Fivespot not sending WiFi signal

[jwt]

I just bought the five spot.  It was activated in the store yesterday.  After the store my family and I went out to a restaurant where I fired up the five spot and was surprised that my kids were able to connect their Itouch 4g's to the five spot no problem and get a very solid and reliable signal (typing in the 18 character password a pain but more on that later).  I tested it myself with a live streaming video feed which played beautifully without any stoppage.  On the way home i left the five spot on and connected an itouch to a live streaming video feed again and over the course of the 7 mile drive the video maybe paused twice for no more than 2 seconds.  Once home, I went ahead and tethered the five spot to my computer, installed vz access manager as instructed.  Once the VZ access manager recognized the device I was immediately given a dialogue box telling me there was a firmware update for the five spot and did I wish to update.  I said yes and it took maybe 10 minutes for the firmware update to run through.  I charged the five spot overnight and this morning I have tested it around the house connecting various wireless devices to it...so far it is working as advertised and I have had no problem connecting any device.  I do wonder, given all the problems well articulated in this thread, if the firmware update I was led through is a response to some of the problems?  I also wonder how to change the password of the device as who wants to type in an 18 character password....I went into the internet set up through the http:// address and there seemed to be a place to change the password but when I typed in the present password (required) it kept telling me that was different than the one stored so I gave up. 

[VZW_Zrock02]

Here are the set up instructions for the Password Change:

Password

Select  Basic Setup →Password to access:

Click Apply to confirm your configurations, or click Cancel to cancel

your configurations.

The current password will be "admin"

[vegaskev]

I have tried all of these solutions on all four pages of this forum thread.  I'm extremely disappointed that "zack", a verizon rep, was bold enough to log on and advise everyone how to change their passwords, yet wouldn't address the main issue at hand: GETTING THE FIVESPOT TO ACTUALLY WORK UNTETHERED.

We need a solid solution to this issue.  My drivers are updated, my laptop in less than 2 years old, i followed all the instructions, spoke with tech for over an hour.  Rebooted, reset, restarted, reconfigured, pulled my sim, set to CDMA, prayed to jesus, prayed to gandhi, prayed to allah, prayed to Zeus, prayed to Thor, prayed to Verizon......nothing works.  My Fivespot ONLY workds when directly connected to the laptop.  I feel like I have wasted way to much time and now it's costing me money. 

[EllenG]

You nailed it, tiger!  This fixed my Fivespot perfectly!  Verizon says they don't use SIM cards - so why is there one in the device?  Time to go back and educate their sales guys! Thanks so much!

[jdkk424]

I don't undrstand how to change the password. I have windows vista and it will not work. It works fine tethered and it works great wirelessly with my other devices but will not work wirelessly with my laptop that has vista. Please help!!

[bg8892]

Worked perfectly. I now have a signal and online. Saved me HOURS on the phone.

Thanks much!

[DavidRo]

I was suffering the same fate as other folks posting here but came across a solution that worked for me, at least so far today. I was testing a USB cable for use with a BlackBerry and found by trial and error that it was actually a charge only USB cable. (It came with a Duracell battery charger, so that would make sense!). So in the process of testing it I realized that the cable did not allow me to use the FiveSpot 'tethered' with the VZAcess software as most other charge/sync USB cables do. So it does charge the FiveSpot, but since the device doesn't recognize it as a data cable, you can turn the FiveSpot on with it connected to a laptop USB port which only charges it. What surprised me was that suddenly the hotspot feature starting working again - perhaps due to the fact that it wasn't connected via a charge/sync cable, but only connected via a charge cable only?? A long shot, but now the FiveSpot works perfectly, whether charging while connected to USB or by itself. You can buy these charge-only cables from a few places, including Amazon - here's a link http://amzn.com/B000FFV1VW. Good luck to anyone else and I hope this helps.

[Drgnfly]

Hi All, I, too, have had issues with the Fivespot. Surprisingly, very few (and I mean- VERY FEW) techs and store reps know the fix to this issue.

I went through 2 units before finding a couple that knew there was a known connectivity issue between certain laptop/comp makers and the Fivespot. Particularly Toshiba, some Apple, some Compaq, and Acer models. 

You have to set it up in both Windows and then on Verizon to make it work. 

First of all, make sure your lan is setup as per apriljellybeans instructions. Then, when you see the Fivespot in the list of devices (I do this from the internet connection in the taskbar (lower right). Right click the device and choose Properties. There, you need to change the authentication to WPA2, change the encryption type to TKIP, then enter the MEID, or password phrase of the Fivespot on your back cover. Click ok once done. This should establish visibility of the device, and at least limited Wi-Fi connection.

Then go to: 192.168.0.1 in your browser. Your login and password are both admin. Once logged in, choose Wi-Fi Settings from the top Menu bar. Then click Security. You will then need to change the authentication to WPA2-PSK. Click Apply. It will tell you that you need to reconnect. You should then be able to connect the device. Here you can also change the passphrase and your login password, if you prefer to do that.

Turns out the device itself isn't preset properly for all devices...

Hopefully this can help, as well....

[jjacobs]

Interesting theory, but I would like to toss my experience up here as it seems slightly different but mostly the same as the does not see wireless network portion of posts.   I do use a fivespot myself, but I am a computer technician with a specialization in networking CCNA certified.  I have a customer trying to use their fivespot in wifi mode, it has been disastrous, sometimes it works, sometimes it dosen't.  When it dosen't, the Wireless network drops from the availible networks (completely disapears) this happens on 3 seperate machines and a kindle fire.  Have tried resetting it, taking battery out, etc.  This sometimes makes it work for a day, sometimes it does nothing to resolve the issue, either way, within 1-2 days if it did work, the problem reemerges.  The strangest part (and this is the difference to the above posts) is that when it is reset it will show the wireless network, allow connections to it, and then after a period of about 15-45 seconds the network disapears again.  This has become an issue of extreme frustration to me as these customers bought 3 machines from me for the express purpose of playing diablo 3, they dropped 2 grand on the machines, have replaced their fivespot with a new one (under warranty where it still cost them 20something dollars)  I really don't have anything to add as far as a resoloution goes because I've tried it all, and it simply does not work.  These customers live well out of range of any other broadband companies and as diablo 3 is connection constantly required game, they feel (and rightly so) that they've wasted 2 grand on machines when their old machines worked perfectly for what they were using them for previously (and as diablo3 can't be played) would work for them completely fine now.  Verizon phone support has been completely unhelpful, telling me to do things I've already done and when I finally get to the point of all fixes having been tried, simply telling me it must be their computers.  I know this is not the case as I have tested this at my office (att dsl broadband, wireless signal) and everything works perfectly.  I am simply at a loss, and as an earlier poster said, have even tried praying in my desperation.  So there, verizon sells them this fivespot with a contract, and it is completely useless for what they want to do.  (I even tried tethered mode and then used internet connection sharing to spread the signal out through ethernet, but this added far too much latency and was a complete failure)  All and all I'm almost to the point of having to buy back the machines (a huge loss for me as they have already devalued in the time this has occurred)  I am simply at a loss.

[John_Getzke]

JJ,

Have you had a chance to walk your users through a site survey yet?  The disconnections (assumed to be on VZW's side) may be related to interferance in the area or the local towers of your customers.  A simple site survey may reveal some dead zones in thier enviornment that can be corrected by purchasing amplifiers or antennas.

Site Survey:

http://3gstore.com/page/13_will_an_antenna_help_me.html