Configure WAN (Remote) Access Settings on Sierra Wireless Device

WARNING: In today's dismal climate of malware and hacking attacks perpetrated by malicious actors on the Internet, great caution should be exercised when exposing access of network equipment to the public Internet.  Enabling administrative access to devices from the WAN should only be configured as a last resort and in accordance with your company's security policies.  Instead, INS highly recommends use of the manufacturer's secure cloud hosted management solution - Sierra Wireless Airlink Management Service (ALMS).  For more information, please visit the ALMS product page link at the bottom of this article.  

Wondering why you can't remotely connect to your new Raven RV50 modem or the new batch of GX450/ES450 modems? If the ALEOS Firmware in the modem is 4.5.0 or later, then the reason is most likely due to a new setting in the ACEmanager configuration. As part of enhanced security measures instituted by Sierra Wireless, ACEmanager "Over-The-Air" (OTA) access is disabled by default in ALEOS firmware 4.5.0 and higher. If you desire remote access to the Airlink modem for management or configuration purposes, you must enable this setting prior to field deployments. You can find this setting by logging into ACEmanager (locally of course) and navigate to Services -> ACEmanager -> Remote Access.

We highly recommend changing the default password once remote access is enabled (Admin -> Change Password) to secure the modem from unauthorized access/logins.

If (after ensuring Remote Access is enabled) you are still unable to remotely connect to your modem, then this requires more advanced troubleshooting which is beyond the scope of this post. Give us a call and one of our application engineers can assist.

Links of Interest

• Sierra Wireless Products
• Sierra Wireless ALMS