Mofi4500 SIM7 + T-Mobile = throttled

[Journey5529]

Hey guys, using a mofi 4500 and have tried multiple times to change the TTL from 63/64/65/66 and no matter what I get .6mbps. My iPhone will pull 10mbps. I verified my iPhone was using 66 and so is the mofi. The plan I have is 3g lte hotspot but unlimited LTE DATA on my phone. I can’t seem to get the mofi to make the data look like it’s a phone. Anyone else having this issue?

[BillA]

Hey guys, using a mofi 4500 and have tried multiple times to change the TTL from 63/64/65/66 and no matter what I get .6mbps. My iPhone will pull 10mbps. I verified my iPhone was using 66 and so is the mofi. The plan I have is 3g lte hotspot but unlimited LTE DATA on my phone. I can’t seem to get the mofi to make the data look like it’s a phone. Anyone else having this issue?

Another user has reported that setting the MoFi to "Generic" carrier profile and the TTL to 64 has worked at high speeds without using any hotspot data. Even if you have a GoSmart plan which limits you to 3G speeds, you should get at least 5Mbps or better on the router.
As a test try this simple method to see if you get high speeds at least on your pc, then you can fix the rest of your devices. On the pc open a CMD window (hold down Win key + R) then copy and paste these two lines one at a time:

netsh int ipv4 set global defaultcurhoplimit=64
netsh int ipv6 set global defaultcurhoplimit=64

You should also try these values 63/64/65/66/100 by modifying the value at the end of each line.
Let me know how it went.

[Molar]

Set to band 71 and lock it (the 5G band )getting 20+down

[Molar]

Did you insert the phone sim?

[56387f]

Hello,

first of all, please start from making a backup of your device. If something goes wrong then you can restore (most of the time with small exceptions) the configuration of your MOFI in 37 seconds.

*** EVERYTHING SHOULD START FROM MAKING A BACKUP **********

Another user has reported that setting the MoFi to "Generic" carrier profile and the TTL to 64 has worked at high speeds

I am using MOFI with T-MOBILE, I am getting 40-45 Mbit/s up and 60-65 Mbit/s on a good day. Those are my TTL setting (applied through custom rules in the Firewall settings)

# Internal uci firewall chains are flushed and recreated on reload, so
# put custom rules into the root chains e.g. INPUT or FORWARD or into the
# special user chains, e.g. input_wan_rule or postrouting_lan_rule.
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j HL --hl-set 65
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i eth1 -j TTL --ttl-set 65
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth0.2 -j HL --hl-set 65
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i eth0.2 -j TTL --ttl-set 65
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o usb0 -j HL --hl-set 65
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i usb0 -j TTL --ttl-set 65

## MOFI DATACENTER - I don't use any of it and simply block their IPs
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 69.162.138.23 -j REJECT
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 23.29.136.96 -j REJECT
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 192.157.56.194 -j REJECT

[56387f]

.6mbps <=> My iPhone will pull 10mbps.

several things to note:

a) Generally speaking the LTE modem in you iPhone(assuming that we are talking about reasonably new version) is light years ahead of the modem installed in MOFI. But at such speed (10 mbps) it is hardly matters, MOFI modem is CAT 6 modem and will handle 10-20 Mbp/s without breaking a sweat

b)yes, I think you are throttled but I might be wrong.

Steps to troubleshoot the situation (sorry complex problems require complex solutions):

a) connect MOFI to the Internet using fast wired internet connection using WAN port (the cable, blue LAN port) - max speed you can get is around 60-80 mpbs on the 100 Mpb/s LAN port and probably less over WiFi. if everything works just fine then there is nothing wrong with your device / its software;

b) try to use Linux computer instead of Windows and be discrete during the test - just run a speed test and see how it goes. Doing that will let you avoid Windows fingerprinting and potential deprioritization.

c) hardest part - measure the internet speed from your Iphone using a VPN connection (your provider can intentionally slow it down - then the further test makes not sense). Now setup a VPN connection (the right way is to have a fast VPN router between MOFI and your computer) to make sure that _all data exchange goes through VPN. You can also set a VPN on MOFI (I would not do that - it was slow in my tests and time consuming to setup but I used my own VPN server). The least desirable way (but probably the simplest one) is to install a VPN client on Windows to see if browsing through VPN helps to increase the speed.

