[SOLVED!] Losing constant Internet connection on Mofi 4500 (and my mind)

[chuckkemp]

Thanks for the info!

Yeah, I did it manually. I followed the online video and It says 4.2.8 on the status page.

I rewatched the video last night to see if I missed anything. Sure enough, I turned the video off before the end where it mentioned to do a factory reset. I did a reset last night and so far its staying connected. Been about 12 hrs now. So finger crossed this works!

Thanks again for the reply

Glad to hear you had success!

[LonnieM]

Thanks for the information on the MOFI firmware upgrade. In August I had moved my ATT SIM to a Nighthawk so that I could use T-Mobile in the MOFI (T-Mobile does not display the problem).

FYI, the ATT SIM still exhibits the problem in the Nighthawk MR1100 - they have not addressed it at Netgear yet. So Nighthawk users need to hope for an update or buy a MOFI.

I updated the MOFI firmware and put the ATT SIM back into it, and it has been running without needing a reboot for almost two days. First time in about four months! It does "stutter" on the connection occasionally as the firmware resets the connection as described - I notice it if on a Zoom call or similar. But it is MUCH better than having to reboot.

Thanks to all who contributed.

[catman823]

HI everyone. I updated the firmware as the user mentioned, and while it didn't fix the issue for me, it made the issue much less noticeable. Before when I would lose my connection I would lose my external IP address and I would have to reboot the modem to get it back. This took a few minutes (long enough that zoom would cut out). After updating to the latest firmware again and doing a factory reset I am still losing connection a few times a day but the modem recovers in about 20 seconds and doesn't require a reboot. The recovery time is fast enough that I typically don't even notice it. The only way I can tell is that my status in my work program goes blank when it happens. While I don't consider this to be a real fix, it at least provides some relief for me and my family while working/schooling from home.

[codingparadox]

Living on a boat, we ran into this problem ~2-3 months ago when it started as well. We've been using NoLimitData as our AT&T MVNO, but it sounds like lots of people in here have been trying other providers and gotten the same problem. Has anyone tried one of the "high tier" ones like UnlimitedVille to see if their business plans get around the usage throttling that we all appear to be running into? Having to reset our modem every few hours in the middle of the work day is awkward and embarrassing, so we need to find some workaround, even if it's hundreds of dollars a month.

[Aggressiveflying]

I’ve been using a mofi router for MANY years(5+) with an unlimited data plan and have always had the issue of dropped connection. I believe it is with the carrier. Here is my setup and reasoning is this:

I have a USB MODEN through Sprint unlimited data. (Typically use 1,200GB/mo).

SIM card, from USB modem, is put into mofi4500 V2 running latest firmware. Mofi4500 is connected to an external antenna. Signal strength is excellent. Download speeds (depending on Connected band) run between 30-80MB/s. Ping is around 30-40ms.

Internet using mifi4500 works until it doesn’t and requires a reboot.

I’ve tried everything Mofi customer support has suggested and what has been reiterated in this thread (with the exception of VPN) to no avail.

I sometimes have three TV’s streaming simultaneously, 4-5 computers, plus whatever phones in the building connected and downloading.

Here is why I think it’s the carriers that are dropping the internet.

I plugged the USB Modem into my desktop and set up the desktop as my router and still the internet connection drops under heavy loads/usage.

I’m not sure there is a solution for the dropped connection. Also, I have worked with sprints tech support (not the general support) and have provided them Numerous data logsfr both the mofi and the USB modem and they also cannot understand why the connection drops.

[chuckkemp]

Living on a boat, we ran into this problem ~2-3 months ago when it started as well. We've been using NoLimitData as our AT&T MVNO, but it sounds like lots of people in here have been trying other providers and gotten the same problem. Has anyone tried one of the "high tier" ones like UnlimitedVille to see if their business plans get around the usage throttling that we all appear to be running into? Having to reset our modem every few hours in the middle of the work day is awkward and embarrassing, so we need to find some workaround, even if it's hundreds of dollars a month.

Have you uploaded the firmware version 4.2.8-std? My experience is you have to do the manual flash to get this loaded and not rely on the "remote flash" as only the earlier version installs yet indicate you have the latest release.

Since I have loaded 4.2.8 I have had to only reboot my modem 3 times in just over a 10 days or so, vice rebooting every 2 hours or so. Bear in mind that this fix just restarts the IPv4 in the background so you may see some internet delay while it resets, but it all happens in the background without you having to perform a manual reboot of the router.

[codingparadox]

We are not using a MOFI, we're using a Cradlepoint.

[bdunst]

I am having this issue on both ATT and Visible.
And as far as I can tell my firmware is updated properly to 4.2.8-std.
Although if the MOFI would say that is the current version - and it is not - not sure how I could know that.

[chuckkemp]

I am having this issue on both ATT and Visible.
And as far as I can tell my firmware is updated properly to 4.2.8-std.
Although if the MOFI would say that is the current version - and it is not - not sure how I could know that.

Check the "Status" page to show what version you are operating, look under the "General" button. Also one user reported that he didn't perform the last step for the "manual flash" procedure and that is to do "System" then "Factory Default". Once he did that the unit performed as expected. Don't forget after a "Factory Default" you'll have to reset the Wifi password and such.



Hope this helps

[DWRIGHTKM]

Yeah, I was still having the disconnect problem with the updated 4.2.8 firmware. It was listed on my status page, but didn't seem to make any difference. It wasn't till I did a factory reset and went through the install wizard again with new a new password, that I saw improvements.

Its been a few days now and I'm up and running. The Mofi still resets, but is much faster now. Maybe 30 second downtime or so. However, the resets don't seem as frequent. I been playing online games and streaming Neflix/YouTube without any huge issues. I had one disconnect in a online game over last 3 or 4 days. Not a huge issue as it would establish a new connection automatically within a short time. Before, I had to manually turn off and on my mofi4500. Would take much longer for the mofi to boot back up and establish a connection.. Was a pain!

I know this doesn't really address the main issue with the random att disconnects. However, its a huge quality of life change from how it was acting. Hopefully, it gets resolved soon either through Mofi, att or by someone on these forums!

[patchesj]

So I've been troubleshooting a similar issue. I am advance band locked to B2 and B12, I use 2 bands so that carrier aggregation still works correctly. Everything has been great until about a week ago and now I am noticing the same full bars to 2 bars, loss of data connection, and then reconnect. Happens every hour or so. What is very curious is that my Mofi will reconnect on Band 4, even though that is theoretically locked out. If I stay on 4, no drops. If I force back to Band 2, then the weird stuff starts up again. I am wondering if ATT is somehow trying to force hotspot type devices over to B4 for channel use concerns?

[Didneywhorl]

So I've been troubleshooting a similar issue. I am advance band locked to B2 and B12, I use 2 bands so that carrier aggregation still works correctly. Everything has been great until about a week ago and now I am noticing the same full bars to 2 bars, loss of data connection, and then reconnect. Happens every hour or so. What is very curious is that my Mofi will reconnect on Band 4, even though that is theoretically locked out. If I stay on 4, no drops. If I force back to Band 2, then the weird stuff starts up again. I am wondering if ATT is somehow trying to force hotspot type devices over to B4 for channel use concerns?

It's possible I guess. A LOT of odd and interesting changes are going on with all the carriers. ATT and Tmobile seem to be the most active in upsetting the norm lately.

