Wireless Joint

In case anyone else ends up at this thread, I was facing what I think is the same issue. I was trying to get expresspvn working in client mode on:

Hostname WiFiX
Model WE1326v5
Architecture MediaTek MT7621 ver:1 eco:3
Firmware Version GoldenOrb_2019-04-09
Kernel Version 4.14.63

I was able to use ...

My setup is pretty much as you described, and I can get to my main house network from the Lakehouse w/o issue.

What would the purpose be of adding the VPN to this? Happy to help get it set up.

That's a cool combination of equipment you have.

My bandwidth is highly variable....likely related ...

I've tried to figure this out, but haven't been successful: How do you run all the data through a VPN between the two? I've got two ATT and one Verizon plan.

What is the purpose of the added VPN in this case? There should already be encryption in the OpenMPTCProuter tunnel.

If it is so you can ...

Wow, now that was one heck of a long and detailed test. :D

Tell me about it. And that was just the beginning! I figured someone might benefit from knowing what is possible and some of the hurdles faced.

I've noticed that a VOIP connection's reliability depends on several factors, which ...

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- The other thing I tested, and the main reason I'm doing all this, was voice calling over this multipath connection. I only had time to try a wifi call over the connection to a service where you can record your voice and play it back. Someone in the house is on the phone the entire ...

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The only two ways I found to get video streaming (for Netflix, Hulu, etc.) to work when the multipath tunnel was in place were:

1) Specify the IP address of the machine that was accessing the streaming service (my laptop, for instance). The downside to doing this is that the any ...

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When my order arrived Sunday, from Amazon, I did the following:

- Set up vlans on the switch. I'm doing a one armed router setup, where the OpenMPTCProuter will send and receive all data on a single ethernet cable to/from the switch. I've set up port 1 on the switch to have tagged ...

Update on my implementation...

Received the following pieces in the mail Sunday afternoon:

- Raspberry Pi 4 B with 8 GB of RAM (in a starter kit that had case and other stuff) - https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-8GB-Starter-Kit/dp/B08956GVXN

- 5 port managed switch - https://www.amazon.com ...

Nothing to do with the questions above, but for people reading who are interested in what people are using and how their network are set up, mine consists of the following currently:

- 11 down/0.8 up DSL (currently not being used at all and I'll probably drop it if I add another LTE connection ...

I'd highly recommend the RBM33G, as it has a speedy processor (for a router product), 2x mPCIe slots, a USB3 port, real gigabit Ethernet, an m.2 SSD slot, a wide range of power voltages including passive PoE, and a price point similar to the RPi. For me the 24V PoE was a huge plus, as I already ...

For anyone else who runs across this post, here is some added information that might help.

Your router may be set to UTC time by default. For me, in US Central Standard Time right now, that means 6 hours earlier than UTC time. My router rebooted at 9 pm (and had been doing so since I put it into ...

So it is not sim/provider related. Just modem related. Multiple cat9-20 modems do not work? Are they all Sierra?

I suppose they could have blacklisted that IMEI and not deactivated the sim. Yet, they are fine with the ca6 modem IMEI? But if you changed the SIM IMEI sanctioned IMEI in the sim account, then that wouldn't seem to jive. That makes me think maybe it is a modem setting like they mentioned in that ...

@bv2020... When you use the IMEI change page, are you changing the IMEI tied to the account to be the sierra modem IMEI number?

I did find something related to EMM detach errors in this thread and the original poster did report that he go things working by trying various settings. I didn't try to ...

Hello all.
Just wanted to know if anyone has had their AT&T shut down? Currently my sister's house has been shut down. Was getting it thru a reseller. My parents on the same reseller and theirs is still working.

Mine is still working, but it is being used very little at the moment and has been ...

In my tests using external USB adapter / enclosure the SIM works fine outside of WE826. Even works by plugging in my phone and recognizes it as separate device.

Now I have to try the load balancing with external USB modem and my phone :)

Any information is helpful, regarding the multi-wan with ...

There's a better and simpler way.
Keep the router in the house, connect a powered USB3-hub to its usb port and a single USB3 extension cable into the USB3-hub and run it to the roof. On the roof connect a second USB3-hub to the end of extension cable so you can plug in two modems or a phone and a ...

I'm pretty sure its intertower CA, you have me second guessing myself now, lol. It's been awhile since I dug deep into it. The way I picture it is all towers within the same TAC (tower area code) are all on the same network and are all interconnected kinda like a home setup of all computers tied ...

