What is happening with 3G?
convergent's profile

Teacher

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8 Messages

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 1:32 PM

Closed

iPhone Not Connecting to Microcell

I have had the AT&T Microcell now for about a month.  When it works, it works great.  But for some reason, it gets to where it won't connect to my phone.  I am right now sitting here with my iPhone sitting on top of the Microcell and yet it still won't connect.  On the iPhone, I've tried rebooting it, turning WiFi on and off, turning 3G on and off, and turning flight mode on and off... and still I sit with no bars.  Sometimes it will work fine... sometimes it won't.  I can spend 15 or 20 minutes and restart the Microcell and that will work sometimes.  I believe this is happening with our other non-iPhone phones too, but I don't use them every day so have the most knowledge about my iPhone.  It is very, very frustrating because the coverage here is so bad that when the Microcell isn't kicking in then its hit or miss on calls and texts.  Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?  I need reliable service here.

Master

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7.4K Messages

14 years ago

Some people have reported they needed to have their MicroCell at a minimum of a few feet away from their router due to interference issues (not sure which brand router they were using).  So don't set the MicroCell and AirPort on top of or right next to each other.

 

Just something else to try also.

Tutor

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6 Messages

14 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions but... I used your exact settings and it still doesn't work.

 

 

  • The MicroCell is over 20 feet from the Airport Extreme.
  • Went through the whole procedure twice, powering everything down and back up.
  • When on M-Cell, there are 5 bars on the MicroCell  but no bars on either phone.
  • Turning Airplane mode on and off will go into "searching" followed by M-Cell on the phone for about 2 minutes. But while the phone is in this mode, it is completely dead to phone calls.
  • It then reverts to either Edge or 3G.

 

The AT&T troubleshooting document says the following settings are required:

 

 

  • DHCP is on
  • Port Blocking is either turned off or allowing ports 4500 and 500
  • MAC address filtering is either turned off or allowing MAC address of MicroCell
  • IPSec Pass-through is Enabled
  • MTU size is set to 1492
  • Blocked Fragmented Packets is Disabled

 

Scholar

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177 Messages

14 years ago

Are you running the latest version of iphone software?

Tutor

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6 Messages

14 years ago

Yes, both iPhones are running the latest software. Furthermore, the phones were purchased about 6 months apart. 

Master

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7.4K Messages

14 years ago

Does it work if you plug the MicroCell directly into your internet modem without using your router?  If it works this way then I'd suggest an issue with your router or its settings.  If not that way then the only other things I can thing of is:

1) Bad MicroCell.

2) Your ISP is blocking something like ports on their end.

3) Some sort of signal interference from something in your area.

Tutor

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6 Messages

14 years ago

AT&T Tech Supports response: "We are limited on what we can do  here. I apologize the the incontinence."

 

So it goes back to the store.

Teacher

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9 Messages

14 years ago

I just took mine back. I had it plugged directly into my modem in front of my router. Initially it didn't work at all, then I re-registered it and it worked for a couple of hours and quit, I then re-registered it and it worked for several days. It then stopped and also kept our internet from working until I pulled it out. I spent hours on the phone with support going through the same steps over and over. I suspect it could be made to work if they looked at logs and diagnosed what is wrong but blindly going through a checklist of what to do (reset phone, reset MicroCell, unregister and re-register) was never going to find the problem. Extremely disappointed.

Contributor

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1 Message

14 years ago

I was having the same problem for a week now - using an iPhone and another type of AT&T-based cell phone.   Both had been working fine for several weeks after the MicroCell was first installed.   My wireless router and cable modem have never been turned off or rebooted since the installation of the AT&T MicroCell about a month ago.   I did shut down my two PCs for a week while on vacation however the router and modem were left up and the network was used regularly by the housesitter so we know the network was working all along.    The MicroCell signal just became weak and finally would not show on our phones at all.   Wierd stuff but I guess it is the nature of electronics and/or networks. 

 

Finally decided today to reboot the 3G MicroCell ONLY - took about ten minutes and then successfully got an excellent signal on my phones.  There should not have been a reason to have to reboot the MicroCell but then again maybe this is like early versions of MS Windows - just reboot when in doubt about any problem or symptoms!   

  - KRE

Contributor

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1 Message

14 years ago

From the knucklehead department -- me.  I too was having intermittent connectivity problems with my iphone. Tried rebooting everything to no avail.  Then I realized that to save battery life I routinely turn off 3G and wifi on my phone settings.  Sure enough, this was my problem.

 

The 3G Microcell works as advertised for me.  So long as I avoid knucklehead mode in the settings in my brain.

Tutor

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6 Messages

14 years ago

The saga continues.

 

Tried a 2nd MicroCell and it worked the same as the first. Interestingly while there was no voice connection, data worked fine. And yes WiFi was turned off on the phone. Tested this with 3 different iPhones, all dead on voice and all worked with data.

 

Tried a 3rd MicroCell and this one would never stop blinking the 3G lights. Went through several repeats of the setup procedure and even gave it 24 hours to try to connect with no luck. So it was returned and the money returned.

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