MOFI4500 Locking Up, Dropping Internet - AT&T

[mattvo]

Hello,

I have been on a MOFI4500 LTE V2 setup for around 1.5 years, on an old AT&T Ipad unlimited SIM, with no issues until the last month or so. In the recent weeks, I am now constantly dropping signal, getting much lower speeds than normal (had to bandlock to Band 12 to get anything decent), and the router also seems to lock up/freeze when I log into the router settings. On the outside, all the lights still show green, with the Internet light still glowing green, but when I log into the router settings, I cant click anything, and there is no external IP address shown. This is a new issue that I have never experienced before, curious if others are experiencing something similar with AT&T? Perhaps I am being throttled, booted off the network because of the SIM plan I am on?

Any help would be appreciated, as I am struggling to work from home right now. Open to switching to other vendors as well at this point....

Thanks!

[Didneywhorl]

If you have issues with the UI loading, you may have a router going dead issue. But, Im not experienced with mofi firmware. It acts the same after a power cycle?

[mattvo]

It functions after a power cycle, but only for a period of time. Generally anywhere from 20 mins to an hour or so, then it locks up and requires a reboot. I have tried updating the router firmware, but it doesnt make a difference. I am starting to think it is either an AT&T tower thing locally, or they are cracking down somehow on the SIM plan I am on. I did purchase a cheap LTE router on Amazon to test the SIM in, and I am having similar issues, that router as well requires several reboots a day. I think I have to move on from these AT&T plans...but curious if others are seeing similar issues or have solutions.

[Didneywhorl]

To clarify, you saying the router itself locks up becoming unresponsive, not able to use the UI at all, AND youve lost internet connectivity? Or is it just that the UI gets slow and you lose internet connectivity? The ui might be slowing down from the processor getting overwhelmed by constantly trying to find a connection.

It sounds to me like you've been soft kicked from the service.

[selivanow]

I'm having the same issue with a MoFi4500 and AT&T SIM. I can use it for a while and then nothing. Well, almost nothing. I determined that I was able to use NSLOOKUP and I could ping addresses. Logging onto the MoFi router homepage showed NO external IP address. Attempting to check other statuses gave the appearance of the device hanging, but not all the time. Rebooting the device gave me an IP address immediately and things would work correctly for some time. I even have hte router replaced, same issue.

[BillA]

It's possible that ATT is scanning for router/modems on their network and drops the connection, they have disconnected a bunch of users in the past few months. Test the router with another carrier's sim card (borrow one from family, friends, or neighbors). If the router is still locking up then it's a hardware issue, however if its working fine then it's a network issue.

[techp1]

I'm having same issues. Any suggestions? Could try an att phone sim.

[ironman_gq]

My friend had one that was doing this same thing. He narrowed it down to happening every time his son connected to it with an older tablet and tried to watch something. For some reason that tablet connecting would trigger an event and lock up the router, since retiring the tablet they had had no more issues

[BillA]

My friend had one that was doing this same thing. He narrowed it down to happening every time his son connected to it with an older tablet and tried to watch something. For some reason that tablet connecting would trigger an event and lock up the router, since retiring the tablet they had had no more issues

There you go, turns out that it's a WiFi glitch, which is no surprise on these "cheesy" low end mobile routers. ;D

[ironman_gq]

There you go, turns out that it's a WiFi glitch, which is no surprise on these "cheesy" low end mobile routers. ;D

I agree, we tried a couple different firmware versions and the newest Rooter was better but still not fixed. Only thing that "fixed" it was not using that tablet

[Maine islander]

There you go, turns out that it's a WiFi glitch, which is no surprise on these "cheesy" low end mobile routers. ;D

Bill - I've got a "cheesy" MoFi4500 as well. What would you recommend instead? I'd love a router that could lock on to a specific tower. I get one fast AT&T tower at night and one useless AT&T tower during the day because it must have a stronger signal during the day for some reason. I did lock on band 12, but it's still somewhat random which tower I get during the day. If I could lock on to the night tower permanently I'd be in heaven!

[Didneywhorl]

Bill - I've got a "cheesy" MoFi4500 as well. What would you recommend instead? I'd love a router that could lock on to a specific tower. I get one fast AT&T tower at night and one useless AT&T tower during the day because it must have a stronger signal during the day for some reason. I did lock on band 12, but it's still somewhat random which tower I get during the day. If I could lock on to the night tower permanently I'd be in heaven!

Tower locking can be done with Quectel modems, using the AT+QNWLOCK command. I do not have experience with it, but that is the place to begin.

The WiFIx WG3526p router and just about any Quectel modem, like the EM12G, can get you going. You'll also need 2 MHF4 antenna pigtails to replace the Ufl ones in the router (1x 5" and 1x 10") and mini PCIe to M.2 adapter board to fit the modem in the mPCIe slot in the router. Maybe an upgraded 2.5A, or higher, wall adapter power supply as well. The higher end modems are thristy modems.

[techp1]

If I disabled internal wifi and hooked up a router to it, would that work?

[BillA]

Bill - I've got a "cheesy" MoFi4500 as well. What would you recommend instead? I'd love a router that could lock on to a specific tower. I get one fast AT&T tower at night and one useless AT&T tower during the day because it must have a stronger signal during the day for some reason. I did lock on band 12, but it's still somewhat random which tower I get during the day. If I could lock on to the night tower permanently I'd be in heaven!

The "cheese-box" is fine as long as you don't expect high performance WiFi.
As Didneywhorl has mentioned, band locking is a function of the modem, not the router.
If you prefer an all-in-one "less-cheesy-box", then look into the WE826-Q which uses a Qualcomm chipset with better, more stable performance, and also the WG1608 router. For even better WiFi, read below.

If I disabled internal wifi and hooked up a router to it, would that work?

You can use the MoFi box as a modem enclosure (modem function only), disable DHCP, enable DMZ, and connect its LAN1 (must be LAN port#1 due to some hardware bug) to the WAN input of a decent WiFi router which would handle DHCP routing and WiFI.

[techp1]

So I can access my security camera remotely yet devices connected to mofi say no connection to internet?...

[newtonfb]

I have this exact same issue. I have had used this as a modem for almost 2 years without issues. Now for the last almost 2 months I have to go restart it to work. I shut off the wireless radios and just connect them to a Google Wifi mesh system that has worked good. Is this an ATT issue? I dont want to buy a new modem and have the same issue.

[mripper]

I never used my Mofi router wifi, was too weak and unreliable for my needs. I would suggest disabling wifi on the Mofi and just connecting a standard, more powerful wifi router via ethernet ports.

Lately I've been using a Cradlepoint CBA850, bought several a year ago before Covid when they were cheap. It works great with my ATT sim and have google wifi mesh connected directly to that.

[BillA]

Supposedly ATT has fixed the connection drop/transparent proxy issue, so you may want to test again.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=15684#p15684