Wireless / Mobile > Verizon Wireless > Home Fusion disconnects

reply to firepong

Re: Home Fusion disconnects

Sadly, already tried it. Didn't work. Hopefully, the tech coming tomorrow will be able to do something for me. Like I said, I'm thankful I got the insurance when I started using HomeFusion or I would have just canceled the insurance then and there when it dropped.

reply to wftomlin
Well, the Tech came out while I was at work today (if you could call him a tech). My aunt said he was roaming around on my desktop in places he shouldn't be considering he was ONLY SUPPOSE to work on the internet. Well, he was on the phone with me for a good 30 minutes about what is wrong with this and what is wrong with that. Mostly that my network setup was bad (router in one room with my desktop wireless connected with a D-Link 300N USB Dongle). He tried to tell me that it was my Dongle's problem and that it could affect my connection.

No, it's not the dongle. He said the internet worked fine while he was here and even connected it to my 2 Kindles and my other desktop, which rarely ever connect to my HomeFusion router. He said it loaded Google fine... Like hell it did.

I'm going to be calling them again tomorrow and have them send out a more informed Tech. I'm going to them tell them I want him here BEFORE 4PM (not 6:30 like this time). No, I want him to come when I AM AT HOME! Not when someone else that doesn't know jack shit about what the internet actually is.

P.S. Can any of you guys tell me how this is the object of a working connection? This is how my page has been sitting since hte internet has went out 2 days ago. That Down-link reading definitely doesn't look right since its never done anything above 7 for the past 2 days.. Yes, I know my IMEI number shows, but if this keeps up, I won't even have this internet anymore, so it doesn't matter.

»i.imgur.com/FXaVo7p.png?1

reply to DesertOne
Conclusion: Verizon Home-Fusion Problems - Product Inoperable

Observations from 22 Days of Verizon & Homeowner Efforts
Dates: Jan 17- Feb 6, 2013
Location: Tucson, AZ near Prince Rd & Soldier Trail Rd, stated by Verizon to be “in a very good 4G zone for reception, one mile from the cell phone tower supplying the 4G service”

Sales: Verizon store personnel didn’t know how to complete sales documentation, having sold very few units

Installation: well-trained, responsive, polite installer

The Cantenna: four different ones were replaced, all but one failed to maintain an internet connection longer than 12 hours, breaking connection (and failing to reconnect until power cycled via unplugging) up to eight times a day

The Router: twice replaced, no observations

The Tech Support:

- multiple failed attempts stopped cold at the Verizon main phone number (disconnected, wrong extension, Spanish language, etc.)

- first level technical personnel could offer only two interventions: unplug the cantennae or unplug the cable router; they had no other information available of any kind

- second level technical support were surly and had no further assistance

- third level (“trouble ticket”) personnel had access to the network functioning in the area but their interventions were also limited to hardware replacement or rebooting; they pointed towards ‘a drive around’ to access 4G reception in the area but could not schedule same within install time frames, ‘or for several weeks’

- when asked the third time via different technical support personnel, the Company agreed to extend the 14 day window of free use of the product for another 14 days; customer ended effort at 22 days having no confidence in the product nor the technical support and having spent nearly thirty hours trouble-shooting the devices

The Internet Connection:

- speeds as advertised, but wildly variable on ping, download and upload, and showing many spikes on Speedtest.net graphs suggesting poor connections; no Verizon personnel had access to devices nor online data that could pinpoint and remedy the problems

A guy over on the verizon forum is saying he got a firmware update.

The new HBA Firmware version 20.9.49.300.49.

still on 20.9.49.300.48.5 here in East Texas.

Mine is now 20.9.49.300.49 too.

give us an update on if you still get disconnects. I've tried unplugging power to the HBA and waited 15 mins and it didn't pickup any new firmware. I guess new firmware is being rolled out by region.

Remove power to both the router and Cantenna for a few minutes or just go into the Settings and force a HBA restart through that. I live in NorthEast Arkansas and I believe I got the update Wednesday night when my internet shut off and I did a HBA reboot. I am on 20.9.49.300.49 firmware right now and have to say, I can already tell a difference on how the router works. I got a good 20ms ping decrease on my games (was running ~120ms ping, now running 90-100ms ping). Don't know if it was the firmware update or not, but my pings weren't that low before my internet went out.

Ill update if the firmware is working for me in few days. but yes pings are better weird lol.

reply to wftomlin
»www.millenicom.com/

reply to LTE4LIFE
I was told the firmware update was approved on 3/12 and being rolled out based on the length of time you've had the device. I've had mine since last June and received the update on 3/15. With that being said, I noticed a 4 gig spike in my usage that day. And unless a deer or squirrel was tapping into my bandwidth, I couldn't justify where it came from. The Verizon rep said that the update could have caused the spike and credited 4 gigs back to my account.

