Mifi 4510L needs to be addressed...

[azscotts]

Just to give you my experience after my first 5 days with my 4510L... At day 4, I was longing for days of dialup and was ready to take this thing out to the parking lot and run it over with my truck before returning it to Verizon. However, I installed Speedtest mobile app on my iPad and I was driving around running tests. On my way to the Verizon store, I started getting 15-18Mbps download speeds. I drove around some more and came back to the office with it.

Now, inside the building I am consistently getting 4-7Mbps speeds whereas before I was lucky to get .08-.49Mbps and the thing was constantly going dormant. The LTE dBm is still sitting between 68-74, and the SINR LTE is at 9dBm but I am no longer slower than molasses and I can function.

It has been going strong for 2 days now, not sure why but it's just working.

[John_Getzke]

,

What you described here is what I classify as a performance (speed) problem.  Those problems normally boil down to communication between the local towers and your device and can be corrected without the help of VZW.  I would assume that by driving around town your device had a chance to pick up fresh connections and correct itself.  By the time you returned back to your original location it reconnected with the correct local towers and your performance improved.

Make sure you beat up your MiFi while you are on your trial, the default is 14 days I believe.  Contact VZW for an extension if you have ANY outstanding issues before the trial ends.  That way you can avoid paying the ETF if the device does not live up to your expectations.

[azscotts]

Here's the latest since my original rant...

Connectivity problems (repeating resets, going dormant, slow/no connectivity) still continue.  There are times when the device seems to be either overheated or stuck in a loop of rebooting.  Anyone experienced with this knows that the log file flushes when a reboot occurs so there is nothing to review. 

Yesterday, I had 11 reboots in 5 minutes.  I don't know if there is a temperature problem or what but the dormant state and unreliable connection continues even when I am in a different area of the city.  NOTE:  I do not have to be inside to get the device to either go dormant and stop responding - or disconnect and reboot.  In fact, on one occasion I was parked in a mall parking lot and got a great connection, two minutes later the 4510 started rebooting over and over.  2 or 3 reboots later the device started working again.  (yes, I have done the hard reset and yes I am at 2.23 firmware).

I have walked around the parking lot and run tests from SpeedTest.net and can get anywhere from 1 Mpbs to 9 Mbps DL speed depending on where in the parking lot I am standing.  One corner by the carports seems to work better - if I move 10 feet in the other direction, the speed drops off significantly.

[tim_lightfoot]

Subtitle this one: We found a better solution than mifi.

We have a mifi b/c we don't have other reasonable solutions for broadband where we live (went through HughesNet and WildBlue standard - both unsatisfactory).  We had no problems with the mifi until December (our area is 3G only) when all the network issues started, the firmware upgrade nightmares, and the constant dormant issues.  In the past month, this issue has become intolerable, and I've tried every solution mentioned on all of the forums.  We have the continuing connectivity issue, even at 3:30 am in the morning (when I know the tower is not jammed).

So, we took a chance and had the new Exede satellite service hooked up (from ViaStat - home of Wildblue).  Bingo - download speeds of 14 mbps and upload speeds at 2 mbps.  Yes, there's a latency (about 700 ms), but frankly, it has yet to go dormant once (yes, always on).  The cost for more capacity (7 Gb) is actually less than Verizon's 5 gig plan.

I know that for those of you that 'roam' with your mifi, this won't help.  But if you need broadband and have gone through all the other solutions, you should try Exede.  There is a great, long, long thread on DSLreports.com on this if you want to hear from others that have dealt with these issues (including 3G connection issues).

Thanks to all of you that have tried to help me with my mifi issues - John Getzke in particular.

Now, I'll deal with Verizon to get out of my contract - I've been saving my logs...hopefully that'll help.

Cheers!

Tim

[seventysiren]

Much of the replies have been too technical for me.  Went from Verizon Broadband last year to mifi.  Am I ever sorry I did.  The Broadband worked great.  The mifi not so much.  First of all, we have a Verizon cell tower in our back yard.  Power at times is full, but at other times, only shows a bar or two.  But, the worse problem is I keep getting disconnected from the internet.  I will be working on something and all of a sudden I get the message webpage is no longer available.  This happens particularly if I am browsing through a web page with many pages to go through.  I do ok on page 1 or 2, but then when I try to go to the next page, I get kicked off.  I just got my new computer back from the tech and he said the problem was resolved when they did a reset on the device.  Well, I got it back and it continues to do the same thing.  Does that mean I have to do a reset everytime this happens, which is very frequent.  When the contract is up for renewal, I will have to think long and hard to renew.

[John_Getzke]

Seventy,

Without knowing more about your specific problem you should assume that your MiFi will need to be reset or atleast powered on/off each time you have a disconnection.  It sounds like even though you are right under a tower, the signal is getting dropped and the MiFi is not able to recover itself.

Since you are not a techy I would suggest contacting VZW about your issue.  They should be able to walk you through the ususal troubleshooting to see if your device is performing appropriately.  If it is not then they should be able to determine if your device is malfunctioning and replace it under warranty.  At the very least they would have a track record with you archive the connection problems you have experienced, which makes it easier for troubleshooting and contract termination.  VZW is not always willing to waive the Early Termination Fee but they have been noted to discount the months where your service was not working correctly.

Some ideas you could try to help you isolate your problem on your own would be:

1. Use the MiFi at a different time of day (preferrably off-peak hours like the middle of the day)

2. Bring the MiFi to a different location and test it out

3. Power down the MiFi when it is not in use

4. Remove the SIM card for 10 seconds when you have a disconnection and try again

Feel free to report back to us and let us know if you notice a difference after trying the suggestions above.