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The AT&T 3G MicroCell Owner's Thread
- Thread starter pcguru83
- Start date
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Called the local At&t store today and they had some in stock (Asheville NC). They had just gotten them in on Saturday. Had my wife pick it up. Will be doing install tomorrow.
$150 for unit and NO monthly charge (uses plan minutes). OR
$150 with $100 rebate and pay $20/month for unlimited minutes.
It's finally getting out there. Shouldn't be long.
$150 for unit and NO monthly charge (uses plan minutes). OR
$150 with $100 rebate and pay $20/month for unlimited minutes.
It's finally getting out there. Shouldn't be long.
The only problem I have experienced with mine is after about 15 minutes, people cannot hear me, as if I am muted. This isn't regular, but happens.
I picked mine up yesterday afternoon in Albany, GA to use in Tifton. I can say I'm very disappointed in the provisioning process of this unit. After 2 hours, I called tech support and even though the GPS light was lit solid, the tech said I probably needed to move it. It was already at a window; I told him I could throw it out of the window.
I wound up moving it to one of the most inconvenient places in my house - a bay window in the dining room. The tech called me back around 9pm after the unit had been in the new location for about 30 mins. Right as we were on the phone, the 3G locked. I made a test call on my iPhone and it sounded great.
I still have to find a final place to put the thing but the provisioning time has to get better. I can't see any possible reason it should take that amount of time to provision a device and why it has to be so picky about GPS unless I'm in a dead zone where not only 3G doesn't they need to pipe in satellite signal for GPS. LOL
I'll give it a few days but so far the price and the amount of time to go and get the unit (about 2 hours or so drive time) along with these hiccups leaves a very bitter taste.
I wound up moving it to one of the most inconvenient places in my house - a bay window in the dining room. The tech called me back around 9pm after the unit had been in the new location for about 30 mins. Right as we were on the phone, the 3G locked. I made a test call on my iPhone and it sounded great.
I still have to find a final place to put the thing but the provisioning time has to get better. I can't see any possible reason it should take that amount of time to provision a device and why it has to be so picky about GPS unless I'm in a dead zone where not only 3G doesn't they need to pipe in satellite signal for GPS. LOL
I'll give it a few days but so far the price and the amount of time to go and get the unit (about 2 hours or so drive time) along with these hiccups leaves a very bitter taste.
My MicroCell took nearly 72 hours to get 3G (IP Sec) lock!
Took my unit about 2-3 days to get the IP Sec lock with AT&T. I live in South Metro Atlanta and it took nearly 3 days for my unit to get the IP Sec tunnel setup. From talking to tech support, it's a known issue and part of the reason why the MicroCell hasn't rolled out nationally
Took my unit about 2-3 days to get the IP Sec lock with AT&T. I live in South Metro Atlanta and it took nearly 3 days for my unit to get the IP Sec tunnel setup. From talking to tech support, it's a known issue and part of the reason why the MicroCell hasn't rolled out nationally
After getting mine on launch day and suffering all the garbled and dropped calls discussed here, it looks like I no longer need it. AT&T seem to have done something around my house and I now get 4 or 5 bars of 3G without it. Typical... they could have done this a couple of months ago and saved me some money. 
Ah well, I guess I can't complain now.
Ah well, I guess I can't complain now.I hope they resolve the issue soon. I've spent almost a year with no service on my iPhone when I get home. And I based my original purchase decision on the iPhone looking at AT&T's maps. I knew there wasn't 3G in the area, but I was ok with Edge. But that signal isn't strong enough in my house.
I told the tech last night if I didn't see better results that what we were getting last night, they could have the unit back and my iPhone would be disconnected and I would dare them to charge me a termination fee on my iPhone service.
I'm hopeful, however, that they get it all working and I can use the service.
Update 11-21-09: I moved the unit back to my desk which is around 3 feet from the nearest window. I had no real expectations of it working there but ironically after about 2 hours, I looked over and the 3G light was solid. Now maybe I can test the call quality and range today.
@#$@!
I got mine on launch day here in chapel hill nc. I get 0 bars and home and was really looking forward to this.
after 6 weeks it has been mostly a problem.
The sound quality is poor - I most use it for txt messages, when I get a call I typically call the person back on my lan line.
The microcell refuses to sync behind my firewall so I have to put it in priority mode. This stinks because I use bridge my connection to my m0n0wall firewall and have a dyndns account...
Like this the firewall/router gets a crappy 192 address and it updates the dns servers with this one instead of the proper wan ip.
to top it all off today I get home and it is down with the Ethernet & Computer lights blinking at the same time & pace..
