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This is a sub-selection from I found an alternative to clear wireless.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy to newyorker

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Re: I found an alternative to clear wireless.

So Why on earth would they say this? Confusing.

We’re happy to hear your interest in chit Chat Mobile. Here are the following answers to the

1. We do not have an LTE Hot Spot. We only sell our Sierra Wireless which is 3G/4G.

2. Since do we not offer LTE there are no additional charges.

3. chit Chat Mobile has been in business for over 12 years. But our chit Chat Mobile service launched in September of 2012.

4. If you have your own device you’d like to activate we through activations over the phone to get your service started. There is a $20 activation fee.

5. If you choose to bring in your own broadband, I recommend providing us with the DEC so we can double check the device.

If you have any further questions please feel free to call us at 855-440-3464
Thank you and have a great day!
chit Chat Mobile
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
US

newyorker

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I don't know but I'm using Tri-FI connected with LTE on CCM.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy

MVM

This is bizarre.
In a subsequent followup email they specifically said:

No we do not offer any LTE for hot spots.
The Sprint MiFi will not work our service since we do not have any LTE.
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
US

newyorker

Member

The Sprint MiFi 500 probably won't work cause it's too new and Sprint won't let them activate it but the Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi does work.

With CCM you can't rely on tech support and staff. Most of them just follow scripts of the devices they sell.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy to newyorker

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Thanks.
Just so I get this right.
If I get a Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi with a clean ESN I can activate it on CCM and it will get LTE on their $49.99 Boradband plan?
Not intervention on their part, no hacking?
J
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
US

newyorker

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said by JimThePCGuy:

Thanks.
Just so I get this right.
If I get a Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi with a clean ESN I can activate it on CCM and it will get LTE on their $49.99 Boradband plan?
Not intervention on their part, no hacking?
J

It should work but dmc271 is having problems setting it up. If you see on the hotspot config page ina browser that LTE is enabled then I you should be ok.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy

MVM

Ok. I ordered a hotspot off eBay. Fingers crossed.
J
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

dmc271

Member

Jim: Any success with activating your Tri-Fi with LTE?

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy

MVM

Should have the trifi any day now. It was delayed due to the east coast weather problems.
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

dmc271

Member

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to hearing how things work out. I may be compelled to try again with a new Tri-Fi.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy

MVM

Fingers crossed. CCM said they should be able to activate the TRIFI. Should have it tomorrow.
J
newyorker
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US

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to dmc271
May I suggest that you ask JimThePCGuy for a copy of his cfg,txt file before he activates it so maybe it may enable you to somehow change the settings? I don't think the cfg.txt file has any APN settings but maybe it might turn something on so you can enter them.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy

MVM

cfg.txt
6,611 bytes
Here it is. Not that I can understand it.
J
JimThePCGuy

JimThePCGuy to newyorker

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to newyorker
OK here is an update.
Not good unfortunately.
I have an email in with ChitChatMobile (as their tech support folks are always busy with other customers).
Basically my problems are VERY similar to dcm271's issues.
I activated it on the $49.99 unlimited and I also opted for the $5.00 LTE addon just to make sure.
The device flat out will not connect to LTE.
My Clear Voyager gets a good WiMax signal and my Sprint iPhone gets 4 LTE bars.
In it's default configuration it attempts a 4G WiMax connection, fails and reverts to 3G which works for a minute and then it attempts a WiMax connection during which the Internet is not available.
Tried changing the 3G only, 4G only, LTE only etc. but no luck.
Worse yet I can not connect to the device vie WiFi with my iPad. I can connect fine with my iPhone but not the iPad. This alone is a showstopper.
Curious what ChitChatMobile will offer at a solution.
So for now the device is sitting powered off in the box.
The APN settings are not changeable, the activate boxes are locked on the APN screens.
J
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
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newyorker

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When I first got mine it wouldn't connect and what I did was go to a Sprint corporate store (those are the stores run by Sprint and not dealers). I told them it was a store demo and it doesn't connect to LTE and if they can reset it and they did and entered all the APNs. You can try that.

Also if you can connect to it, probably better using the USB connection to your PC, and then telnet to it you can use the command I decribed to dmc271 to enter the APNs.

JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

JimThePCGuy

MVM

Thanks but ...
The fact I can not connect my iPad via WiFi kills the deal.
No iPad WiFi connectivity makes it useless to me.
CCM support did call me and a very pleasant lady felt it was necessary to go the the Sprint Overdrive site to activate it.
Well since it's not a Sprint Overdrive device the URL she gave
me »overdrive/ went to Sprint Limbo.
I just requested an account cancellation.
My current ClearSpot Voyager still works so I'll just stick with it. I thought unlimited LTE would be a good thing but certainly not worth the time to get it working and even if I got the LTE going if I couldn't use it with my iPad it's of no value to me.
Thanks for your help.
J
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

dmc271

Member

Jim: Thanks for the update and for your cfg.txt file. My system actually accepted your cfg.txt file, but it still reverted to disabling LTE after it rebooted. Despite trying so many things, I can't find any way to re-enable it.

newyorker: Thank you too for your help and patience. I don't know what they did to your device in the Sprint store, but my device just won't budge. No telnet (tried Windows 7, Windows XP, and Android clients), no SSH, and most AT commands don't work (only the basic ones).

The only way I've been able to really talk to the device is via QPST flashing software. But, there doesn't seem to be a way to enable LTE using QPST. Perhaps there's an NVRAM item that I can overwrite? If only I could enable LTE, I think it would work, but alas...