If nothing helps then looks like the MOFI is recognized by IMEI and normally you cannot do anything about it.

[UPSMAN]

Hello,

first of all, please start from making a backup of your device. If something goes wrong then you can restore (most of the time with small exceptions) the configuration of your MOFI in 37 seconds.

*** EVERYTHING SHOULD START FROM MAKING A BACKUP **********




I am using MOFI with T-MOBILE, I am getting 40-45 Mbit/s up and 60-65 Mbit/s on a good day. Those are my TTL setting (applied through custom rules in the Firewall settings)

# Internal uci firewall chains are flushed and recreated on reload, so
# put custom rules into the root chains e.g. INPUT or FORWARD or into the
# special user chains, e.g. input_wan_rule or postrouting_lan_rule.
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j HL --hl-set 65
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i eth1 -j TTL --ttl-set 65
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o eth0.2 -j HL --hl-set 65
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i eth0.2 -j TTL --ttl-set 65
ip6tables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -o usb0 -j HL --hl-set 65
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i usb0 -j TTL --ttl-set 65

## MOFI DATACENTER - I don't use any of it and simply block their IPs
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 69.162.138.23 -j REJECT
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 23.29.136.96 -j REJECT
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 192.157.56.194 -j REJECT

ok do you have ipv6 set to on and do you have it set to dual stack? When im hooked up via lan I get great speeds but when I do wifi through the mofi it barley gets 5mbs

[Didneywhorl]

Wifi on all WE826 based devices is horrid. Im not sure why, except the terrible wifi chips and optimization.

The WiFiX NEXR5GO is WAY better.

[BDF1234]

Just FYI, the modem in a Sim 7 Mofi is Cat 4, not Cat 6. Not that its impacting speeds in this scenario.

[BillA]

Just FYI, the modem in a Sim 7 Mofi is Cat 4, not Cat 6. Not that its impacting speeds in this scenario.

The MoFi SIM7 normally comes with a low end Quectel EC25-AF (CAT-4 with no CA) modem, which is throttled by some carriers and/or plans (like Tmoblile). You could upgrade to an EP06-A or better yet an EM12 with an mPCIe to M.2 adapter (thewirelesshaven.com carries those items) or switch carriers.

[BDF1234]

The MoFi SIM7 normally comes with a low end Quectel EC25-AF (CAT-4 with no CA) modem, which is throttled by some carriers and/or plans (like Tmoblile). You could upgrade to an EP06-A or better yet an EM12 with an mPCIe to M.2 adapter (thewirelesshaven.com carries those items) or switch carriers.

I didn't know that. I have a Sim 7, so I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm planning a new build to replace the Mofi, but will keep it for backup purposes and travel. Thanks.

[DogTho]

This is interesting. I tested my MoFi sim7 on TMob band 4 that I typically get 20-30Mbps down with the wan on my W10 computer. I measured the DL using my Moto G5plus on the MoFi wifi and I get less than 5Mbps. Then I switch the Moto G5+ to my Asus NT-R66U router which is wan'd to the MoFi, and I get 20plus Mbps wifi down. That must be pretty crappy wifi device in the Mofi.

I just did another test with the mofi wifi connection and I also get 20+ Mbps, so that must have been a bogus test above.

[56387f]

ok do you have ipv6 set to on and do you have it set to dual stack? When im hooked up via lan I get great speeds but when I do wifi through the mofi it barley gets 5mbs

Sorry for the late reply, was out of the office for a vvvery long time. No, I specifically disable IPv6 on all my devices. I like to be in control of my devices having network connectivity and this is much easier to achieve with IPv4 only. This strategy worked fine for many previous years, it will for some years in future as long as IPv4 is still widely used/supported.

[thesecret2]

i have a mofi4500Exlte sim7 4g router, i know the sierra air prime module is a cat4, is it possible to switch out the cat4 replacing it with a cat12

[Didneywhorl]

Sim 7 is a Quectel EC25AF. The mofi4500 does not have support for any cat 12 modules. If they don't offer it, it isn't supported.