You might be surprised on what you find out while trying different scenarios and diff. antenna setups. Closest tower for me is 3 or 4 miles away. LTE can play mind games with you as it uses different signal paths to increase speed so sometimes not using an external antenna at all can be better ...

Another option could be to have your secondary setup such as a cheap WE826-T2 with usb/phone connection inside house and run single long ethernet cable from it's lan port up to the WAN port of the main router on roof. This would only require running ethernet cable up to roof. Then load balance on ...

Router1: WE1326/Sierra EM7565/ATT Tablet plan
Router2: WE826-T2/USB Note5 phone/ATT prepaid plan
Loadbalance: "wan" interface = internal sierra | "wan1" interface = ethernet cable from Router1 to Router2 WAN port.

That is just how I have it setup currently. You could just as easily use only 1 ...

I remember buying my Tripp-Lite cables from Provantage a long time ago, but I'm sure NewEgg and others have it too. At the time all they had was 16ft. long, but now they have anything between 6ft to 80ft long. Both Tripp-Lite and StarTech are great bands.
Just use a high powered USB2/3 hub ...

A couple links of possible products for anyone who is looking. You can get them in longer lengths to reduce the number of links and to reduce the total price:

https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Hi-Speed-Extension-U026-016/dp/B0002D6QJO

https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Hi-Speed-Repeater-U042-036/dp ...

I have 5 pieces of 16 foot long active USB2 extensions daisy chained together for a total of 80 feet to extend the external modem enclosure from the attic down to my office where I have the WE3526 router box. No extra power is need on the far end, only a high powered USB hub connected to the ...

I was quite surprised they are canceling plans during the stay at home deal. Att is giving me extra data on my phone plan and I read all this stuff that even if you can't pay your bill they will keep you connected. Then the day before my daughter starts her online schooling our ipad plan gets ...

If there's a will, there's a way. ;)
To solve your "topology" issue, you could run any length USB cable by simply daisy chaining as many 16 foot section of active cables as you need. I'm running an 80 feet long USB cable perfectly fine made up of 5 sections. Then there's USB to CAT5/6 cable ...

To be more cost effective, you could temporarily change the plan on one of your personal phones to unlimited (or permanently for that matter), and tether it to the router as a modem whenever ATT boots you off their network.

Trying to play this one through in my head. In my case, my cellular ...

For now i'm simply gonna use the tablet plan and the tethered prepaid plan and load balance to keep numbers down. I'm not gonna quit using the tablet plan as it would defeat the purpose of having it altogether.

Is there a way to do this in a single router running GoldenOrb/WiFix or are you ...

My wife and daughter stream TV and you tube basically 24/7 we were in the terabyte a month range so I knew we would be high on the radar. Although this month when they canceled it we were only at like 200gb.

Thanks, that helps. They may be setting their scan for recent past use, not just going ...

I finally got an email today from att like almost a week after it quit working. It was pretty funny how they worded it. It said my plan had been canceled due to my request or inactivity, then gave me a link to resign up, which obviously doesn't have the unlimited plan anymore. Its nice how they ...

Well, don't expect great results with a 3-4 year old phone (CAT9-12), gotta use something more modern from the past 2 years, preferably an unlocked Samsung S8/9/10 (CAT16-20) which can be gotten used for a couple of hundred bucks off of Ebay. When using a Samsung S9 CAT-18 as a modem, surprisingly ...

Based on lots of testing, I've noticed some interesting results. Using a phone with a higher CAT# 18/20/22 connected to the router as a modem can often outperform even the best internal modems. It might sound counter intuitive that a phone with its tiny internal antennas can achieve better speeds ...

Can anyone report whether they have seen an account get shut down while using a Quectel modem? It seems like some AT&T tablet auto pay are getting shut down (luck of the draw). So if someone has one of those plans, with a Sierra modem, they can risk that or they can switch to a brand that isn't in ...

Yes that is correct. I gave them the modem IMEI number when they asked but stuck it in a phone to receive the activation text. The phone plans are completely different than the tablet or iPad plans that they have started doing away with.

Thanks for the clarification. I really appreciate it. I ...

They are able to detect and block the modem IMEI number. You can activate the sim using the modem IMEI but when connecting it sends you to ATT homepage. Take the sim out put it in a phone everything works fine. Hope this helps.

