Official Airave 4 LTE / Casa Pebble / Airave 3 LTE / S1000 Thread

[lilotimz]

The issue with devices holding onto fringe 1x800 connections instead of the strong 1X connection from the Airave is common and incredibly frustrating. The Airave 2.5 had a 1x800 beacon that your phone would "see" and know to flip to it. There is no comparable feature in the A3 or A4, so until your device scans other 1X bands, it never lets go of the macro 1x800.
 
The solution I have found works best for me is to force 1X to only use Sprint's 1900 MHz PCS network -- although that may not be in everyone's best interest, depending on the coverage in the areas you frequent. There is a shortcut in SCP to change this, go to System Shortcuts > Voice Band Mode and select "PCS". Understand that you will no longer connect to 1x800 and I believe 1X roaming will also be impacted unless the roaming partner uses PCS bands. To change back to factory behavior, simply go to that menu and choose "Automatic".
 
You could also choose PCS each time you get home, and switch back to Automatic once it connects to the A4.
 
-Mike

Just to clarify for others.

The Airave 3 had a 1x800 Beacon... It was just never really worked (like the A3 itself). The airave 4 just doesn't have it at all.

So if your device is on 1x800, unless you toggle the 1x radio to refresh the scan, it will stay on 1x800.

You need to force the device to scan and latch onto 1x1900 or already be on 1x1900 in order to use the Airave 1x.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

Just to clarify for others.

The Airave 3 had a 1x800 Beacon... It was just never really worked (like the A3 itself). The airave 4 just doesn't have it at all.

So if your device is on 1x800, unless you toggle the 1x radio to refresh the scan, it will stay on 1x800.

You need to force the device to scan and latch onto 1x1900 or already be on 1x1900 in order to use the Airave 1x.

Oh, I didn't know the A3 actually had one.. it definitely never really worked.

To clarify further for others -- toggling airplane mode (or clicking the Reset Connection button in SCP) does *not* force the 1x radio to re-scan. Changing options under the band menu I referenced earlier does.

-Mike

[though]

7 hours ago, lilotimz said:

Just to clarify for others.

The Airave 3 had a 1x800 Beacon... It was just never really worked (like the A3 itself). The airave 4 just doesn't have it at all.

So if your device is on 1x800, unless you toggle the 1x radio to refresh the scan, it will stay on 1x800.

You need to force the device to scan and latch onto 1x1900 or already be on 1x1900 in order to use the Airave 1x.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

So with an A4, devices are more likely to pick up the 1x and STAY on 1x on future re-connect attempts? Is Sprint aware of this problem? Will they swap the A3 for A4 without much headache?

Thanks

[ingenium]

So with an A4, devices are more likely to pick up the 1x and STAY on 1x on future re-connect attempts? Is Sprint aware of this problem? Will they swap the A3 for A4 without much headache?

Thanks

It's not more likely to stay in 1x in the future. Sometimes the phone associates a 1x or 1x800 connection with a certain LTE connection, but in my experience once it switches to 1x800, it will hang onto it until it loses it (either no signal, or a new PRL region is encountered). The region thing was useful to me, because I'd be on 1x800 in more rural areas but I'd enter a different geo region when I got back to the city, so that caused me to switch back to 1x1900 (1900 is scanned before 800 in the PRL, but they have the same priority).

 

Otherwise, you have to manually switch back to 1900 each time you enter Airave coverage if you usually drop to 800 coverage outside your house.

 

 

And yes, they should swap it no problem.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[preskitt.man]

Have had an A4 for 10 days now.  Basically, LTE is working fine and CDMA is not. C-NET light is always blinking red. I have reset the device several times now - always the same result.  Basic setup, is Fiber into my ASUS router > Airave. No ports blocked nor forwarded. As has been pointed out, there are two ethernet addresses occupied by the Airave; one for CDMA and one for LTE. On my system, those two addresses are 192.168.1.136 and 192.168.1.137. The 137 address is pingable, but if ping the 136 address, it times out.  Unless this is supposed to be normal behavior (which I doubt), I suspect that 137 is for LTE and 136 for CDMA; and why it is not pinging/working is beyond me. 

