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Constant dropouts with Three 5G with Huawei CPE Pro

bertie_bassett

Pro Member
Hi everyone, first post here. Might be quite a long one - hope that's ok.

I'm at my wits end with my CPE Pro on an unlimited 5G plan with Three. In a nutshell, the internet connection drops out at least once a day and all my devices, wired or otherwise, lose access to the internet. It seems that the only way to restore the connection is to physically unplug the router and plug it back in - rebooting via the AI Life app doesn't work, it comes back with no internet connection. At other times the ping goes sky high - 1000-4000ms - while the transfer rate drops to almost nothing. Sometimes it recovers, other times it doesn't. This might just be variations in my reception - I'm on the edge of the stated 5G zone and technically not covered (I had to beg Three to give me the contract to start with) - but 5G reception is showing as good, all three lights are on, and transfer speeds, when they work, are high.

I've spent what seems like hours going through the router settings trying to find something that might be causing the dropouts, but nothing seems to help, but there's a few things that I don't understand and can't seem to fix. These are shown by some odd messages in the router log. The one that's most concerning is this one:

2022-01-25 16:02:44 System Warning LAN side maintenance IP address 192.168.11.1 conflict with Device 54:**:**:5b:**:6d

This appears in the log multiple times a day, and may coincide with the timings of the drop outs but I'm not 100% sure about this. Concerningly, 192.168.11.1 is the router's own IP address, and the gateway that all my devices use to access the internet. The MAC address mentioned in this log entry belongs to my wife's Oppo Find X3 Neo phone - I have set the phone to use the Device MAC address on our home network, and have given it a fixed IP address in the Huawei. The phone reports that it is using the fixed IP address I have given it... so why is there this scary conflict and is there any way I can resolve it?

There is also occasionally error messages in the log saying that "sync time failed from BBOU" - I've tried changing the time servers but that doesn't help. Might this cause the dropouts?

The other thing I've read about is that there might be IPv6 issues that can cause dropouts. I've seen that these can potentially be fixed by adding an APN profile, but I cannot see where to do this. The Network Settings page in the router looks like this for me:

1643191455218.png



Nowhere I can set APN profiles, no IPv4/v6 options, nothing. Is this because of Three's locked firmware? And is there any way I can get around this?

The other thing is that I have devices plugged into both ethernet ports on the router. One is a passive switch with a few wired devices (an Intel NUC PC, an AVR, a Blu-Ray player, a TV) attached, and the other is a Tenda MW6 mesh network node which wirelessly attaches to two other nodes around the house. This is set in bridge mode, so shouldn't be doing any DHCP stuff, but for some reason rebooting the router never works if the mesh node is still attached - I have to physically unplug it before rebooting the router, then the connection comes back. But there are no configurable options in that device beyond 'bridge mode', which is definitely on. When I first connected the mesh system as per the instructions, it somehow caused the router to change it's default LAN address from 192.168.8.1 to 192.168.11.1 - can't for the life of me work out why.

My system information from the router settings is here if that's any use:
1643192377282.png

Has anyone else experienced problems like these with this router, and is there anything that I can do to trace / fix / stop the problems occurring? And is there any other info I can get from the router settings that might help diagnose what's going on?

Sorry... long post...
 
Several threads on these 2 issues.



 
Several threads on these 2 issues.
Thanks for the response but I'm not sure that either of the three threads you linked to is quite the same as what I'm experiencing.


I'm not having 5G drops. My 5G signal stays strong, but when it drops it really drops - no internet traffic gets through at all.


I'm not gaming and it's not specific devices that drop their connection; it's everything. I don't have UPnP enabled in my router because I don't think I have anything that needs it, but if this might help I can give it a try. Plus I can't see anywhere in that thread that is similar to my 'unavailable' settings e.g. altering / adding APN profiles. As I posted, my Network Settings page is very limited in what it will allow me to do and I'm wondering how I can get round this, or if it will really help.


Again, I'm not having quite the same issues I don't think. The only common issue here is when they say "Internet very slow and unreliable (all devices), sometimes things work find and load fast, other times it just doesn’t work at all". Nothing else really matches my experience with this router.

None of these threads help me set up / access APN profiles on the router, or address the IP conflict that appears in my log. The reason I posted a new thread about this was because the searching I had already done hadn't come up with anything that really matched my issues, especially that IP conflict, so I thought a new thread was the way to go.

Does anyone have any insight about that?
 