[zaqrat]

Joining in on the fun we all seem to be having... I'm a relatively new MOFI user, and AT&T is the best for me in my area, although I do see T-Mobile, so might give them a try. My question today is if anyone has tried the new firmware mofi just posted a couple days ago?

Firmware 4.2.9std (For all providers)
Date Released: Sept 29 2020

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CLICK HERE TO SAVE FIRMWARE 4_2_9std
http://mofinetwork.com/firmware/mofi4500v2/mofi4500_4GXeLTE_V2Firmware4_2_9std.bin

Checksum: f19d21f108240bb5c57d86a3075e33f4

Change Logs:

- 4.2.9 Fixed some re-connection issues on all networks including Verizon and T-Mobile
- 4.2.9 Fix Speed Throttling Option via MAC address (can now speed throttle by device)

I'm currently running 4.2.8std, and dealing with the drop outs, but my recovery times aren't nearly as quick as 20-30 seconds, I sometimes go minutes... I almost never have to reboot though...

----

Has anyone tried playing around with the TTL numbers?

Cheers!

[zaqrat]

How do you lock to 2 bands? I'm not seeing the option anywhere?

Thanks!

[patchesj]

I'm running 4.2.9std. Was still having issues with reconnect times and generic firmware. Moved to ATT firmware today and set band lock to 2,4,12. Not ideal as B2 is faster for me, and ATT keeps forcing B4, but so far I am not dropping.

[zaqrat]

Moved to ATT firmware today and set band lock to 2,4,12. Not ideal as B2 is faster for me, and ATT keeps forcing B4, but so far I am not dropping.

Where can I download the ATT firmware, I'm not seeing it on the mofinetwork site... I'm also not seeing a multilock option. I have a MOFI4500-4GXeLTE-V2, are you on the same device?

Thanks!

[patchesj]

Where can I download the ATT firmware, I'm not seeing it on the mofinetwork site... I'm also not seeing a multilock option. I have a MOFI4500-4GXeLTE-V2, are you on the same device?

Thanks!

If you look under the internal modem settings page, tab at the top for provider selection. On that page you can reflash with a provider specific version of the FW.

Advanced bandlock allows more than 1 band to be selected. You must have at least 2 for channel aggregation to work.

[zaqrat]

If you look under the internal modem settings page, tab at the top for provider selection. On that page you can reflash with a provider specific version of the FW.

Advanced bandlock allows more than 1 band to be selected. You must have at least 2 for channel aggregation to work.

I'm not seeing any of those options... do I need to enable something?

Here's what I see:

bandlock.png

Thanks again!

[patchesj]

I'm not seeing any of those options... do I need to enable something?

Here's what I see:
bandlock.png

Thanks again!

you must be running a different firmware version?

[chuckkemp]

you must be running a different firmware version?

Go to the "Status" button under "Overview" button and confirm what version of firmware you are using. Anything less than 4.2.8 is suspect. If you need to update read through the earlier post for more details.

As shown below click the "Provider Selector" tab on the top of the page previously shown. Then click the ATT button followed by the "save" button. Your modem will then save those settings and reboot.

I hadn't heard about the new firmware release but when I went to go look for it, the Mofinetwork website seems down

[DWRIGHTKM]

When I go into provider selector tab and click ATT then save. The modem reboots. But when I click on status it says I'm still on 4.2.8 firmware? Not seeing the new 4.2.9 firmware on mine.

[techp1]

Ok, so I updated to 4.2.9. I had issues with it getting connection, I had to set apn to auto. I am using an att ipad sim. My family has complained nonstop about this and are wanting to switch to some local provider that provides "line of sight" coverage. Not sure if that uses cell network or not but it's like $120 vs $35 for this...

So I did advance band lock, set to 2,4, and 12. I chose att under the provider selector, ttl is 65. I have it hooked up to an external antenna and internal wifi is disabled. Using a linksys router. I just got 20mbps down on speedtest, highest ever. So we'll see how this goes.

[chuckkemp]

When I go into provider selector tab and click ATT then save. The modem reboots. But when I click on status it says I'm still on 4.2.8 firmware? Not seeing the new 4.2.9 firmware on mine.

You have to go to the MofiNetwork website and download the new firmware and install using the manual install feature (System/Manually Flash Firmware). Follow instructions previously discussed on this thread and on the Mofi Website. Don't forget the last step and to do a factory restore. After that you'll have to reset up your router.

[DWRIGHTKM]

You have to go to the MofiNetwork website and download the new firmware and install using the manual install feature (System/Manually Flash Firmware). Follow instructions previously discussed on this thread and on the Mofi Website. Don't forget the last step and to do a factory restore. After that you'll have to reset up your router.

Thanks for the info! Alright I'm all set with 4.2.9 now. I remembered the factory reserve this time . Will post an update in a couple days. See if it acts any different now.

[syn-ack]

Go to the "Status" button under "Overview" button and confirm what version of firmware you are using. Anything less than 4.2.8 is suspect. If you need to update read through the earlier post for more details.

As shown below click the "Provider Selector" tab on the top of the page previously shown. Then click the ATT button followed by the "save" button. Your modem will then save those settings and reboot.

I hadn't heard about the new firmware release but when I went to go look for it, the Mofinetwork website seems down

I think it may be confusing to some that it is called AT&T firmware, but we are running Mofi 4.2.x firmware. I assume it is some subset of the firmware that includes a package or settings specific for the carrier. Regardless, I performed the above, clicking and saving the AT&T firmware, running on Mofi provided firmware 4.2.9. I have not had a disconnect/reset all day, and typically I get them every few hours.

I hope I dont jinx myself, but this may be the answer we've been looking for.

[DWRIGHTKM]

Sadly my connection still dropped again last night. Thats with the latest firmware. For me it did not fix the drop/reconnect issue.

[syn-ack]

Unfortunately my IP address drops have returned, so this is not the silver bullet I was hoping for.

[chuckkemp]

I hope I dont jinx myself, but this may be the answer we've been looking for.

I finally was able to load the latest firmware 4.2.9, I'm not seeing much improvement over 4.2.8 other than perhaps it may reset faster. I still see the IPV4 connection reset around 2 hours or so.

[SliverGT]

I've been using 3.9.0 generic since January with good results.

[afroken3130]

I've been using the VPN workaround for a few weeks. As of the last couple of days I can no longer connect to any VPN servers from my router. Nothing has changed with my setup: MOFI 3.9.0 generic running factory defaults > Asus AC1900 managing my network and VPN connections. My router system logs show successful connection, then just a terminated connection:

Oct 14 10:11:58 rc_service: httpd 561:notify_rc restart_vpncall
Oct 14 10:12:19 pptp[19620]: pppd 2.4.5 started by admin, uid 0
Oct 14 10:12:20 pptp[19620]: Connect: ppp5 <--> pptp (45.56.183.133)
Oct 14 10:12:20 pptp[19620]: CHAP authentication succeeded
Oct 14 10:12:23 pptp[19620]: Connection terminated.
Oct 14 10:12:23 pptp[19620]: Modem hangup

Anybody having this issue all the sudden?

[codingparadox]

Interestingly, the disconnect problem stopped happening on our MOFI a few days ago. Did we just get far enough south and AT&T is just rate-limiting in the northeast? Basically as we got south of Baltimore, it stopped disconnecting.