Interesting. When I set up my tablet plan, I didn't even have to ...

So the screw is getting tighter every day, now with all ATT prepaids not working in modem/routers.
*** I've got confirmation that in fact ATT is blocking modems by its imei, which sucks. ***

When you say they are blocking them based on IMEI, do you mean if you first use the sim in a phone first ...

What is it? I see multiple cards in there. How does it compare to the WE1326 with EM7565 and why did you change?

Since I purchased it more than 30 days ago, I have to do the RMA process through Sierra Wireless. I submitted my request to them for the RMA. thewirelesshaven.com gave me all the links needed to check my warranty, read about the RMA process, and submit the ticket. (posting this for others who may ...

JimHelms wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:59 am Contact the store via contact form.

Will do. Thanks!

Yeah, I am not sure what is happening or where the issue is. Login into your account and select the order with the modem and execute an RMA.

Sorry, but I'm not seeing an RMA option. I'm logged in through Amazon, so I don't know if that is why, or if I'm just blind. :D

Where on the screen ...

Okay, I downloaded the Sierra drivers and installed them. I disabled wifi and plugged the M.2 to mini PCIe adapter and modem into my laptop. Nothing in Device Manager. This was with the newer adapter I bought. I switched to my original adapter and same thing. Nothing showing up. I unplugged the wifi ...

I assume you have a USB to M.2 adapter. You should be able to plug it into a USB port on a Windows Laptop/PC and install the Sierra Wireless generic software drivers for Windows.

Just remove the SIM Card and/or do not try to connect to the internet while plugged behind the Windows machine.

Then ...

Thanks. Is there any particular distro I need or utilities I need to include to make it see the modem when plugged into the mini-PCIe slot of the laptop?

I've been out of the loop for the past couple months due to other priorities. In July, my EM7565 in my WE1326 router, stopped working. The router doesn't see the modem. I ordered another M.2 to mini-PCIe adapter and tried that today in the router. Same issue.

My Windows laptop (Dell XPS L502x ...

https://youtu.be/k73AFybi7zk

Video of how Starlink will work. Good coverage, would hate to plot a manned trajectory through that cloud. Reminds me of the snowballing collision at the beginning of "Gravity". LOL

I've thought that same thing!

Thanks for posting the latest video from Mark ...

Need4Speed wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:09 pm As soon as I switched over to grab screen shot of signal stats it switched right back to b66.

That Walter is a slippery fish!

Damn good speeds when you can catch him though!

Yeah it doesn't, I recall seeing it on a forum somewhere, but can't find it now.

All I know is updating to the latest firmware fixed that issue, but then caused another issue of band names being all jacked up lol.

Good old quality control! Was that on Verizon where the band names were messed ...

It's on their site with the firmware release notes (you have to have a login to see this information).

I took a screenshot of the bug info see below:

Screen Shot 2019-08-21 at 3.16.00 PM.png

When I upgraded the EM7565 I had to this version it resolved the issue.

Does it say it is specific to ...

Wait just a minute! B66 problems or not, you do have a primary antenna vs secondary antenna issue.

You posted these stats for the non-Walter CID:

AT!GSTATUS?
!GSTATUS:
Current Time: 10873 Temperature: 55
Reset Counter: 1 Mode: ONLINE
System mode: LTE PS state: Attached
LTE band: B12 LTE bw: 5 ...

I think my next tweak will be to close the distance between the two and see if I can get any improvement. I'm just nervous that it's gonna be extremely difficult to get them back in sync once I loosen up a mount.

If there is the bug that swwifty mentioned, then that makes it much more difficult ...

Thanks. I'm getting very consistent speeds with the current setup. I'll average 50-60dl/25-30up during congestion times and when it's not congested it'll give me the faster band 2 that pulls 100-130dl/35-40up. It's operating in QMI since that's how it came. You think switching to MBIM would help ...

FYI the EM7565 has a firmware bug that shows the main signal stats on B66 to be weaker than they really are. I noticed that in a couple of your screenshots. It's not an actual problem.

Wow, that's a crazy, specific bug. Do you have a link to a source on this bug from the Sierra website, or was ...

I am guessing, at that distance, any minor variations in the mounts or the antennas themselves will be magnified and can result in RSRP differences. If you swap them at the router, then if the problem is aiming of the top antenna or anything in the cabling between the antennas and the router, you'll ...

