Official Magic Box discussion thread

[Trip 2,043]

5 hours ago, speedingcheetah said:

Has anyone measured or had any EMI or RF effects from having the MB in their home?

I have been having frequent headaches and some harder time sleeping the last several weeks.  Thought it was just the on coming of Spring.

But I have had the Mb unplugged the last 2 days and night, no headaches and sleep better.

Maybe I am just over sensitive to such things?

Placebo effect.

- Trip

[schmidtj 15]

What is the difference between “Restart” and “Power Off”. 

If you don’t actually remove power “Power Off” eventually results in a “Restart”. 

Thanks,

J

[speedingcheetah 4]

22 hours ago, schmidtj said:

What is the difference between “Restart” and “Power Off”. 

If you don’t actually remove power “Power Off” eventually results in a “Restart”. 

Thanks,

J

I was curious about that too. The shut down option (the only option i see) results in the a CMD message that is like Shutting down for restart. wait for black screen. then after that message screen, it goes all digitized fade out of white slowly. then if u wait a minute, it reboots it itself. So there is no actual shutdown.

Edited March 18 by speedingcheetah

[though 569]

Not a shocker, but the MB does not work in Kearney, NE. Just like it doesn't appear to work in Lincoln, NE either.

[nexuss4g 162]

Is there any way to shut off the MB screen? Or does it constantly stay on 24/7? I don't remember if the screen would shut off automatically after letting it sit for a while.

[ingenium 867]

Is there any way to shut off the MB screen? Or does it constantly stay on 24/7? I don't remember if the screen would shut off automatically after letting it sit for a while.

You can set the brightness to the lowest level, which causes it to go off from 10pm-6am. The interval is hard coded currently and can't be changed.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[nexuss4g 162]

7 hours ago, ingenium said:

You can set the brightness to the lowest level, which causes it to go off from 10pm-6am. The interval is hard coded currently and can't be changed.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

I set it to Dark Mode, and the screen did shut off around 10pm, but when I woke up around 3am the screen was on. Got up at 4 again for work and screen was still on. 

[nexuss4g 162]

How many MB can you request or have on your Sprint account? I would like to have another one to have at my office, service is pretty bad inside my building due to concrete walls (30 year old building) LTE41 and LTE25 works perfect outside the office. 

[ingenium 867]

How many MB can you request or have on your Sprint account? I would like to have another one to have at my office, service is pretty bad inside my building due to concrete walls (30 year old building) LTE41 and LTE25 works perfect outside the office. 

I think originally it was 1, but you can get more if you talk to the right people. I have 2 magic boxes and an Airave on mine. They're usually pretty good at giving them out for work locations. A lot of guys in the Ohio thread have home and work magic boxes.

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[shaferz 508]

I have two of them but one of them is dead.  Have been meaning to send it back now for the past few months.  lol

[jefbal99 1,424]

I had the opposite experience, I had to send my Airave back to get a Magic Box

[Handyman 31]

1 hour ago, jefbal99 said:

I had the opposite experience, I had to send my Airave back to get a Magic Box

Just received a MB in addition to existing AR3LTE.  No request to return yet.

[though 569]

2 minutes ago, Handyman said:

Just received a MB in addition to existing AR3LTE.  No request to return yet.

I have 1 Airave 3 and 1 MB.

[schmidtj 15]

I've had a MB for about a month now.
On two occasions that I've noticed the MB has a SERVICE connection but
the LTE is disconnected.

Eventually the LTE becomes connected again but what sort of thing(s) would
cause LTE to drop if SERVICE is connected with typical signal levels and quality.

I haven't restarted the MB for over a week.

J

[schmidtj 15]

If I've been disconnected from the MB with my iPhone or iPad for a while (hours)
and I reconnect and run a single SpeedTest I initially see speeds in the range of 4down/3up.

If i then immediately run a second and subsequent SpeedTest I consistently see
speeds in the 15-30down/5up range.

If I then disconnect for a period of time and reconnect the pattern repeats.
I think the MB is typically not heavily loaded as I rarely see more than one connection
which is me.

It's as if the MB is maintaining a minimal connection to the host cell when idle and
then adds capacity if the load increases.

Does this make sense?

[ingenium 867]

If I've been disconnected from the MB with my iPhone or iPad for a while (hours)
and I reconnect and run a single SpeedTest I initially see speeds in the range of 4down/3up.
If i then immediately run a second and subsequent SpeedTest I consistently see
speeds in the 15-30down/5up range.
If I then disconnect for a period of time and reconnect the pattern repeats.
I think the MB is typically not heavily loaded as I rarely see more than one connection
which is me.
It's as if the MB is maintaining a minimal connection to the host cell when idle and
then adds capacity if the load increases.
Does this make sense?