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So does removing the phone from the IP setup completely, fix the issue you’re facing as this seems to be the problem, not the wifi?

Also, there is ways to add and edit the apn and ipv stuff as noted in multiple forums on here though I believe it is a hidden issue (some say setting to ipv4 only stops a lot of crap).
 
There might be several issues going on here.
Just thinking about the Tenda MW6 - it looks as if, when your router reboots, the Tenda MW6 mesh/connection is 'taking over' (or trying to perform) DHCP functions. (Since it is in bridge only mode, 'the nova can only access the internet after being connected to a router with internet connectivity'), something else is doing this in your mesh network. )

The CPE Pro has two ethernet ports on the rear - one is a wan/lan and the other a lan. It might be useful to try setting your Tenda MW6 back to DHCP mode (take it out of bridge) and make sure the cable to it from the cpe pro is coming from the 'lan only' port and is then plugged into the internet port of the first Tenda.

I had similar problems with the MW6 doing this (but it was an external CPE that added to the problem - I suspect the phone connected to the network may do the same - when the router is off the Tenda 'looks' for the device providing internet access and the phone may be its solution - especially if it's set to bridge only? The reported conflict suggests the phone might be treated by the Tenda mesh as an internet 'source' and may be causing the crashes/conflicts.

Is there any reason the phone cannot just connect to the Tenda Mesh by wifi normally - without a fixed ip etc.?

I'd change the router back to the default network address, turn off its wifi, and ensure the Tenda Mesh is using a different subnet- eg. 192.168.5.1 - this is easily adjusted in the app settings (it will still treat the CPE Pro as the gateway) - it should then take the 5G CPE pro as its internet source and the CPE Pro will not treat the lan only connection to the mesh as a possible wan connection when it reboots etc. (it's a pity you cannot specify these as such in the settings, instead it detects what the connection is and can get it 'wrong'.

The IPV6 issue - I suspect Three have hidden both the 'add APN' function etc. to stop it being changed because they are implementing IPV6 on the 5G network with the CPE Pro. There are several reports of issues on the EE network and the Three network with similar issues. There, users have reported that when the device is set to IPV4 only the router switches to 4G but the problems they experience 'go away'. Since you are on the 'edge' of 5G reception you might be straddling this issue?

'sync time failed from BBOU' - this was a frequent problem with the Huawei 4g CPE Pro version and the simple resolution was to switch the internet connection from 'auto' to '4g only'. I wonder if something similar might help on the 5G CPE pro - switch to 5G only?

I'm only hazarding a guess at the IPV6 issue, but I have had a Tenda MW6 mesh running for a couple of years on the settings suggested. Using 'bridge only' caused no end of problems to me, especially on reboots etc.
 
Thank you so much for this - no end of helpful things to try when I can!
There might be several issues going on here.
Just thinking about the Tenda MW6 - it looks as if, when your router reboots, the Tenda MW6 mesh/connection is 'taking over' (or trying to perform) DHCP functions. (Since it is in bridge only mode, 'the nova can only access the internet after being connected to a router with internet connectivity'), something else is doing this in your mesh network. )

The reported conflict suggests the phone might be treated by the Tenda mesh as an internet 'source' and may be causing the crashes/conflicts.

I agree that this seems to be what is happening, and it does seem to be the phone that's somehow at the heart of it. Is there anything in the phone I can disable? As far as I can see all the personal hotspot / wifi sharing stuff is all off...

The CPE Pro has two ethernet ports on the rear - one is a wan/lan and the other a lan. It might be useful to try setting your Tenda MW6 back to DHCP mode (take it out of bridge) and make sure the cable to it from the cpe pro is coming from the 'lan only' port and is then plugged into the internet port of the first Tenda.
My Tenda is definitely already plugged into the LAN only port on the CPE Pro. This is the top one of the two. The LAN/WAN port has a passive switch attached to it which feeds media devices such as my HTPC, AVR, Blu Ray and 4k TV. I'll check which port I use on the Tenda tonight, but I think it's the internet one already (the one with the blue globe symbol).

Is there any reason the phone cannot just connect to the Tenda Mesh by wifi normally - without a fixed ip etc.?
I fixed the phone IP in the Huawei after I first saw this conflict, so it was happening before the phone had a fixed IP I fixed it because it seemed to me that for some reason the phone was trying to connect (or the router was trying to allocate it) the IP address 192.168.11.1, thus causing the conflict that appeared in the log, and if I fixed it with a different IP it might resolve the conflict. It never occurred to me that it might be something else on the network and not the router - potentially the Tenda from what you say - might be assuming internet connectivity duties and causing a conflict which the router then identifies following a reboot / restart.

