B1300 Mesh Phone Tethering Help

doxadeo · 2020-12-20T21:57:27.682Z

I just purchased two B1300 to setup a mesh network at home. I’ve updated both to firmware 3.105. I want to use an iPhone 6 on iOS 12.2 as WLAN via USB tethering, but it doesn’t seem to work with mesh set up.

The tethering works fine when I set up the mainnode. However, when I try to set up the mesh, after setting up iPhone tethering on mainnode, both B1300 seem to get “stuck”. WebUI becomes inaccessible on both nodes, seemingly indefinitely, until I hold the mesh button for 10 seconds to reset the mesh. Once the mesh setup attempt is canceled, the mainnode is back working as a regular router without any mesh.

After a factory reset, I connected a line to the WAN port on mainnode. (The line is coming from a MacBook that is sharing its internet connection that it gets from my phone hotspot via Wifi.) I confirmed that the mainnode unit is working and getting internet through the WAN port. I initiate the mesh pairing process, and the mesh appears to be established after a few minutes. (The subnode mesh light is solid, but the mainnode mesh light is blinking 1/second.). WebUI on mainnode shows both nodes. I disconnect the ethernet cable from the WAN port of mainnode, and connect the iPhone. Mainnode recognizes the iPhone as eth2 device. When I click connect, it fails to establish connection to the iPhone. After a few seconds of attempting to connect, it’ll say no device is available for tethering, and then after another few seconds it’ll show eth2 as available again but not connected. Tried clicking connect several times, but with the same result. Leaving the ethernet cable in the WAN port made no difference.

So does the B1300 mesh mode not work with iPhone tethering? Or am I doing something wrong?

doxadeo · 2020-12-20T22:38:51.387Z

Well, I restarted both B1300, and after a few seconds, both mesh lights became solid. I noticed that when I disconnected all my devices from the routers, the mesh lights stopped blinking, so maybe that has something to do with it. I tried clicking connect tethering a few more times with no avail. Then I left the phone plugged in to the mainnode, and after some time I came back and noticed that the tether was connected and mesh functioning. So in case anyone has the same issues as I did, it seems you just have to be patient!

alzhao · 2020-12-22T13:55:49.466Z

Thanks for sharing. Seldom use mesh with tethering. But I hope I can try.