It likely maintains a single B41 carrier when idle. And only engages CA when someone is using it. Keeping CA active when idle uses up resource blocks needlessly. Sprint wants to minimize the impact idle magic boxes have on the network.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[speedingcheetah 4]

Seems i just don't have any luck trying to get a return label for the MB.  I called both numbers that are listed in the MB screen. They were no help. 

Also, the packing slip that came with the MB says there may be a $45 restocking fee for returned devices.

Edited March 22 by speedingcheetah

[SeanK_ 509]

12 hours ago, speedingcheetah said:

Seems i just don't have any luck trying to get a return label for the MB.  I called both numbers that are listed in the MB screen. They were no help. 

Also, the packing slip that came with the MB says there may be a $45 restocking fee for returned devices.

That's a lie. No restocking fee. Magic Box Support is able to get you a return label, they will mail it out.

[speedingcheetah 4]

45 minutes ago, SeanK_ said:

That's a lie. No restocking fee. Magic Box Support is able to get you a return label, they will mail it out.

Well, the 4 different agents i spoke to (after nearly 30 min on hold) keep thinking i was returning a device (phone). And when i gave them the MB serial, they said it was invalid and kept asking for make and model of the device.

Anyway, i can't receive mail at the moment...need label via email so i can print it out. (the way it should be done anyway. why snail mail shipping labels these days. i have never had Amazon, ebay, or NewEgg ever send me a physical return label)

[SeanK_ 509]

Tell me about it. Sprint really needs to start emailing it.

[jefbal99 1,424]

13 minutes ago, speedingcheetah said:

Well, the 4 different agents i spoke to (after nearly 30 min on hold) keep thinking i was returning a device (phone). And when i gave them the MB serial, they said it was invalid and kept asking for make and model of the device.

Anyway, i can't receive mail at the moment...need label via email so i can print it out. (the way it should be done anyway. why snail mail shipping labels these days. i have never had Amazon, ebay, or NewEgg ever send me a physical return label)

Honestly, reach out to Executive Support via twitter.  Tweet at Marcelo and they will reply, that's typically the only way to resolve one off or oddball issues like this.

[shaferz 508]

23 hours ago, schmidtj said:

If I've been disconnected from the MB with my iPhone or iPad for a while (hours)
and I reconnect and run a single SpeedTest I initially see speeds in the range of 4down/3up.

If i then immediately run a second and subsequent SpeedTest I consistently see
speeds in the 15-30down/5up range.

If I then disconnect for a period of time and reconnect the pattern repeats.
I think the MB is typically not heavily loaded as I rarely see more than one connection
which is me.

It's as if the MB is maintaining a minimal connection to the host cell when idle and
then adds capacity if the load increases.

Does this make sense?

Whoa.  Good idea to run consecutive speedtests for troubleshooting.  I always got frustrated with the first speed test being junk... so for comparison - I just ran consecutive speedtests here as well.  All tests were done on the same server.  Bolded below where it got interesting...

 

Test 1: 08:00am / 3.58 down / 3.68 up

Test 2: 08:00am / 3.91 down / 2.71 up

Test 3: 08:01am / 3.68 down / 5.63 up

Test 4: 08:02am / 71.9 down / 6.66 up

Test 5: 08:02am / 74.5 down / 5.82 up

Test 6: 08:04am / 69.5 down / 5.98 up

Test 6: 08:05am / 69.2 down / 5.32 up

Test 6: 08:05am / 73.5 down / 6.13 up

Test 6: 08:06am / 73.2 down / 5.94 up

 

Your comment about adding capacity if the load increases would make sense to me - but I'd guess that each speed test takes around 25-30 seconds to run, so if this was the case, I would expect that the speeds would pick up extremely quickly.  I know that when running a speed test on a phone connected to a macro tower, I can actually see the speeds jump up in large chunks as the phone starts connecting to the other carriers for carrier aggregation.  (So instead of starting the speed test with download speed immediately going to 120+mpbs - it will go in steps from like... 40 to 80 to 115-120.)

 

In my speed tests above, it looks like something took place between the download and upload sessions in the 3rd test.  Upload speed increased by a large percentage, and every speedtest after that was a consistent 69+ down / 5+ up.  Odd behavior, right?  Hmmmm

[Paynefanbro 4,369]

Yup mine performs the same way. The first few tests give me about 4-5Mbps but after that it'll jump up to 24Mbps. 

[Searobbins 0]

Don't know why. But, my MB is slower than my phone. Phone gets up to 12Mbps in house. Although that is standing in a couple of spots. Other places can get up to 7. In general service is in and out depending on where I am in house. Magic box doesn't connect in the good spots. So, I get a steady 4 everywhere.

[shannonbrian 515]

Can magic box produce speeds over 100mbps ?. my neighbor got one and now i only see 40 mbps max.