Teltonika cellular Routers

[Rog NotJane]

You mean VPN? It has the software to run a VPN server. I think the issue is most mobile networks have a layer of NAT'ing which means you can't contact the router with an IP address. So from outside, you can't connect in to the VPN. I think Tailscale is supposed to be about to get around it? I've not tried it.

Yeah, I probably do mean VPN but I was trying to ask open questions.

I agree the incoming connection might be a problem with a normal SIM but Andrews and Arnold exist. Looking at their data sim, they give you a static IP so no need for DynamicDNS

 

[fishplug]

That’s what I want.

Teltonika offer a free 30 day trial of RMS (Remote Management System) and it then becomes a paid subscription with pricing that varies based on things like number of devices etc if you don't want to go down the route of building something yourself.

There are lots of other options on how to achieve this - even a Raspberry Pi on your Lan with a (free) Raspberry Pi Connect login would get you into your LAN and you could open a browser and access the Teltonika interface from there using it's LAN IP....

That Pi could also be doing something else and serving another purpose. Media Server? General computer for browsing / streaming services? Any of a million other things...

 

[Rog NotJane]

Rms might work if it’s cheap enough.

Putting a pi in the van is my fallback position if I can’t get access through the teltonika. It’s a lot more admin though.

 

[EssexBoy]

Is that inbound to remotely connect to the router? How do you get the address?

Yes... I installed Wireguard through the RUTOS package manager on the van in the router, then did the same on my home router (I guess you could do that on a pc instead).

I set the van wireguard to connect to my dns/ip address at home and it connects outbound from the van...

I then set routes on my home router to get to the van lan... I did have to change the van lan to be a different range as by default it was the same as home...

I also set up dns entries in my domain for the router and my pi in the van, and can access these from anywhere as it routes to the house, over wireguard, to the van lan...

I guess I should note that my vans router and pi is on 24/7

The vpn between van and home has been very reliable so far and even reconnects to the house after van router reboots...

 

[Rog NotJane]

Yes... I installed Wireguard through the RUTOS package manager on the van in the router, then did the same on my home router (I guess you could do that on a pc instead).
…
I also set up dns entries in my domain for the router and my pi in the van, and can access these from anywhere as it routes to the house, over wireguard, to the van lan...

I guess I should note that my vans router and pi is on 24/7

The vpn between van and home has been very reliable so far and even reconnects to the house after van router reboots...

Cool… so with dynamicDNS that should work - the vpn is set up by rutos so no need for an incoming connection.


Getting it to work to/from a phone rather than a home network might be a more difficult problem though. I bet iOS wants to initiate the VPN connection itself. Not sure I like the idea of a man in the middle hosting two VPNs

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hadn’t built something like that as a service though. In fact is that what tailscale is?

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[Guigsy]

Cool… so with dynamicDNS that should work - the vpn is set up by rutos so no need for an incoming connection.


Getting it to work to/from a phone rather than a home network might be a more difficult problem though. I bet iOS wants to initiate the VPN connection itself. Not sure I like the idea of a man in the middle hosting two VPNs

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hadn’t built something like that as a service though. In fact is that what tailscale is?

EssexBoy is running the DynDNS to his home network, with a VPN server running there. Then the van connects into the home network. I assume that means all the van's internet traffic is routed via the home network?

I don't know much about Tailscale. But I'm lead to believe it's built on Wireguard, but means you don't need permanent IPs and can get around the NAT issues trying to connect to a mobile router?

 

[Rog NotJane]

@EssexBoy is running the DynDNS to his home network, with a VPN server running there. Then the van connects into the home network. I assume that means all the van's internet traffic is routed via the home network?

Not necessarily, that’s what routing tables are for. He implies he has a custom routing table for the router, home server etc.

Tailscale is a little more complicated than I implied it’s more like a Wireguard mesh network. It also does some clever key exchange and a lot of really clever NAT/Firewall traversal. E.g. they can unpick the recursive NAT carriers use.

 

[ian27]

to contribute the remote access discussion part of this thread.
I run a GL.inet X.3000 in the van, and an AX1800 for home. Cellular performance on the X.3000 with a 4x4 panorama on the van roof, is stellar. and it does e.sim (with a physical sim). The Gl.inet UI is suitable for non-techies, and there's LuCI UI for the techies.

I tun tailscale on both from the Openwrt package. It provides seamless VPN between them , doesn't care about what the connectivity, how many NATs are in the way, is as its all outbound initiated. tailscale on the phone allows me to be on either network when out and about. I can also use tailscale exit node setting to default route the van , or my phone, to my house. meaning I can easily make world think I am on my home network for geolocation purposes when I am travelling. I am a network geek by trade (CCIE) so I could get a lot more convoluted than this, but tailscale is really elegant and just works.

 

[starquake]

ut tailscale is really elegant and just works.

Indeed, I just replaced the openvpn I ran at home with a tailscale exit node (and put another one in aws on a machine I run there).
Trivial to do, run the software with the option to run as exit node, authorise it on website, and you can literally in 2-3 clicks have your phone running via home from anywhere with noddy levels of simplicity.
Mine runs on my NAS, but I'd have ran it on a pi if I didn't already run a 24/7 nas device.

Summary is Tailscale is wireguard but wihout the dyndns hassle, the dyndns is all handled by the tailscale client. It's like ExpressVPN but free for personal use.

 

[fishplug]

Interesting!

I'd set up tailscale ages ago 'just because' on a Pi and it worked fine but I didn't really have a use case for it

To the point where I'd forgotten about it really.

I do use Wireguard on my home Router as the VPN but didn't know that Tailscale was based on it.

