DOVADO UMR - 3G USB router (For use with O2, Three & Vodafone)

boz4477

I have the same firmware, dongle Apn etc as mentioned above. The DNS solution hasn't worked either. The umr is still under guarantee, but I hate to part with it as it worked so well and they don't make them anymore, I am using the 7dbi aerial with it. Not sure the new ones will give the same strength wifi signal, and all said 3 could be doing something funny with the mast in my area.

tails_naf

gillad wrote: »

i`v tried the custom dns settings but it didnt help.still blocking some sites
i can fix it with a reset everytime and when it comes back the apn is always 3internet instead of the prefered 3ireland.ie
cant understand how it lets some sites load and not others ???????

I was wrong about the DNS settings thing - sorry.
I think it was the same as 'changing a umr setting then restarting' temporarily fixing the problem. The situation returned again the next day.

I am also on the 3internet apn, and interestingly this issue started to occur for me since I recently changed to that apn from 3ireland.ie.

I changed it because am on the NBS, and was having general speed issues since I've had three, and asked them about getting a booster, and they informed me I was using the wrong apn, so I'd have to use 3internet, and if the speed issues persisted they would then see about the booster.

The fact that changing a setting/restarting the umr temporarily fixes the problem suggests that the problem is a 3 / umr incompatibility. Can anyone from the DOVADO team comment at all?

Hi talis,

What was your experience in dealing with 3 support? I only had to do it twice, and I have to say, when it comes to issues which are beyond the FAQ on their website, they fail miserably.

I am in IT myself, and have a degree in IT support and provided coherent details pertaining to issues which I was experiencing, on explaining those issues on separate occasions, I was elevated to 1 1/2 level support, which to no avail solved any of my problems.

In the end I researched through google and found the solution, and it was as simple as providing the appropriate apn, so I to allow me to connect remotely.

Anyways, I just logged on there now to my UMR and the CP is stating that I am connected (Green Light with a Public non supernet IP address allocated), yet on any website I place on the URL, it comes back with the DNS issue (using Chrome), and after several refreshes it slowly might load, though on subsequent requests it returns with the original fail DNS issue message, I am typing this on my Macbook Pro, and when I was issuing those requests through my browser I had the "Network Monitor" on "Little Snitch" informing on what traffic movements were occurring, and on requesting the said 'URLs', Little Snitch's monitor did not record anything pass the router.

It is unusual as the Control Panel has always being consistent in relation to the WAN connection.

Going on past experiences with dealing with 3 and Dovado's support, I would suspect you get a more appropriate answer from Dovado.

William Powell

tails_naf wrote: »

I was wrong about the DNS settings thing - sorry.
I think it was the same as 'changing a umr setting then restarting' temporarily fixing the problem. The situation returned again the next day.

I am also on the 3internet apn, and interestingly this issue started to occur for me since I recently changed to that apn from 3ireland.ie.

I changed it because am on the NBS, and was having general speed issues since I've had three, and asked them about getting a booster, and they informed me I was using the wrong apn, so I'd have to use 3internet, and if the speed issues persisted they would then see about the booster.

The fact that changing a setting/restarting the umr temporarily fixes the problem suggests that the problem is a 3 / umr incompatibility. Can anyone from the DOVADO team comment at all?

Best guess here....

OK so tricky one if your having general speed issues but there should be no speed difference in using the 3internet and the 3ireland.ie APN's there are plently of good reasons for usnig the 3internet APN but if it doesn't work for you then you just have to do what does work.

So try using the 3ireland.ie APN again and see how you get on. There was an issue a few months back EXACTLY as you discribe with was an issue with 3's system and it on affected users of the B260a and Dovado UMR routers (maybe some other routers but ALWAYS routers and not dongles plugged directly into computers). The only fix other than to use the dongle directly in the PC is to change the APN back to 3internet.ie.

If changing the APN back helps the issue and you may have other problems so maybe that won't be conclusive then the problem is back on 3's network but don't expect them to admit it anytime soon.

Would be nice to try a few tests with the different APNs to test and see if its an MTU problem somewhere on 3's network but thats a bit techie and painstaking but I'll give you the info if your interested, might not even be an MTU issue but thats my best guess

And I don't think dovado can do much if the problem is on 3's network?

tails_naf

Hi NoDrama,

I am not very impressed with 3's support to be quite honest. In fact, I have not mentioned to them that I have a UMR at all - as up to this point the main problem I've had is the connection speed which is dreadful at times. In my contact with them on that issue, I could quickly tell I was not talking to someone with any technical training.

I'm in the IT area myself, and when they start going on about 'clearing the cookies in internet explorer and then re-running speedtest.net', It really makes me cringe - and I know there's no point in telling them I've tested this on 3 computers, 2 laptops and a linux desktop!

