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Official Magic Box discussion thread


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14 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Ah,  When you said "skipped house payment", I assumed mortgage. Thanks for clarifying.

I have no doubt that people would give up internet before cell phone or electricity, but with internet become close to a "utility" in all but regulations, I think many will choose a cheaper housing situation before cancelling overpriced Comcast - if they have that option.

There's always hope next administration will drop that $100 billion to bring fiber everywhere. :)

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Downloaded the app, tried bands 2, 4, 12, 66 and 71. Showed no service on all bands. Band 71 tried to connect, but ultimately failed. Thanks for the idea though!400f20804e234a8543262b50aea07e82.jpg

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That's really weird. Have you connected to T-Mobile before? On my Pixels I'm able to disable the Sprint bands and they happily connect to T-Mobile. That almost seems like something is preventing you from using T-mobile in general.

And just to confirm, you're using Sprint postpaid right? Not an MVNO?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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That's really weird. Have you connected to T-Mobile before? On my Pixels I'm able to disable the Sprint bands and they happily connect to T-Mobile. That almost seems like something is preventing you from using T-mobile in general.

And just to confirm, you're using Sprint postpaid right? Not an MVNO?

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Yep, Sprint postpaid. I even drove out of the area to see if it would work elsewhere, but nothing. I've connected to T-Mobile roaming before, and it's always B66 or B12 on my S10 Plus according to SignalCheck. I'll keep an eye on my iPhone XR as well for roaming, as I usually carry both phones with me and they generally roam in the same places (although Field Test mode is a PITA). Maybe something happened because of last weeks update?

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1 hour ago, crazy_vag said:

Anyone noticed that MB Gold speeds have been drastically capped even with Wi-Fi Backhaul?  I'm not getting more than 7Mbit anymore where I used to see 30Mbit +.

They just offered to send me a magicbox gold and volte amp to help with voice calls. Really curious as to how long this will work now that the merger is happening.  

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3 minutes ago, jakeliford said:

They just offered to send me a magicbox gold and volte amp to help with voice calls. Really curious as to how long this will work now that the merger is happening.  

VoLTE requires better bandwidth control, so capping speeds night indicate VoLTE is coming.

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Anyone noticed that MB Gold speeds have been drastically capped even with Wi-Fi Backhaul?  I'm not getting more than 7Mbit anymore where I used to see 30Mbit +.
I'm still getting 50-90 Mbps (depending on how close I am to it). You might want to double check that it didn't fall to 2.4 GHz. Mine is Ethernet backhauled though.
VoLTE requires better bandwidth control, so capping speeds night indicate VoLTE is coming.
VoLTE has been live for many months on all the femtos. They don't need to cap anything for it to work. In my experience using LTE backhaul on a magic box with VoLTE, it didn't do well at congestion control (was cutting out because the donor was congested), so I'm skeptical that they tunnel VoLTE over a prioritized EUTRA session on relay. So if they aren't doing something as "basic" as this when they completely control the network, they almost certainly won't be doing anything on wifi or Ethernet backhaul to try to give VoLTE special treatment.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, ingenium said:

I'm still getting 50-90 Mbps (depending on how close I am to it). You might want to double check that it didn't fall to 2.4 GHz. Mine is Ethernet backhauled though.VoLTE has been live for many months on all the femtos. They don't need to cap anything for it to work. In my experience using LTE backhaul on a magic box with VoLTE, it didn't do well at congestion control (was cutting out because the donor was congested), so I'm skeptical that they tunnel VoLTE over a prioritized EUTRA session on relay. So if they aren't doing something as "basic" as this when they completely control the network, they almost certainly won't be doing anything on wifi or Ethernet backhaul to try to give VoLTE special treatment.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

I did double check, but it was doing about 2GB a day at 2.4 GHz and about 3GB a day on 5GHz.  Now it's maybe couple hundred MB a day.  Perhaps it's a slow rollout.

To be honest, I haven't tried VoLTE on MB yet.  Sounds like it's time to give it a whirl...

BTW. This is all in San Francisco.

