Options available regarding the 4G LTE network
In the main menu we can see if the Internet connection has been made through the Gigabit Ethernet port for the WANor we have done it through the mobile broadband network. When the 4G LTE network is the main one and is working, it will appear in the “Internet” menu that the SIM card has been detected correctly, that the type of connection is mobile and the status of the network and the time also appear. of connection. Of course, we can also see the IP address datamask, default gateway and the DNS servers that the telephone operator has provided us.
In the main menu of the router we can see that we have a specific section for the status of the 4G LTE network called “Mobile”. In this section we can find the following information:
- connectivity: It will tell us if we are correctly connected to the phone tower, or if there is some kind of problem when connecting.
- operator: is the network operator to which we have connected, if you have an operator like Pepephone and it connects to the Orange network, it may indicate that we are connected to the Orange network.
- APNs: It is the APN that you have obtained from the network directly (by default it is in automatic mode), or the APN that you have configured yourself.
- Service Type: It is the type of technology used to connect, it can be 2G, 3G or 4G LTE.
- Roaming: we can activate roaming between different networks, it will indicate whether or not we are using this feature. In principle, you would not have to activate this function, especially if you live near a border with another country, because you could inadvertently connect to the cell phone tower of the other country.
- IMEI: is the IMEI number of the 4G modem of the D-Link router.
- IMSI: is the International Identity of the Mobile Subscriber, it is the identification code of the SIM card.
- ICCID: It is “integrated circuit card identifier” of our SIM card, it is so that it can be identified by the corresponding operator.
- MCC: is the code of the country where we have connected.
- MNC: is the mobile network code.
- Band: the frequency band of the mobile network to which we have connected will appear, the B1 band means the 2,100MHz band.
- Sign: is the signal received from the telephone antenna.
In the following screenshot you can see all this information:
In the section of “Settings / Mobile» is where we have all the configuration options for the mobile broadband network, in this menu we can configure different parameters:
- service mode: is the configuration mode to connect to 2G, 3G or 4G LTE networks, it is recommended to leave it on automatic. If there is no 4G coverage in your area and you force it to connect to 4G, the router will never be able to connect to the cell phone antenna by forcing the configuration. The most common thing is to leave it on automatic to avoid problems, in addition, the router will always give priority to the 4G network over the 3G or 2G network.
- connection mode: Automatic connection mode is what you should configure, so that it connects without user intervention. If we choose manual, we will have to press a button to proceed with the connection.
- data roaming: we can activate roaming if we are abroad, if you live in a border area with another country, do not activate this setting because it is possible that it will connect to the network of that other country, so you must be very careful.
- Telephone access parameters: in these options we have the APN configuration to be able to register correctly with the operator and obtain an Internet connection. The usual thing is to leave it in “automatic” so that the network itself assigns us the APN automatically, without us having to put anything at all.
In the section of “Configuration / Failover» is where we have all the options to configure the transition from the primary to the secondary WAN network, it is very important to configure this service if we want it to detect the fall of the main connection, and automatically act on the secondary one, which will be the 4G LTE network. We have several ways of checking to find out if the connection has been dropped, such as DNS queries and also the typical ICMP ping.
A very important feature of this router is that we can limit the use of mobile data, this menu is found in «Features / Data Limit«, and allows us to cut the Internet connection when we reach a certain GB spent. Here we can configure the number of GB of our data rate, and when we want it to notify us, in addition, we can also reset the counter on the 1st of each month, or when you start the billing cycle with your operator. Finally, it allows us to send ourselves an SMS message to know the consumption when it reaches a value that we want (warning ratio).
In the section of “Features / SMS» is where we can activate this service, and where we want to store the messages we receive, in addition, we can also write new SMS messages and see the received messages. This function is really useful, and very few desktop 4G routers incorporate this feature that we consider basic, this model does have it.
If we click on the section «Inbox» We can see the inbox and outbox of SMS messages, from here we can manage all messages: read them, delete them, reply to the sender, etc.
this router allows the SIM card to embed a PIN to protect itHowever, it does not allow you to enter the PIN automatically, if our SIM card has a PIN we will have to enter the code every time we restart the router. To access the Internet with the 4G network, we will have to first unlock the PIN lock and then it will connect, it is something to take into account.
The settings menu also allows us to remove the current SIM card PIN lock, and we can even change the SIM card lock PIN number that we have entered, in this way, we can manage the security of the card. Other 4G routers only allow communication to be established if we have previously removed the PIN code, however, with D-Link we can manage it without any problem.
Finally, in the section “Features / USSD» we can send USSD commands, this allows specific ISP applications to be activated via SMS message.
If you want to know all the configuration menus of this D-Link EAGLE PRO AI G415 4G LTE router, you can see them in this video:
As you can see, this new router incorporates many configuration options related to the 4G LTE network, the truth is that we don’t miss any function, it has all the necessary options to make it work perfectly. Something that we would like to highlight is the management of SMS, and that is that not all 4G home desktop routers incorporate this functionality.