Time to dust off the Tailscale account and set up a VM on my 'homelab' / Van MiniPC to play around with it....

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[roadwarrior]

i am more than happy with my rutx50 too, which i have transferred to my newish bourton, problem is its got a rubbish 2 lead motorhomewifi antenna on it and motorhomewifi are proving indifferant and almost arrogant as they stated nobody has ever enquired about removing it before and refused to help as I inquired about a replacement gasket. As far as i can work out they just slap a load of sealant on the roof, unlike the Poynting that makes a double sided gasket. As soon as i get the chance i will be swapping over my poynting 3-17 to the new van. Unless someone has a poynting 3-17 knocking about ?

 

[ian27]

Interesting!

I'd set up tailscale ages ago 'just because' on a Pi and it worked fine but I didn't really have a use case for it

To the point where I'd forgotten about it really.

I do use Wireguard on my home Router as the VPN but didn't know that Tailscale was based on it.

Time to dust off the Tailscale account and set up a VM on my 'homelab' / Van MiniPC to play around with it....

I have been through most of the available "vpn like" solutions in this area. having worked on ZeroTrust a lot professionally, tailscale ticks all the boxes there. and the setup is really clean and easy to manage.

 

[starquake]

Interesting!

I'd set up tailscale ages ago 'just because' on a Pi and it worked fine but I didn't really have a use case for it

To the point where I'd forgotten about it really.

The really neat thing as a more advanced user of Tailscale is you can also advertise a subnet (on any device if needed), so when using it (without an exit node) you can access everything at home even when not at home on all your devices. You can do this whilst netflix still breaks out (locally) if you want, with around 2 clicks to then use an exit node to access everything.

As a more advanced user, I have my Azure, AWS, and home networks all interconnected now via Tailscale, and the total setup took about 20 mins. Where with openvpn before doing that was a total faff.

Best practise is to run a tailscale (acess node) in every network yuo'll need to access remotely, and just let Tailscale join them together.

 

[fishplug]

Well, I know what I'll be messing around with over the weekend then!

 

[EssexBoy]

Don't forget that RutOS also has a zero tier package so you could use SDWAN instead...
Zero Tier can be installed on all sorts of devices...
I use it as my backup remote access...

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[EssexBoy]

@EssexBoy is running the DynDNS to his home network, with a VPN server running there. Then the van connects into the home network. I assume that means all the van's internet traffic is routed via the home network?

Yep... the van connects to the house via wireguard as a client to the house router. That allows me to route to and from the van. I then use a browser from my pc to get to the router (either in the house or out) using the remoterouter.mydomain.com format address...
Internet traffic from the van is not routed via the house, that goes straight via the mobile network.
I do it this way as I have an Emby TV server at home and it means I can watch live TV and recordings in the van over the wireguard link.

 

[roadwarrior]

Essexboy... I was understanding everything you said right upto Yup! You lost me after that

 

[CeeJay13]

I have configured Wireguard and Open VPN on my RUTX50 in the Motorhome and I have a RPI Zero2 W running PiVPN on my Home Network. Works well.

BUT you have to be able to pass a couple of ports (Wireguard - 51820 and OpenVPN - 1194) through your Home Router to the PiVPN, which could be a little technical. My Home Router is easy to configure (Firebrick 2900 - not at all common!), but some basic Routers provided by 'the usual' ISP's I have seen don't make this easy, that is of course, even if you can do it at all! PiVPN just works!

Tailgate is something that, if you can get set up works well, or Cloudflare WARP. Both of these can get technical in that you might need more than basic knowledge, or a really good Tutorial.

 

[Hettie's Crew]

i am more than happy with my rutx50 too, which i have transferred to my newish bourton, problem is its got a rubbish 2 lead motorhomewifi antenna on it and motorhomewifi are proving indifferant and almost arrogant as they stated nobody has ever enquired about removing it before and refused to help as I inquired about a replacement gasket. As far as i can work out they just slap a load of sealant on the roof, unlike the Poynting that makes a double sided gasket. As soon as i get the chance i will be swapping over my poynting 3-17 to the new van. Unless someone has a poynting 3-17 knocking about ?

It’ll be a Panorama antenna, don’t bother with Motorhomewifi. Have a look at Panorama’s website for a more suitable direct replacement. Mine came with double sided 3M but I also used some sealer to be sure.
Got mine from Co-Star.UK

 

[fishplug]

Poynting also do antennas which work really well with Teltonika.

The two companies work directly together so there's good compatibility.

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[roadwarrior]

yes fish, i am very happy with my poynting 3-17 and teltonika rutx50

 

[danielf]

Hi All

So I am confused !

I installed a RUT200 in my campervan replacing a dead Huwaei….


It mostly works great….much faster than the huwaei and pulls better signals from roof aerial I installed when I got the campervan.

But - it won’t work with my work laptop and iphone which have zscaler vpn on them.

I have tried all kinds of googling and telitonka wiki page ? But nothing works or makes sense ….

Does anyone know a simple guide to make it work ? Turn off firewall , some other setting ?

Thanks from a non IT person ,

Daniel

 

[Fat Albert]

danielf Have you sent a support request to Teltonika? When I had trouble with my router (being an IT muppet), I first contacted UK dealer who passed on my problem to the Customer services Techies. They contacted me and at a prearranged time, took over my laptop and sorted out my VPN problem. Was a bit anxious with them accessing my laptop but I haven't lost my shirt or pension.
Full disclosure: Whilst staying at Jasmine had awful internet so did a reset. Afterwards realised the VPN was long gone but did manage to vagally remember what to do although very slowly and with reference to the Wiki page. After lots of false reboots, got it finally working again.