MiFi 4510l After The Firmware Update

[hereIgo123]

Thought I'd start a different thread here so we could compare notes on how the Mife 4510l is behaving after the firmware update.  Hopefully Verizon will pay attention and finish working out the kinks.  I loaded the update yesterday morning on my laptop running Vista Premium with no problems.  I noticed it saved my settings of using the 802.11  b and g only but set my WWAN setting back to Global.  I had set it to CDMA Auto (1XRTT, EVD0) since I'm currently in a 3G only area.  I left the settings alone. 

Day One: I kept the connection up and running and was on the internet much of the day.  It did drop the connection once when I stepped away from the computer for about 20 minutes.  Stayed connected for the rest of the day.

Day Two (so far):  It did hang on one webpage for a minute but has stayed connected so far.  I did change the power setting this morning to "never" disconnect when dormant.  I use the mifi plugged into the wall and this is really a setting for battery use so don't know if it will make a difference.  I'm trying to only change one setting a day so I can see if it really makes a difference.  If I have any drops today I may change my WWAN setting back to CDMA Auto but for now I'll leave it be.  So far much better with the firmware update but not perfect (of course since I said that it will probably crash and burn tonight....).  How is everyone else doing?

[stixn]

The update definitely fixed the 4g -> 3G disconnect issue for me.  I've noticed the device grabs 4G MUCH faster (3 miles from 4G tower vs .5 mile from 4G tower), and it switches to 3G isntantly when it loses signal.  At one time I saw the device switch from 4G to 3G three times in the span of a couple minutes and Pandora didn't seem to notice.

There is one potentially MAJOR bug, however, the kind users will love and Verizon will hate.  I wrote a little Android app that keeps track of my 4510L data usage and the 4510L is only tracking data usage over 3G.  The download/upload values (WwSessionRxMb/WwSessionTxMb) do not increase when connected over 4G.  You can see the same values reported in the WAN tab in the admin area.  They don't change when on 4G networks. Can someone else confirm?

I can't tell yet if this is localized to just the device or if my 4G data usage just hasn't shown up in the verizon online account yet.  If every 4510L owner is getting free 4G after the update you can bet we'll get an updated firmware faster than 3 months  

Either way my data tracking app is broken until they fix it   But overall, the update was a huge success for me.

[stixn]

Yeah its just the device.  The data usage in my verizon account finally updated. 

[ppetto]

I tried updating using a MacBook Pro, but the process locked up and the update did not occur. I'm recharging the MiFi battery now and will try again when I'm sure it is 100%.

One surprise, new drivers were installed that present a Novetel modem in the System Preferences Network settings. But I didn't receive any instructions for setting up and account name and password.

Am I able to connect using the 4510L via USB without setting up a hotspot? I'd love to do that, and know how to set it up.

I'd appreciate any & all help & advice.

   Peter++

[hereIgo123]

PPetto,

The USB is, unfortunately, only for firmware upgrades.  If you get the new firmware update to run it will prompt you to connect your mifi device after everything has been downloaded onto your computer.  That's the only time you'll connect the mifi to your computer with the USB cord.  We would all like to be able to connect to the internet with the USB cord plugged in but Verizon has more upgrading to do before that happy day comes.  I would like to say the the update has fixed all but:

Day Two (end of day):  The connection is still more stable than before but have had a total of two disconnects today with the device dropping down to charging mode while plugged in.  I am now running off of battery power just for the sake of fully cycling the battery so we'll see how that goes.  Incidentally my bars jump around from three to none.  What's up with that?

[hereIgo123]

Aargh!  Dropped connection while on battery power.  Tried changing setting to CDMA Auto mode since this seemed to help a little bit before the firmware update (I'm in a 3G only area).  Big mistake.  Dropped the connection within minutes.  Other posters suggested leaving it set to Global so went back to that.  Dropped the connection again a couple hours later.  Resorted to pulling the battery and Sim card and reinserting.  That was an hour ago.  So far so good.  If that doesn't work I'll try a hard reset via the paperclip route.  After that this unit goes back to the store and I'll happily go back to my USB connection.  Geez Verizon, your reputation is taking a nosedive with this thing.  Get it right will ya?

[statdetective]

Today is the first day after the update that I have used the MiFi for an extended period. The MiFi has performed well, but it still has some glitches. It seems to hang on delivering web pages (maybe 1 in 5?). I don't know if this is due to variability in the 4G signal at my home or not. My LTE signal is approximately -80db. Upload speeds are about 1.5-1.8 Mbps. Download speeds are about .5 Mbps. The device did disconnect once from the Internet completely. I accessed the WWAN menu for the mifi.admin interface.There was no IP address (0.0.0.0) and the device was alternating violet and green flashes. I then set the mode to LTE only. That caused the device to reset and it has not lost a connection since (only about 30 minutes ago). I did not power down the MiFi or any other physical action to the device.

[strongm]

I did hte update today.  There were some false starts and repeated steps, such as getting my computer (Windows 7) to recognize the card as a device.  I had to ignore the "update unsuccessful" message at the end.  I think that int he end the update was completed ok.  After that I used the device for more than an hour.   In that relatively short time, there were none of the instabilities -- red light, green light, connected, not connected ---  that were so frequent before, a big improvement.  The device did seem to hang and not display some web pages, or if it did, only after a long time, so not sure what is happening there.  It seemed that the 4G speed was a bit slower, but perhaps that was other facgtors.  Will post again after more expeience.

[hereIgo123]

I actually went for an entire half day without a dropped signal but then it was back to dropping the connection and falling back into charging mode.  I gave up.  Maybe when Verizon gets the kinks worked out of this I'll try again but I returned the device and went back to my reliable USB720 modem.  I will give Verizon credit for extending my 14 day trial period for another 14 days after the firmware update but I don't see the problems being resolved quickly enough and I didn't want to get stuck in a two year contract.  Hope everyone has better success than I did.