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

Ok. I'll send an email to the Charter Engineer who helped us with the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and see if one, he'll respond to my email and two, if he can help.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

I've attempted to email the Charter engineer at the email he supplied us and it is bouncing back as undelivereable. He may have changed his address for that very reason. You will have to contact Charter support then and see if you can find out if they have been upgrading the network boxes for your region and refer them back to the issues that were corrected in the Dallas-Ft.Worth area for similar problems. If it is due to a Charter hardware upgrade, there is nothing, or very little that AT&T can do. If we can't get it resolved here (it might not be a Charter upgrade issue) then I'd suggest sending a PM to CustomerCare detailing your issue, what you have done to correct it, refer to the previous Charter issue, include your account info and your location.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

@acouse - Concerning the SIP ALG Vonage protocol:

 

SIP ALG will not cause problems with the MicroCell as the MicroCell does not use the SIP protocol. However, in many cases, SIP ALG is implemented poorly and can cause other issues. If you can get your MicroCell to work with SIP ALG turned off, then that's an indication that the SIP ALG is being implemented poorly causing MicroCell traffic disruption. In theory that shouldn't happen but......

 

The fix, if you want/need to use Vonage at the same time is to setup port forwarding on the Vonage V-adapter using the same ports required for the MicroCell: UDP port 123, TCP port 443, UDP port 4500, and UDP port 500.

Professor

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2.2K Messages

10 years ago

Personally, I wouldn't put the V-adapter ahead of my router for the same reason I won't put the Mcell ahead of my router and that is limited bandwidth and latency.

 

You should be able to plug the V-adapter into your router just like any other LAN device.  I would assign the V-adapter a static IP address in your router and then place that static IP address in your router's DMZ.

 

Try that and see if you can make Vonage calls.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

That might work as well. I haven't seen the V-adapter so I'm not sure what configuration options there are. I was able to get a hold of one of the MicroCell engineers and that was his suggestion.

 

SIP uses UDP and may be locked into specific ports. It also has difficulties with NAT.

 

 

Professor

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2.2K Messages

10 years ago

The V-adapter is a one port basic router and does have a webpage accessed by IP address to make simple settings changes.  I know it isn't as robust as a decent router/gateway and I don't think you can port forward with it but I'm not sure.  It sells for $20-$30 so it can't be that good.

 

I've done speed tests with the Microcell in front of the router and it seriously degrades bandwidth to everything downstream of it.

 

I've read several posts about connecting a V-adapter to a router and it is commonplace. 

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

I suppose the OP could contact Vonage and ask what he can, or cannot do, with the V-adapter as far as configurability.

Teacher

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27 Messages

10 years ago

Thanks guys for your latest posts...

 

Regarding my Vonage issue... I agree that it should be behind my router but in the past when I've tried to set it up that way, the configuration was a real beast to get it to work.  At the time, Vonage had suggested to place it in front of the router but that's also causing double-natting which no one needs.  

 

What I'll do is do a full reset on my Vonage box then hook it up behind my router to minimize overall speed latency and the double-natting issue.  I'll also disable DHCP in there.  You guys are right and that V-Adapter is pretty cheap and its firmware is very limited as far as custom configs go.  I'll put it in the DMZ too as suggested.

 

Hopefully these changes will take care of the Vonage issue.  I'll keep working on the MCell one too as that's driving me nuts now since it's not working properly.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

Just remember that a double NAT is a big no-no with the MicroCell. I'm sure you already knew that but it bears repeating. It's covered in my Guide.

Teacher

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27 Messages

10 years ago

Yes, I understand that it's certainly not a good idea to double NAT.  It just amazes me how my configuration had always worked well in the past, up until about 2 months ago when suddenly call quality on the MCell deminished drastically and some Vonage calls too..  That was at about the time Charter was starting to make back-end changes to their network so that's why I posted my original message on here, pointing my finger at Charter.

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