EnvisaLink 4, can you add on cellular/phone backup notification?

[nutshellml]

Afternoon all... I have the EnvisaLink with IP Monitoring, I have a Vista 20p Panel and want to add a cellular backup incase the IP/Internet goes down. Anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks!

[Crikey]

Afternoon all... I have the EnvisaLink with IP Monitoring, I have a Vista 20p Panel and want to add a cellular backup incase the IP/Internet goes down. Anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks!

Not certain what you mean by "with IP Monitoring." Do you mean you've subscribed to EnvisAlarm, with a 24x7 monitoring center?

I've seen discussions of separate GSM modules. Those wouldn't work as a fail-over, though. They'd run "in parallel" with the EVL.

Personally: I plan to put a 4G LTE "modem" on the third port of my Internet router and configure the router to fail-over to that. Should be essentially invisible to the EnvisaLink when and if it happens. That's fairly advanced network configuration stuff, though.

That's all I got. Sorry.

[jac1987]

I was thinking on one of those cellular diallers too but I abondoned the idea, instead I went with a dual wan router for my internet and used a 3G modem USB as failover. Problem solved.

[tomedjo]

I have a EVL3, dual WAN capable router, and a UPS for both. I'm just starting research on a cell for the EVL3. I could easily add a USB modem as a failover on the router, but the UPS will only carry it for a few hours. I seem to have frequent day-long internet service interruptions and so this was the reason for considering a cell. Not sure if it would be easier to connect the EVL3 to a cell or to add a couple of large batteries to the UPS. Any advice on the cell approach? I also have a 20p.

[Crikey]

If you're having frequent day-long Internet service interruptions I think you need to have a talk with your ISP. I would find that both intolerable and unacceptable.

As for which way to go: Personally, my feeling is that if you get redundancy on your Internet connection than not only is your alarm system provided-for, but, anything else that's Internet-connected, as well. (E.g.: Video surveillance, other IoT things.)

As for the UPS: More batteries has a downside: Longer charge times. Much longer. Not a big problem unless you get frequent power interruptions with only short-ish restorations.

I've never looked, but, I wonder about solar-backed UPSen?

[nutshellml]

@Crikey - I have 24x7 monitoring service via AlarmRelay over internet. So when that goes down, no protection. Now unlike tomedjo in the last year, I think I have noticed 2-4 times that my Fios internet has gone down. That said, I would still like a backup just in case.

I'm fairly PC literate, somewhat familar with networking, so don't mind setting something up like you mentioned or not sure how complicated a dual wan router setup is. Right now, I am basically using the Verizon modem/router, a TPLINK smart switch, and a UNIFI for WIFI ACCESS. That said, would I need new equipment, ie router? Can you recommend a 101 / thread / or guide to best set a failover up and what it would entail. I just need a starting point.

Thoughts?

[Crikey]

I'm fairly PC literate, somewhat familar with networking, so don't mind setting something up like you mentioned or not sure how complicated a dual wan router setup is. Right now, I am basically using the Verizon modem/router, a TPLINK smart switch, and a UNIFI for WIFI ACCESS. That said, would I need new equipment, ie router? Can you recommend a 101 / thread / or guide to best set a failover up and what it would entail. I just need a starting point.

Thoughts?

I can't recommend an "Internet Fail-Over/Backup 101" guide because I doubt such a thing exists. It would be highly hardware-dependent.

For example: We're on a Comcast High-Speed Business Internet connection, with a static IPv4 address. Our cablemodem (CM) is set to non-NAT mode (sometimes erroneously called "bridge mode"), so our static public IP address is what the next thing downstream sees, which is an Ubiquiti Ethernet Lite (ERLite) router.

The ERLite has three Ethernet ports, which can be configured to be whatever you want them to be. Right now two of them are the WAN and LAN ports. I'll configure the third to be another WAN port, hook a NetGear LB1120 LTE modem to it, and configure the router for automatic fail-over.

I'll essentially clone the current WAN segment's firewall configuration to the new WAN segment, but, restrict traffic to prohibit high-bandwidth LAN devices, such as the TV, Blu-ray player and DVR, so as not to blow the entire month's data allocation in one day.

There is a new version of the NetGear LTE modem that's supposed to become available this month: The LB2120. It has two Ethernet ports. NetGear claims you can set it up between your current broadband connection and LAN, it will pass through traffic when the normal Internet connection is up, and automatically fail over to the LTE backup if the normal WAN connection fails.

I neither need nor want that functionality, since I'll be doing my own fail-over in my existing border router.