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645824

S4GRU Member
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    Sprint Netgear 6100D
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    95363
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    4G Information

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  1. Ever since the August 1st Sprint/TMobile transition I have had poor service with my three HTC 5G Hubs. They were always on 4G LTE b41 (the towers never made it to 5G). My three units go through my load-balancing router, with fault-tolerant roll-over, in an attempt to keep at least one of them up. This is my only internet connection since I live in "the country". Sigh... 2 miles outside of city limits. No cable. No DSL. Yes, I'm in one of the FCC Auction 904 zones. The problem that I had was that the units would have 3-5 bars on the units, but some would have internet connectivity and some would not. If I power cycle one of the units, then it starts working again. Then stops minutes/hours later. Since my sons are doing school through Zoom, the Internet must work so it was a constant game of reset-reset-reset throughout the day to keep at least one of the three boxes up. I was finally able to get in touch with Maxim in the sprint Devices center: I've never heard of OMDMA; I had pressed him but didn't get any more details. Googling didn't uncover anything either. But everything has worked fine for awhile now and I'm getting the same speeds (10-30 of Mbps) that I was getting on July 31 before the Sprint/TMobile transition. Scott
  2. Since the August 1 change-over date, my Sprint speeds have been poor. I'm on b41. Before then, I was easily getting 30-60 Mbps on all of my three Sprint devices (HTC 5G hotspot; in 4G LTE mode). But after August 1, I've been getting nothing, or 3 Mbps, or perhaps 10-30 Mbps occasionally. This is on the tower at 261 Orange Ave, ZIP=95363. So at this point, I am not a happy New T-Mobile customer. But I have to stick with my three HTC units (load balanced into one connection) since I have the 100 GB/month Sprint plan for each of my three 3 units (i.e. 300 GB/month). Cable doesn't come to my neighborhood, DSL is spec'd at only 3 Mbps here, and I'm still waiting for SpaceX. So this wireless connectivity is my only Internet. And I'm not in "the country"; I'm 2 miles outside of the city limit. I have flat panel antennas attached to each of my HTC's and pointed at the cell tower. I have 4 bars on each, so it isn't my antennas or boxes, it is T-Mobile diddling with the tower. Since T-Mobile is still dragging their feet on their fixed wireless Home Internet in my area, I'm stuck. For my HTC boxes, it isn't clear what the path forward is. There haven't been any software updates in awhile. I did start getting a monthly rebate of $15/month per device from Sprint when they announced turning off 5G. Whoop-tee-doo, they had never turned it on at my tower anyway. Scott
  3. For me also. 1. incognito mode 2. go to www.sprint.com 3. it redirects to www.t-mobile.com/?src=spr&rdpage=%2F 4. My Account (pink box in upper-right corner) | Login 5. I put in my Sprint username 6. it redirects to www.sprint.com/en/login.html ... 7. my username is autopopulated. So it is now waiting for my password Scott
  4. Well, so much for that. Since T-Mobile bought Sprint, it seems that "Sprint 5G" is being sidelined in favor of "T-Mobile 5G". Basically, T-Mobile now has the spectrum. Since T-Mobile's existing 5G is limping along in the 600 MHz band, it looks like the clock has reset for me and it will be YEARS before my cell tower actually does something useful for me while T-Mobile tries to ramp-up "their" 5G... The sad thing is that I was a happy Clearwire customer eons ago. If Sprint had just left them alone, and/or if T-Mobile had left Sprint alone, then everything would have been fine. Instead, they just keep buying each other to get even more bandwidth to cities (where city folks have multiple choices). Country folks have zero to one choices. Scott
  5. That is really sad. I even went to the Sprint store and the HTC 5G Hub isn't listed there anymore either. It is a good device and I've been happy with the 3 units that I have (I need 3 to have at least 1 working at all times; with my load-balancing router). "Fortunately", their dropping of Sprint 5G service it doesn't impact me since my Sprint tower never even turned on 5G anyway. So I'm at 4G LTE at roughly 20 Mbps. Oh, well, looks like the T-Mobile era is starting quickly. ...Now I'm waiting for SpaceX's StarLink. Scott