[afroken3130]

Interestingly, the disconnect problem stopped happening on our MOFI a few days ago. Did we just get far enough south and AT&T is just rate-limiting in the northeast? Basically as we got south of Baltimore, it stopped disconnecting.

I am in rural Texas so I doubt that's it. A friend of mine also uses a MOFI but has fewer disconnect issues. She has disconnect issues once or twice a day whereas I have them 6-7 times a day. Oddly, I don't have to reboot the MOFI, I just have to reboot my router. The behavior is the same across 3 other completely different routers: New TCP requests and streaming no longer work, but the MOFI and router still show I'm connected. Rebooting the router restores connectivity 99% of the time.

The only significant difference between the two of us is that I have ~25 connected devices and she only has ~5. I wonder if the issue is, in part, the amount of traffic running through the SIM.

[patchesj]

Do you have IPv6 enabled? I recently did some testing with IPv6 and found some odd behavior that I would say was very similar to a state table filling up. e.g. new connections would fail, existing or established would continue to work, etc. I went back to IPv4 only and the mofi seems to be much happier....

[codingparadox]

The theory is that it's a traffic rate limit. But we have gigs a day going through this (we use ~300-400 GB/month working full time from the boat), and our usage is pretty consistent. We were getting knocked off every 2-3 hours in the past, and then like a lightswitch it suddenly stopped ~3 days ago.

[DWRIGHTKM]

The disconnect/reconnect deal seams to have gone away for me. Its been a few days now and I have not noticed a disconnect.

A few days ago I switched my band 12 to band 2. Leaves are falling and I can now get a reliable connection to B2. After I did that, I have yet to notice a disconnect.

Is there a place on my Mofi4500 I can see how long my modem has been connected to the internet for?

[afroken3130]

Do you have IPv6 enabled? I recently did some testing with IPv6 and found some odd behavior that I would say was very similar to a state table filling up. e.g. new connections would fail, existing or established would continue to work, etc. I went back to IPv4 only and the mofi seems to be much happier....

I have IPv6 disabled on the MOFI and on my router. I have also tried disabling DHCP on the MOFI, but the behavior is the same whether off or on.

The behavior has definitely changed as of the last week or so. Before when the connection would drop, the internet light on the MOFI would not be solid and I would have to restart the MOFI to even access it. Now when the connection drops, the lights on the MOFI are normal (at least when I look at them after I notice no internet) and I can still access it. However, I just have to reboot the router to get connectivity back. Behavior is the same with multiple routers. I can also no longer reliably connect to any VPN services on any protocols either through my router or through the MOFI.

I have no idea what is up with VPN connectivity, but I think the router issue may be a matter of the MOFI temporarily dropping the external IP and the router not being able to do a hot refresh.

[different]

I recently ran into this thread and finally dig some digging since it was driving me crazy. There are likely two issues going on here, and while I don't know the answer to the true question "why is this happening" I was able to fix the latter of "why doesn't this recover". Warning, this gets a bit technical.

Basically, there is a script on the system located on `/usr/sbin/gobi-retry.sh` - this script is in charge of checking the health of the device, etc. Now, since my device would "partially" lose internet, basically some DNS issues it seemed, I chose for my device to do the "alternate ping check" which the UI states will do DNS. Under the hood it does a DNS lookup and a curl.

If you ssh to the device and call for logs via `logread`, you'll probably see something stating "Something is wrong with HTTP connections" if your situation is similar to me. There is a bug in the retry script which if it gets a DNS connection but NOT the HTTP one, it thinks everything is fine. This, for me, obviously was not fine.

The important part of the script looks like this;

Code: Select all

	if [ "$CHECK1" = "0" ] || [ "$CHECK2" = "0" ]; then
		#we have internet so lets remove the reboot counter
		rm -rf /tmp/greboot.stage1
		rm -rf /tmp/gobi-reboot.log
		uci -q set luci.main.gobi_reset=0 && uci commit luci
		echo 0
		return 0
	fi

Since `$CHECK1` passed but `$CHECK2` doesn't, it just jumped into the loop. My gut says this is a bug/oversight. So I changed it to the following;

Code: Select all

	if [[ "$CHECK1" = "0" && "$CHECK2" = "0" ]]; then
		#we have internet so lets remove the reboot counter
		rm -rf /tmp/greboot.stage1
		rm -rf /tmp/gobi-reboot.log
		uci -q set luci.main.gobi_reset=0 && uci commit luci
		echo 0
		return 0
	fi

This seems to resolve my issue now that it will attempt to do the other retry / rebooting of the modem automatically.

Again, I don't know the cause of the main issue, nor do I particularly care in this moment as this "works enough" for me right now. Though if I get dropped from more meetings I'll probably dig further. Hopefully this helps you all if you're running into the same issue I am.

[undertowzen]

Hey all - I just came across this message board and this post today researching something and figured I'd register and reply.

I solved this issue on my router finally a few month ago and it was an issue of buffer bloat and overload due to MTU settings. By default the MTU setting on the router is set to 1500 and this is incorrect for the router and modem. I also set enable SQM with no speed Up/Down link shaping and this helps to increase my upload and download speed.

To enable SQM

Visit Network -> SQM QOS

Check Enable, set Interface name to eth0, set down and upload speed to 0, set log to silent

1.PNG

Click Queue Discipline tab

If available (must be on newer firmware) select Cake and then Piece of Cake, if on Older firmware select fq_codel and piece of cake

2.PNG

Click on Link Layer, now here you can leave this at none however if your router behaves extremely bad while downloading files then you can set this to ethernet with overhead and set the value to around 150. I would first however leave the dropdown set to none and test out first, once satisficed with setting click save and done.

3.PNG

Setting MTU

First follow this guide - https://hide.me/en/knowledgebase/how-to ... tu-values/ - to find your max MTU, in my case mine is 1430 and likely yours will be too. Make note of your results and substitute your result anywhere I list 1430 below.

Click Network -> General

Under Internet Connection in the MTU dropdown select custom and enter the value 1430 (you can only do this from a desktop browser a mobile browser will not work) - click save

4.PNG

Click on Network -> Mofi Internal Modem

Find the maximum transmission unit near the bottom and select custom and set the value to 1430 (you can only do this from a desktop browser a mobile browser will not work) - click save

5.PNG

Reboot router, hopefully afterward you will no longer see connection drop outs.

I would advise to still reboot the router once a day, I purchased this and scheduled it to power off the router and back on once a daily - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VK ... UTF8&psc=1

For best results you should set MTU to 1430 on your entire network (routers, PC, etc) but you may get by without it.

Thanks and hope this helps.

[terryjett]

Hey all - I just came across this message board and this post today researching something and figured I'd register and reply.

I solved this issue on my router finally a few month ago and it was an issue of buffer bloat and overload due to MTU settings. By default the MTU setting on the router is set to 1500 and this is incorrect for the router and modem. I also set enable SQM with no speed Up/Down link shaping and this helps to increase my upload and download speed.

Excellent share, thank you!

I have got to figure this out for WE826. Not sure where the MTU settings are for the WE826 running Golden Orb, but gonna search around.

Thanks again for sharing this.

[patchesj]

I solved this issue on my router finally a few month ago and it was an issue of buffer bloat and overload due to MTU settings. By default the MTU setting on the router is set to 1500 and this is incorrect for the router and modem. I also set enable SQM with no speed Up/Down link shaping and this helps to increase my upload and download speed.

