3G microcell "network" light blinking red overnight

Whoo Hoo! Another satisfied customer.

Interesting.  Not all routers have those settings available to be enabled/disabled.  Mine does not.  I am curious though if you tried enabling those settings one at a time to see if just one of them will cure the problem.

@Jeff92677 - that is very interesting. We have had issues with Arris modems in the past but maybe it was how the router was configured and not necessarily the modem, but we usually do not get a whole lot of detailed information from posters. Routers are becoming more and more sophisticated, and cheaper, so not all of them have the same depth of configuration options. What router do you have btw?

A red flashing 3G light is either indicative of a hardware failure or an update that was received and unit didn't reset itself properly and it "thinks" it's broken. Being as you have a new MicroCell it's more than likely the update process has been interrupted somehow. A brand new MicroCell will go thru the Initial Activation phase and update itself. I would either try to do a hard reset on the MicroCell to clear out the memory and registers or try to activate it directly to the router first, and then move it to the Airport Express. It could be that the AE connecton to the TimeCapsule is where it's starting to fail now. I know it worked before but you could've been on the minimal edge of connectivity (lag, interference, etc) and something has changed. If you can connect bypassing the AE, then that's probably your answer.

The most reliable connection for the MicroCell is a direct connection to the router/modem. Connecting to an AE and then to a router wirelessly can, and does, work for a lot of people but you are introducing a wireless component so anything can happen.

I would definitely try a temporary Ethernet cable connection between the Mcell and your modem to see if the AE is causing the problem.  I have a similiar setup using a range extender to wirelessly connect my Mcell to my router and it does lose its connection occasionally for some reason. 

I had a microcell for 2 years just working fine. Then I re-organized my living room and suddenly the microcell stopped working. I had blinking red lights and blinking green lights. I tried pretty much everything that was suggested in this forum but nothing really helped. My last attempt was to re-locate the micro cell to see if it would have any impact. Although the cell was only a few inches away from a sliding glass door going to the outside (the location where it did not work), moving the cell 5 more inches towards to door made averything work properly again.

CONCLUSION: It appears that these microcells are be EXTREMELY sensitive to location! My suggestion for anybody having problems which do not get resolved by hard resets, etc. - move the microcell right in front of the window or sliding glass door and see if this solves the issue. For me it did 🙂

It's not that they are "extremely" sensitive to location it's just that they have to have that clear view of the sky for GPS to work. And depending on your geographical location or what's around you, a few inches either way can affect GPS. For some, placing the MicroCell horizontal to the window instead of perpendicular can improve reception. I believe the instructions say nor more than 18" away from a window (at least they used to say that) so the unit can have that unobstructed view of the sky. I can move my MicroCell anywhere, and it any orientation along the length of my 60" desk which is up against the window and not affect reception at all. However, if I move the MicroCell, which is about 6" from the window to about 2' away from the window I have noted reception issues. The antennas (GPS, 3G) are located on the top of the main board which would be the top of the unit.