I have never seen that so I have no idea what it is doing.
The device also sucks because it has no webgui config or anything. It has ssh & telnet open but the password is not given out. This I find a slap in the face since I BOUGHT the thing with my money....
Ill be going a few hard rounds with at&t tomorrow. I also plan to drill this thing with hydra to see if I can uncover that password.
I got mine on launch day here in chapel hill nc. I get 0 bars and home and was really looking forward to this.
after 6 weeks it has been mostly a problem.
The sound quality is poor - I most use it for txt messages, when I get a call I typically call the person back on my lan line.
The microcell refuses to sync behind my firewall so I have to put it in priority mode. This stinks because I use bridge my connection to my m0n0wall firewall and have a dyndns account...
Like this the firewall/router gets a crappy 192 address and it updates the dns servers with this one instead of the proper wan ip.
to top it all off today I get home and it is down with the Ethernet & Computer lights blinking at the same time & pace..
I have never seen that so I have no idea what it is doing.
The device also sucks because it has no webgui config or anything. It has ssh & telnet open but the password is not given out. This I find a slap in the face since I BOUGHT the thing with my money....
Ill be going a few hard rounds with at&t tomorrow. I also plan to drill this thing with hydra to see if I can uncover that password.
Less jargon, i understand nothing except its a piece. Honestly my area was upgraded to 3g that i cannot use because of dropped calls and signal fluctuation and AT&T basically told me too bad, and I was hoping the microcell would patch the hole, but i cant get it in FL and the tech support lady had no info for me, couldnt even put me in touch with someone who could get me more info on the microcell. I honestly think im going to switch to sprint, excellent coverage here, cheap plans that have unlimited everything, a network extender device that actually works, and ill just get either a pre or a blackberry and keep my iphone and use it as an ipod touch, or unlock it and sell it and get an iTouch.
Sorry about the "Jargon". I am basically saying this for those of you who may understand these problems and offer similar experiences and possibly advice.
I believe that the device will work adequately down the road but for now it is somewhat crude.
- No user end configuration
- requires a gps lock to ensure you are where you say you are... wtf ?
- the registration process is flakey and takes too long.
With time I anticipate that the firmware will be captured and manipulated prying it slightly out of at&t's kung-fu grip.
Most of AT&T's users don't have unnecessary junk to mess up the microcell. IE, dyndns, firewalls, static ip's, etc etc. You plug it in and it goes. It seems the people with the MOST problems, are the ones with the most JUNK to cause it. Less is more.
Most of AT&T's users don't have unnecessary junk to mess up the microcell. IE, dyndns, firewalls, static ip's, etc etc. You plug it in and it goes. It seems the people with the MOST problems, are the ones with the most JUNK to cause it. Less is more.
lol ... junk ? this so called junk is pretty standard and I have never seen it interfere with another device.
almost everyone out there is using a firewall these days has it comes standard with about every router/modem available.
Dyndns is common for folks that want a method to access their home network from another location. While my grandma may not need it - I have seen plenty of the less technically savy using this to benefit their needs.
The weakness here is the microcell. And I hope that upcoming firmware releases will reveal the necessary functionality to properly interact with a home network as other simple pieces of hardware do.
- should not require priority mode in any case.
- user end configuration with common features you see on other home networked devices.
- ditch the gps lock. I hope once the trial is over this may go away.
At the moment the product is still in trial stages so I suspect it will. Even if you call for support you get someone who is like "microwhat ?"
I had since exchanged my device and the new one works ok (still in priority). Just a fyi to those out there with problems. I was able to exchange even though it was out of the 30 day period...
question: me and my 3 roomates all have att (iphones for that matter) on our own respective calling plans. we have terrible reception (most likely because our house is solid kryptonite, super oldschool. we get 5 bars 2 feet outside) is the pricing $150 for the unit and then they just dock minutes off your plan?
Unless it's changed the Microcell will be tied to one account, and you put up to 10 phone numbers in that can use it - on the ATT website. It's $150 and just uses your minutes as you use them.
Or you can get a $100 rebate by signing up for unlimited minutes - through the microcell - for $20 a month - but that would only be on one plan. Get the rebate then cancel the unlimited.
For those with firewall/router issues, did you see my previous post was updated to show what firewall config you need? HTTPS, NTP, and IPSEC. Sometimes putting the FW/router in DMZ mode for just the local NAT IP assigned to the microcell can quickly help.
I found that my firewall was causing the 4th light not to go steady once the 3rd GPS lock light was good.