To enable SQM

Thanks for the info.. I'm not exceptionally familiar with cake. Does it take into account clients on the LAN side behind NAT? In my case I have pfsense running between my mofi and my clients, so typical L3 based qos mechanisms assume everything is coming from one client. There are options for next hop, etc. but I really haven't found a good qos plan for implementing at the mofi level in this design. I just stick with what I have available on pfsense (wish it actually did cake vs codel..)

[chuckkemp]

The disconnect/reconnect deal seams to have gone away for me. Its been a few days now and I have not noticed a disconnect.

A few days ago I switched my band 12 to band 2. Leaves are falling and I can now get a reliable connection to B2. After I did that, I have yet to notice a disconnect.

Is there a place on my Mofi4500 I can see how long my modem has been connected to the internet for?

Click on "Status" under the General Tab. You'll then get a report and under IPV4, will tell you how long you've been receiving internet and if you look above under "System" you can find out how long since your router restarted. From what I've seen the last two firmware updates just stopped the router from letting the internet freeze and once it detects that it restarts the IPV4 service precluding the need to either log in and perform a reboot or just powering down/up to restart the router. Their new method is faster than a reboot and will suffice for me until they can get a real fix, but from what I'm reading this issue isn't jut with MoFi and seems to be ATT centered.

[afroken3130]

Click on "Status" under the General Tab. You'll then get a report and under IPV4, will tell you how long you've been receiving internet and if you look above under "System" you can find out how long since your router restarted. From what I've seen the last two firmware updates just stopped the router from letting the internet freeze and once it detects that it restarts the IPV4 service precluding the need to either log in and perform a reboot or just powering down/up to restart the router. Their new method is faster than a reboot and will suffice for me until they can get a real fix, but from what I'm reading this issue isn't jut with MoFi and seems to be ATT centered.

Definitely not MOFI centered. I bought a Netgear L1120 to verify and the issue persisted. I just tried the MTU settings from above and will post back results.

[afroken3130]

Definitely not MOFI centered. I bought a Netgear L1120 to verify and the issue persisted. I just tried the MTU settings from above and will post back results.

Unfortunately, the MTU settings did not resolve the issue. MOFI still shows the connection as good (and it is), but I still have to reboot my router (not the MOFI) when whatever hiccup this is happens. Verified on both my ASUS router and a brand new Synology router.

The only thing I haven't tried is using the mofi as a router as well. I've been hesitant to do this since I have a bunch of rules already setup and I hate the MOFI interface, but I don't think I have much choice now.

[undertowzen]

Sorry since I was new I had to wait for my post to be approved and then after that I was never notified it was posted.

I will say if anyone is using the mofi in bridge mode you need to disable it and use it in router mode with the MTU and SQM settings I mentioned. I just disabled the firewall in mine and connected my actual router to port 1 with a static ip associated with the mofi router network.

Bridge mode locks up constantly for no explainable reason and even when out of bridge mode I was only able to achieve stable connections after setting the mtu. The SQM is not 100% necessary but you will not receive full speed out of the mofi without this enabled.

[undertowzen]

Oh and if your main router contains a shortcut engine setting you may want to disable that. With that setting enabled on many routers I have noticed that the router will not renegotiate with the modem or gateway it’s connected to when needed, like during a reboot or after an outage.

[undertowzen]

Click on "Status" under the General Tab. You'll then get a report and under IPV4, will tell you how long you've been receiving internet and if you look above under "System" you can find out how long since your router restarted. From what I've seen the last two firmware updates just stopped the router from letting the internet freeze and once it detects that it restarts the IPV4 service precluding the need to either log in and perform a reboot or just powering down/up to restart the router. Their new method is faster than a reboot and will suffice for me until they can get a real fix, but from what I'm reading this issue isn't jut with MoFi and seems to be ATT centered.

By enabling SQM with the settings mentioned against eth1 (this is the modem module) this is just allowing the fastest speed to be transferred out of the mofi, it’s not required for the disconnect fix but you likely won’t achieve the fastest speed without it.

On other routers I only enable SQM when I’m connected to a gateway or another router through the wan port. When this occurs I enable SQM against the wan port, cake, set the up/down rate to 95-100% theoretical speed, link overhead to Ethernet with a byte rate of 22.

When cascading routers through lan I’ve not yet tried using sqm but I know it’s possible by isolating the lan port used as the wan port into its own vlan and the targeting that for the adapter.

[undertowzen]

Thanks for the info.. I'm not exceptionally familiar with cake. Does it take into account clients on the LAN side behind NAT? In my case I have pfsense running between my mofi and my clients, so typical L3 based qos mechanisms assume everything is coming from one client. There are options for next hop, etc. but I really haven't found a good qos plan for implementing at the mofi level in this design. I just stick with what I have available on pfsense (wish it actually did cake vs codel..)

Sorry I quoted the wrong message I’m on mobile right now oops, see above.

[DWRIGHTKM]

Click on "Status" under the General Tab. You'll then get a report and under IPV4, will tell you how long you've been receiving internet and if you look above under "System" you can find out how long since your router restarted. From what I've seen the last two firmware updates just stopped the router from letting the internet freeze and once it detects that it restarts the IPV4 service precluding the need to either log in and perform a reboot or just powering down/up to restart the router. Their new method is faster than a reboot and will suffice for me until they can get a real fix, but from what I'm reading this issue isn't jut with MoFi and seems to be ATT centered.

Thanks Chuck!

I just checked mine and it says "Connected: 3d 14h 23m 32s". Could just be luck, but this all stopped for me the same day i switched bands..


With this new "reboot method fix" they use. Will it show on the Connected time if and went the connection drops?

[afroken3130]

Thanks Chuck!

I just checked mine and it says "Connected: 3d 14h 23m 32s". Could just be luck, but this all stopped for me the same day i switched bands..


With this new "reboot method fix" they use. Will it show on the Connected time if and went the connection drops?

Yes. Mine just went out and the connection time reset.

[chuckkemp]

Hey all - I just came across this message board and this post today researching something and figured I'd register and reply.

I solved this issue on my router finally a few month ago and it was an issue of buffer bloat and overload due to MTU settings. By default the MTU setting on the router is set to 1500 and this is incorrect for the router and modem. I also set enable SQM with no speed Up/Down link shaping and this helps to increase my upload and download speed.

Update: Just after sending the message below I see that there is a new firmware release 4.3 on the MoFi website.... I will load that and report the results...

I checked and my MTU was already set at 1430 and the "Auto Find Best MTU" checkbox was checked. Apparently MoFi enabled this in one of the two last firmware updates. I haven't made the SQM changes as of yet as speed wasn't an issue though I noticed it isn't as fast as it was prior to this issue starting a few months ago. Having the MTU setting hasn't fixed the issue of the IPV4 needing resetting every 2.0 to 2.5 hours. At least MoFi now detects this and does an auto reset which is better than having to do a manual reboot or unplug/replug reset. While workable its still a PITA as the internet goes down usually right in the middle of something as simple as this reply...

I missed the MTU update on the General setting it was at 1400 and I changed using the custom setting to 1430, did this along with uploading the 4.3 firmware. Will see where this gets me.

[baldwine]

Hey, I have been following this thread for a few days because I have been running into the same issue of unplanned disconnections at odds times. With the help of my pi-hole setup on the network, I was able to identify when the network resets occur, but the only constant I could identify was the time frame, specifically on the hour. My connection usually uses Band 2 most of the time with Band 5 as the carrier aggregation. I have replaced antennas and cables along with using various firmware downgrades down to 4.1.5.

