AT&T Microcell Network Light will not come on

Is the 3G light flashing red or green? If it is flashing red, then  your location verification failed. If it is flashing green, either an update failed, there's a hardware failure, or something is blocking one of the ports AT&T needs to remain open to establish a 24x7 secure VPN.

Is this a new MicroCell or is it second-hand?

Have you ensured that the minimum router requirements as given in the setup instructions and in my Tech Guide (see link in my sig) have been met?

The 3G light is flashing green. This is a new Microcell not a used one. purchased two days ago from an AT&T store.The AT&T representative did my online registration. I have turned off the Firewall so the ports mentioned in the setup instructions remain open. ie; 123/UCP, 443/TCP, 4500/UDP, 500/UDP. This is a private setup not a corporate setup.

I've never been a fan of having the corporate store activate the MicroCell. For some reason there seems to be issues when they activate it.

Perform a hard reset of the MicroCell first. Turn off the power and then push a paperclip into the reset hole in the back. Keep holding in the paperclip, restore power, and continue to hold in the reset button for about 30 seconds. Release the button and let the MicroCell go thru the Initial Actiavation process (details are given in my Tech Guide, link in my sig).

If that doesn't work, then I would deactivate the MicroCell and then wait for a period of time. That's vague I know but sometimes you need to make sure that the command has time to process correctly. Otherwise, it gets confused when you deactivate and then activate too quickly.

I would set it up exactly as the instructions indicate: 18" from a window with an unobstructed view of the sky, a lesst 2' away from a WiFi device (bascially your router), all the ports are open on the ISP side (you'll have to confirm that with your ISP), DHCP is enabled in the router as well as IPSec Passthrough, and Block Fragemented Packets is disabled. If you have a separate router and modem, make sure only one of them is handling the NAT duties. Also, if you have a separate modem, I'd make sure it is in Bridge mode so that only your router handles all of the firewalling,etc.

The blinking green 3G light is indicative of a hardware failure (unlikely as this is a brand new MicroCell), an update that didn't take properly (very likely), or something upstream is blocking the MicroCell from establishing a secure VPN.

Who is  your ISP and do you have cable or DSL?

My ISP is http://www.ridgeviewcommunications.net/. 796 kb/s down stream and 796 kb/s upstream... This might be the problem....any thoughts on this?

The realistic speeds for MicroCell usage are 3.0Mbs down and 512kbps up, on a clean line. Your internet may be fine but the line needs to be clean for VoIP.

Is Ridgeview wireless broadband? Taking a quick look at their website it looks like it is. If that's the case then the MicroCell will not work reliably because the MicroCell is designed for land-based internet, which is either cable or DSL. AT&T does not support wireless broadband and even state that in their setup docuements. I know it's mentioned on the outside of the box for the DPH-154 model, albeit in small print on the back.

So, your internet speeds are not fast enough, and if you have wireless broadband, line fluctuations, jitter, interference, etc will make it extremely difficult to maintain a secure, 24x7 VPN tunnel. Some folks have had good luck with satellite broadband but they eventually have issues which AT&T, and us, can't resolve because it's not supported.