Wireless Joint

TL:DR version: Yes, suggestions at the bottom.


Long general slightly noobie version:

So, lets Clarify...

The Sprint based devices do not allow SIM swapping. But! That is a completely literal statement. SPRINT based, official Sprint device, firmware will not allow you to use a SIM from another ...

Been researching what I need to buy to potentially replace my Coolpad Surf (Provider: Connectall [similar to pcsforpeople], uses sprint network)

Logged the coolpad's debug/connection data for 10 minutes. During this time the "Serving Cell (SC)" jumped to different SC about 10 or so times. Each SC ...

As some of you may know, or have recently found out, the newest Quectel modems (EM160, EM120, RM500, RM510, RM502) do NOT use all of the same AT commands as the predecessor modems.

Here are a list of a few new commands and what they should do, and a list of commands that I've found not working ...

The following commands have been tested and work on the EM16 (EM160R), and possibly on other newer models.

Disable auto-MBN mode, and set it to generic profile:
AT+QMBNCFG="AutoSel",0 < 0=deactivate / 1=activate
AT+QMBNCFG="Deactivate" < Activate / Deactivate
AT+QMBNCFG="Select","ROW_Commercial ...

I found a way to make it behave properly . Need to lock the explicit bands with AT+QNWPREFCFG="lte_band",1:3:7 then it will do 3CA or 4CA. If you leave it "free" it will stick to 2CA... buggy firmware, as usual from Quectel

I'm using an em160 on AT&T. I am able to CA B66+B66, or B66+B12, or B66+B12+B66. But it will only do it when the tower allows. When there is congestion on the tower, it is unlikely to have CA at all. Though it will usually still allow 4x4 MIMO.

For me there were two reasons to choose the em160 over ...

The CA is not, and can not be, controlled by the modem at all; it merely has capability.

If you lock to those specific bands, then you have a good chance of getting it to do so. They kicker is that the modem HAS TO use the first band in your CA combo as the anchor band, aka the primary serving cell ...

Diversity Antennas

Found this

What do diversity antennas do?

JESSE ROTHSCHILD AUGUST 13, 2014

Antenna diversity typically uses two antennas in order to increase the quality and reliability of wireless communications. In order to understand diversity antennas, you need to understand the idea ...

I had the included 12w power brick fail on mine, and later the 24w one that I pulled out of the power supply bin also failed.

The one thing I've noticed it that the DC plug connector on the board is inset a bit from the front of the case. The standard ~8mm depth that most DC barrel connectors have ...

Yes, you will need a SIM with an active data plan of some sort. There's lots of threads on here about the options. To me, that is the hardest part of the equation. I was nervous about assembling the hardware, but it went pretty smoothly. The real challenge is getting unthrottled, unlimited data. We ...

thank you

Sorry so late of response. Got super behind.


In general the flat panel directional antennas do very well when dealing with trees.

That one I have tested very well with the EM12G.

What TTL did you set on these for IPv4 and IPv6, what DNS and time servers did you specify. Also, ATT's vpn.accessmylan.net may add latency and network management depending on the reseller configuration. It's a back haul service that gives them more network management.

Thanks for sharing that. Good stuff.


QFlash: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Yyp2pr0zOg1hMG1itnmt1rz0oR_aera/view?usp=sharing
Unzip it and find the QFlash.exe file and run it.

Windows drivers: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Demcq6rn8liMWZG2CaYidoJ_J1p_D6Hw/view?usp=sharing
Install the drivers ...

I would flash the router more than once, sometimes the oddest things happen with a firmware update. Some thing it's dumb, but I have zero issues when I flash my routers 3x in a row before setting up anything.

I would remove the SIM card while flashing though.

Then once you have a stable fresh ...

If it aint broke dont fix it

Ok, welp going to come clean here.

I had the wifi SMA female antennae plugged into the SMA female connectors coming from the modem....

Not a super good connection going F to F


Used the SMA Male antennae and miraculously was able to get a signal.

I'm going to go crawl back under my rock and hide ...

Have you tried power cycling the modem without having to reboot the router:

I've seen troubleshooting steps for all kinds of devices and whatnot which always say to unplug the device/remove the battery when attempting to reboot it. I'm not too sure myself what difference it makes, probably something about the power being removed from all components, which doesn't fully ...

In the case of these cellular routers, unless you script the reboot to run AT+CFUN=1,1 the router will reboot and reload drivers but the modem does not reboot. It will actually stay active as well. The router requests a new session, but technically it doesn't need to. Very odd tbh.