I have done all the recommendations offered in this thread with no changes to the outcome. I decided to use the advanced bandlock and removed band 2 from use. I am currently using bands 4 and 5 with firmware 4.3.0 and I have not had a connection issue in 2 days.

I hope this helps someone.

[undertowzen]

Make sure to uncheck autofind best mtu as this may vary depending on network congestion moment to moment and change on its own but good to know they are trying to do something to help. I still need to reboot my modem once a day to keep things healthy else within 24-36 hours things can slow down or start breaking but setting the mtu correctly has solved my issues with connections dropping randomly throughout the day, this drop by the way always coincided with someone downloading a file or momentarily taking up 100% of the bandwidth. I guess this may not solve it for everyone. I’m replacing the mofi this week with an enclosure for the pcie modem to convert to usb 3 and just gonna connect to a router running Merlin WRT or Golden Orb firmware, this will solve reliability issue I’m hoping and also will allow for the full 300mbit speed from the modem since the mofi is limited to 100mbit Ethernet.

[serverside]

I've had my data connection timed out on my M1 after a few hours but using a VPN does solves the problem. I'm using ExpressVPN through a L2TP connection instead of OpenVPN. OpenVPN kills my data speeds by half when using on a router. L2TP maintains my original speeds. AT&T seems to be killing connections on port 443 and 80. This may be there way of trying too discourage ppl off the iPad and Car Connect post paid plans that are using them in hotspots. I also went the extra mile by changing the imei # on the M1 to the iPad they have on file on my account. Setting the TTL to 65 on your devices/router doesn't do anything so don't waste your time going that route. Just use a VPN that doesn't directly connect to port 443 and 80. Problem solved!

Did you set this up on mofi or rooter? Looking to try the l2tp on rooter, since I'm in the same boat, openvpn murders my connection via PIA

[ylrkdr]

If I replace the port 80 and 443 values with other working ports(if there are any), will that stop the interrupts? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[acnebs]

I've been having the same problem with **MOFI4500-4GXELTE-V2-SIM4** running on Ubifi (AT&T). Can confirm that the primary issue seems to step from AT&T either outright blocking or someone messing up connections on certain protocols/ports. e.g. Mostly it seems to be blocking TCP on port 443 (not port 80, as I am usually still able to go to guaranteed HTTP places like http://captive.apple.com or http://neverssl.com). Also interesting is that I can usually still access Google. Not sure if this is because they're using some newer protocol or what but its true. At first I thought the issue was just a DNS one, as the Mofi seems to default to using Google's DNS servers (`8.8.8.8` and `8.8.4.4`), but I tried switching to Cloudflare's (`1.1.1.1` and `1.0.0.1`) and though that seemed to help in the beginning, in the end I'm not sure it actually worked.

As with others, rebooting almost always fixes the primary issue, as does connecting via VPN (presumably because that happens over UDP).

My issue has been compounded by the fact that I have a weird issue with my MOFI and an Access Point I have (Netgear), where if my Netgear is plugged in via ethernet to my Mofi when the Mofi is trying to boot up (after I reboot to fix), the Mofi is unable to boot properly and the wifi from the Mofi has issues (devices that try to connect to the Mofi's wifi network don't get assigned an IP via DHCP and using a static IP to connect doesn't work either). What's really weird is that the wifi on the Netgear will work just fine. i.e. I reboot the Mofi with the AP plugged in, wifi on AP works to connect to internet after Mofi's reboot, wifi from Mofi does not. In order to get Mofi wifi working again, I need to turn off AP, reboot Mofi, plug AP back in once reboot has completed. Note that this whole time the AP is getting DHCP addresses for the devices that connect to it from the Mofi (e.g. its a bridge).

Back to the apparent AT&T issue, something else I've noticed is that when this throttling/port blocing/whatever thing starts to happen, the ping times from my *devices to the router* get crazy high. Like 500-2000ms (and even timeouts) just to `ping 192.168.10.1` on my LAN from one of my devices. But this is (again, and probably not a concidence!) **only when I'm on the Mofi's wifi network**. If the device is on the Netgear AP's network, ping times to the Mofi (via the AP) remain stable throughout the disruption (1-10ms). On both networks, however, the port blocking or whatever happens the same. Not sure why the AT&T thing would trigger high ping between device and router, but that is what seems to be happening, so *shrug*.

[undertowzen]

Hey so just reporting back.

First off found out a few things regarding the MTU I reported on earlier, the Sierra modems lock down the MTU of the hardware to 1430 so you will in fact have issues if you specify an MTU over 1430 - meaning you should populate 1430 all the way down the line from your modem to you client devices where you have the ability to change it manually. The MTU should get reported and hopefully automatically adopted by many devices once its set at the router but this doesn't always happen.

Secondly - continuing with the MTU - MSS clamping is required to really make sure things are sync'd together end to end, in the MOFI interface you'll find the option to enable this on the network screens on other routers you'll find it in either firewall settings or you may have to enable it via a script. On devices where you can modify the IPTables directly you can set the below config against your wan and lan interfaces, just copy paste and replace the section <wwan0> with whatever your interface name is without the < >. You'll have three entries minimum here one for lan and one for wan and the generic blanket rule - but experiment if you have additional configurations.

iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN -o <wwan0> -j TCPMSS --clamp-mss-to-pmtu

I've also applied this blanket clamp rule which applies as a whole

iptables -I FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN -j TCPMSS --clamp-mss-to-pmtu

Thirdly, I got away from the Mofi and onto a USB enclosure connected to a router running Golden Orb Rooter firmware. My settings here are as above when it comes to MTU and as well I've always forced DNS of 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 or 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 on my interfaces, I've also enabled QOS on Golden Orb against the wwan interface using the 0 up 0 down Cake SQM I specified in a previous post. I have TTL set to 64 instead of 65 however you may have better experience on one or the other. I'm happy to report that not only do I still have no disconnects, my once a day slow downs are gone and I have 10ms lower pings AND my download speed increased from 65Mbits to 100Mbits down - my Upload however remained the same at 17Mbits.

If anyone is curious I am on AT&T Sim through UBIFI I've had the service with them since December 2019. I am band locked to band 2 and 12 for aggregation.

I am still rebooting all my routers and the modem once a day as standard practice.

Lastly, I'm sure many of you may know but the reason why the VPN is fixing a lot of problems is because it sets itself up behind its own network with its own settings which don't necessarily interact directly with your hardware in the same way a standard network would hence why it isn't having the same problems as running without it. However I do run a VPN on one of my Merlin WRT routers for online gaming and below is my additional / custom config I've found that works best for binding the VPN to the routers/modem MTU and speeds. This gives me the highest throughput and the lowest latency for my games and downloads through my VPN client. You may want to play around with the settings.


remote-cert-tls server
resolv-retry infinite
remote-random
nobind
tun-mtu-extra 0
mssfix 1303
tun-mtu 1428
persist-key
persist-tun
ping 15
ping-restart 0
ping-timer-rem
reneg-sec 0
remote-cert-tls server
nice -30


Anyways just thought I'd pass this all along in case it helps anyone out. Good luck to everyone.

[j2227]

Hey so just reporting back.

