routing
to/from the PBX. Then (probably after Orange became EE) it all got
rather expensive in the end.

[Theo]

Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> APNs are unrelated to domains, one of my larger customers used to pay
> Orange to have their own APN, this gave quite a lot of flexibility such
> as running DHCP servers to allocate private IP addresses to mobile
> devices) it used a leased line direct to orange so data avoided going
> over the public internet and which could also be used for call routing
> to/from the PBX. Then (probably after Orange became EE) it all got
> rather expensive in the end.

APNs are unstructured text so there is no reason why an APN should have
anything to do with DNS (eg things like '3internet'), but it's rather
amusing to see an APN that is structured like a domain, but a domain that
somebody else owns. It's hard to imagine the thought process that went into
picking that particular string.

Theo