I would like to use Mikrotik router for connecting river boat to the Internet over any available mobile networks.
Mobile modem should support GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA/HUSPA/HSPA+ and LTE on European frequency bands.
Ship traverses 11 countries, so it would be single SIM in constant roaming (single APN no need to change,
which allows more local networks to choose from while roaming and single contract to maintain).
Solution would ideally also support connect/disconnect on demand executed by the crew, through a limited-options PC interface,
allowing crew to see local providers list available to choose from, their available network types and signal strengths.
Please let me know if anyone was solving similar issue with Mikrotik or if you have any ideas?
I am also worried about some solutions used before that didn’t work well when crossing the country borders
whereas power off/on was needed to reattach router to another country network.
choose a mini pci-e modem that supports the required bands, and then it is really down to the provider you choose - there are many simm’s available that will work on a multitude of networks and in almost every country - catch is their roaming data isn’t that cheap.
It should work like you propose, but some people told me that not too many Mikrotik compatible PCIe modems work well with all mobile networks.
Apparently “Sierra wireless is fine, unlike all the others”, but I didn’t receive more details other than that vague statement.
Would rather use PCIe, then any USB sticks to improve on reliability and prevent crew from playing by taking it out etc.
So I was looking for a recommendation on something that works reliably and is well tested in the field.
Preferably that also supports LTE.
The second thing is rather specific for our use case - manual ability to connect/disconnect through interface designed for the crew.
I presume that it will not be directly supported or a feature, so I can make some Win32 app with username/password entry,
after which crew member would get mobile connection available networks list and connect/disconnect button.
Then in the background I can ssh to Mikrotik and connect/disconnect when needed, possibly even log the user connecting with times, etc.
I was wondering what kind of mobile network data (network id, name, signal strength, network type)
can be received over ssh from the PCIe inteface of Mikrotik Router and in what form?
Would prefer this not to change too much between RouterOS version upgrades.
In short, use sierra wireless and be ready to try out a few different sierra cards, model support is very hit and miss.
Use mikrotik’s API for your application. You will be able to retrieve all the data presented in the GUI, which includes network I’d, signal strength and name.
Would I also be able to limit on what reduced-privilege user can do in Mikrotik GUI?
Like for example just check the connection status, and connect/disconnect when needed?
Lots of Sierra cards are supported, but you need to find a supplier that can give you technical information if you want to do the tricky stuff. The MT GUI and CLI allow you at access a very small subset of the Sierra commands. Anything more than that you have to open a serial terminal connection direct to the Sierra modem and use good old fashioned AT commands. Have you researched what carriers you want to access and what frequencies and type of data network they use. This will be critical information for choosing which card you use.
Yes, basically it would be Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, Italy, preferably also Russia & Egypt.
So all GSM network types GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HUSPA, HSDPA+, LTE,
and frequencies of 900/1800/2100 (and 800/2600 for LTE use??) are really needed I guess, but also 850/1900 wouldn’t hurt to be supported.