First off found out a few things regarding the MTU I reported on earlier, the Sierra modems lock down the MTU of the hardware to 1430 so you will in fact have issues if you specify an MTU over 1430 - meaning you should populate 1430 all the way down the line from your modem to you client devices where you have the ability to change it manually. The MTU should get reported and hopefully automatically adopted by many devices once its set at the router but this doesn't always happen.

Secondly - continuing with the MTU - MSS clamping is required to really make sure things are sync'd together end to end, in the MOFI interface you'll find the option to enable this on the network screens on other routers you'll find it in either firewall settings or you may have to enable it via a script. On devices where you can modify the IPTables directly you can set the below config against your wan and lan interfaces, just copy paste and replace the section <wwan0> with whatever your interface name is without the < >. You'll have three entries minimum here one for lan and one for wan and the generic blanket rule - but experiment if you have additional configurations.

iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN -o <wwan0> -j TCPMSS --clamp-mss-to-pmtu

I've also applied this blanket clamp rule which applies as a whole

iptables -I FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN -j TCPMSS --clamp-mss-to-pmtu

Thirdly, I got away from the Mofi and onto a USB enclosure connected to a router running Golden Orb Rooter firmware. My settings here are as above when it comes to MTU and as well I've always forced DNS of 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 or 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 on my interfaces, I've also enabled QOS on Golden Orb against the wwan interface using the 0 up 0 down Cake SQM I specified in a previous post. I have TTL set to 64 instead of 65 however you may have better experience on one or the other. I'm happy to report that not only do I still have no disconnects, my once a day slow downs are gone and I have 10ms lower pings AND my download speed increased from 65Mbits to 100Mbits down - my Upload however remained the same at 17Mbits.

If anyone is curious I am on AT&T Sim through UBIFI I've had the service with them since December 2019. I am band locked to band 2 and 12 for aggregation.

I am still rebooting all my routers and the modem once a day as standard practice.

Lastly, I'm sure many of you may know but the reason why the VPN is fixing a lot of problems is because it sets itself up behind its own network with its own settings which don't necessarily interact directly with your hardware in the same way a standard network would hence why it isn't having the same problems as running without it. However I do run a VPN on one of my Merlin WRT routers for online gaming and below is my additional / custom config I've found that works best for binding the VPN to the routers/modem MTU and speeds. This gives me the highest throughput and the lowest latency for my games and downloads through my VPN client. You may want to play around with the settings.


remote-cert-tls server
resolv-retry infinite
remote-random
nobind
tun-mtu-extra 0
mssfix 1303
tun-mtu 1428
persist-key
persist-tun
ping 15
ping-restart 0
ping-timer-rem
reneg-sec 0
remote-cert-tls server
nice -30


Anyways just thought I'd pass this all along in case it helps anyone out. Good luck to everyone.

Hi undertowzen,

Just thought I would sign up because your posts (and this thread) have been extremely helpful in getting my At&t SIM working on the MOFI. I am a distance learning university student (ironically enough studying the challenges of remote learning) so certainly need a reliable connection for many of my team meetings.

I followed your advice for the QOS and the MSS (my highest was 1472 so I went with that). However, the following day, I experienced the usual annoying drop-out during a call. I resorted to using NordVPN a few days ago, which prevent drop-outs, but I am discontinuing my subscription due it cutting the little bit of bandwidth I have almost in half even with using the client apps. For example, Microsoft Teams repeatedly blocks my screen with a "Poor connection" banner. Without the VPN (BTW I am bandlocked to 2 and 12) I get on average of 10Mbits, with "full bars" on Mofi's connection screen.

I don't have the experience to build a custom setup like you, but I can follow tutorials. I have adjusted my MSS to 1430 and turned on clamping (previously off). I am not sure any of my other settings may be adversely impacting my connection (I typically don't mess around with settings).

I will report back as well to let you know (hopefully) the success story!

[undertowzen]

Hi undertowzen,

Just thought I would sign up because your posts (and this thread) have been extremely helpful in getting my At&t SIM working on the MOFI. I am a distance learning university student (ironically enough studying the challenges of remote learning) so certainly need a reliable connection for many of my team meetings.

I followed your advice for the QOS and the MSS (my highest was 1472 so I went with that). However, the following day, I experienced the usual annoying drop-out during a call. I resorted to using NordVPN a few days ago, which prevent drop-outs, but I am discontinuing my subscription due it cutting the little bit of bandwidth I have almost in half even with using the client apps. For example, Microsoft Teams repeatedly blocks my screen with a "Poor connection" banner. Without the VPN (BTW I am bandlocked to 2 and 12) I get on average of 10Mbits, with "full bars" on Mofi's connection screen.

I don't have the experience to build a custom setup like you, but I can follow tutorials. I have adjusted my MSS to 1430 and turned on clamping (previously off). I am not sure any of my other settings may be adversely impacting my connection (I typically don't mess around with settings).

I will report back as well to let you know (hopefully) the success story!

WIth VPN you will experience a few annoyances

1) Yes your bandwidth will be restricted IF you do not have a powerful enough computer or router to power the connection. VPN uses a secure protocol which requires encryption decryption when sending all traffic and this requires CPU power to process.

Its understandable that buying an entire brand new computer is not idea just to power a VPN client connection but maybe buying a brand new router is? Most routers don't have an additional processor built in to handle this processing but the cheapest you'll find that does will be the Asus RT-AC86U router. You can purchase this router between $100-$150 on eBay and you will be able to get up to 200mBps with it. Possibly more even.

2) Tech companies know about VPN providers and dislike them. They don't want anyone hiding you away from them when using their services so they will try to actively block the ip address range of the VPN provider or at least limit the provider access in some way. The more popular the VPN service the more likely you are to run into this situation, NORDVPN being one of the most popular you'll see this happen more often then not. I personally use Nord myself but I only use it from Gaming and a few other services I don't use it for day to day usage due to this limitation, for instance streaming services and Nord do a dance constantly where they block and unblock each other its annoying.

Custom build

This is quite simple really. What I will say is this, I feel what you are paying for with the MOFI is really their custom interface which allows you to control the modem elegantly - this new setup is a lot cheaper (about $100 for everything) and faster - but you have to learn how to control certain parts of the modem issuing commands to it without a GUI doing it for you. Its not hard I put a guide down below including where to find the commands but just be aware, if you aren't comfortable working in a DOS Terminal CLI environment it may be daunting at first. Good luck!

1) Buy a Dell Sierra EM7455 DW5811e from ebay for about $30

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Sierra-Wi ... SwZ7RdglZh

2) Buy an enclosure for the modem for between $20-$50 I personally bought the below

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Q-M-2-NGF ... 2749.l2649

3) You will need to transform the Dell Sierra into a Generic Sierra modem so follow these instructions, you will need to create a Ubuntu 18.04 LiveUSB and boot your computer from it

https://www.ttl.one/2018/07/sierra-wire ... m74xx.html

4a) For Golden orb you can buy an Asus AC66U from ebay for about $30 to flash - or a raspberry pi 3 b plus for about $50

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... c&LH_BIN=1

4b) Or you may have a compatible router or raspberry pi laying around to flash already

https://www.ofmodemsandmen.com/routers.html

https://www.ofmodemsandmen.com/firmware.html

https://www.ofmodemsandmen.com/documentation.html

5) Once you have everything done you connect the modem to the router or raspberry pi, pop in your SIM from the MOFI, and power everything on. You should get a connection without doing much and be on your way however you will want to band lock and such so you can follow this guide here on how to issue the command to do what you want

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=33

[j2227]

Thank you @undertowzen for your time and collection of resources! Despite the change I made the other day, the connection is still being dropped on the Mofi. It appears mainly during heavy usage (like video conferencing and long "searching sessions" on Google. I see the affordability and relative ease in making a custom setup now. My computer is brand new (10th gen Core i5 with 16GB RAM) so I don't see limitations for encryption being on the device. I am, however, unclear of the real problem at hand that will be solved by going will a homemade router. Hopefully a list of question for you will help me understand better.