I also found a location which wouldn't GPS lock, even though it was by a big window. There was a lot of other electrical equipment nearby that was interfering somehow.
I suspect the GPS lock is for 911 purposes. Would be bad news for all parties involved if someone called 911 on a mobile and the first responders went to an address entered on the web page that didn't match where the device was actually being used.
One of my previous VOIP providers managed it differently by locking in on an IP subnet. If you moved the device to another subnet, it wouldn't let you call out until you heard a voice announcement warning reminding you to change your registered address.
I thought maybe the GPS was also used for timing purposes, until I saw the device was sync'ing to NTP.
I found that my firewall was causing the 4th light not to go steady once the 3rd GPS lock light was good.
I also found a location which wouldn't GPS lock, even though it was by a big window. There was a lot of other electrical equipment nearby that was interfering somehow.
I suspect the GPS lock is for 911 purposes. Would be bad news for all parties involved if someone called 911 on a mobile and the first responders went to an address entered on the web page that didn't match where the device was actually being used.
One of my previous VOIP providers managed it differently by locking in on an IP subnet. If you moved the device to another subnet, it wouldn't let you call out until you heard a voice announcement warning reminding you to change your registered address.
I thought maybe the GPS was also used for timing purposes, until I saw the device was sync'ing to NTP.
Ill try this again forwarding ports 123, 4500 & 443 for both tcp/udp to the address of the microcell. I was able to give it a static dhcp address using its mac address assigned to the ip on the dhcp server.
Last time I tried this it didnt work though..
Im having trouble understading how to assign it to a dmz when I cannot manually assign it an address. I am able to setup dhcp on the dmz network but it never seems to catch on.
Almost all issues resolved with Microcell
This weekend I got tired up garbled calls and intermittent drops with my Microcell. Some days it would work fine, other days it was unusable. Here's the setup prior to reconfiguration:
- AT&T DSL (6 megabit down, 512k up)
- Westell DSL modem in bridged ethernet mode
- Airport Extreme with Microcell hanging off the back
I decided to put my Microcell in priority mode (between the DSL modem and the Airport). What a difference. So far I've had perfect call quality and no drops. The key here was putting the Westell into PPPoE/DHCP mode and putting the Airport into bridged mode. All my other devices are working fine and I don't see any degradation in speed.
My guess is that either the Airport has a terrible QoS scheduler (or none at all).
Just wanted to pass that along to anyone else still having issues.
This weekend I got tired up garbled calls and intermittent drops with my Microcell. Some days it would work fine, other days it was unusable. Here's the setup prior to reconfiguration:
- AT&T DSL (6 megabit down, 512k up)
- Westell DSL modem in bridged ethernet mode
- Airport Extreme with Microcell hanging off the back
I decided to put my Microcell in priority mode (between the DSL modem and the Airport). What a difference. So far I've had perfect call quality and no drops. The key here was putting the Westell into PPPoE/DHCP mode and putting the Airport into bridged mode. All my other devices are working fine and I don't see any degradation in speed.
My guess is that either the Airport has a terrible QoS scheduler (or none at all).
Just wanted to pass that along to anyone else still having issues.
I cannot remember which day it was (sometime early last week, I want to say Monday the 23rd) my microcell seemed to be "hung". It was "on", but when my iPhone connected to it, it would just display "Searching .." After unplugging the microcell, I was able to get 1-2 bar 3G which is my normal coverage without the microcell.
I called an opened a trouble ticket. The help desk said they were sending "final firmware updates" to the microcell units in some big push.
I waited until that evening, rebooted the microcell and my iPhone and things have actually been working flawless for me since. I made a ton of family calls on Thanksgiving with no drops.
I'm hoping that was the final push with the "kinks worked out" before they roll it out to a broader group.
So far, so good for me.
-Benster
Good to hear. Do you have it in priority mode or behind a router? If behind a router, do you use QoS?
I have AT&T Uverse, so there really is no way to put it in the "priority mode" configuration with the 2-Wire DSL/Wireless/TV-IP device.
I just have the microcell plugged into the ethernet connection on the back of my HDTV tuner in my upstairs bedroom (gives me the most signal coverage.) The HDTV tuner is connected via coax cable to the 2-Wire modem.
I have had about 400 more minutes of conference calls on the microcell with 0 dropped calls or call quality issues. As far as I am concerned this last round of updates made things ready for primetime (at least for my setup) and I can depend on it now.
Will still keep Vonage as the backup so that I can have something wired throughout the house, but will be using the iPhone most of the time now.
Hopefully as they roll it out to other areas it will not impact/overload whatever technology is connecting the microcells to the local towers.
-Benster