[ingenium]

Have had an A4 for 10 days now.  Basically, LTE is working fine and CDMA is not. C-NET light is always blinking red. I have reset the device several times now - always the same result.  Basic setup, is Fiber into my ASUS router > Airave. No ports blocked nor forwarded. As has been pointed out, there are two ethernet addresses occupied by the Airave; one for CDMA and one for LTE. On my system, those two addresses are 192.168.1.136 and 192.168.1.137. The 137 address is pingable, but if ping the 136 address, it times out.  Unless this is supposed to be normal behavior (which I doubt), I suspect that 137 is for LTE and 136 for CDMA; and why it is not pinging/working is beyond me. 

I would try factory resetting it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[preskitt.man]

Have reset the device about 4 times - all with the same result - LTE but no CDMA.

[ingenium]

Have reset the device about 4 times - all with the same result - LTE but no CDMA.

The lack of ping response doesn't necessarily mean anything. My Airave 4 doesn't respond to pings on one of its IPs, but does on the other (but only if I do it from the same subnet/vlan as the Airave, which is odd. Using a different subnet it won't respond). My Magic Box responds, even from a different subnet.

My guess is that something on your network is interfering with the Airave's ipsec VPN tunnel. It sets up two, one for LTE and one for CDMA. Perhaps something is only allowing one tunnel to be created, though I can't think of why/how. Or for some reason the CDMA side doesn't have internet access.

I would contact Airave support and see if they can login to your Airave and see what the problem is. If you're able to do a packet capture on your network, that can be used to help diagnose the issue as well.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[preskitt.man]

So, this is interesting.  Talked to Sprint tech support today concerning the A4. Long story short, I'm not supposed to have an Airave 4 at this address.  Nearest Sprint tower to my home is about 3 miles (why do they think people need an Airave - because they live next door to a tower) and that was out of spec range for an Airave 4. 

However, they could not not tell me why I am getting a great LTE signal, but I am.  And frankly, that is what I really needed and wanted. The main reason I even called about the CDMA was the techie in me was bugged by the flashing red lights. 

And why does an LTE signal make me happy? Because my Galaxy S8 running Pie will not work properly with WiFi calling unless it can get a location signal from a Sprint tower, and as we just noted, that Sprint tower is 3 miles away and at best gives me 1 bar, and frequently no signal at all. So, with the Airave, I have a nearby "tower" that the phone sees, so the phone is happy and let's me use WiFi calling, which makes me happy.

There was no explanation why LTE was working but not CDMA however.

[preskitt.man]

So, as a final closeout to this topic - I did call Sprint back for one final try on getting CDMA to work. The tech I talked to solved the problem in about 5 minutes. Turns out that Sprint had never activated the device. She proceeded to do so, And within about a 1/2 hour, all the lights were green, and I validated I could make a call off the Airave. 

One would think that the unit would come pre-activated. One would think that the setup instructions would include calling Sprint to activate the device. One would think that sometime in my previous calls to Sprint, somebody would have noticed that the device was not activated.

Amazing!

[belusnecropolis]

29 minutes ago, preskitt.man said:

So, as a final closeout to this topic - I did call Sprint back for one final try on getting CDMA to work. The tech I talked to solved the problem in about 5 minutes. Turns out that Sprint had never activated the device. She proceeded to do so, And within about a 1/2 hour, all the lights were green, and I validated I could make a call off the Airave. 

One would think that the unit would come pre-activated. One would think that the setup instructions would include calling Sprint to activate the device. One would think that sometime in my previous calls to Sprint, somebody would have noticed that the device was not activated.

Amazing!

Welcome to Sprint!

[ScipioUSA]

Good Evening all. 