- What is AT&T doing why connections are dropped?
- What makes the Mofi aware that the connection is dropped?
- Did you get it fully working on the Mofi before switching to a custom setup? Should I do a factory reset and/or specifically address any particular settings (QOS, MSS, etc.)?
- Does your custom setup allow for "tower locking"? (I think this was brought up here on the forum once) It might not be something particularly necessary, but the idea sounds good at first glance.

I thought I should add that I have a DLink DIR-826L router already that I bought a few years ago. Its in the closet collecting dust, but it worked great then out of the box. I have been using the Mofi router since going with LTE.

Kindest,
Justin

[undertowzen]

Thank you @undertowzen for your time and collection of resources! Despite the change I made the other day, the connection is still being dropped on the Mofi. It appears mainly during heavy usage (like video conferencing and long "searching sessions" on Google. I see the affordability and relative ease in making a custom setup now. My computer is brand new (10th gen Core i5 with 16GB RAM) so I don't see limitations for encryption being on the device. I am, however, unclear of the real problem at hand that will be solved by going will a homemade router. Hopefully a list of question for you will help me understand better.

- What is AT&T doing why connections are dropped?
- What makes the Mofi aware that the connection is dropped?
- Did you get it fully working on the Mofi before switching to a custom setup? Should I do a factory reset and/or specifically address any particular settings (QOS, MSS, etc.)?
- Does your custom setup allow for "tower locking"? (I think this was brought up here on the forum once) It might not be something particularly necessary, but the idea sounds good at first glance.

I thought I should add that I have a DLink DIR-826L router already that I bought a few years ago. Its in the closet collecting dust, but it worked great then out of the box. I have been using the Mofi router since going with LTE.

Kindest,
Justin

From my perspective the Mofi hardware is really only built with cat 3 lte speeds in mind therefore it doesn’t need to be very robust. Cat 3 speed is only 100mbit which is why the mofi only comes equipped with 100mbit Ethernet ports and wireless n WiFi. They put a cat 6 modem Sierra 7455 in the mofi for whatever reason even though it could never take full advantage of it. Cat 6 lte is 300mbit by the way. Due to being underpowered and quite old in terms of when it was built I guess expectations and technology has changed, lte is better, consumer hardware is better and cheaper, etc....

Out of the box with no changes at all I only received between 5-20mbit down with my mofi depending. I replaced both antennas immediately with these from amazon and got up to 60mbit down. After swapping modems and clamping mss on all my hardware I’m now up to 100mbit. I’m going to add a booster soon and then I guess I’ll be satisfied.

"Wilson Electronics Pole Mount Panel Antenna 700-2700 MHz, 50 Ohm (314453)" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F3W8VC8/re ... UTF8&psc=1

1) In my situation AT&T isn’t causing it
2)In my situation the mofi router is aware because the misconfiguration of the router and modem out of the box is causing what is known as buffer bloat in top of packet loss due to the MTU settings - this causes the router and modem to just stop talking hence the disconnection
3) Yes I did get it working eventually, this all off top of my head it isn’t connected anymore

-Enabled SQM QOS with 0 up 0 down —- this however isn’t entirely correct for most situations what you should do is run a test on Speedtest.net test with this turned off and then set the upload setting to 95% of your download speed from speed test and then the download setting to 95% of your upload speed from speed test (mofi has this setting backwards).
-Set the second tab to Cake and then Piece of Cake or Layer Cake
-third tab set to Ethernet overhead with somewhere between 22-44 bytes


Set MTU to 1430 everywhere you can find a setting for this, disable auto detect MTU and auto detect MSS. Set MsS to MTU minus 40 so in your case it would be 1390.

I’m band locked to band 2 and band 12.

I disabled the firewall and WiFi and port forwarding and everything basically because I’m not using the mofi as a router.

Enable mss clamp in general network settings

I have DHCP disabled and I have a static IP set on my actual router

That’s everything I can think of that I did, after about 24-36 hours I would start to slow down but not disconnect so I would still set a scheduled reboot to once every 24 hours for not just the mofi but my entire network

4) No unfortunately I have no idea how you could tower lock without maybe yagi antennas which are directional point at the tower of choice.

[j2227]

Great information @undertowzen and thank you again! I will leave with the knowledge and resources you provided and see if I can tackle first upgrading my antennas (up from 5mbps to 60mbps ?!?! That's better than what I was getting with my $180 Verizon plan this time last year!) and eventually going with a custom setup! I will pass along some questions to you, no doubt, when they arise and hopefully you can help when you have time. Hope others can gain some insight from this.

[terryjett]

I would like to kindly remind folks to buy from thewirelesshaven.com when possible. I know they do not have everything on ones list of goodies, but check them out before buying from others.

Without thewirelesshaven.com there would be no wirelessjoint.com

Just a friendly reminder...

[j2227]

I would like to kindly remind folks to buy from thewirelesshaven.com when possible. I know they do not have everything on ones list of goodies, but check them out before buying from others.

Without thewirelesshaven.com there would be no wirelessjoint.com

Just a friendly reminder...

That's a great suggestion for noobs like me, especially with the extensive collection of experts on here open to answering our question/pleas. Thank you.

I also noticed that this thread referenced the same situation with AT&T mentioned here. I am beginning to see that the pandemic and increased number of users needing internet on the road bring to light many of the issues I have experienced over the years. I guess I have to really research this site now.

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1906

[BrentV]

This issue still persists for me. I've used Mofi and We826 Goldenorb/Wifix routers for about 4 years now. It wasn't until ATT started cracking down on the ipad plans this year that the random disconnects became an issue. Sometimes it will come back up within about a minute, other times and becoming more frequent i have to reboot the Mofi/Rooter router. Seems to happen every few hours. I've tried MTU 1430 and the MSS 1390. I don't use WIFI, firewall, etc. If it's not something on ATT's end then did something changed with their network that's suddenly causing a lockup? I don't understand why the issue hasn't appeared until recently and is only affecting ATT connections. I also had disconnects when tethering an android over USB also, although I didn't test it too extensively.

Also for those using a VPN as a workaround, are you using the VPN directly on the MOFI or on individual devices / external router? I have a Mofi being used basically as a modem and then an Asus AC66 behind that.

Someone posted this https://forums.att.com/conversations/ot ... 542c96b341 in another thread, seems like it could be the same issue?

[undertowzen]

This issue still persists for me. I've used Mofi and We826 Goldenorb/Wifix routers for about 4 years now. It wasn't until ATT started cracking down on the ipad plans this year that the random disconnects became an issue. Sometimes it will come back up within about a minute, other times and becoming more frequent i have to reboot the Mofi/Rooter router. Seems to happen every few hours. I've tried MTU 1430 and the MSS 1390. I don't use WIFI, firewall, etc. If it's not something on ATT's end then did something changed with their network that's suddenly causing a lockup? I don't understand why the issue hasn't appeared until recently and is only affecting ATT connections. I also had disconnects when tethering an android over USB also, although I didn't test it too extensively.

