Official Magic Box discussion thread

[swintec]

5 minutes ago, though said:

that is correct for my market (lincoln), yes.

dug mine out and plugged it in just now, will see what happens.

would be interested if someone, maybe Tim, could shed light on what may have changed to allow this.

[though]

Keep us posted. Remember, these are kinda flakey so you may need to give it some time (a lot) to fully boot up, upgrade firmware, etc.

May even need to try it a few times. Do you know where the strongest signal is in your house? Put it there and let er rip!

[Mr.Nuke]

Just for reference re: Lincoln...

Sprint obtained a lease on EBS A2 that they didn't have before. This allows for a 20 MHz contiguous channel from BRS 1 to EBS A3 that Sprint had previously lacked in said market (giving the magic box the necessary high/low b41 seperation).

https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsEntry/attachments/attachmentViewRD.jsp?applType=search&fileKey=1772442106&attachmentKey=20153479&attachmentInd=applAttach

[cyclone]

I know the public request for these on the website is closed and I haven't checked the business area lately, but can people still order these? I know in the past I've checked both my work and home address for service, but I could desperately use this at work way more than I need at home. My apt is nicely blanketed in 3-4 towers with speeds above 100, but my work network pretty much shuts down to 0.1-0.75mbps thanks to the metal frame of our office and sitting between two large schools sharing only a couple nearby towers. Would I be able to order it for personal use, but mainly use at the office?

[nexgencpu]

7 minutes ago, cyclone said:

I know the public request for these on the website is closed and I haven't checked the business area lately, but can people still order these? I know in the past I've checked both my work and home address for service, but I could desperately use this at work way more than I need at home. My apt is nicely blanketed in 3-4 towers with speeds above 100, but my work network pretty much shuts down to 0.1-0.75mbps thanks to the metal frame of our office and sitting between two large schools sharing only a couple nearby towers. Would I be able to order it for personal use, but mainly use at the office?

Yes, you can. Many folks have multiple MB's. 

[Joski1624]

7 hours ago, cyclone said:

I know the public request for these on the website is closed and I haven't checked the business area lately, but can people still order these? I know in the past I've checked both my work and home address for service, but I could desperately use this at work way more than I need at home. My apt is nicely blanketed in 3-4 towers with speeds above 100, but my work network pretty much shuts down to 0.1-0.75mbps thanks to the metal frame of our office and sitting between two large schools sharing only a couple nearby towers. Would I be able to order it for personal use, but mainly use at the office?

I got a magic box for my workplace because of similar obstruction issues.  It worked well until the macro became more congested and Sprint peeps at work found out the LTE signal at work improved. Sometimes there's issues during breaks, but it otherwise does the job okay for things like audio streaming.  Battery life improved a lot which was a huge plus. 

[bucdenny]

Please add SCP.  New GCI

[Joski1624]

I'm confused, that's already indicated as a magic box GCI according to your screenshot.

[nexgencpu]

6 minutes ago, Joski1624 said:

I'm confused, that's already indicated as a magic box GCI according to your screenshot.

He manually added that note. Typically it would have been next to the GCI if SCP ID's it accordingly.

[ingenium]

Please add SCP.  New GCI

Already added to the beta of SCP today [emoji3]

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Joski1624]

Whatever, I give up.

[Tony21]

I go My magic box 2 or 3 months ago and it was working, then I was in bed on my phone it suddenly stopped, reset it then error 245 came up. MB technical support said that the tower near me wasn't compatible with the magic box, how do they explain the fact that it was working for 3 months? Their site now says the magic box isn't available in my area. Getting a replacement soon. 

[speedingcheetah]

Well. Sprint did something good. I noticed my Magic Box had reset its screen brightness....seems it got a OTA.

I was getting about 30-40/6  before.....now....65-80/7-8.   

[RAvirani]

9 hours ago, speedingcheetah said:

Well. Sprint did something good. I noticed my Magic Box had reset its screen brightness....seems it got a OTA.

I was getting about 30-40/6  before.....now....65-80/7-8.   

Hmm...were those tests run at the same time of day?

Maybe the OTA update enabled carrier aggregation?

[nexgencpu]

9 hours ago, speedingcheetah said:

Well. Sprint did something good. I noticed my Magic Box had reset its screen brightness....seems it got a OTA.

I was getting about 30-40/6  before.....now....65-80/7-8.   