That said, the guys on the phone are courteous, but the support has never told me anything I did not already know - and I still have terrible speeds, so the support really is of no use.

The are telling me I have to us the 3internet apn, but that apn clearly has a problem with the UMR. I hope the DOVADO folks see this, as they have seem to have been very helpful and have solved other customers technical issues in the past.

William Powell

Has anyone tried using the old 3ireland.ie APN or am I talking to myself?

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

Best guess here....

OK so tricky one if your having general speed issues but there should be no speed difference in using the 3internet and the 3ireland.ie APN's there are plently of good reasons for usnig the 3internet APN but if it doesn't work for you then you just have to do what does work.

So try using the 3ireland.ie APN again and see how you get on. There was an issue a few months back EXACTLY as you discribe with was an issue with 3's system and it on affected users of the B260a and Dovado UMR routers (maybe some other routers but ALWAYS routers and not dongles plugged directly into computers). The only fix other than to use the dongle directly in the PC is to change the APN back to 3internet.ie.

If changing the APN back helps the issue and you may have other problems so maybe that won't be conclusive then the problem is back on 3's network but don't expect them to admit it anytime soon.

Would be nice to try a few tests with the different APNs to test and see if its an MTU problem somewhere on 3's network but thats a bit techie and painstaking but I'll give you the info if your interested, might not even be an MTU issue but thats my best guess

And I don't think dovado can do much if the problem is on 3's network?

I appreciate the help William Powell. I'm happy to try out any MTU settings you can throw at me! - I did try some of the pre-configured options in the UMR - the one specifically for 3G (1500 I believe it was) seemed to prevent the modem from connecting completely - so I backed off to the default setting of 1458, and didn't look into it any further.

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

Has anyone tried using the old 3ireland.ie APN or am I talking to myself?

I was on it solidly up until about 3 weeks ago, and then first noticed this issue sometime the next week, so I'd say its correlated to the apn.

I'll give the old one a shot. The only reason I did not go back to it sooner is because three wanted me to stay on the 3internet one, as they would not entertain supporting the speed issue I had unless I was using 3internet.

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

Has anyone tried using the old 3ireland.ie APN or am I talking to myself?

I've updated my settings and restarted so I'm on 3ireland.ie now - and everything seems to be fine so far - laptop + other devices are all accessing the web.

I'll have to give it some time to see if it stays working, and with the old apn, everything worked after a reboot for some time, and then after a while the other computers lost their access.

Do you expect speeds on each of the apn's to be different? I would hazard a guess and say 3ireland.ie seems to be a bit slower..

William Powell

tails_naf wrote: »

I've updated my settings and restarted so I'm on 3ireland.ie now - and everything seems to be fine so far - laptop + other devices are all accessing the web.

I'll have to give it some time to see if it stays working, and with the old apn, everything worked after a reboot for some time, and then after a while the other computers lost their access.

Do you expect speeds on each of the apn's to be different? I would hazard a guess and say 3ireland.ie seems to be a bit slower..

So its 3's old problem back to haunt its users :rolleyes:

The problem with the 3ireland.ie APN is that it puts you behind a NAT router on 3's network so your UMR will now have a private IP address and not a public one. If your just browsing this isn't an issue but if your playing online games then they won't work.

breathn

My 3 NBS has been acting up the last 3 or so days. It was flawless for months and months.

Good reception but suddenly sites would stop working for a few minutes and existing connections would drop.

And DNS randomly stops resolving.

Had to reboot the 3GN twice today. Don't think I had to reboot it at all in April.

boz4477

Sorry to crush your hopes but I have tried ireland.ie and it works for a while and then it goes wrong again, so to fix it you change the apn to 3netaccess or 3internet, which ever one is working at the time, just when you think you have fixed it the problem returns. rebooting fixes it for only a short time, changing the apn works for hours, maybe a day or 2.

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

So its 3's old problem back to haunt its users :rolleyes:

The problem with the 3ireland.ie APN is that it puts you behind a NAT router on 3's network so your UMR will now have a private IP address and not a public one. If your just browsing this isn't an issue but if your playing online games then they won't work.

It may be possible (depending on if the issue is local to cell towers or not) that this issue was only fixed for certain towers, and my cell tower has not been fixed - and the fact I've been on 3ireland.ie for a long time meant I never saw the problem. I would say for sure I'm the only person around here with a UMR (pretty rural).

I don't play online games luckily - but it would be best if this issue could be fixed properly. I can't imagine a call to customer support going too well for such an issue..