Time will tell if this update stabilizes my connection. Pings are slightly better. Upload speeds are not as good. Download speeds seem a bit slower. But the demand could be causing that issue. Maybe I'm paranoid from my satellite days when the provider would throttle connections with these updates.

I posted this update on the Verizon forum...

My connection dropped again today in the middle of a WebEx. It took 13 minutes to reconnect on its own - I did not reboot HF. My iPad had 4G LTE connectivity while HF was down and trying to reconnect. My firmware upgrade occurred on 3/16. Since the upgrade I have had drops on: 3/17, 3/19, 3/20 and 3/22. Prior to the upgrade I had drops on: 3/8 and 3/14. Today, I called Verizon Support to inform them that my HF connectivity appears to be worse after the upgrade and it is not as stable as my iPad. They said they were not aware of this issue and would get back to me.

reply to wftomlin
I have had zero disconnects since my firmware update last week (knock on wood). Huge difference. I'm good to go.

reply to wftomlin
I've had one disconnect since 3/16 and all it took was a 35second router restart (think this happened on the 18th). Since then, nothing has happened. But every now and then, when I'm not at the house and don't care, I will remote restart the router myself just to make sure it wont restart on me while I really need it.

P.S. By remote restart, I'm talking aboout remotely connecting to my Desktop and just going to the router through the web page.

reply to wftomlin
still getting the occasional disconnect now that I'm on the latest firmware.

the problem I'm seeing is the HBA shows `unreachable' according to the HBR, but I still have internet connectivity.

I see this as a real design flaw of how this system works. It looks like they've got (2) routers that are bridged together. I can't understand why the Cantenna has it's own DNS and DHCP server and the Router has it's own DNS and DHCP. It would have made more sense to have the 4G/LTE radio in the same housing as the router and just use the coax cable to send the signal to a 1 Watt amp with omni directional antenna outside.

Years ago I used to have a Sprint Mobile Broadband card that plugged into a Cradlepoint MBR1000 router. I don't remember the Sprint aircard having it's own DNS and DHCP server.

reply to wftomlin
still getting disconnects with the latest firmware for the HBA (Cantenna), which is 20.9.49.300.49.

called VZW HomeFusion on the 25th and explained that the HBR (Router) tends to lose communication to the HBA with a `Unreachable' status from time to time and shows a flashing 4G LED on the router. But oddly I still have internet access with being able to reach websites, etc. According to all the documentation, a flashing Red light on the 4G indicator means you have no internet access. Managed to stump the crap out of technical support because they have never heard of such a phenomenon.

so they sent me out a new router under the warranty plan. much to my surprise the new router shipped with an earlier firmware, which was 8.8.H.G. while it was at that firmware revision for at least 36 hours, I never got the `unreachable' indication on the router's status page. but in the past 24 hours it's been updated to 8.8.H.L and the `unreachable' status has started happening again.

I'm suspecting the latest firmware has bugs in it and it's causing the router to partially lose communication to the cantenna.

I've got a network ticket that's been created to look into the firmware and see if it indeed has bugs.

the only way to get the router to clear the `unreachable' status is to issue a factory reset, which it promptly will show `connected' to the cantenna.

for what I'm having to pay for this service, which it most definitely is very fast. the disconnects and extremely low data allowance of only 30GB is really making me dissatisfied.

one shouldn't have to pay over $100 a month for a broadband wireless connection and have to deal with constant bugs, along with low data allowances..

I've had one disconnect since the firmware update to .49 more than 2 weeks ago.

I haven't had a red flashing light but have had an amber flashing light associated with the 4G LED on the router indicating an internal registration failure. I did a complete power cycle and haven't had the flashing amber light since.

Stumped a Verizon tech eh? That's funny. I've had tech's that can't even spell Verizon.

The unreachable issue is something I was experiencing until .49 and was of the understanding it had to do with a distant tower the HBA was trying to connect to even though there was a better signal coming from another tower. Hence the disconnect from a weaker unreachable signal. That is exactly what the firmware update addressed. And in order to properly commission the HBA, a power cycle should be done. Resetting the factory defaults works at times but a power cycle forces the unit to recommission itself.

And I completely agree that 120.00 for 30G is a lot and multiple disconnects through the course of a month is absurd. Verizon agreed and has credited me 120.00 a month for the last 4 months.

who did you talk to, to get a $120 credit each month for 4 months?? I need to talk to this person as well.

One store manager and 3 HF tech support specialists. It was a group effort:). I just kept saying "how do you expect me to pay for something that isn't working in an acceptable manner due to a known issue that's not on my end and you can't even tell me when a fix will be available?"

I've got to admit, Verizon stepped up.