Some Observations
Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:20 pm
Hello
I want to share some connection issue observations in case it helps those with much deeper knowledge of LTE devises in the future. I am using a WE826-T2 and MC7455 from The Wireless Haven which when used as a hotspot for our travel trailer worked fine. Fast forward a year and we are losing DSL service at our home because of a contract problem between Centurylink and our local ISP. The local ISP is offering fixed LTE service as a replacement and now we also have Starlink when ever they will truly come on line (promised by next winter).
The local ISP had been out to our house twice doing site surveys and determined that there was no service here because of the terrain. This was no surprise to me as I knew the locations of the near by cell towers. Using the link.ui.com tool I was able to determine that with a 27' tall antenna mast a line of sight connection should be possible to the nearest tower. The antennas were installed on the new antenna mast at the well house uphill from the main house. The router with modem was moved from our travel trailer to the well house. Using a Google.Fi SIM card i was able to get a serviceable connection 12 to 50Mbs down and 1 to 5Mbs up. Much better than we ever had from DSL so this looked like a win except for using the very expensive Google.Fi SIM card. At the same time the ISP was offering a 30 day money back trial of their fixed DSL service if you did your own install so we did it.
The ISP provided a BEC 6500AEL router that has a EM7455 modem card in it. Needless to say the router is locked so the end user can't get at the modem or connection settings. The sticker with the default admin password had also been removed from the unit. Into the well house this unit went for testing. The connection went without a hitch and we had 8 to 28MBS down and 1 to 5MBS up depending on the time of day. So better than DSL but not as good as The Wireless Haven gear with the Google.Fi SIM card. This service is also rather expensive when compared to cost and speed of Starlink. I admit that I'm cheap. So off to find a low cost data only SIM that will work on a T-mobile tower.
The best low cost SIM I could find was the Calyx Institute plan. I ordered one up and it came 10 days later. The provided hotspot was setup and as expected had no connection at the house. The laptop, hotspot and myself got into the truck and went for a drive to a location that should use the same cell as our fixed router/modem. Success! No real high speed but much better than DSL ever was. Back at the well house I put the Calyx SIM card into the The Wireless Haven gear and reconnected it to the external antennas. Back down at the house I set the correct APN in the router and got a good connection in a few minutes. The speed was good at 18 to 50Mbs down and 1 to 5MBs up depending on the time of day. For about 3 hours I thought I had a winner and then no connection. A hike back to the well house to cycle the power was required to re-establish a connection to the internet.
The modem would indicate it had a connection to the cell tower (at!gstatus) even though there was no
internet. The modem always indicated a connection to the correct bands on the local tower. Much testing and more grey hairs (not many dark ones left) the length of the connections was getting shorter while the only way I could get a re-connection was to cycle the power. I think I must of read every tutorial and help request posted here for both modems and routers. I was getting desperate because the 30 day trial of the ISP gear was nearing the end and I really didn't want to use their service. I had been running the latest The Wireless Haven wifix firmware on the router with the original factory firmware on the modem. I decided to try the router firmware described here : https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1032#p6690 and see if there was any change in behavior.
The muddy path back to the well house is getting well worn by now. I installed the firmware in the router using the recovery method. I thought I had bricked the damn thing it took so long for it to restart. As advertised the UI was really slooow (Chrome, Debian Linux), a true PITA to work with but really when things work how often do you use it? Back down to the house and I had a good fast connection for about 1 hour then nothing. A check of the modem status showed something that I had never seen before. The modem status showed it was connected to band 26 with a bandwidth of 1.5 MHz and a weak -118db signal. Connections to my local tower go about -80db at a bad time with about 10db SINR. The connection was actually still there only very slow, unusable on any modern website. Was this the clue I had been missing?
The more I thought about the problem it must be that the T-Mobile tower (cell) must have been trying to hand off the connection to a Sprint tower (cell) that failed or appeared to fail. How do I prevent this from happening? I could band lock the modem to the bands that are only present on the local tower. I know that most of the advise I have read here from the gurus recommends against this in most cases. I went ahead and following the directions on this site created a band group that has bands 2,4 and 12, the ones on the local tower. The modem was set to use this band group and reset. No connection, using the UI I disconnected and then reconnected the modem. After about 3 minutes the modem status indicated it had reconnected! So for the last day the connection has held! Speeds seem to be slightly lower than before I band locked the modem but not by much. I haven't changed the router firmware back to the stock wifix release. Sorry for the long post, I hope those that are skilled in this craft can use it to provide concise help to others that are struggling.