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14 hours ago, ingenium said:

I'm still getting 50-90 Mbps (depending on how close I am to it). You might want to double check that it didn't fall to 2.4 GHz. Mine is Ethernet backhauled though.VoLTE has been live for many months on all the femtos. They don't need to cap anything for it to work. In my experience using LTE backhaul on a magic box with VoLTE, it didn't do well at congestion control (was cutting out because the donor was congested), so I'm skeptical that they tunnel VoLTE over a prioritized EUTRA session on relay. So if they aren't doing something as "basic" as this when they completely control the network, they almost certainly won't be doing anything on wifi or Ethernet backhaul to try to give VoLTE special treatment.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

I know on mine anytime I make a call it switches to 1x for the duration of the call and then goes back to LTE when the call is over.  I am able to VOLTE when out in town though.  Maybe soon.

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I know on mine anytime I make a call it switches to 1x for the duration of the call and then goes back to LTE when the call is over.  I am able to VOLTE when out in town though.  Maybe soon.
Factory reset it and make sure it has a good GPS signal. After a factory reset it should get it within a couple weeks assuming that it has a good GPS lock.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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On 7/3/2020 at 2:36 PM, ingenium said:

Factory reset it and make sure it has a good GPS signal. After a factory reset it should get it within a couple weeks assuming that it has a good GPS lock.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

Is there any way to connect an external GPS antenna?  While my phone can get a good GPS lock, the MB Gold does not seem to be capable of doing so.  I don't mind taking this thing apart if it is possible.

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Is there any way to connect an external GPS antenna?  While my phone can get a good GPS lock, the MB Gold does not seem to be capable of doing so.  I don't mind taking this thing apart if it is possible.
There might be a u.fl connector inside for a GPS antenna, but I really don't know. There should be pictures on the FCCs website if you feel like digging. How many satellites does it see?

Is there a large building outside the window where your magic box is? Anything significantly blocking the view of the horizon and sky? If so, is there a different spot you can move it?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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I got a new magic box gold with voice amp from the magic box gen 2.  I could not get it to pick up a signal.  The gen 2 showed 3 bars.  I called sprint and they said the technology the gold uses is not in my area.  The reactivated the gen 2.  Now I can not get it to pick up anywhere.  Makes it to 39% and reboots.  I've even tried it on the back porch for testing where my phone gets 2 bars of LTE.   Weird.   

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38 minutes ago, jakeliford said:

I got a new magic box gold with voice amp from the magic box gen 2.  I could not get it to pick up a signal.  The gen 2 showed 3 bars.  I called sprint and they said the technology the gold uses is not in my area.  The reactivated the gen 2.  Now I can not get it to pick up anywhere.  Makes it to 39% and reboots.  I've even tried it on the back porch for testing where my phone gets 2 bars of LTE.   Weird.   

actually just got a call from sprint where I had contacted them and was advised this is due to tmobile working on the towers in my area and should be resolved tomorrow.  

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I got this email from Sprint:



 
You’re just a few steps away from a better network experience with Sprint and T-Mobile. Improve your coverage now by reconnecting your Sprint Magic Box to your home internet.
 
Follow these easy steps: 1. Select Menu icon in top right corner of your Magic Box. | 2. Select Network Settings. Select Manage Wi-Fi Backhaul or Ethernet Backhaul. | 3. Select your home internet network. Enter password and press Continue. | 4. Success! When your screen illuminates with a clock displaying the correct time, the Magic Box has been successfully reconnected. | Quick start guide
My MB Gold is currently on Wi-Fi working just fine, so wondering if this a general spam sent to all owners, or does this process to re-select Wi-Fi force it update its config in some way.  
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On 7/10/2020 at 7:49 PM, crazy_vag said:

I got this email from Sprint:

 


 

 

You’re just a few steps away from a better network experience with Sprint and T-Mobile. Improve your coverage now by reconnecting your Sprint Magic Box to your home internet.
 
Follow these easy steps: 1. Select Menu icon in top right corner of your Magic Box. | 2. Select Network Settings. Select Manage Wi-Fi Backhaul or Ethernet Backhaul. | 3. Select your home internet network. Enter password and press Continue. | 4. Success! When your screen illuminates with a clock displaying the correct time, the Magic Box has been successfully reconnected. | Quick start guide
My MB Gold is currently on Wi-Fi working just fine, so wondering if this a general spam sent to all owners, or does this process to re-select Wi-Fi force it update its config in some way.  

I got the same text but I am not doing it until I see them taking away B41 backhaul.