Most likely that the donor site got upgraded.

[RAvirani]

6 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

Most likely that the donor site got upgraded.

This is also very possible. 

[Joski1624]

@ingenium helped me diagnose why my box never connects to B41 at my local site.  Apparently the box looks for PLMN 310830 from the macro.  By way of network signal guru, I was able to see what the macro was sending.  Sure enough, it was only spitting out the standard plmn of 310120 on B41, but was sending both 310120 and 310830 on both B25 and 26.  So if anyone has the same problem as me, that may be the culprit

[JossMan]

I'll add my MagicBox experience, recieved my MagicBox today and followed the simple directions and setup.  Now my Sprint service was never bad or terrible but more on the side of fair to good seeing 800/1900 LTE indoors and 2500 LTE on the south side of my house if I was outside with speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 20Mbps depending on the time of day.  So after finding a place to put this box of awesomeness where my OCD self thought it looked ideal and in optimal conditions plugged it in where it would finally rest, after all the configuration it decided on B41 (Band 41 High 2628000) instead of B25.  My initial thoughts on the MagicBox is the range!  Coming home my phone jumped on the MB over a block away!  What I am kind of meh on is the speed seeing 10 to 20Mbps but the user count is 7 according to the MB so 5 other neighbors around me are hitting the MB as well.  As far as topography my house sits the highest in our hilly neighborhood and I know 2.5 was non existent on the north facing side of the house which the MB filled quite nicely, add 7 other happy Sprint customers.  

Note: When I left after setting up the MB the CINR was around 2.3 dB upon checking the screen 6 hours later it has climbed up to 7.2 dB.  So it seems this little box is still optimizing itself. 

Update: CINR is now up to 8.6 dB.

 

 

 

[mmark27]

Got this email the other day after requesting one for my dad's location in the summer sometime. Pretty slick email, click the "Send it my way" button, and the confirmation page just says "The Magic Box is on the way". I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't some complicated log-in to website, then re-navigate back to where the MB information might be, etc. Simple....from Sprint....is this the future??

 

[speedingcheetah]

What happens to the MB if i decide to change carriers? (thinking about porting to Google Fi after Sprint Free 1yr is up in August)

Fi uses Sprint too...so my device would still be registered on the Sprint network.

ANd since the MB shows as a separate device on my account, its own number and all...would that stay and keep the account active if i switched my main phone and number elsewhere?

[schmidtj]

I just received a GEN3 Magic Box. I started it up using the supplied battery and it said I have a good signal (3 bars) but might get a better signal somewhere else.

Do I need to reset the Box to have it test a new location or just restart it?

The enclosed documentation is rather sparse.

What is the proper procedure to have the box test a new location?

Thanks,

J

[bookertdub]

Ordered a Sprint Magic Box a few weeks ago for my parents vacation cabin in Idyllwild, CA. Cabin sits just barely outside of LTE range (even in outdoors). Not going to lie, I was very skeptical of this magic box, after about 20-30 minutes, followed by toggling on and off airplane mode, & PRL update and I was very happy with the after results. Download speed has increased 25 fold & upload speed has increased 5 fold. I placed the unit inside the detached wooden garage and thus far, it's working great!

 

 

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[speedingcheetah]

6 hours ago, schmidtj said:

I just received a GEN3 Magic Box. I started it up using the supplied battery and it said I have a good signal (3 bars) but might get a better signal somewhere else.

Do I need to reset the Box to have it test a new location or just restart it?

The enclosed documentation is rather sparse.

What is the proper procedure to have the box test a new location?

Thanks,

J

 

As far as i have read, u use the battery pack for the initial setup ONLY> so that u can move it around and keep checking the signal to get the Excellent signal, before u continue the setup.

I did not have to do this as my first (and preferred) location for it got Excellent signal.

[JossMan]

So my MB GCI and PCI has changed, anyone else seen this?  Also speeds ranged from 10 to 15Mbps but after the changes I'm getting 30+ Mbps now.

 

[ingenium]

Yup, we've seen a lot of magic boxes change their GCIs in the last 24 hours. It first started within the past week. Airaves too. There was a magic box software update that came with it.

I think Sprint is consolidating their GCIs because they were hitting up against the end of what they allotted for these devices. I also suspect that multiple magic boxes (and Airaves) now share the same GCI base, but have different GCI endings.

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