John
I want to share some connection issue observations in case it helps those with much deeper knowledge of LTE devises in the future. I am using a WE826-T2 and MC7455 from The Wireless Haven which when used as a hotspot for our travel trailer worked fine. Fast forward a year and we are losing DSL service at our home because of a contract problem between Centurylink and our local ISP. The local ISP is offering fixed LTE service as a replacement and now we also have Starlink when ever they will truly come on line (promised by next winter).
The local ISP had been out to our house twice doing site surveys and determined that there was no service here because of the terrain. This was no surprise to me as I knew the locations of the near by cell towers. Using the link.ui.com tool I was able to determine that with a 27' tall antenna mast a line of sight connection should be possible to the nearest tower. The antennas were installed on the new antenna mast at the well house uphill from the main house. The router with modem was moved from our travel trailer to the well house. Using a Google.Fi SIM card i was able to get a serviceable connection 12 to 50Mbs down and 1 to 5Mbs up. Much better than we ever had from DSL so this looked like a win except for using the very expensive Google.Fi SIM card. At the same time the ISP was offering a 30 day money back trial of their fixed DSL service if you did your own install so we did it.
The ISP provided a BEC 6500AEL router that has a EM7455 modem card in it. Needless to say the router is locked so the end user can't get at the modem or connection settings. The sticker with the default admin password had also been removed from the unit. Into the well house this unit went for testing. The connection went without a hitch and we had 8 to 28MBS down and 1 to 5MBS up depending on the time of day. So better than DSL but not as good as The Wireless Haven gear with the Google.Fi SIM card. This service is also rather expensive when compared to cost and speed of Starlink. I admit that I'm cheap. So off to find a low cost data only SIM that will work on a T-mobile tower.
The best low cost SIM I could find was the Calyx Institute plan. I ordered one up and it came 10 days later. The provided hotspot was setup and as expected had no connection at the house. The laptop, hotspot and myself got into the truck and went for a drive to a location that should use the same cell as our fixed router/modem. Success! No real high speed but much better than DSL ever was. Back at the well house I put the Calyx SIM card into the The Wireless Haven gear and reconnected it to the external antennas. Back down at the house I set the correct APN in the router and got a good connection in a few minutes. The speed was good at 18 to 50Mbs down and 1 to 5MBs up depending on the time of day. For about 3 hours I thought I had a winner and then no connection. A hike back to the well house to cycle the power was required to re-establish a connection to the internet.
The modem would indicate it had a connection to the cell tower (at!gstatus) even though there was no
internet. The modem always indicated a connection to the correct bands on the local tower. Much testing and more grey hairs (not many dark ones left) the length of the connections was getting shorter while the only way I could get a re-connection was to cycle the power. I think I must of read every tutorial and help request posted here for both modems and routers. I was getting desperate because the 30 day trial of the ISP gear was nearing the end and I really didn't want to use their service. I had been running the latest The Wireless Haven wifix firmware on the router with the original factory firmware on the modem. I decided to try the router firmware described here : https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1032#p6690 and see if there was any change in behavior.
The muddy path back to the well house is getting well worn by now. I installed the firmware in the router using the recovery method. I thought I had bricked the damn thing it took so long for it to restart. As advertised the UI was really slooow (Chrome, Debian Linux), a true PITA to work with but really when things work how often do you use it? Back down to the house and I had a good fast connection for about 1 hour then nothing. A check of the modem status showed something that I had never seen before. The modem status showed it was connected to band 26 with a bandwidth of 1.5 MHz and a weak -118db signal. Connections to my local tower go about -80db at a bad time with about 10db SINR. The connection was actually still there only very slow, unusable on any modern website. Was this the clue I had been missing?
The more I thought about the problem it must be that the T-Mobile tower (cell) must have been trying to hand off the connection to a Sprint tower (cell) that failed or appeared to fail. How do I prevent this from happening? I could band lock the modem to the bands that are only present on the local tower. I know that most of the advise I have read here from the gurus recommends against this in most cases. I went ahead and following the directions on this site created a band group that has bands 2,4 and 12, the ones on the local tower. The modem was set to use this band group and reset. No connection, using the UI I disconnected and then reconnected the modem. After about 3 minutes the modem status indicated it had reconnected! So for the last day the connection has held! Speeds seem to be slightly lower than before I band locked the modem but not by much. I haven't changed the router firmware back to the stock wifix release. Sorry for the long post, I hope those that are skilled in this craft can use it to provide concise help to others that are struggling.
John