Anyway, thanks guys. It's an interesting experiment.
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
US

1 edit

newyorker

Member

said by dmc271:

The only way I've been able to really talk to the device is via QPST flashing software. But, there doesn't seem to be a way to enable LTE using QPST. Perhaps there's an NVRAM item that I can overwrite? If only I could enable LTE, I think it would work, but alas...

That's exactly what the telnet does with that command I posted before it writes to NVRAM to set the APNs. It's very strange that it won't connect to telnet. Before I went to the Sprint store to get mine reset I could still connect to telnet on the trifi and was able to set APNs but I didn't know the right APN address to type in.

dmc271 have you tried connecting the trifi to your PC by USB cable? It would show up on Windows as a network card with an IP address like 192.168.0.10 or something and then you might be able to telnet to 192.168.1.1 (or 192.168.0.1).

I'll be here for another hour if you have questions and then back later tonight.
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

dmc271

Member

said by newyorker:

Have you tried connecting the trifi to your PC by USB cable?

Yes, I've tried both WiFi and USB. Unfortunately, it makes no difference in regards to results or telnet or anything else.

According to this page: (»code.google.com/p/overdr ··· hacking/), only certain SKUs of the Overdrive allow telnet, which was apparently disabled at some point by Sprint via an OTA update. Perhaps it's a similar scenario with the Tri-Fi where only certain units still have telnet available. But, you would think that since we both flashed the same update, both of our devices would be in the same state in regards to telnet.
newyorker
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Yes the telnet is in the firmware and we both have the same firmware. I attached some screenshots of my configurations maybe they would help.

Also I didn't realize that Windows needs drivers when you connect to the trifi through usb and I don't know how they affect what you can do.

Maybe you can post your log file it's on the Router tab under the Log subtab to see what your trifi is doing if it treis to cinnect to LTE or if it's running telnet. You can enable verbose logging restart the trifi and then post the log file (there's a button to download the file on the Log tab.)
newyorker

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JimThePCGuy
Formerly known as schja01.
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join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL

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Yes the device needs drivers before you can use it via USB. The first time you connect via USB it looks like a HD with a TRU-install directory which contains the Windows and MAC drivers. Install them and reconnect and you can access via HTTP etc.
I am sure you dmc372 know that but perhaps it's not intuitive to others.
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

dmc271

Member

Guys, I have made some baby steps forward, but again hit another roadblock...

I was able to follow the instructions in the first paragraph on this page: »ispotunrestricted.com/ov ··· ive.html

Basically what this does is put the following script on the SD card and run it:

#!/bin/sh

echo 'overdrive:$1$60HP2.DU$HsuUIxDmDTOtR/jOxg6e/1:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh' >> /etc/passwd
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j ACCEPT
/tmp/samba/share/dropbear -d /tmp/samba/share/dropbear_dss_host_key

After doing this, my Tri-Fi is indeed running SSH on port 22. However, I'm still unable to log in! Using the credentials root and [blank] yields invalid password. Using the credentials overdrive and overdrive accepts the password, but immediately closes the session. Literally, my SSH client's windows disappear upon logging in. Very weird!

So, I can get the SSH server running, but I can't log in.

Any suggestions on how I'd modify the script?

BTW, my settings are exactly as newyorker's pictures. Connected via USB.

Thanks.
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
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newyorker

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What that does is it is supposed to allow you to log in as root and as root you can run pretty much what you want. "dropbear" is the ssh server that is supposed to run on the TriFi.

Try replacing the last 2 lines with the following. What these 2 lines will do is tell the firewall to accept connections on port 23 (which is for telnet) and then run the telnetd server so you can log in from Windows by using "telnet 192.168.0.1" replace 192.168.0.1 with yout trifi's ip address. The 2 lines are:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 23 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/telnetd
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

dmc271

Member

Argh! When running the script with the modified lines, it reports that telnetd is not found.
newyorker
join:2014-01-19
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That's weird. mine doesn't have dropbear which is the ssh server but it does have telnetd the telnet server. But you said you can log in with ssh? Are you using putty to log in with ssh?
newyorker

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That's weird. mine doesn't have dropbear which is the ssh server but it does have telnetd the telnet server. But you said you can log in with ssh? Are you using putty to log in with ssh?
said by dmc271:

Argh! When running the script with the modified lines, it reports that telnetd is not found.

newyorker

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dmc could you post the logs cause I can't see where the problem might be without them
newyorker

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Click for full size
There's another thing I can suggest but it will require you to go through "Hands Free Activation" again. Should be no big deal since the Tri-fi will do that automatically.

What this will do is clear the all radio programming on the TriFi and then the TRiFI will get them over the air like on 3G from ChitChatMobile (or the Sprint Network).

The button is called "Clear Programming" on the Device tab and About subtab. I attached a screenshot.
dmc271
join:2008-09-02
Stillwater, OK

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The hack on the overdrive page I linked to earlier had me copy dropbear onto the SD card. The "/tmp/samba/share/" in the script refers to the SD card's folder, I'm assuming.

I'm using Putty for the SSH, but it won't let me log in. I don't know the root password, and overdrive + overdrive accepts the password, but immediately causes the SSH session to close. Same results in another SSH client.

The Connection log is blank because I haven't gone through the HFA again. (ChitChat was nice enough to refund my $50, so I don't want to actually connect to the system again.) The system log just contains bunches of:

35 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan initiated
48 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan complete
139 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan initiated
146 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan complete
236 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan initiated
244 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan complete
334 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan initiated
342 seconds since last boot: WiMAX scan complete


My About page looks identical to yours. Every field is exactly the same.

I also tried the Clear Programming a while back, but that just took me back to the same state after I initially signed up for the service. LTE remains disabled.

Very mysterious.