I'd change the router back to the default network address, turn off its wifi, and ensure the Tenda Mesh is using a different subnet- eg. 192.168.5.1 - this is easily adjusted in the app settings (it will still treat the CPE Pro as the gateway) - it should then take the 5G CPE pro as its internet source and the CPE Pro will not treat the lan only connection to the mesh as a possible wan connection when it reboots etc. (it's a pity you cannot specify these as such in the settings, instead it detects what the connection is and can get it 'wrong'.

I'll definitely try this, but I'm reluctant to turn off the router's wifi as the speeds I get through this are faster than through the mesh when in the same room as the router - ideal for my Fire TV 4K that's in the same room, for example. Also the Tenda doesn't allow me to specify fixed IP addresses for anything, and I need this for certain things like remote control apps on my iPhone, some Wake on LAN functionality, that kind of thing. Will keeping the router's wifi on and broadcasting alongside the mesh wifi cause more / different problems?

The IPV6 issue - I suspect Three have hidden both the 'add APN' function etc. to stop it being changed because they are implementing IPV6 on the 5G network with the CPE Pro. There are several reports of issues on the EE network and the Three network with similar issues. There, users have reported that when the device is set to IPV4 only the router switches to 4G but the problems they experience 'go away'. Since you are on the 'edge' of 5G reception you might be straddling this issue?
Perhaps. Sounds like there's no way round this though, as I can't afford to turn off the 5G.

'sync time failed from BBOU' - this was a frequent problem with the Huawei 4g CPE Pro version and the simple resolution was to switch the internet connection from 'auto' to '4g only'. I wonder if something similar might help on the 5G CPE pro - switch to 5G only?
I have no option to change the internet connection - it's fixed on Auto with nothing else selectable. Is this another locked/hidden setting, and is there any way I can unlock it?

I'm only hazarding a guess at the IPV6 issue, but I have had a Tenda MW6 mesh running for a couple of years on the settings suggested. Using 'bridge only' caused no end of problems to me, especially on reboots etc.
Once again, thank you so much - it's great to hear that you have had success and I'll definitely give this all a go. I'll report back once I've had a try. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Sorry, one more question.

I'd change the router back to the default network address, turn off its wifi, and ensure the Tenda Mesh is using a different subnet- eg. 192.168.5.1 - this is easily adjusted in the app settings

Is changing the subnet of the Tenda mesh achieved here?
1643294831274.png


Or do I need to be fiddling around in here?
1643294921894.png

I'm sure this is easy when you know what you're doing, but some of this stuff is more than a bit opaque to me...
 
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In answer to the last question, re location to change the lan address of the Tenda node - the first option is the one I used.

I'd still try turning off the wifi on the CPE Pro, once the other corrections are made - you may find the Tenda wifi improves once the 'conflict' is stopped - however, it won't make that much of a difference (and the wifi on the CPE Pro is pretty good). I found the Tenda MW6s need to be closer to each other than I'd hoped - with a sweet spot - after which the wifi can tumble (it helps if they have 'line of sight', where possible - through doorways etc.). I think the promised coverage is 'over-egged' but they are quite often on offer - so I have 7 dotted around the house and outside.

I have quite a few remote controlled plugs connected through the tenda mesh alone, including 3 outside cameras, none are on 'fixed ips' - might be worth trying some without. But again, it will depend on the nature of your devices so you may have to stick with fixing ips on the CPE Pro?

However, I am guessing that fixing ips on your CPE pro (on its default setting eg. 192.168.8.1) and then connecting the devices through the Tenda mesh (on a different subnet eg. 192.168.5.1) will cause issues, unless the MW6 is in bridge mode - but since the MW6 is a pretty basic 'appliance' off the shelf device and the CPE Pro is locked down so much, you may be limited in the things you can do - so sometimes best to keep things as simple as possible and within the limitations of the constrained items - in other words, you may have to experiment until you find the 'least worst' option (incl. bridge on or off)

It looks as if Three have locked the 5G CPE Pro down tightly - there may be ways to unlock the hidden menus through using a script in the 'console' part of the router's web page on a chrome browser. I have no experience of doing that on the 5G CPE Pro (just on other Huwaei 4G routers) but it's worth a google. There are similar problems reported on the EE Forums - but I think their CPE Pro is not as locked down as Three's. There are also reports of problems with the earlier Tenda MW3s and switching to IPV4 only solving basic connection problems.


