What is happening with 3G?
Frogis's profile

Tutor

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3 Messages

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014 5:06 AM

HELP - 3G light is flashing, microcell was previously working fine

Hello,

 

   I figured it was worth posting here so I have yet to have success with anything else. 

 

Background

 

I live in an area almost exactly inbetween three AT&T cell phone towers, so subsequently my phone is constantly switching singnals from one tower to the other giving me very inconsistent service.  After diagnosing the problem with AT&T about six months ago they sent me a micro cell free of charge, and it worked absolutely fantastic until....

 

The Problem

 

About a week ago my microcell's 3g light started flashing, this had happened once or twice before so I performed a simple reset but it did not fix the problem like before.

 

  •   I tried resetting my modem, router, and microcell
  •   hard resetting my microcell for 30 seconds
  •   de-activing and re-activating my microcell twice
  •   checking my power cord to make sure it was the right voltage
  •   getting a replacement microcell sent to my house
  •   setting up my microcell in the alternate arrangement (modem-->microcell-->router)
  •   updating the firmware on my router

and none of these fixed the problems.

 

My current internet is about 30mbps DL and 10mbps upload so that isn't the problem

The ports on my router are all opened, and nothing has changed to effect that

 

After going extensively through the forums I am kind of at a loss of what to try next.  Any suggestions from people on the forums?

 

I am currently located in the East Bay of California (Alameda, CA)

 

Thanks very much.

 

-Frogis

 

 

Professor

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2.2K Messages

9 years ago

@ Otto

 

ViaSat-1, Exede's satellite is in geosynchronous orbit and provides spot-beam coverage for North America and Hawaii.  The satellite is stationary with respect to ground users and does not move around. 

 

I would suspect that it is more likely due to the extemely high latency of satellite internet causing a loss of the Mcell's connection when polling occurs at night.  How the OP's connection worked during the day beats me but I know of others with femtocells that do use satellite internet.  I don't know how reliable their connections are though.

 

Geosynchronous satellites can also lose their connections during the annual equinoxes in the spring and fall when the Sun is directly behind the satellites.  This can cause partial or total signal degradation for up to 12 minutes but only twice a year.  FYI. 

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

9 years ago

@Avedis -I   have no reason to doubt what you said about the stationary orbit. It seemed reasonable that the sats orbit changed, either horzontally or vertically, because of the regularity of a 2am connection loss. In either case, the MicroCell does not support satellite or mobile broadband so any connectivity issues that arise from such a connection will be up to the user and his ISP to correct because there is nothing that we or AT&T can do.

Professor

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2.2K Messages

9 years ago

Actually, I should be careful about interchanging geosynchronous and geostationary.  Geosynchronous orbits trace a path in the sky called an analemma during a sidereal day.  Geostationary orbits appear fixed in the sky and are typically used by communication satellites.

 

ComSats have thrusters to maintain their positions in the sky.  These thrusters can also be used to move the satellite to another location if the provider requires it.  It is extemely important for the ComSats to maintain their position so the fixed ground antennas are always properly aligned.

 

As to why the OP's connection drops every night, if the satellite was in geosynchronous orbit, then the position of the satellite would move in a analemma path (lop-sided figure 😎 and the OP's connection dropping every night at the same time would be understandable.  That is not the case with ViaSat-1 though.  It is geostationary.

 

Bottom line:  Mcells and satellite internet do not play well together and AT&T (Verizon and Sprint too) will not recommend it.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

9 years ago

I need to find my original setup instructions for the "white" models and see if it mentions satellite/mobile broadband. It is clearly mentioned on the box of the DPH-154 as I stated. If that information was not listed in the instructions and/or the outside of the box then shame on AT&T for not publishing that.

Voyager

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3 Messages

9 years ago

Yes, mine is the older white and orange model.  The interesting thing is I just recently got the satellite internet as my broadband provider no longer was able to get a signal to me.  But, the interesting thing is, the MC was doing exactly the same thing on broadband at exactly the same time of the night.

 

I appreciate the responses, I guess I am lucky it works at all, I was not informed at the time of purchase that the MC only works with certain internet connections.  It worked for about 2 years with the broadband connection before developing the issue.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

9 years ago

So you're saying that you had land-based internet before satellite and you were still losing signal at around 2am? Interesting. I found my original User Manual for the DPH-151 model. On page 18 it says, " You need high speed internet service over DSL or Cable (satellite internet service will not work)." This particular unit was purchased in 2010 and still works fine (even though it's been retired and replaced with the new, DPH-154 model).

Voyager

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3 Messages

9 years ago

Yep, for about 2 years, it worked without a single issue. Then the early morning red light issue began about 6 months ago. I recently had to change ISP's because the previous provider no longer had a strong enough signal to reach me. My only option was satellite. Not trying to split hairs here, but once again, the MC works great all day long, but once it quits sometime after 2:00 am, you have to kill the power and restart. It doesn't make any difference whether you immediately re-power or wait until late in the day, it still quits at approximately the same time.

Contributor

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2 Messages

9 years ago

Glad to know I'm not alone. Started just about a week ago and suddenly I get all the lights except the flashing 3G light. will contact the tech rep in the forum, but would be good if they communicated with customers as soon as they realized there is a wide spread problem. It's been working perfect the 2 years I've had it until a week ago.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

9 years ago

There is no widespread problem that I am aware of. Is your 3G light flashing green or red? Give us more details and we'll see what the problem may be.

Contributor

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1 Message

9 years ago

I'm in the same boat.  My microcell has been rock solid for years.  Last week, the 3G signal bars started flashing green.  I've reset the thing several times with no luck 😞

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