Can you provide a mapping table of CID and distance to the tower and max speed achieved up and down? That would make it easier to see how far you are going for a given speed. With your ultra flat, and mostly clear, terrain, and these high gain antennas, the distance isn't as big of a factor as it is ...

You caught Walter!!! :-)

Interesting that Walter's signal strength is worse than the other CID. The strengths of the primary CIDs may be close enough that it is a toss of the dice which one you get. It doesn't use secondaries for deciding that. It is also possible that it is taking away the other ...

HA! So you don't *know* which tower the 166 Mbps came from. :lol: That is damn fast, and at such a distance. But it does make me think of searching for Walter in On Golden Pond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_h8C_rCbgU You know he's out there somewhere now! :lol:

Your uploads are suffering with ...

That *is* a long way! lol

The online databases often have incorrect and missing information, so I wouldn't take too much stock in that. The locations, especially, are often very wrong. If you use google maps in satellite mode and find the tower there and get the coordinates from that, then you'll ...

That is a different tower than your earlier tests. Look at the CID. Could be same tower and different transmitters, but the band is different too. If it is jumping between towers and the bands are mutually exclusive, you can lock out the band(s) of the one you don't want. You could lock out band 66 ...

Congrats on the good results!

Something weird happened when you disconnected the second antenna. That wasn't just losing MIMO. Might want to try it again to see if those results repeat.

You have 20 MHz total bandwidth. Are there possibly other towers you can reach? They might have more bandwidth.

That's called SUCCESS! Congratulations! :D And good luck at your place.

What is the last screenshot from? The one where it was only 4.64 Mbps down. Your test server was different then too.

Regarding coax cable, another option is powering the devices outside in weatherproof enclosures and then ...

There is a build of the WiFiX firmware that apparently has a login option where you can get the signal stats updated in near realtime instead of having to run the command manually in the misc modem screen. I think this would help you greatly in aiming the antennas. If you have a hand held signal ...

I did fill out a survey on the site to send to the carriers yesterday and I will let you know what they say from my particular location

Can you elaborate more on what type of survey you filled out and on which site?

As for my testing, unfortunately, it won't be really soon. I have a car ...

I don't know if this is a good or bad thing though, makes me feel like my hands are %100 tied when dealing with this. As who can I call to tell them a tower is crap? Basically no one, I just have to wait almost 2 months for things to get better or hope they get better.

Why couldn't you call ...

If I try it with my phone SIM in the LTE router, I'll report back on the results.

@JimHelms: I have t-mobile for my phone service. I've never tried to push the data usage on my "unlimited" plan (50 GB soft cap).

Do you know if they handle it like AT&T, where they deprioritize you, and you are only affected if the tower is congested, or is it flat throttling after you've reached ...

serverside wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:17 pm So, just to update this, after everything I did, I'm magically back to low ping, no VPN...I'm going to take a guess and say there was something horribly wrong with the tower I connect to, as I'm back to normal everything.

Congrats!

That's weird.

I haven't had time to test mine yet. I did get my new adapter in the mail. Maybe I'll find time this weekend.

Congrats on a working setup!

Could anyone why it shows LTE Band as B5, then shows SCC1 Band as B30 then SCC2 Band as B2?

The first one is the primary carrier. The other two are secondary carriers. The first one is used for downloads and uploads. The first plus the other two are used for downloads by aggregating all that ...

When you say disconnects, do you mean modem disconnects? I am not sure how you could have a modem disconnect and not miss any pings, unless the frequency of pings is too infrequent. Are they run every second? And is there a difference between the router pings and Google pings?

Wow, my old laptop (Dell XPS L502x) does have a mini PCIe slot. In fact, if the internet is to be believed, it has 2 of them - a half size and full size. I'm out for much of today, but maybe tonight I'll mess with it. If the adapter and modem work in the laptop, then I guess the router is bad. If it ...

So your modems work in your other router? If so, so weird that all the other router functions work, but not the communication to the modem.

I ordered a new adapter of a different brand. I'll see if that works. If not, I'll need to try to determine if it is the router or modem. Maybe one of my ...

I took my WE1326 apart, unplugged the modem from the M.2 to mini PCIe adapter and the adapter from the board, cleaned the contacts, put them back in, and booted the router. Same thing as before. It can't see the modem. I reset the router to chinese defaults, flashed GoldenOrb, and same deal. No ...

I was going to take mine apart and reseat the adapter and modem. Might do that later today.

Same here. "No entries in log file"

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