I don't think the Tenda MW6 supports IPV6 (and is IPV4 only) - there was some talk (a couple of years ago) of Tenda introducing this and releasing an update in the future but I think that's been quietly forgotten as they introduce new meshes. My MW6s do not and there is nothing in the settings to select this. The 5G CPE pro is probably set to use 'IPV6 or IPV4'. ( I am not convinced this is the main issue in your case). I guess it's actually hidden (as it is accessed when trying to add another APN) to keep the router 'locked' to Three. I am guessing the internet connection is fixed to 'auto' to allow the router to switch to 4g when 5g drops etc. - this may actually be the root cause of the issues you are experiencing - temporary loss of connection during the switch and the mesh looking for another internet source in bridge mode.

It's a bit of a challenge - with a few things to adjust/play around with to find something that improves your experience. My advice would be to simplify things as much as possible until it works, then add back the functionality you need until it breaks again and before you spend any money on fixes that might not work.
 
Thank you so much again - such a useful post, much appreciated.
However, I am guessing that fixing ips on your CPE pro (on its default setting eg. 192.168.8.1) and then connecting the devices through the Tenda mesh (on a different subnet eg. 192.168.5.1) will cause issues, unless the MW6 is in bridge mode - but since the MW6 is a pretty basic 'appliance' off the shelf device and the CPE Pro is locked down so much, you may be limited in the things you can do - so sometimes best to keep things as simple as possible and within the limitations of the constrained items - in other words, you may have to experiment until you find the 'least worst' option (incl. bridge on or off)
I guess this is my biggest worry: if the Tenda is on a different subnet then will devices connected on that subnet eg phones, my office pc etc be able to “see” devices connected direct to the CPE Pro via the Ethernet switch. So will for example DNLA streaming from my office PC (on a 192.168.5.x) to my AVR (on 192.168.8.x) still work, or will the different subnets mean the devices won’t connect? Another example: I have a wireless printer which basically won’t work unless it has a fixed IP. The Tenda won’t let me fix anything, so I need the printer to connect to the CPE Pro wireless on a fixed IP. I can then set printer ports in all our windows PCs to that IP and everything works. If the printer is on 192.168.8.6 but the PCs are on 192.168.5.x then will they be able to communicate?

I know the best thing to do is to try, but with the family and my wife often wfh it’s hard to find a time to turn everything off and fiddle around. But I will and we will see what happens!
 
Actually, one other thought: I read somewhere (an Amazon review of the MW6) that the DHCP IP address pinwheel in my photo allows you to set the starting address of the IPs the MW6 uses for DHCP allocation. Would it cause horrible conflicts if I had the CPE pro set to 192.168.8.1, with DHCP range set to 192.168.8.100-200, then set the DHCP in the Tenda to start at - say - 192.168.8.250? Unless I’m missing something, they would both be on the same subnet but there wouldn’t be IP conflicts as their allowed ranges are very different. In theory this would mean that all my devices can communicate, and I can keep my fixed IP addresses, which are outside of both these ranges, which will also work…

Or am I crazy?
 
It looks as if you have a specific set of issues with your setup. The initial thing seems to be to get rid of the conflict, 'caused by the phone when the router seems to switch'. I suspect, if that is resolved. then bridge mode imight be ideal for your situation.

Another option would be to connect the passive switch to a Tenda Node so all the items are on the sub-net and ... for the printer, if all else fails, you may just have to switch to the wifi it uses, each time you want to print (not perfect but at least workable).

One further idea to solve what appears to be the root cause - worth a try - (for some of the other issues) and the locked down Huawei 5G CPE Pro.

Have you tried using LTE monitor?


If you start this, login to LTE H-Monitor in the programme (in the configuration/General tab), some of the hidden features may be able to be controlled from this software.

In the DashBoard there is a button 'Find Cell' (choose 'cellmapper') and it will locate the mast you are using and identify the bands available.

Then go to the 'Configuration/Radio' tab and you may be able to try setting your router's 'network mode' (or even adjusting the bands you use.)

There is also the chance that your router is switching from 5G to 4G and/or is switching masts that it is using - so this could help with that. Again, try resolving one bit at a time.
 