Also for those using a VPN as a workaround, are you using the VPN directly on the MOFI or on individual devices / external router? I have a Mofi being used basically as a modem and then an Asus AC66 behind that.

Someone posted this https://forums.att.com/conversations/ot ... 542c96b341 in another thread, seems like it could be the same issue?

I personally couldn’t say as I’ve been on an AT&T plan through Ubifi for a year and it’s been problematic since day 1 for me until I ran through all the stuff I did to determine what worked best for my situation. I’m guess Ubify and a few other resellers have special business plans not impacted by the iPad unlimited plan changes.

As for where to run the VPN I would suggest it would be much better to run on your PC versus your router. I have your router as well and it lacks the chip I mentioned the 86u has so it will be crippled by VPN connection. It’ll work but you’ll have high latency and a slow connection.

With that said the upside to running on your router is it’ll cover 100% of the devices connected to it whereas running on your PC or phone would only cover those devices and nothing else, so that is the trade off.

The ASUS 86u runs on the low end of $150 on eBay but handles vpn like a champ as it has the processor built in to handle the encryption decryption processing.

[BillA]

You could test the disconnect issue using the ATT APN's below, it may or may not help.
Sometimes different APN's may use different servers/proxies on the carrier's side.
First make sure that it works at all, then run it for a day and see how it goes.

phone
nxtgenphone
broadband

[chuckkemp]

Mofi has release a new firmware today (4_3_2std). I've uploaded and will report if any favorable qualities are evident. One thing I did notice is that more signals were displayed when doing a band search.

Change log:
- 4.3.2 Fixed Band Scanner Issues
- 4.3.2 Fixed Band Lock sometimes not locking correct
- 4.3.1 Fixed reconnect issue with the SIM7 model
- 4.3.0 Updated re-connection option to specify website pings
- 4.3.0 Updated Security patch
- 4.2.9 Fixed some re-connection issues on all networks including Verizon and T-Mobile
- 4.2.9 Fix Speed Throttling Option via MAC address (can now speed throttle by device)
- 4.2.8 Fixed some re-connection issues on ATT

[BrentV]

Thanks for letting us know about the firmware. I don't see anything in the changelog that indicates it will help, but worth a shot anyway. I sent Mofi a support ticket to see if they can shed any light on the issue. My disconnects are becoming increasingly more frequent as months go by. It started out it was about 1-2 times a day, then increased to about every 3-4 hours, then every 2 hours, and yesterday it was happening every hour. I've been trying band locks, TTL 64, TTL 65, the MTU 1430. I have yet to try a VPN, but I think it would still disconnect unless the VPN is setup on the mofi, or the connection monitoring is turned off, because as it is now the mofi checks if there's a connection and reboots the modem if not. During the reboot would still lose connection, so I'm curious those running VPN as a bandaid how its setup?

[chuckkemp]

Thanks for letting us know about the firmware. I don't see anything in the changelog that indicates it will help, but worth a shot anyway. I sent Mofi a support ticket to see if they can shed any light on the issue. My disconnects are becoming increasingly more frequent as months go by. It started out it was about 1-2 times a day, then increased to about every 3-4 hours, then every 2 hours, and yesterday it was happening every hour.

I called MoFi and talked to them about the problem a couple weeks back. They asked me to send an email and to download the system logs and send them along after a failure. Nothing but crickets since... I had also opened a ticket via the web interface and heard nothing from them. I also referenced this board for additional background as they said they haven't heard of any problems of which I find it hard to believe as it seems a common ATT user problem.

I too am experiencing a reset nearly every hour though at this moment the IPv4 has been running just over 2 hours. I saw no change after loading the aforementioned firmware other than I see more freq's when I do a band scan.

[Festerw]

I gave up with Mofi and Ubifi, I emailed back and forth with support a few times in June but never resolved anything and then they'd disappear with no response for weeks. It took me over a month to get a refund for the second router I bought from them and filing a Paypal dispute.

I got an email from TMobile that their Home Internet was available in my area and signed up the other day. So far the speeds are comparable to what I was getting with ATT/Ubifi, there's no disconnects, and it's $50/month.

[BrentV]

I called MoFi and talked to them about the problem a couple weeks back. They asked me to send an email and to download the system logs and send them along after a failure. Nothing but crickets since... I had also opened a ticket via the web interface and heard nothing from them. I also referenced this board for additional background as they said they haven't heard of any problems of which I find it hard to believe as it seems a common ATT user problem.

I too am experiencing a reset nearly every hour though at this moment the IPv4 has been running just over 2 hours. I saw no change after loading the aforementioned firmware other than I see more freq's when I do a band scan.

Yeah they replied within a few minutes of me opening my ticket and asked for the IMEI and S/N of my mofi, I replied immediately and haven't heard anything from them since. I agree, surely they know, or have heard of the issue. How could they not?

I gave up with Mofi and Ubifi, I emailed back and forth with support a few times in June but never resolved anything and then they'd disappear with no response for weeks. It took me over a month to get a refund for the second router I bought from them and filing a Paypal dispute.

I got an email from TMobile that their Home Internet was available in my area and signed up the other day. So far the speeds are comparable to what I was getting with ATT/Ubifi, there's no disconnects, and it's $50/month.

Yeah I'm still waiting for Tmobile, or Starlink or something to be available in my area. The cat and mouse with these providers is tiring. As is having unreliable internet. On the plus side my disconnects over the last week or so has slowed again for no apparent reason. I'm in the middle of my billing cycle so its not like it was reset. I haven't made any other changes, but I get anywhere from 2-4.5 hrs now. Much more tolerable.

[terryjett]

Approved a post few days ago and got me to thinking, could this have anything to do with the disconnects?

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2065#p14276 (pls thank @LTE_WAN for find)

The link provided in post leads to to https://www.criticalstart.com/critical- ... i-routers/

"CVE-2020-13859 Authentication Bypass"

Maybe a long shot and not the issue, but nevertheless needs to be brought out into the light

[coinball32]

It seems I'm suffering from an almost identical issue/situation - would using the Mofi CloudLink service (which I understand to be a VPN) provide the same solution?

[j2227]

Approved a post few days ago and got me to thinking, could this have anything to do with the disconnects?

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2065#p14276 (pls thank @LTE_WAN for find)

The link provided in post leads to to https://www.criticalstart.com/critical- ... i-routers/

"CVE-2020-13859 Authentication Bypass"

Maybe a long shot and not the issue, but nevertheless needs to be brought out into the light

Thanks for the link. This is very good to know from a user standpoint. I am waiting for my modem (Quectel EM12-G) and router (Linksys WRT1200AC) to arrive and just ordered an enclosure here on the The Wireless Haven store, so once I get up and running, with the help of @undertowzen I can attempt to make a tutorial on how to get this new modem up and running.

I noticed my disconnects leave me still connected to Google (I was changing the settings to my Google account and noticed I couldn't get to any other sites). This was addressed on the forum...I don't remember why it does that though. Can somebody refresh my memory?

[chuckkemp]

As their referenced firmware 4.2.5_std, on 4.3 MoFi provided a security updated. Can't say if it addressed these reported issues in the link above but 4.3.2_std is the latest firmware available and it still has the disconnect issue.