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I got this email from Sprint:

 

You’re just a few steps away from a better network experience with Sprint and T-Mobile. Improve your coverage now by reconnecting your Sprint Magic Box to your home internet.
 
steps_desk_gen3.png
My MB Gold is currently on Wi-Fi working just fine, so wondering if this a general spam sent to all owners, or does this process to re-select Wi-Fi force it update its config in some way.  
I just got that same email for my Magic box that has been on Ethernet backhaul for 9+ months (I checked and the serial number matched that unit). It was still on Ethernet when I got the email, since I speed tested faster than Sprint's nearby macros (they're fairly congested even on B41). So they're just blanket sending it out to everyone, even people who are already off of LTE backhaul.

 

 

 

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Does volte work for you when connected to your Ethernet backhauled magic box?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk


Yes. It didn't work initially, but around February or so I factory reset it and it got VoLTE a few days after that. Supposedly T-mobile has been proactive at going back and enabling it on MBs that never got in the queue, but if you don't have it yet, just factory reset it. It can take up to 3 weeks to get it the first time (or so I was told by MB support). My Airave 4 took 2.5 weeks after a factory reset.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but having VoLTE enabled was a manual process, where it would get entered into a queue and someone had to manually toggle it on. That's why it took so long the first time, and why some MBs seemingly never got it. Factory resetting puts you back in this queue.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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Yes. It didn't work initially, but around February or so I factory reset it and it got VoLTE a few days after that. Supposedly T-mobile has been proactive at going back and enabling it on MBs that never got in the queue, but if you don't have it yet, just factory reset it. It can take up to 3 weeks to get it the first time (or so I was told by MB support). My Airave 4 took 2.5 weeks after a factory reset.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but having VoLTE enabled was a manual process, where it would get entered into a queue and someone had to manually toggle it on. That's why it took so long the first time, and why some MBs seemingly never got it. Factory resetting puts you back in this queue.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Yeah, first time I tried ... Long time ago ... I didn't have it for a few days, then opened a chat with customer service, and they told me it wasn't possible. I may give it another try. Thanks for the reply and the reset tip.

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Yeah, first time I tried ... Long time ago ... I didn't have it for a few days, then opened a chat with customer service, and they told me it wasn't possible. I may give it another try. Thanks for the reply and the reset tip.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Yup no problem. I find that VoLTE works fine on it, but it does still oddly have random very brief cutouts at times. Which is surprising to me with Ethernet backhaul (and gigabit symmetrical fiber). I'm guessing the cutouts may have been just the airlink having an issue (the eNBs are pretty basic). Personally I still have wifi calling preferred, and find that the call quality is better / more consistent. But it's nice to be able to take the call on LTE and have it handoff right away to wifi calling, since sometimes wifi calling will drop randomly for some reason. Pre-volte, when this happened I'd be stuck on 1x for the duration of the call.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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For what ever reason my magicbox stopped working with LTE backhaul after they sent me the gen 3.  No I have the Casa pebble.  It uses ethernet/wifi for backhaul.  I just got it installed yesterday and mms is working great which was hit or miss with wifi calling.  Hopefully VOLTE will start working on it soon as WiFi calling does tend to drop out from time to time.  

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Good Afternoon All,

I am new to the party an hope someone can provide me some insight.

Living in Charlotte, NC I received my Magic Box Gold yesterday as a replacement for a defective Gen2.  I have gone through the entire process;  Connected fine to LTE, GPS and my 5ghz Wifi Home Network.  It is set as Wifi Backhaul Preferred.  For whatever reason, I am unable to get my Pixel 3 to connect to it.  Will it take several days for the MBG to be fully operational?  Am I missing something else?  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.........Thanks in advance.

DR.

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Good Afternoon All,
I am new to the party an hope someone can provide me some insight.
Living in Charlotte, NC I received my Magic Box Gold yesterday as a replacement for a defective Gen2.  I have gone through the entire process;  Connected fine to LTE, GPS and my 5ghz Wifi Home Network.  It is set as Wifi Backhaul Preferred.  For whatever reason, I am unable to get my Pixel 3 to connect to it.  Will it take several days for the MBG to be fully operational?  Am I missing something else?  
Any help would be greatly appreciated.........Thanks in advance.
DR.
If you have an LTE signal from the macro network, then chances are your phone won't really see the magic box for a few days. It has to be integrated into the network before your phone will handoff to it.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

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