Teltonika RUT950 4G Router

Description

The RUT950 4G router from Teltonika is a great value, industrial grade, M2M LTE router providing a reliable and robust 4G mobile broadband Internet connection. So, if you need a 4G Internet connection for your remote monitoring and management application, the Teltonika RUT950 router may just be the ideal solution for you.

This router is classed as a Dual SIM 4G router, meaning that it has two SIM card slots.  You can insert two 4G SIM Cards, but the router only has a single 4G modem installed inside so it can only use one of these SIM cards at a time for the 4G mobile broadband connection.  The reason the second SIM card slot is there is because it can provide an extra resilience option in case the primary network SIM card becomes disconnected by the mobile network.  This disconnection may be because of a network failure or simply because the sim card bill was not paid – it can happen!  Ideally the backup SIM card would be on a separate network to the primary SIM card, so in the event that the primary network, let’s say for example this is O2, has a network fault, then the RUT950 router can switch to the backup SIM card, in this case it might be Vodafone.  This means the dual SIM router can provide a backup network solution to enable the router to provide the 4G connection.

Most SIM cards used in the Teltonika RUT950 router will be Fixed IP SIM Cards, meaning that they are from a Fixed IP SIM provider who enable the router to connect to their APN (Access Point Name) and through this APN provide the 4G connection with a Fixed IP address so that the router can be remotely accessed and this means that port forwarding can be used to connect to the devices on the LAN side of the Teltonika router.  Fixed IP SIM Cards are available with either a public IP address or private IP address.

RUT950 with Public Fixed IP SIM Card

In the case of using the RUT950 with a public IP fixed IP SIM card you would be able to communicate directly with the router using the fixed, public IP address directly from anywhere on the Internet.  This means that you will need to correctly configure all the security features of the RUT950 router to prevent unauthorised access to the router and also ensure that any devices being connected to using the RUT950 port forwarding are also secured against unauthorised access using the seciurity features of your devices.  For example, if port forwarding to a CCTV NVR then ensure that the NVR security features are enabled and configured and this includes changing the default admin user names and passwords.

RUT950 with Private Fixed IP SIM Card

In the case of using the Teltonika router with a private IP fixed IP SIM card, the router will connect to the 4G network, again using the APN provided by your Fixed IP SIM network provider, but the IP address that is allocated to the router 4G connection will be private on the fixed IP SIM network providers network.  This means the router is not directly contactable from the Internet and in order to communicate with your Teltonika router you will first of all need to create a VPN from your PC / Laptop to the fixed IP sim provider VPN server and this way you will be able to communicate with your RUT950 and use port forwarding to communicate with your attached devices on the LAN.  Using the Teltonika RUT950 with a Private Fixed IP SIM card is the more secure way to use this service.

RUT950 with standard 4G SIM (Non Fixed IP)

If you just need a 4G mobile broadband Internet connection and so not need to remotely access the Teltonika router, or remotely connect to any of the attached devices on the LAN, then you can use a standard 4G SIM card, directly obtained from the UK mobile phone networks, Vodafone, O2, 3Mobile and EE.  This may be if you just need those attached devices to communicate outwards.  For example, using a Teltonika RUT950 router with a standard 4G SIM card can be used to create a VPN to a VPN server, because the Teltonika router, acting as a VPN client can connect to the VPN server because the VPN server has a fixed IP address.  In this scenario the Teltonika router cannot act as the VPN server, because using a normal 4G data SIM card the RUT950 is not contactable.  Many users want to use an unlimited data SIM card obtained directly from the mobile networks, because it appears like a cheap option and then realise that they cannot remotely connect to the router, nor use DDNS and their next search is for an unlimited data fixed IP SIM card, but all they find are fixed IP SIM plans with monthly allowances at a much higher cost than an unlimited SIM but that is because it is a service that enables remote access so of course that service has a value and an associated cost.

Reliability

The Teltonika RUT950 has several features such as ping reboot / Cell ICMP check that need to be configured to help the router maintain it’s 4G connection because 3G and 4G and even 5G mobile broadband services are an always available service rather than an always on service.  Using a feature such as Ping Reboot, the RUT950 router can ping an IP address over the Internet at regular intervals to confirm it has a valid Internet connection, rather than just being able to see the local mobile network base station.  In the event the router has been disconnected by the mobile network it can reboot the modem or router to try and reconnect.  This will mean that whilst the router will not be contactable at this time, the ping reboot feature will provide a solution the same as powering off and on, which we all know is one of the best ways to get something to work!  It is worth knowing that the RUT950 router, or in fact any Teltonika router, or any other brand of 4G router cannot guarantee a 100% uptime using a single SIM / single modem as the router itself relies upon the 4G network to ensure availability and connection and the mobile networks do not provide this guarantee.  The ping reboot, timed reboot and other mechanisms used by the Teltonika router are designed to get the router back online as quickly as possible in the event the mobile network disconnects it.  You can also get the router to connect to the Teltonika RMS platform so it can update the Teltonika RMS platform with information about the router, so you will be able to see periods of disconnection and get notifications of when the router has been disconnected and notifications of when it has been able to reconnect.  Using a Fixed IP SIM Card provider will also not be able to provide a guaranteed 100% uptime for your 4G router.

SPECIFICATION