  6. I know that this is off-topic -- I wasn't sure where it applies. But it does impact those of us here in the Central Valley market (rural) and will resonate. StarLink (SpaceX Services) was issued a license for 1,000,000 antennas. According to the filing, they are 0.48 meters in size, and operate at 10.7-12.7 GHz (Rx) and 14.0-14.5 GHz (Tx), in the 33-34 dBi range. This is probably the "pizza box" antenna that was referred to previously that goes on people's rooftops to communicate with the StarLink constellation at the 550 km height. https://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/displayLicense.do?filingKey=-429157 If this belongs in some other thread, please feel free to move it appropriately. Thanks, Scott
  7. Sprint confirmed today that the tower at 261 Orange Ave in Patterson does indeed have 5G, but still isn't "completely activated" yet. I talked with them and they said that they were still working on it. So I assume that the back-haul isn't in-place yet for the increased bandwidth. Anyway, my three 5G devices are eager... Scott
  8. The Sprint tower in Patterson at 261 Orange Ave. was just upgraded to 5G on Friday (Feb 7). However, it isn't active yet. I talked to Sprint Technical Support and they said that it would be activated in the next couple of days. My Sprint HTC 5G hubs are ready and willing. I'll check back with them next weekend if it doesn't flip over. According to them, in order to see 5G the Profile on my devices need to be updated, then a reboot, then it is supposed to present me with a choice. We'll see.... Scott
  9. Now that I have modified 3 of the Sprint HTC 5G hubs, I simplified the step-by-step process. 1. remove the SIM card tray by putting a paperclip, or the included HTC eject pin, into the small hole. A long tray comes out that contains the nano-SIM card. Note that the SIM card has the gold-contacts facing down. This is important when putting it back in later. 2. notice that there is a Torx T5 screw to the right of the SIM slot (that was previously hidden). Remove this screw. 3. remove the back cover. It has plastic clips, so I had to pry it off. Using an automotive plastic clip removal tool worked fine (there are similar cell-phone centric removal tools that work equally well). The back cover comes off fairly easily except for the portion near the ethernet connector. 4. use a Torx T5 driver to remove: a. 2 recessed screws towards the bottom b. 2 recessed screws on the right (but my 3 units only had the upper screw installed) c. 3 screws towards the top d. 2 screws on the left 5. use a finger nail between the front bezel (screen) and the cloth-covered housing. I had to go all the way around 3 times in order to open it up enough to then pry it off. There are no wires, so I just set the cloth-covered piece aside. 6. remove the two T5 screws holding the fan (one at the top and one at the bottom). The screw at the bottom is very short. The screw at the top is the same length as all of the other T5 screws. 7. unstick the fan from the sticky pad on the lower-left, then pivot on the remaining screw to rotate the fan out of the way. Note that the fan's 4-pin connector may disconnect when pivoting. If you need to re-insert that connector, the blue wire goes towards the top and the red wire goes towards the bottom. 8. pull up on the fan. Recall that there is only one screw left holding it in-place. PULLING UP WILL BREAK THE SCREW'S MOUNTING POST. If you can find a better way to remove this screw, please let me know. [for all 3 of my units, I ended up just breaking this screw. I couldn't figure out another way]. 9. remove the two T5 short screws holding the silver left/right strap in-place. 10. remove this silver left/right strap by sliding a little to the right. This clears the silver stud on the left. 11. Remove the silver left/right strap. 12. there are now five MHF4 connectors with cables running to them. I will number these from left to right 1,2,3,4,5. 12.1: black wire that runs over to the left side of the circuit board (we've seen this wire already) 12.2: black wire that goes to antenna IT-190215 (in the upper-right corner; aligned for a different polarization) 12.3: white wire that goes down and disappears 12.4: white wire that goes to the left side of the circuit board (we've seen this wire already) 12.5: black wire that goes down and disappears 13. there is a small rectangular hole on the back cloth cover to the right of the ethernet rectangle. Run the MHF4-to-SMA pigtails through that before connecting them. If you forget (like I did the first time), then just make a little notch in the small piece of plastic between that little rectangular hole and the ethernet rectangle. Then you can thread the MHF4-to-SMA through the back panel after the fact. 14. cable 12.2 and 12.5 appear to do something useful. I didn't try 12.3 but it might do something also. 15. put back in the screws from Steps 9 and 6. 