What is happening with 3G?
Adammusic's profile

Mentor

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56 Messages

Thursday, March 26th, 2015 8:15 PM

MICROCELL STILL DROPPING CALLS DAILY !!!!

THERE HAS TO BE A WAY TO FIX THIS. MICROCELL DROPS CALLS CONSTANTLY. GREEN BARS LIGHT FLASHES AND DISCONNECTS. I HAVE TO SWITCH IF I CANT FIGURE THIS OUT ALREADY.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

9 years ago

I understand your frustration but you keep starting new threads for the same issue and it's difficult to follow your setup and what was talked about without having to pull up all of your posts and go thru them again.

 

The flashing green 3G light means you have lost connectivity to AT&T even if the power, etherent, and GPS lights are solid green.

 

You ran a VoIP test once I believe and for that point in time, your results looked reasonable, but you need to run it at different times of the day a couple of times to get a realistic picture of what  your line quality looks like. Internet can be, and probably is, just fine. But something on your line is causing the MicroCell to lose its secure VPN connection to AT&T, which it has to maintain 24x7.

 

To rule out the MicroCell you could set it up at a different location (friend's house for example) who has AT&T service and preferably a different ISP and see  how that works. If the MicroCell works, then that rules out a defective MicroCell and points back to your setup and/or Comcast. We are seeing more and more issues with Comcast customer's lately and I don't know if Comcast is building out their network in anticipation of potential growth and that is causing MicroCell issues, the MicroCell itself is starting to "die" due to age, or what.

 

I don't remember  your setup and hardware so we would have to revisit that again or whether you have Comcast's VoIP service in addition.

Mentor

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56 Messages

9 years ago

miBlack microcell connected to Xfinity XB3 (DPC3939). I have a triple play with home phone service. Internet speed is 105/10. No issues with internet. Firewalls all open.

 

Test Type:Voice over IP
Downstream Jitter:5.1 ms
Downstream Loss:0 %
Downstream Packet Order:100 %
Upstream Jitter:0.2 ms
Upstream Loss:0 %
Upstream Packet Order:100.0 %
Packet Discards:0 %
MOS Score:4.1

 

Test Type:Application Speed
Location: 
Download Speed:30503 kbps
Upload Speed:4657 kbps
Speed Consistency:53 %
Round Trip Time:70 ms
Max Delay:30 ms
Average Delay:2 ms
Bandwidth:65841 kbps
Forced Idle:90 %
Route Concurrency:2.2
Test Type:s / s
Round Trip Time Consistency:89 %

Mentor

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56 Messages

9 years ago

What are my other options besides the microcell? Im just going to switch to verizon, which is a shame. I cant keep dropping calls like this. Do you think the white older microcell will work any better?

Mentor

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56 Messages

9 years ago

The reviews on amazon for both microcells are terrible. Everyone experiences dropped calls on both microcells. Im finally realizing its just a terrible product that is extremely inconsistent. Also live chat looks like it doesnt exist anymore. Or is that just afterhours now? 

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

9 years ago

A lot of people who have good experiences fail to post reviews and I personally take online reviews with a grain of salt. To say that everyone who has a MicroCell experiences dropped calls is not accurate.

 

The white MicroCell's perform the same as the new black ones do. I have both and don't see a difference in them.

 

Have you confirmed that the minimum router requirements are being met:

 

DHCP enabled

Ports 123 UDP, 443 TCP, 500 UDP, and 4500 UDP must be open (Public and Private ports).

IPSec Pass-Through is enabled

Block Fragmented Packets is disabled

NAT duties handled by only one device if you have a separate router and modem (gateway)

 

Looking more closely at your single point in time VoIP test the download jitter is 5.1ms. Not bad but it does seem to be a bit high. Mine, for example, is around 0.8ms. It could be that during the call, your jitter fluctuates enough that the secure connection can't be maintained and you lose connectivity. AT&T can't fix that, only Comcast can because it's a line quailty issue. My guess is that if the jitter is excessive enough the MicroCell breaks the connection until a better connection can be established.

 

AT&T disabled Live Chat this week for reasons known only to them.

 

According to Cisco:

 

Jitter is generally caused by congestion in the IP network. The congestion can occur either at the router interfaces or in a provider or carrier network if the circuit has not been provisioned correctly. 

 

Jitter is a variation in packet latency for voice packets. The DSPs inside the router can make up for some jitter, but can be overcome by excessive jitter. This results in poor voice quality. The cause of jitter is that a packet gets queued or delayed somewhere in the circuit, where there was no delay or queueing for other packets. This causes a variation in latency. Jitter can be caused both by router misconfiguration and by PVC misconfiguration by the carrier or provider.

Professor

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2.2K Messages

9 years ago

There are always going to be certain situations where the Mcell doesn't work as well as we would like it to.  That's the problem with a one-size-fits-all device that has to deal with countless variations of home networking hardware and ISP congestion/line quality issues that cause Mcell reliability problems.

 

You asked about alternatives.  Switching cellphone providers may help if coverage is better with another provider at your location.  If switching providers doesn't improve the cell tower coverage in your area and you are again faced with needing a femtocell, I would say that you most likely will have the same problem as it is probably caused by ISP connection issues.

 

Signal boosters can be an alternative to using a femtocell in fringe areas as long as there is somewhere in your house (near a window) where you can reliably pick up at least one bar of signal strength.  These boosters do not use the internet so they are immune to ISP/home network problems that can interrupt femtocell operation. 

 

There are numerous signal booster products out there and the one thing they have in common is that they are considerably more expensive than a femtocell.  Cel-Fi and Wilson Electronics are two companies I know of that sell quality boosters.  The Cel-Fi Pro unit configured for AT&T costs $700 and handles 3G, 4G and LTE bands.  They have a 30-day return policy if you don't like it.

Tutor

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11 Messages

8 years ago

I have the same problem.  I get a full signal with the booster, but every single phone call that is longer than 2 minutes gets dropped.  They typically get dropped between 2-5 minutes into the conversation.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

8 years ago

First to be accurate, the MicroCell is not a signal booster. It does not take the detected tower signal and amplify it. The MicroCell transmits its own 3G signal that the phone locks onto.

 

What kind of phone do you have, what kind of internet service do you have and with who? This could be a line quality issue among other things.

Tutor

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11 Messages

8 years ago

I have a Samsung 6. Comcast internet, I just did a speed test and download was 85.85 Mbps and upload was 11.74 Mbps. It is very frustrating as I use my phone for work and if I turn the MicroCell on, I get a great full signal and the call quality is great, but without fail the call will be dropped within five minutes.

Mentor

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56 Messages

8 years ago

I finally fixed my issues by giving the Microcell a reseved IP address on my Xfinity DPC3941T. Microcell only disconnected like twice in the last couple months.
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