I picked up a Huawei E397u-53 4G (Cricket branded, Unlocked) modem as they are super cheap on ebay and was pleasantly surprised to find that it works well with my GL-iNet 6416 and my US T-Mobile data sim. I’m getting ~50mbps up and down on LTE which is much better than I expected as my T-mo ZTE z915 mifi only gets ~25mbps.
I’m going on a trip to the UK so picked up a Three data sim in advance. These are handy as they can be activated anonymously in advance in the USA, and work on the USA T-mobile network. After activating it via the web I popped it into my unlocked ZTE z915 mifi and it worked fine, albeit @ 3G speeds.
I would like to try to get the Three data sim to work in my E397u-53 + GL-iNet router. I’ve tried both Three UK settings and T-mobile US settings (which with with the T-mo sim) but the modem doesn’t connect.
Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot? Is there a log file I can see if I ssh to the router?
Yes, Three UK sim works in ZTE 915 but not in Huawei E397-u53. I am doing this in the USA.
ZTE z915 works well with the mini router via Tethering > usb0. I see ~35-40mbps (LTE) using T-mobile sim, ~5mbps (3G) with Three UK sim.
Huawei E397-u53+GL-MT300N+ThreeUK sim using 3/4G > United Kingdom + 3 it doesnt register with the network…
Sun Jul 23 12:39:34 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem' is setting up now
Sun Jul 23 12:39:34 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (11501): "Failed to connect to service"
Sun Jul 23 12:39:34 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (11501): Waiting for network registration
Huawei E397-u53+GL-MT300N+ThreeUK sim using 3/4G > USA > T-mobile…
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (11501): Starting network 3internet
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (11501): Starting DHCP
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem' is now up
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Network device 'wwan0' link is up
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Network alias 'wwan0' link is up
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' is enabled
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' has link connectivity
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' is setting up now
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (11501): Command failed: Unknown error
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' is enabled
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' has link connectivity
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' is setting up now
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (11501): Command failed: Unknown error
Sun Jul 23 12:41:00 2017 user.notice root: qmi bringup failed, retry in 15s
Sun Jul 23 12:41:01 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14254): udhcpc (v1.24.1) started
Sun Jul 23 12:41:01 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14254): Sending discover...
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' is now down
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' has link connectivity loss
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14395): Stopping network
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14254): Received SIGTERM
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' is now down
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' is disabled
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' has link connectivity loss
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14395): Command failed: Permission denied
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem' is now down
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem' is setting up now
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14447): "Failed to connect to service"
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14447): Waiting for network registration
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14447): Starting network epc.tmobile.com
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14447): Starting DHCP
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem' is now up
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Network device 'wwan0' link is up
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Network alias 'wwan0' link is up
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' is enabled
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' has link connectivity
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_4' is setting up now
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14447): Command failed: Unknown error
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' is enabled
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' has link connectivity
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'modem_6' is setting up now
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem (14447): Command failed: Unknown error
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 user.notice root: qmi bringup failed, retry in 15s
Sun Jul 23 12:41:03 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14538): udhcpc (v1.24.1) started
Sun Jul 23 12:41:04 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14538): Sending discover...
Sun Jul 23 12:41:07 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14538): Sending discover...
Sun Jul 23 12:41:10 2017 daemon.notice netifd: modem_4 (14538): Sending discover...
Sun Jul 23 12:41:12 2017 user.warn mwan3: Could not find gateway for interface modem (wwan0)
Sun Jul 23 12:41:12 2017 user.notice firewall: Reloading firewall due to ifup of modem (wwan0)
Sun Jul 23 12:41:25 2017 user.warn mwan3: Could not find gateway for interface modem (wwan0)
Sun Jul 23 12:41:25 2017 user.notice firewall: Reloading firewall due to ifup of modem (wwan0)
If I log on to the ZTE z915 web interface I can see its using the following settings for the ThreeUK sim:
APN: 3internet
PDP Type: IPv4
Authentication: PAP
User name: <blank>
Password: <blank>
Probably not worth spending much time on this as using foreign sims in 3rd party dongles is going to be a very rare case and it works in my unlocked ZTE z915 anyway. The real discovery is Huawei E397-u53+GL-MT300N+T-mobile sim which gives >50mbps on LTE, and it appears that T-mobile phone sims work as well as data sims.