Speed and usability

I purchased a GL-X3000 for my motorhome as my TP-Link is only 4G.

Upgraded the firmware to the latest one.

I am deeply disappointed with the speed.

The panel on top show 3 out of 4 bars.

The speed is 8Mbit while my iPHONE at the same location delivers close to 50 and my 4G router does 20Mbit.

I purchased the router to have a better speed in areas with poor signal strength and yet it does not deliver.

Another problem is the setup of the SiM Cards that is different from the TP Link or my iPHONE and has parameters that I have never seen.

Auto recognition of Telekom did not work - I needed a long time several tries with the official APNs to get it running.

I finally got it working but as I travel Europe and switch cards I wanted to save the working APN as a profile that I could recall when switching the SIM back in.

The iPHONE app has a feature that allows to save a running APN but it fails and hangs the app up.

In the web interface I could not find anything to save the currently used APN towards a profile.

Looking forward to an advise.

Bernd

Hello, if X3000 is running on fw v4.8 and you've manually configured the settings (e.g. APN) for the sim card or made any changed, these manual settings or changes will be automatically saved to the router and can be applied automatically to sim card.

For the slow cellular speed, please try the following tips to see if it helps:

  1. Ensure the cellular antennas are properly connected.
  2. Go to INTERNET -> Cellular ->SIM Card Settings, edit settings and change TTL to 65
  3. Check the frequency bands used by the iPhone or the 4G router, lock X3000 to the same frequency bands via Band Masking feature, as per Cellular - GL.iNet Router Docs 4

Hi Cathy,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes my antennas are properly fixed.

I downgraded the firmware to 4.74 and guess what?

All the menu points that were lacking are suddenly available.

In example the in the Internet SIM Card menu clicking the … upper right corner now show PROFiLES.

I could save the existing SIM card profile with an individual name

I see the 4G band under signal statistics which was not shown before.

You might want to consider to withdraw 4.8.3. from the automatic update process at least.

I am really not inclined to check frequency bands when traveling and apply locks.

My expectation - maybe to high - is that a router is capable of choosing the best band and frequency as my iphone did - in this case.

Best regards Bernd

Generally router will select the best band. And v4.8 can save SIM card configurations but the settings will not be displayed as cellular profile in the web GUI. If you manually configure a SIM card (e.g., APN, band masking), the router saves these settings and reapplies them to that SIM when it becomes active again

I‘d like to confirm, are you planning to set multiple profiles for a single SIM, or want to apply a single profile to multiple SIMs?

Hello Cathy,

Thanks for the reply.

My main goal is to save proven APN setting that worked.

Unfortunately I have seen with other routers that once I travel and re-enter a country a new different APN setting was automatically pulled and it - failed - until I reentered manually the old APN.

That is what I want to avoid by haven proven successful APN settings at hand which are stored in a profile.

I do not want different APN settings for the same SIM card.

As mentioned I now have 4.7.4 on the router that shows menus which are lacking in 4.8. and frankly I am not inclined to “update” again to 4.8

Best Bernardo

If router is upgraded from V4.7 to v4.8 with keeping settings, the manual settings like APN will remain unchanged. If the APN changes, the manual settings may be deleted and the router is connected to the network via Auto mode instead. Try filling in the APN and click on "Apply" again to save the settings and avoid such an issue.
In addition, we'll see if we can enhance this feature.

Hello Cathy,

Sorry it seems I was unable to transfer what the problem was.

Here’s a short step by step what happened.

Purchased the router - did not check what firmware.

Was able to activate my Telekom SIM eventually.

Router then told me it has an updated.

So I proceeded and ended up with V4.8

Here the problems started

Several MENU POINTS such as PROFILES simply did not exist i.e. under the …. menu.

Downgraded to 4.7.4 and all the missing menu points or features reappeared.

Did I make myself clear now?

Best Bernd

Hi Bernardo,

Got it. While the PROFILE menu did have been removed from the web panel in v4.8, the function to save APN profile is still supported. To clarify, in v4.8 the APN profile will be saved and stored in the background of the router

Here is how it works:
For example, with SIM A, manually enter its APN and click "Apply." After tapping "Apply," the current APN setting will be saved in the router's backend as "Profile A". Once configured, no matter which slot SIM A is in, when the router detects SIM A is in use, it'll find the "Profile A" based on the ICCID and apply that profile to the SIM card. The Profile A will remain work until you reset the firmware.

Hi Cathy,

Good to know.

This means I will not upgrade in the future.

I prefer to have a manual choice for my profiles to select.

I can even tell you why.

I use prepaid on-off data volume SiM cards that have an expiry of usually 3 months when I am abroad of the local network providers.

This means when I purchase a new one the Profile A in the backend does not help me at all.

The router will regard this SIM as a new one and try to find the APN via Auto recognition.

If it fails I will have to key in the data again by hand.

To me the 4.8 is a clear downgrade in functionality.

A Profile section to have does not hurt and does not prohibit your additional way to store APNs.

Greetings from Bernd who runs a successful software company since 13 years world wide installed - by satisfying client needs as close as possible.

Best

Hi Bernd, thank you for your sharing. We will consider it and submit the requirement to the product manager for evaluation