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Thanks again. I have downloaded and started the LTEHMonitor software, but it is unable to log in to my router. I wonder if this is connected to another issue I have, which is that the SSL certificate used by the router expired at the end of December 2021, so web browsers display a scary 'not secure' message when I try to access the configuration. I can click 'proceed anyway' and it goes through, and the problem is documented by others across various forums, but probably is what is stopping LTEHMonitor from logging in.

I haven't managed to try the DHCP stuff yet, but I will as soon as I get a chance without others in the house. I have changed the default DNS on the router to Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1 and - touch wood - things have been more stable since then. But we will see...

Thanks for all the advice, I really do appreciate it. Do you think that my DHCP range 'solution' to keep everything on the same subnet will work or just cause more problems than it's worth?
 
I suspect it will cause problems (but worth a try, in any case) - but all (apart from your printer) would be on the same sub-net if you connect your switch to a Tenda node, in any case. If you have fixed the conflict with the phone - I'd try bridge mode again but I suspect this may not be the solution in the end or the cause of the disconnect leading to the conflict - the resulting conflict is likely an effect of the router switching between 4g and 5G - and that might be a result of your location in relation to a number of masts.

When signing in to the router using LTE-H monitor you cannot be logged in from anywhere else - make sure you are not logged in from your browser - it can take a little while for the browser connect to actually 'release' to allow LTE-H monitor to connect. I'd close down the browser completely, close LTE-H Monitor and re-start it, Check the router IP is correct - it sometimes contains a default address on first loading - and try api as suggested above.
 
LTE-H monitor doesn't work with a 5G CPE Pro supplied by Three - they've locked down that bit of the router firmware.

I've had exactly the same problems as OP where the ping randomly goes sky high and then after restarting it goes back to normal.
 
LTE-H monitor doesn't work with a 5G CPE Pro supplied by Three - they've locked down that bit of the router firmware.

I've had exactly the same problems as OP where the ping randomly goes sky high and then after restarting it goes back to normal.
Anecdotally it seems better since I changed the DNS addresses in the router config to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1). I've seen a couple of instances of the ping going high over the last few days, but they have resolved themselves after a few minutes without requiring a restart. Still not great for reliability if e.g. WFH but on balance I still think the speed at the price is worth it. Without the 5G we would be stuck with a max of 67MB as we are a third/fourth floor flat and fibre isn't available.
 
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Don’t want to speak too soon but I wonder if I’ve fixed it…

I had another drop out this evening. Before restarting as usual, I had a look at the router in the AI Life app. It said “Ethernet disconnected”. I wondered if this was because my passive LAN switch was plugged into the WAN/LAN port of the router. I unplugged that cable and the app flashed up a red error that I didn’t quite see - possibly WAN port error - then immediately reconnected to the internet at full speed. I have now connected the switch through the LAN port on the Tenda node near the router, and everything is running fine.

Is it possible that a brief internet drop out (caused by being on the edge of network) causes the router to start to try and find an internet connection through the WAN port. When it can’t it falls over, so I need to reboot. I also wonder if this might explain the IP conflict errors - might one device connected to the mesh know that the gateway address is 192.168.11.1 but the router is looking to the mesh for the internet connection.

Might be a long shot but I wonder… more monitoring required.
 
@bertie_bassett on my old Huawei B535 there was this feature where the router would treat the 4G as a fallback, so it would prioritise the WAN port and if the link went down it would switch to 4G. I would expect that they kept this behaviour. So you may be on to something..
I believe this feature was set in the "Internet" section of the Settings, if I remember correctly.
 
@bertie_bassett on my old Huawei B535 there was this feature where the router would treat the 4G as a fallback, so it would prioritise the WAN port and if the link went down it would switch to 4G. I would expect that they kept this behaviour. So you may be on to something..
I believe this feature was set in the "Internet" section of the Settings, if I remember correctly.

Unless Three have hidden something else, this is probably the setting you mean. I have never moved it off 'Auto', but I guess I wanted it on 'LAN only'.

1644399938199.png
 
Unless Three have hidden something else, this is probably the setting you mean. I have never moved it off 'Auto', but I guess I wanted it on 'LAN only'.

View attachment 2113
Having said that... is this setting determining where the router will get its internet connection from? ie will setting 'LAN only' cause it to (a) only use the ethernet ports as LAN not WAN or (b) disable the 5G internet connection and tell the router to only look to the LAN ports for its internet connection?
 
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