Caveat emptor: avoid Inseego 5G products unless you still believe in classful routing

Tue Mar 28 19:24:58 UTC 2023

In the category of "I can't believe I still have to worry about this in
2023"
comes an unfortunate discovery I made recently when setting up a network
for a local non-profit.  The Inseego FX2000 5G router looked like a nice
product, it supports OpenVPN out of the box, flexible firewall rules, etc.

What I did *NOT* expect from a device made in 2023, and didn't think to
ask about ahead of time, is whether it supported classless routing.

Setting the unit up, I discovered the hard way that the developers are
apparently still working from 1989 textbooks.  The only netmask the
router will accept for a 10.x.x.x. subnet is 255.0.0.0.  Absolutely refuses
to accept a different length netmask.

Even the user manual reflects the inherent classful assumption:

"
IPv4
IP Address: The IP address for your FX2000, as seen from the local network.
Normally, you can use the default value.
Subnet Mask: The subnet mask network setting for the FX2000. The default
value 255.255.255.0 is standard for small (class "C") networks. If you
change the LAN IP Address, make sure to use the correct Subnet mask for the
IP address range of the LAN IP address
"

So, before anyone else makes the same mistake I did, I thought I'd give the
community a heads-up to avoid the Inseego line of 5G products, as they're
woefully behind the times in their understanding of IPv4 subnetting as it
exists in 2023.  ^_^;

Thanks!

Matt
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