What is happening with 3G?
themcks's profile

Contributor

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3 Messages

Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 12:04 AM

3g Microcell and Charter Cable

Hi

 

I have had a 3g microcell for over a year.  Suddenly this week the 3g light starts flashing and phones no longer connect.  I have:

 

deavtivate and reactivated too many times to count

factory reset my modem, router, microcell

replaced microcell with new one

opened all ports listed in various posts and att support site

turned cellular data and 3g data off on iphone

used priority set up (modem then 3gMC then router, this is how I am configured now)

 

What ever I try, there is still no connection back to att network.  ATT support says it must be charter cable and charter cable says it is att.  The only port I can not touch is 123 NTP.  I don't know what is hooked up to it, but it is not accessible to me.  However, using the priority config should bypass any port issues...right?

 

Please help.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

I think I mentioned this already but I have been unable to contact the Charter Engineer (SVP-Corporate) who was so helpful when this happened in another region about the same time. His Charter email address now bounces back as undeliverable. I've tried to email him from two different email accounts (including my personal email account) and get the same results. We're trying from this end but are running out of ideas. Your best bet, unfortunately, is to start pressuring Charter to do whatever they did to fix their network boxes after the upgrade for AT&T VoIP in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, that they do the same for your area. It may end up that either Vonage or the MicroCell will work but not both.

Teacher

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27 Messages

10 years ago

Guys, just wanted to give you another update...

 

I did a full reset of my Vonage box, placed it behind my router and assigned it a static IP.  It has been working well so far and my general Internet speeds have greatly improved since that device is no longer upstream of the LAN.  So, thanks for that good suggestoin.

 

Now, the MicroCell seems a bit better now that the Vonage box is out of they way, just as long as I have no other devices on the network using any bandwidth.  As soon as I use other devices (not all at the same time of course) the MCell outbound quality deminishes suddenly.  (other devices accessing Internet include your typical things like two laptops, two cell phones, my DirecTV DVR, XBox and an iPad).  That's basically it.

 

I have the 30/4 Charter HSI package but maybe the 4 Mb up just not enough speed to handle my devices, including the Vonage and MCell boxes that are constantly listening on the LAN, let alone passing voice traffic when active calls are made.

 

I'll contact Charter for them to test my line, to verify that's all good then will possibly consider bumping up my HSI package to their next teir if available.  

 

Otto:  I'll pressure them to fix their boxes for the AT&T VoIP issue as well.

 

Thanks.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

It sounds like Vonage is your problem, that and the fact that it could be a priority issue as well where the MicroCell loses out to Vonage or your other devices. I have quite a few devices on my LAN as well but none of them interfere with the MicroCell. I can be streaming Netflix, have both laptops on the internet and still make and receive cell phone calls with no issues at all. I don't think bumping upload speeds will fix anything. My upload speeds are 1.0Mbps and I have aboslutely no issues. It may come down to choosing between Vonage and AT&T, or dealing with the connection issues when they come up knowing now what the problem probably is.

 

Have you tried to assign a static ip address to the MicroCell (based on its MAC address) and then forward the necessary ports to it? That may give it a bit more priority.

Professor

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2.2K Messages

10 years ago

Your router has QoS and as I suggested previously, you should set the priority of your Mcell to the highest setting based on its MAC address by doing the following:

 

Open your router admin page, select "QoS setup".

On that page, check the box for "Turn Internet Access for QoS On"

Click "Apply".

Then at the bottom of that same page where it says "QoS Priority Rule List", click on "Setup QoS Rule".

On the "QoS Priority Rule List" page at the bottom of the list of rules, click on "Add Priority Rule"

Once you are on that page:

 

1. Select "MAC Address" from the "Priority Category" list.
2. Enter the MAC address of your Microcell in the field provided. 
3. You can also enter a name in the "Device Name" field.
4. Select the priority level: Highest.
5. You can also type the name in the "QoS Policy for" field for this rule.
6. Click the "Add" button.
7. Click "Apply".

 

This will hopefully minimize the impact on your Mcell when your bandwidth is tight.

Professor

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2.2K Messages

10 years ago

As far as going to a higher tier of Charter Internet service, you mentioned that you are currently at 30 mbps down and 3 mbps up.  Are you sure it isn't 30 down / 4 up?  That's what my Charter service tier is.  You may be able to go up to a higher tier like 100 mbps down for an exorbitant amount of money but I don't think your up speed will change.  I may be wrong.

 

Try my suggestion first and see if your situation improves.

Teacher

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27 Messages

10 years ago

Thanks again to you both...

 

Yes, I have the MCell set on a static IP and have QoS set to high priority for its MAC.  The default QoS rules in the Netgear router also have general "IP_Phone" services set to high as well.  It also has a default "Vonage_Phone" rule set to high in there too.

 

Yes, in my previous post I mentioned that I'm on the 30/4 plan also.  I'll try the port-forwarding trick for the MCell to see if that helps.

 

Otto: Yeah, I agree that my 4 Mb up shouldn't be an issue for all these devices.

Teacher

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27 Messages

10 years ago

Honestly, I may just dump the Vonage service soon all together since services like the new BBM v2.0 with BBM Voice are available.  The only reason I have Vonage is to make calls to Canada since I have some family and friends there.  With more vendors offering free VoIP call services like BBM, I can only imagine Vonage will go out of business anyways.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

Sounds like you've already set the QoS priority to high for both so maybe port forwarding will give the MicroCell an edge as far as priority goes.

 

Vonage seems to be a survivor. They were almost down and out a couple of years ago because they had all kinds of issues (my bro-in-law had them) but seemd to have bounced back. In fact, I think my bro-in-law may have gone back to Vonage. I should go ask him about the nuts and bolts of his service if he did. He's in the networking field so he may have some insight. Don't know why didn't think of that before Smiley Sad

Teacher

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27 Messages

10 years ago

OK, I've got port forwarding to the MCell IP for ports 443, 500 and 4500 (public and private) but am not able to get UDP 123 to stick in the router config.  It keeps telling me that the port is already being used.  I've even temporarily disabled UPnP but no luck.  I'll try some test calls later tonight to see if it's better with those 3 ports forwarding.

 

No worries about asking your brother-in-law earlier but if you happen to get some feedback from him on his Vonage setup, that would be great!

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

Sounds like 123 UDP is being occupied by Vonage? Hmmm, maybe Avedis53 has an idea. My router is an Apple Extreme Base Station which just seems to work without too much configuration. But then again, I'm not adding Vonage to the mix.

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