Edit: ok well according to boz, my above theory can't be the issue, as he tries all apn's regularly. I'll stay on 3ireland.ie for a few days anyway and see how it goes.

boz4477

When the problem occurs it seems while I can't download my emails with windows mail eventhough it tells me how many are there, I can send emails. If it is a mast issue I am in kerry. Maybe it is area related

William Powell

boz4477 wrote: »

When the problem occurs it seems while I can't download my emails with windows mail eventhough it tells me how many are there, I can send emails. If it is a mast issue I am in kerry. Maybe it is area related

The "old" 3 issue was also area (mast) related and some users reported problems with email, how do you get your mail? iirc the "old" issue was with IMAP and email that used SSL as part of the authentication like hotmail.

Another part of the issue was that you couldn't connect to sites that used SSL like online banking.

I'll dig through for links from the previous incarnation of this issue so you can read them for yourself and see if its the same.

boz4477

I have 3 emails addresses coming into my windows mails with pop and imap. eircom tells me how many emails are in my inbox but won't download them, gmail stops at securing which is a step before authenicating, as regard online banking I couldn't get it on laptop or desktop, stops at log in, however I got around that problem on the desktop as I have an old phone line modem still on it, I connected with that logged in logged out and them reconnected with 3 via router and it worked fine, checked it a week later and it still is able to log in. Have a problem with kids mosi monster sites (which is a blessing) one can access her home page but nothing else the other can't access her home page at all, loads most of the way then stops

tails_naf

boz4477 wrote: »

I have 3 emails addresses coming into my windows mails with pop and imap. eircom tells me how many emails are in my inbox but won't download them, gmail stops at securing which is a step before authenicating, as regard online banking I couldn't get it on laptop or desktop, stops at log in, however I got around that problem on the desktop as I have an old phone line modem still on it, I connected with that logged in logged out and them reconnected with 3 via router and it worked fine, checked it a week later and it still is able to log in. Have a problem with kids mosi monster sites (which is a blessing) one can access her home page but nothing else the other can't access her home page at all, loads most of the way then stops

It looks to be a different type of problem to me for sure - I have full access from 1 laptop, and no general web access from any other device (desktop, netbook, iphone on wifi), the only thing that works on them is ping, and google auto suggest in the browser tool-bar. So some forms of data are getting through, indicating a connection, but no webpage at all loads.

There could be two similar, but distinct issues going on.

William Powell

tails_naf wrote: »

It looks to be a different type of problem to me for sure - I have full access from 1 laptop, and no general web access from any other device (desktop, netbook, iphone on wifi), the only thing that works on them is ping, and google auto suggest in the browser tool-bar. So some forms of data are getting through, indicating a connection, but no webpage at all loads.

There could be two similar, but distinct issues going on.

Any chance you have some systems using different DNS settings after trying different ones to try and fix the problem previously?

tails_naf

I originally thought it was DNS related - so compared the settings as best I could - and the laptop that consistently works seems to get it's DNS settings via DHCP, just like the other computers.

Also, ping by name (typing ping www.google.com) worked on all computers, so I guess that means DNS is working - as they need to convert www.google.com to an IP in order to ping it (though there may be a local DNS cache active...)

So I can't rule out DNS, but the settings do look the same.

Just as a datapoint - the 3ireland.ie apn is still active and all my devices are still working properly so far.

Note: My UMR is still currently set to use opendns at the primary DNS server - as from a few posts back I thought that was the solution.

gillad

i`v had a lot of problems with my umr and was about to buy
a new router which is recommeded by 3 but everything is running
fine for the last 2 days .i have better speeds than ever now.
i think it is a 3 issue and not a router problem

William Powell

Sorry its not always easy to work out whats going on

By

Just as a datapoint - the 3ireland.ie apn is still active and all my devices are still working properly so far.

do you mean that all your devices can connect OK with the 3ireland.ie APN and that only the one laptop works correctly when using the 3internet APN?

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

Sorry its not always easy to work out whats going on

By do you mean that all your devices can connect OK with the 3ireland.ie APN and that only the one laptop works correctly when using the 3internet APN?

Yes it seems to be exactly that.

Timeline of events:
- For the last year I was on 3ireland.ie - everything worked, but was slow.
- A few weeks ago I called three support, and they said they would not support my speed issues unless I switched to 3internet, so I did.
- Shortly after switching, I noticed issues with access from all computers, except one laptop which always worked. (note: this laptop has the 3connect sw installed, so maybe that makes a difference - even though I don't use 3connect).
- I found restarting the umr after changing a setting often restored access on the other devices, for a few hours.
- Switching back to 3ireland.ie again seems to have also resolved the issue.

So thats the problem as best I can describe it!

tails_naf

tails_naf wrote: »

Yes it seems to be exactly that.

Timeline of events:
- For the last year I was on 3ireland.ie - everything worked, but was slow.
- A few weeks ago I called three support, and they said they would not support my speed issues unless I switched to 3internet, so I did.
- Shortly after switching, I noticed issues with access from all computers, except one laptop which always worked. (note: this laptop has the 3connect sw installed, so maybe that makes a difference - even though I don't use 3connect).
- I found restarting the umr after changing a setting often restored access on the other devices, for a few hours.
- Switching back to 3ireland.ie again seems to have also has not resolved the issue. It is only a temporary fix, like any change to a UMR setting & restart.

