Mifi 4510L Disconnects at night....question

[brantel]

I have been using my new 4510L for about a week.

The only problem I am having is that it goes into a disconnected mode at night when nothing is trying to use it and won't automatically reconnect in the morning when my wife wants to use the computer.  I leave it on all the time.

To get it to reconnect, I just go to 192.168.1.1 and push the connect button.

In the settings I have it set to automatically connect but for some reason it won't after it disconnects due to no data flow without manually telling it to.

Works fine all day long as long as it gets regular request for traffic flow.

What gives?

[John_Getzke]

It might be an issue with your local towers booting the most inactive users.  We have noted before that the MiFi does take a second or two longer when waking up from its "dormant" status.  However, I'm not aware of any features on the MiFi which will actually kick you off the network after a certain period of time.  Since I assume your MiFi is plugged in over night you shouldnt be running off the battery.  The Power settings for automatic shutdown should not be interferring, if so then your MiFi would be completly off when you woke up.

Turn on your logs and see if it happens at a specific time every night or after a certain period of inactivity.  Network disconnections are normally captured in the logs and accompanied by some kind of a disconnection message.

Out of curiosity, are you in a LTE area?

[brantel]

I will watch the logs.

Plugged in all the time. The Green light stays on, the router part works but no Internet and no blinking of the Green light. If I go to 192.168.1.1 and tell it to connect, all works normal again.

Yep, 4g LTE all the time at my house.

[brantel]

Well I have turned on the logs and watched it a few days and here is the error that always gets logged before the disconnect:

[RUIAUTO] Invalid packet state

Once the MiFi disconnects due to this error, it will not automatically reconnect on demand and requires you to either restart it or go to the admin webpage and tell it to connect.

This seems to only happen overnight when there is little to no traffic on the MiFi.

I have a computer, an Ipad and a wireless client serving as a gateway to another wireless AP connected to the Mifi.  My TV and Blue Ray player are connected to the wireless AP and my DirectTV network is also connected to the wireless AP's LAN ports.

All of this works extremely well if it were not for these disconnect issues.....I would not care if it dropped offline if it would just reconnect on demand instead of requiring manual intervention....

[John_Getzke · Accepted solution]

Brantel,

We have seen those RUIAUTO disconnection messages before.  They are telling us that there is a VZW network disconnection event, which means you were booted from the network as opposed to a signal strength issue.  This can happen when a tower prioritizes other traffic over your own or if it decideds that you are no longer authenticated for whatever reason.  It also explains why your MIFI cannot automatically reconnect on its own after the event happens, that tower just isnt letting you on.

For some reason the new forum search tools are not finding the previous threads so we may have to recreate the wheel a little to get to the bottom of it.  From what I remember some were successful with new hardware (SIM Cards/MiFi).  Others needed to contact VZW directly and have someone look at the towers in thier area.  Either way I dont believe we can configure around this kind of error.

If you wanted to purchase booster equiptment and antennas you could try directing your MiFi to a different tower in your area to see if there is an improvement.  Although the speed may not be as good it might allow you to remain connected without incident.  I would hold off on buying equiptment for now share what you learned with VZW.  Ask if there is anything they can do to check on the equiptment in your area and confirm that it is performing correctly.

[John_Getzke]

Ah I found out how to use the forum search finally...

Here are some old threads on the RUIAUTO error messages:

https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/685091#685091

https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/767322#767322

I would still suggest holding off on purchasing any new equiptment such as the MBR95 suggested by .  You might have the exact same problem with a different device if the tower is to blame.  Have Verizon check it out first then take a look at your other options.

[evdotech]

You might want to consider getting a router to connect via wifi as wan, the router will then ensure the connection is kept alive so when you get up in the morning it will be online. I personally would go with the MBR95 for me its been a very reliable router.

http://www.3gstore.com/cradlepoint

[brantel]

I already have a router connected to the mifi as a client. This makes no difference.

The mifi is getting booted from the tower....

[brantel]

I sent an email to Verizon support and they suggested that I set the 4510L to LTE only.

This seems to have fixed my problem.  I have not been kicked of for two days now since making the change.

Since I only use the 4510L at home for primary Internet access, LTE only mode is fine with me if it will stay connected.

Time will tell.

[John_Getzke]

Ah, then you might be in one of those "fringe" areas of 4G service where the MiFi/tower has a hard time determining which signal to connect to.  Configuring the MiFi to always connect in one way or another eliminates that problem from happening.  The only tradeoff is that you will need to manually switch over to 3G if you ever leave the 4G area.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[wmhjr]

Actually, John, your statement is unfortunately not correct.  What I'm now seeing is that even if I set the 4150L to only connect to LTE networks, it disregards that setting and will connect at EVDO sometimes.  I have screen shots to that effect.  There are multiple other issues associated with it.  In my opinion, VZ has not significantly improved any of the core issues of this device and network in any measurable way.  I've grown accustomed at this point to the completely unacceptable level of value of the 4150 - and the corresponding total lack of support by Verizon.  The only good thing is that I am responsible for a very significant spend for VZ (we are a top 10 US customer) on both wireless and wireline services, and have started to apply pressure based on my vocal lack of satisfaction in that regard.  VZ mistakenly suggested the use of their LTE network for a large initiative (probably involving around 8000 users to start) and I was able to bring up the failures as background as to why we will not even entertain their solution, costing them significant revenue on an annual basis.  The one good thing about the consumerization of technology into corporate solutions is that the overlap can now also bleed the other way, where when a company such as Verizon treats its customers so poorly and fails to properly engineer and support products such as the 4150, then senior decision makers such as myself can use the "stick" of handing over millions in revenue to a competitor.  Quite clearly, in this case the nature of how Verizon is dealing with this issue prevented them from even competing for millions in revenue annually.  Hopefully that message will become more common and will hope to drive a realization that they can no longer hide.