Huawei E397u-53

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?

 

Do you mean that the Three sim card works with ZTE but not Huawei E397u?

Does ZTE z915 works with our mini router?

If you ssh to the router, you can use “logread” to read the logs. Please try.

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.