16. Snap the back cloth cover back into place. You want to put the back cloth cover on because it has the plastic thingy that pushing the switch at the top of the unit. However, I didn't put the back plastic cover on again... 17. Put back in the screws from Step 4. I bought the 19 dBi flat panel antennas from LTEfix.com (2400-2700MHz WiFi 4G LTE 19dBi Directional MIMO Antenna N Female Connectors), 12-inch long MHF4-to-SMA pig tails, N-to-SMA adapters from Amazon (Amazon # B01MFHRW4N), and an MHF4 insertion tool from data-alliance.net The MHF4 insertion tool is absolutely required -- I didn't have it initially and it took forever to get the MHF4 connectors attached. I mounted the 3 antennas to a floor-to-ceiling pole from Amazon (Amazon # B07RKW8TY5; there is a white version and a brown version) -- don't bother attaching the "hooks" shown in the photo. The antennas are designed to go outside, but the HTC boxes aren't, so I just put everything on the pole in the corner of the room. My Wiha Torx screwdrivers are from Amazon (Amazon # B00CSWY50O) and they are magnetized -- which is absolutely required for these tiny screws. I screwed a little shelf to the back of each antenna to hold the HTC units. Scott
  10. I would love to, but I've hit my s4gru image limit. It says that I only have 0.02MB of image space remaining. Here in the 21st century, I can't take a 20kB photo 🙂 Scott
  11. Well that didn't work. The T-Mobile network wouldn't recognize it. The only overlap between T-Mobile and the CPE Pro is Band 5, and my T-Mobile tower doesn't do Band 5. Sadly, it has 3-4 bars with Sprint AND it is getting attempted hacks from the internet (coming in), but the Sprint folks are refusing to register it (for my traffic going out). So I know that it would work on the Sprint network if they would allow it. I'll continue with my modifications to the Sprint HTC 5G hub to add the external antennas. That is outlined in the s4gru Router thread. On a personal note, I was only with T-Mobile for 3 days, and hated every minute of it. Although Sprint support isn't great, it is MUCH better than T-Mobile support. Scott
  12. This is a follow-on to my previous posts with my Sprint HTC 5G hub. Success! I modified one of the units. It now yields 17 Mbps. The other two unmodified units, that are a foot away, yield 0.3 Mbps. Using www.fast.com (since speedtest.net sees them as devices and want to install an App). Here is my previous procedure, with the remaining 7 steps added: This is a follow-up to my post of Saturday, Nov 16 regarding my opening of my HTC 5G hub (since it doesn't have external antenna connectors): 1. remove the SIM card tray by putting a paperclip, or the included HTC eject pin, into the small hole. A long tray comes out that contains the nano-SIM card. Note that the SIM card has the gold-contacts facing down. This is important when putting it back in later. 2. remove the back cover. It has plastic clips, so I had to pry it off. It comes off fairly easily except for the portion near the ethernet connector -- that took some force to get it around, over, and off. There are no wires, so I just set the back cover aside. 3. use a Torx T5 driver to remove: a. 2 recessed screws towards the bottom b. 2 recessed screws on the right (but mine only had 1 screw installed; so perhaps I received a refurb from Sprint) c. 3 screws towards the top d. 2 screws on the left 4. use a finger nail between the front bezel (screen) and the cloth-covered housing. I had to go all the way around 3 times in order to open it up enough to then pry it off. There are no wires, so I just set the cloth-covered piece aside. 5. remove the two T5 screws holding the fan (one at the top and one at the bottom). The screw at the bottom is very short. The screw at the top is the same length as all of the other T5 screws. 6. unstick the fan from the sticky pad on the lower-left, then pivot on the remaining screw to rotate the fan out of the way. I couldn't figure out how to remove that pivot screw without bending something -- so I left the fan attached to that screw. Note that the fan's 4-pin connector will disconnect when pivoting. When re-inserting that connector, the blue wire goes towards the top and the red wire goes towards the bottom. 7. SKIP THIS STEP. remove the T5 screw in the lower-right corner. This loosens the circuit board and I looked underneath. 8. notice that there is a 2mm x 1cm rubber pad in the lower-right corner. Remove the pad (just pull it up). Underneath is a black MHF4 wire and a white MHF4 wire. I tried connecting to these but it didn't improve my signal. 