Recently asked Sprint for an Airave since they ran fiber down my road (woo hoo!), and we now have the backhaul for it.  After plugging it in, it did the disco light show, and i was able to get CDMA/voice service on it, but had a blinking LTE light still.  I tried a soft reset, a hard reset, and power cycling, but no go. 

This past weekend, we had some rough storms go through, and we lost power sometime during the night.  Since then, the GPS light has also started flashing red, and I lost CDMA service.  I called the support line, and they were able to remote into the device, but didn't have much insight.  They pushed a reset on their end, but 45 minutes later nothing changed.  I tried to hard reset again, but I'm not seeing any change.  The tech on the phone thought the device might be defective, but then told me I had to go through the Chat feature on the support page to get a replacement. 

They recently added B41 to the tower near me, so I dont know if that is impacting the LTE, or if the time change has messed up how the Airave wants to look for a GPS lock, and so its just stuck in an endless loop.  Any ideas?

[DJStormX]

GPS has kicked out on mine too since Saturday....was working fine since July up until then.  Reset and unplugged and still no luck....read that on older airaves they sometimes could get bad software updates and screw up the GPS but Sprint couldn't find anything so they are sending me a new one.

[ScipioUSA]

Thanks for the update, good to know its not just me.  I need to request a new one, but just dont have the stamina to deal with calling back in again just yet.....

[DJStormX]

Is anybody else encountering GPS issues with their Airave units?

[Trip]

I have never had a GPS lock on my parents' Airave.  I've not had a chance to call Sprint to try to diagnose it, but the antenna is actually sitting on the outside of the window glass (inside the screen) and it still doesn't work.

- Trip

[DJStormX]

So something is going on then...

[though]

6 hours ago, Trip said:

I have never had a GPS lock on my parents' Airave.  I've not had a chance to call Sprint to try to diagnose it, but the antenna is actually sitting on the outside of the window glass (inside the screen) and it still doesn't work.

- Trip

Unit works or won't work without it?

I just checked my Airave 3. The GPS is lit up green. Works fine.

[DJStormX]

I have an Airave 4 and it causes the signal to come in with LTE then go out to roaming back forth every couple minutes

[Trip]

22 hours ago, though said:

Unit works or won't work without it?

I just checked my Airave 3. The GPS is lit up green. Works fine.

LTE works.  CDMA does not.  Got it specifically for CDMA.

- Trip

[DJStormX]

So customer service called me back today and says they are in the process of shutting down Airaves because they are doing tower upgrades for better signal quality so that is why my Airave is no longer getting a GPS lock....So until they are finished I have to utilize Wi-Fi Calling for the time being.

[Bob Newhart]

On 11/8/2019 at 6:03 PM, Trip said:

LTE works.  CDMA does not.  Got it specifically for CDMA.

- Trip

Have you tried powering it off for a night, let it cool down, then plug it in the next day.
See if the CDMA works then.

[ScipioUSA]

On 11/5/2019 at 8:34 PM, ScipioUSA said:

Thanks for the update, good to know its not just me.  I need to request a new one, but just dont have the stamina to deal with calling back in again just yet.....

So I called Sprint, and they sent me a new Airave.  The GPS light is now solid without issue, but still flashing LTE.  It has been doing it for over 24 hours. Just tried a power cycle, will try a hard reset next to see if that helps, but then I guess its back to tech support for thoughts and ideas.

[ScipioUSA]

Called tech support, they tried a remote reset, had me wait 24 hours, and now they are going to send me a Voice Pro because this one must also be broken.  From what I can see its the same thing as an Airave without having the data/LTE side.  I wish they could have gotten one of the two Airaves to work, but apparently its just easier to keep swapping equipment...

[ScipioUSA]

So I have the Voice Pro fired up, but neither line on my account wants to connect to it.  Even with SCP and selecting to use PCS, it doesn't try.  So now I don't know if it's my handset, or the Voice Pro not working.  

 

Is there supposed to be someplace you can whitelist numbers to connect to it?