I wouldn't recommend opening any ports if you didn't have to anyway. Just that much more of a potential security vulnerability. If its that much of a problem I would dig around and find out just exactly why those ports need to be open for proper operation? Usually the only time a port needs to be ...

I suppose that is one of the downsides of gaming through cellular connections instead of broadband. But then again, the good outweighs the bad.

Am I correct that it isn't possible to "open" a port?
Could this be the cause of me not being able to complete a tracert?
* https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=5551#p5551


For the most part this is correct. LTE providers basically use what is essentially a private network. You are not ...

While I'm not fully sure if this is port-related or not, I did find a fair few reasons why your packet isn't finding the destination. Here's a thread listing a lot of them. Maybe they can shed some light on the situation.

https://superuser.com/questions/690447/ping-ip-returned-destination-net ...

What APN did you set? The old sprint APN wont work any more. Needs to be B2B.t-mobile.com or fast.t-mobile.com.

In my experience so so far with the new t-mobile sims is that you need to match modem identities.

I tried B2B.t-mobile.com and fast.t-mobile.com, save & apply, reboot, but sadly it still left me with the modem screen reporting "Failed to Connect : Retrying"
I also ensured I set the band locking to use all bands.

I was initially using the isdn.sprint.com (possibly mispelled it) and was sure ...

It is set in non-printables so to the naked eye it looks like this
You can view it as hex and see it

Didneywhorl


I have Calyx with RM500Q-AE 5g modem. Updated to the latest firmware on modem and router. I have 2 x 2 mimo antennas and my signal strength is around 93%. I frequently have disconnects every 24 hours. Mostly happens at night and when I wake up to turn on PC, it says no internet. When ...

Search my posts, I did a step by step on flashing Quectel modems while still in the router. Will 100% work on the wg1608.

The at command manual will give you the commands you seek. Or update the wg1608 firmware, rooter added band locking to the ui.

It turns out my laptop had the wrong Lan drivers installed. Used another computer and got it working right away and you don't even need to wait 15 sec before/after. Just few seconds unplugged then 4-5 seconds after and you get the portal.

Thank you and the others for helping me on this.



If ...

Glad the AT command seems to work fine though

user232 wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 1:36 pm No, I am unaware of what that is -- I assumed it was a term for changing the APN. Will look it up now, using the em12-g. Will report back. Thanks for the information again Radec!

No problem, glad to help if I can.

Sent you a PM

Update on this. i have fixed the issue and discovered the root cause via the Quectel forums: https://forums.quectel.com/t/rm502q-ae-t-mobile-loss-of-internet-but-modem-is-saying-connected/18377

This router [wg1608] specially versions “V1 and V2” boards have WiFi problems on 5.8G when you install a ...

If you sort through the 2nd log you will find :

Sun Sep 4 12:33:46 2022 user.info mwan3track[12895]: Check (ping) failed for target "1.1.1.1" on interface wan1 (wwan0). Current score: 10\
Sun Sep 4 12:33:50 2022 user.info mwan3track[12895]: Check (ping) failed for target "1.0.0.1" on interface ...

Give us more details if you would. Not everyone will read the kernel log file unfortunately, though I do. :)

What I see is a ton of dhcp server errors and a software watchdog (ping tests) resetting the modem.

I would remove all the extra features (base factory defaults) and setup one new thing at ...

Might need a reflash and factory reset, maybe update in firmware, but it might just be failing .. maybe.

Hard to say. It's not really jumping out at me.

Have you also replaced the power supply with a new one that has at least 2.5A of supply?

do you have heatsink installed?

https://youtu.be/PGs0w5MoIDs?si=JmU1C80-R5urFiZ3
Accordingly software offfloading will increase throughput significantly. Bonus is hardware offloading is also supported by wg1608 with the mt7621 hardware.

From the experiment he is limited to 250Mbps without software offloading.

Im using openwrt ...

Yes ~2 years ago I removed the lid of the 1608 and put a finned cpu heatsink on the em12g's metal shield held in place with white thermal compound. It reduced the temperature by some but I doubt its nesecary in the environment I have it in.
I do not think the resetting is due to temperature, I ...

Good advice @BillA . I've not flashed the em12 before since it's been problem free. I will see if I can do it with qfirehose and/or try to find m2 sled I bought years back.

Unfortunately I don't have any other router besides the 1608 nor do I have another module. Looks like most options of buying ...

Update: Seems like the issue is resolved. Here is what I did:

Thanks again for all the help and advice fellas, will update if anything changes.
Cheers.



I'm glad that it seems to be working, at least for now.
For random modem/router issues it's always a good idea to start with a fresh baseline ...