Below are some key troubleshooting steps for optimizing and ensuring a successful internet connection for your MOFI4500-4GXeLTE-SIM7 V3. Skip checking signal strength if you've already done this for the carrier sim card in which you are installing/ changing to. This is very important to do "Checking signal strength" if you are changing from a Blue plan (AT&T) to a Pink plan (T-Mobile) or visa versa.

Checking Signal Strength 

The MOFI performs best when it has the best signal strength from the cellular tower.  The Received Signal Strength and the Signal Quality are two indicators of the quality of the connection to the tower.  Good signal strength is typically better than -100 dBm, e.g. -90 dBm or -95 dBm.  Good signal quality is a more positive number, like +5 or 0 and indicates the amount of distortion or noise in the received signal.   If you have a poor signal strength (like -104 or -110), you typically have worse transmission speeds.  But you can have good signal strength (like -90 dBm) and poor signal quality (like -14 dB) and you still have poor speeds because the received signal, although strong, is noisy.  So it is harder for the modem to pull the data signal out of the received signal.

Do the following to find the best of both:

  1. Put the MOFI router on an extension cord so you can move it around your home.  Make sure the two paddle antennas are snugly screwed onto the MOFI's 3G/4G/LTE antenna jacks.

  2. Using your smartphone's browser, connect your phone to the default MofiNetworkXXX wifi network listed under your phone's wifi connection settings. To bring up the MOFI's signal strength page. Enter the following IP:  192.168.10.1 in the address (URL) bar on your phones web browser (safari, firefox, internet explorer)

  3.  Enter admin for the password and log in. (Username: root   / Password: admin)

  4. When the Overview page loads, Click on the "Mofi Internal Modem" setting on the left-hand menu pane

  2. Slowly walk around your home holding your MOFI router and watching the signal strength screen.  You'll see the green bars, the Signal Strength and Signal Quality numbers change as you move around.   The change isn't instantaneous, so pause after each move to give the numbers a chance to be refreshed. You want both to be as positive a number as you can get; e.g. a Signal Strength of -90 dBm is better than -100 dBm and a Signal Quality of -7 dB is better than -17 dB.

  3. Keep the router near the outside walls of your home as you walk around. You'll probably find the signal strongest when it is near a window. The signal is also typically strongest the higher you are above ground. Basements typically do not get great signal and same applies for a media closet or internal room/ cabinet or behind other electronics.

  4. Once find the location with the strongest signal, leave the MOFI there. If this spot is not ideal for good wifi distribution in your home, see solutions here. 

If you don't find a strong enough signal, or the MOFI isn't connecting well to the tower, please repeat the above procedure but do it outside, walking around the exterior of your home.  If you get a better signal strength outside of your home, then it may be worth getting an exterior antenna that can bring the better outside signal inside to the MOFI.  We can provide you a recommended antenna configuration that many of our members use - just let us know if you want the details.  The components can all be purchased on Amazon and cost about $100 - $170 depending on the cable length you need. We also sell a generic antenna kit which includes 50Ft RG6 coax, basic standoff antenna mount, Surecall yagi directional antenna and the y-split adapter to convert the coax to the sma antenna attachments on the mofi for $300. Some folks have found it easier to install a signal booster which would be dual purpose (boosts cell reception in-home for both phone calls and data service) More information on signal boosters can be found here. 


Confirm APN Settings (this is what matches your sim number and service plan to a carrier network to identify access approval. Without the correct APN, you would not get an internet connection)

Carrier/ Olive IP PlanAPN (regular/ default)Carrier / Olive IP PlanAPN (Custom)
AT&T / Blue Basic or PremierbroadbandAT&T / Blue 3004gascrs.neo
T-Mobile / Pink Basic or Premierfast.t-mobile.comT-Mobile / Pink Premier, Basic or Max (device dependent)b2b.static
Verizon / Red BasicvzwinternetVerizon / TBDN/A

    

Disclosure: If you are not sure what APN to use, please reach out to our team and we'd be happy to tell ya what APN is associated with your sim card / carrier service plan. Some Pink plans DO have a static IP which would require the custom T-Mobile APN (b2b.static) to be entered. 


Instructions on how to change the APN on the MOFI4500 4GXeLTE-SIM7 V3

  1. Using your smartphone's browser, connect your phone to the default MofiNetworkXXX wifi network listed under your phone's wifi connection settings. To bring up the MOFI's signal strength page. Enter the following IP:  192.168.10.1 in the address (URL) bar on your phones web browser (safari, firefox, internet explorer)
  2. Log into the Mofi's User Interface using below credentials (these are the default. IF they don't work, you'd need to recall the admin password you setup or factory reset the device)
    default username is: root
    default password is: admin
  3. Click on "Mofi Internal Modem" under "+ Network" on the left hand menu pane.
  4. On the general settings page, for the entry “Access Point (APN)”, enter the value for your carrier from the table above
    NOTE: the only scenario where you wouldn't use the regular APN listed in the table above is if you have a static IP associated with a T-mobile based plan.  If that is the case you'd enter b2b.static. If you are not sure please contact a support rep for clarification.
  6. Note: If using APN: 4gascrs.neo for a Blue 300 Plan; you will need to also set the "Authentication" setting (will populate underneath the APN settings area) to "PAP" opposed to what the default may say (None). If you are using a regular APN (broadband / fast.t-mobile.com / vzwinternet) you will not need to do this step. 
  7. Click save and wait for the modem to apply config change and reconnect (~ 30 seconds).
  8. Once the modem finishes saving that config change entry, wait 30 seconds and then unplug the power cable from your MOFI (turn it off). 
  9.  Wait 1 minute with the MOFI powered off, then plug the power cable back in. Give it roughly 2-3 minutes to boot back up and you should now have connectivity to the network, assuming all other device configurations are correct to include an active sim card being installed correctly. If you do not have connectivity verify the following information on the "Mofi Internal Modem" menu screen.
    - Ensure the SIM card is installed correctly and showing "Yes"
    - Ensure the "SIM ID" listed on the Internal modem page matches the number printed on your sim card
    - Ensure the "Phone Number" listed on this page is showing an 11-digit MDN (mobile dial number)
    - Ensure the "Carrier ID" is showing either the T-mobile (Pink plans) or the AT&T (Blue Plans) carrier ID. 
  10.  If all the above information is populated accurately on the device along with the correct APN, this would indicate proper device configuration, and if no internet connection is established and you've already rebooted the device again, this would point towards a serving tower issue, signal issue, or plan/ sim card issue. Please be sure to reach out to us at this point if your still not connected and you've already verified the above information/ config is all correct. Disclaimer: We have found that older firmware versions can cause connectivity issues, so be sure to check our firmware update article here in order to get the latest MOFI4500-4GXeLTE-SIM4/7 V3 firmware.