So thats the problem as best I can describe it!

Good News - kind of - changing APN does NOT fix the issue. Woke up this morning to see the exact same problem is back, but this time the APN in use is 3ireland.ie. So the above timeline is mostly right, except the last point is changed.

So I guess Boz and I (and others) are seeing the same problem after all?

boz4477

What I am doing at the moment is resisting changing the apn to fix it but keeping faith with ireland.ie as it seems to cause the least problem, but it still fails, i now change a setting in the umr, which seems to fix it for a while, as each time it fails I try another setting I may get lucky. If it is 3 fault why does changing a setting and restarting fix it, do we get a different ip address when we restart, what changes? I have my router on 24/7 but I have it on a timer now to switch it off every 3 to 4 hours for a min. as suggested by dovado web site, this sometimes I think makes it worse as a restart can actually lose my connection. The connection tracker which was so important a few months ago now is useless as it able to ping all the time but no proper connection.

tails_naf

boz4477 wrote: »

What I am doing at the moment is resisting changing the apn to fix it but keeping faith with ireland.ie as it seems to cause the least problem, but it still fails, i now change a setting in the umr, which seems to fix it for a while, as each time it fails I try another setting I may get lucky. If it is 3 fault why does changing a setting and restarting fix it, do we get a different ip address when we restart, what changes? I have my router on 24/7 but I have it on a timer now to switch it off every 3 to 4 hours for a min. as suggested by dovado web site, this sometimes I think makes it worse as a restart can actually lose my connection. The connection tracker which was so important a few months ago now is useless as it able to ping all the time but no proper connection.

Can anyone from DOVADO comment on what could cause this behaviour?

gillad

i`v done a few speed tests with and without the router.dovado is slowing
down speeds a lot when it is working.i`v had enough messing with this router
now its not compatable with 3 anymore.i dont know whats changed 3 or dovado and i dont care because i`v ordered a b260a router off 3 for 30euro
hope this solves my problem........thanks for all the help DOVADO!!!!!!

William Powell

gillad wrote: »

i`v done a few speed tests with and without the router.dovado is slowing
down speeds a lot when it is working.i`v had enough messing with this router
now its not compatable with 3 anymore.i dont know whats changed 3 or dovado and i dont care because i`v ordered a b260a router off 3 for 30euro
hope this solves my problem........thanks for all the help DOVADO!!!!!!

Of all the routers you could have picked :P

Well all I can say is you'll soon be able to confirm if its exactly the same issue as 3 had before as the only other router that this problem showed up with was the B260a.

Still the B260a is a good router (AP/gateway device) and I hope it works for you.

boz4477

Good luck with the new router. Meanwhile I have adjusted the MTU which for me is 1440, it has speeded up things alot but still the same problem happens. Nearly at my limit with this. Looking now at another form of broadband but I am contracted to 3, looking at Dsl with ifa telecom, my phone line is ok. If I was to get Dsl, it comes with a modem/router, out of interest in solving this can I use the umr with the dsl set up ( modem/router) If it is possible to do that I could determine if the umr is faulty. The manual indicates that I can but would there be a conflict with the dsl modem/router or is it a simple set up. Thanks

boz4477

boz4477 wrote: »

The manual indicates that I can but would there be a conflict with the dsl modem/router or is it a simple set up. Thanks

It's relatively easy, there is a WAN port which allows you to bridge the connection from the DSL router. You can then still connect the 3 dongle and use it for redundancy. Providing it's working at the time off course.

I'm nearly certain that the problem lies on the 3 network. I can obtain an O2 dongle next week and try it out for a week to test.

Isn't three.ie on boards 'talk to'?
It might be worth it to highlight this thread regarding the concerns here.

tails_naf

Problem still happening to me. Decided to start logging it.
One thing I came accross was nslookup - its supposed to use dns directly, while ping will use a cached dns first.

Whether its working or not, no mater what address I try nslookup retrns the same answer: 67.215.65.132, which after googling means 'domain does not exist' - so maybe its a failure of the dns in some form.

I also noticed the IP assigned to the modem varies widely. Do three have a large range of IP addresses?

this can be seen in the following log:
21-may-11
10am
- changed dchp ip range (simple setting change hack), hard restart
- does not work. modem connected with 32% signal. nslookup returns 67.215.65.132
modem ip is 178.167.248.15.

10.05am
- changed apn to 3internet, hard restart
- worked. connected with 25% signal. nslookup still returns 67.215.65.132.
modem ip is 92.251.210.76

I hope to add to this as the problem keeps happening. Not sure if it is worth contacting three or not...