9. pull up on the fan. Recall that there is only one screw left holding it in-place. PULLING UP WILL BREAK THE SCREW'S MOUNTING POST. If you can find a better way to remove this screw, please let me know. 10. remove the two T5 short screws holding the silver left/right strap in-place. 11. remove this silver left/right strap by sliding a little to the right. Then remove. This clears the silver stud on the left. 12. there are now five MHF4 connectors with cables running to them. I will number these from left to right 1,2,3,4,5. 12.1: black wire that runs over to the left side of the circuit board (we've seen this wire already) 12.2: black wire that goes to antenna IT-190215 (in the upper-right corner; aligned for a different polarization) 12.3: white wire that goes down and disappears 12.4: white wire that goes to the left side of the circuit board (we've seen this wire already) 12.5: black wire that goes down and disappears 13. cable 12.2 and 12.5 appear to do something useful. I didn't try 12.3 since I only had two MHF4-to-SMA pigtails. Connecting these pigtails to 12.2 and 12.5, and then to some SMA paddle antennas, greatly increases the Mbps. One aligned vertically, one aligned horizontally. If anyone else tries this procedure, or tries connector 12.3, please post feedback. This was my first "phone" tear-down and my first experience with MHF4 connectors. Thanks to all for the feedback. I'll be repeating this procedure with my other two units once I get more pigtails and better antennas. Scott
  13. Follow-up to my post of November 22. According to the FCC doc, here are the antennas: Report https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/NM82Q6U100/4205443.pdf says that it has these antennas: WWAN: <Ant. 1>: Fixed Internal PIFA Antenna <Ant. 2>: Fixed Internal Dipole Antenna <Ant. 3>: Fixed Internal PCB Antenna WLAN: <Ant. 1>: Fixed Internal PCB Antenna <Ant. 2>: Fixed Internal PIFA Antenna Bluetooth: Fixed Internal PCB Antenna WiGig: Fixed Internal Array Antenna 5G NR: Fixed Internal PCB Antenna So at least there are numerous antennas, and it appears that I found most of them. I already tried unplugging them one at a time, but the signal level stayed consistent. So multiples feed the signal level -- and some of the antennas are clearly set for receiving different polarizations. So I'll need to unplug them all, then connect them one at a time to identify which is actually my 4G LTE band. The four u.fl ports appear to be test ports. So I'm focusing on the six MHF4 ports for the time being. Time to buy one of those MHF4 tools. More news to follow... Scott
  14. Yes, I understand. So I just ordered a T-Mobile SIM card. They didn't have any issues with sending me a SIM card and are happy to take my money. So in a couple of days, I should find out if it works or not... Although the 5G CPE Pro works with several Sprint bands (4G LTE and 5G), it only works with one 4G LTE T-Mobile bands. Once T-Mobile and Sprint merge, it will be interesting to see which customer-service attitude wins. That's why I'm getting my "t-mobile device" on the T-Mobile network before the merger. If I get kicked off, then it means that the Sprint attitude beat the T-Mobile attitude. And the cable IP's are laughing at this non-sense; all the way to the bank. Thanks, Scott
  15. This is a follow-up to my post from November 20. 1. After looking at the unit for awhile, I that I have identified the antennas. The are rectilinear shapes that look like tuned resonance blocks. There are 6 of them (in no particular order): a. 37H10696-00M-A, D5x-B03-1221, IT-190307 b. 37H10699-00M-A, A2x-B03-1221, IT-190307 c. 37H10697-00M-A, E5x-B03-1221, IT-190222 d. 37H10694, B5x-B02-1113, IT-190112 e. 37H10693-00M-A, A5x-B03-1221, IT-190222 f. IT-190215 At this point, it isn't clear which antenna does what frequency. The trick is that 3 of these are in the outer housing and connect to the circuit board with a gold-plated press contact. Since I still get 3-4 bars with this cover removed, then those must not be my 4G LTE band. 2. There are five MHF4 connectors on the circuit board with cables running to them (some are white and some are black). But when I disconnect those one at a time the signal level doesn't change. Since they are tiny coax connectors, they must be RF, but they don't been to be my Band 41 (~ 2.5 GHz). 3. For the 4 other connectors (shown in my previous circuit board photo), neither the MHF4 cable nor the U.FL cable that I got from LTEfix fit. It is as-if I have the wrong sex. It might be an MHF-SW23, but I'm guessing... So at this point, I'm stuck again. Scott
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