ZTE MC801A Review

[eccles]

Not the modem/router, it's just the external antennas that won't work if used with any network that uses a frequency under 3500MHz. Zyxel support say that the Zyxel will always use the internal antennas when using 3G/4G and 5G if the 5G frequency is below 3500MHz.

Maybe it's the same on the ZTE? If true, the external antenna ports should work on the EE network as they use a frequency above 3500MHz to delivery 5G on their network.

Interesting thought. I wonder if anyone has tried it? Most people go for Three because it's usually the most competitive.

 

[TTJJ]

Can confirm that the editing the DNS works a treat for the Three routers (4G included)

 

[Roguee]

Can confirm that the editing the DNS works a treat for the Three routers (4G included)

Perfect . Band selection and ca?
External antenna ?
Is SA option present ?

 

[TTJJ]

I didn't try with other options because I am not even in the UK, if I remotely edit the settings and be more daring with my family's router I may cause a problem I can't easily resolve remotely.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[pras1011]

So is this better than the huawei cpe pro 2?

 

[Lucian]

So is this better than the huawei cpe pro 2?

Looks like the jury is still out, but it's a whole lot cheaper!
If you want 5G there are definitely worse devices out there.

 

[Vskf]

Have you ever tried to set ZTE MC801A in bridge mode?

I'm thinking of buying the device, but at the same time I want to be sure that I will not have problem with AVG Fritz Box 7590AX Modem Router.

 

[cenuij]

Have you ever tried to set ZTE MC801A in bridge mode?

I'm thinking of buying the device, but at the same time I want to be sure that I will not have problem with AVG Fritz Box 7590AX Modem Router.

My Three ZTE MC801A arrived at the start of the week.

The option to toggle bridge mode is disabled by default in the current firmware, however I can confirm that the MioNonno interface tweaks (using some custom jQuery/JS) both enable the button in the UI and also allow bridge mode to be set.

Some caveats:

- I'm on three, it's a different firmware to the Sotel supplied devices
- Your downlink device (your Fritz! box) will be attached to LAN1
- LAN2 can be used to access the ZTE UI, but will not be routed to the internet
- WiFi clients attached to the ZTE will not be routed to the internet

 

[Vskf]

Many thanks for your answer!

Have you already set your ZTE in bridge mode? I am asking you because I have read that in order for ZTE to operate in bridge mode, it is only possible if you only have static ip address. Is this true?

 

[cenuij]

Many thanks for your answer!

Have you already set your ZTE in bridge mode? I am asking you because I have read that in order for ZTE to operate in bridge mode, it is only possible if you only have static ip address. Is this true?

Yep! Mine is already in bridge mode sitting in front of a Ubiquity USG-3 WAN port. I suppose it might depend on your 5G network provider but with Three I just set the WAN port to DHCPv4 and it got assigned a dynamic public address no problem.

I can't think of a technical reason the ZTE device would have a restriction to only work with a static IP, that sounds like it might have been something specific to the network provider.

As an aside I had to disable threat detection/blocking on the USG because the the USG-3 doesn't have hardware offload for that, so throughput was being capped to about 100Mbps.

 

[TotalRetribution]

I have been testing mine today and bridge mode appeared to work with openwrt router in every way except that internet speed through openwrt was really slow. However I think it was the router and not mc801a based on CPU usage.

Annoyingly if the mc801a supported dlna via usb I would not want to use it in bridge mode as it does everything I want.

Strangely cgnat has not been as much of a problem as I was expecting, CCTV works just fine and PS5 still has nat type 2.

 

[cenuij]

Many thanks for your answer!

Have you already set your ZTE in bridge mode? I am asking you because I have read that in order for ZTE to operate in bridge mode, it is only possible if you only have static ip address. Is this true?

Actually, once I stopped to read the ZTE leaflet that came with this thing I noticed you can toggle bridge mode without the UI Hack - you just need to turn off the modem side and the button activates...

 

[cenuij]

Perfect . Band selection and ca?
External antenna ?
Is SA option present ?

SA / NSA options are available.

I plugged in an XPOL-1-5G but I don't think it's working, there's nothing to indicate that an external antenna is connected and gain/noise/speed hasn't moved an iota - that's annoying as it's advertised as supporting external antenna, I'm going to contact Three and see what they say.

Didn't check for band selection, what would I be looking for here? I've only one 5G enabled mast locally, and it's NSA so I get band 1,3 + N78

What's CA?

 

[eccles]

CA is channel aggregation, the joining of more than one channel to increase speed. The fact that you're seeing bands 1,3 as well as N78 suggests you have CA. If you set network to 4g it should also show more than one channel is active.

 

[cenuij]

CA is channel aggregation, the joining of more than one channel to increase speed. The fact that you're seeing bands 1,3 as well as N78 suggests you have CA. If you set network to 4g it should also show more than one channel is active.

That's curious - this states that CA is inactive. Maybe the modem is just reporting the 3G/4G bands?

 

[eccles]

I get that as well, and I haven't an answer to that table but CA definitely works.

 

[Roguee]

That's curious - this states that CA is inactive. Maybe the modem is just reporting the 3G/4G bands?

View attachment 22

]You have ca .. its confusing but if you didnt it would say ca not available or something like that .

 

[Roguee]

SA / NSA options are available.

I plugged in an XPOL-1-5G but I don't think it's working, there's nothing to indicate that an external antenna is connected and gain/noise/speed hasn't moved an iota - that's annoying as it's advertised as supporting external antenna, I'm going to contact Three and see what they say.

Didn't check for band selection, what would I be looking for here? I've only one 5G enabled mast locally, and it's NSA so I get band 1,3 + N78

What's CA?

View attachment 2200

Try this to see the antenna switch
First log in to router interface then replace url by

http://192.168.0.1/index.html#ant_switch

Hit enter.

 

[bon]

CA only became active for me when I done high bandwidth/speed tests, so perhaps it only works under load.

 

[eccles]

MC801A set to defaults