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ZTE MC801A Review

Interesting, I haven't read anything about that before.
I've just checked and the original ZTE adapter I use is 12v 1.5a.
Are you suggesting the cut outs may be due to insufficient power delivery?
Thank you.

I think yes, but it's up to you. You can safely give 12V 4A / 3A.

2-3-4 Amperes is the maximum current the power supply can give. How much current it takes depends on the load. I use a 12v 4a adapter with my Mc801a and it works more stable.
 
keep attention on that firmware, it was stolen from a person a published by a turkish guy (not me, if someone think this..) AFAIK
someone can be not so much friendly with you ;)
 
@stich86 says its his patched firmware. so he need to say its working or not. I need a dump of T Mobile Germany. very easy to backup with edl port. Anyone want to backup and share a dump ?
When these T Mobile boxes first appeared several people attempted to modify the firmware including taking a dump of the original. Every one of them resulted in bricked routers with "no service". However, @USER@555 recovered my box successfully and it is still in use. The firmware he or she used is custom modified T-Mobile and it is not public nor is it likely to be in the near or medium term.
A simple dump of T-Mobile firmware does not work.
 
keep attention on that firmware, it was stolen from a person a published by a turkish guy (not me, if someone think this..) AFAIK
someone can be not so much friendly with you ;)

Was it stolen, bought, or did someone make a backup? It's complete empty nonsense. I read the whole forum, all you do is blah blah blah :) If you look on YouTube, people have already shared this firmware before.

I’ve also ;)
And my FW is more fresh and unlock VoLTE :)

If you have the firmware why not share it for the help people need ?
 
When these T Mobile boxes first appeared several people attempted to modify the firmware including taking a dump of the original. Every one of them resulted in bricked routers with "no service". However, @USER@555 recovered my box successfully and it is still in use. The firmware he or she used is custom modified T-Mobile and it is not public nor is it likely to be in the near or medium term.
A simple dump of T-Mobile firmware does not work.

Do you have dump of T-Mobile firmware ? I need a simple dump of T-Mobile firmware.
 
Was it stolen, bought, or did someone make a backup? It's complete empty nonsense. I read the whole forum, all you do is blah blah blah :) If you look on YouTube, people have already shared this firmware before.



If you have the firmware why not share it for the help people need ?
Uhm so you are tell me that all I’m doing is only “bla bla bla”, but for sure you will ask a dump and repack it with the procedure that I’ve written in my git, right? I’ve seen you also on fibraclick, and I don’t like people like you that is just asking without collaborate :)

Anyway if you don’t know the whole story, it’s better to shut up. I’m not sharing firmware for two main reasons:

- my custom firmware has inside some 3rd party binary not form ZTE, so in this case I can have some legal problem in case those 3rd party don’t like it
- USER@555 is still complaining with me (also if I’ve done lot of work on my own, but he doesn’t want to understand). And because he’s in a bad work situation, I don’t want to interfere with his business. If someone want an help and are not so much expert on do it, and doesn’t trust me, can always ask him to help and pay for the work.

That’s the short story. Ah.. if you avoid to act like that, may be people are more prone to help you ;)

To close up: there is no hardware protection on the dump. Only newer ZTE has Locked bootloader, and only boot image needs to be signed :)
 
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Hello all!
I see mention of firmware version B16. I'm currently on B15 with H3UK and I'm hoping the newer firmware may fix the issues I'm having, but after several resets, still no update.

Here's a kind of review/rant and short-ish summary of the problems I'm having, what solutions I've gleaned from this thread, and some puzzles that I just don't seem to be able to get a handle on, so advice/suggestions are welcome:

Irregular reboots

There doesn't seem to be a pattern. Turning the scheduled reboot function on or off makes no difference (month long tests). I assume this function is there for a reason, but it is really not made clear as to why it is set on by default. Hackish workaround for known bugs? Regardless, random reboots appear. I'll try using a a higher quality PSU.

Bridged mode

As per the instructions, access to the admin portal is disabled on the selected ethernet port when bridged mode is selected. However, the instructions also state that wireless must be used to access the admin web portal. Ok, odd but I'll go with it. So after joining the 801's wireless as the only connection from a laptop, the admin portal is sure enough there. Furthermore, there unexpectedly seems to be full internet connectivity too.

Questions -​
Is this firewalled?​
What DNS settings are used?​
Is this NAT'd?​
How does one use the wifi6 capability of the 801 in bridged mode?​

Running an online port scanner on a virtual machine with open ports connected to 801's wifi does seem to confirm that this connection is indeed firewalled. What rules are being applied are completely opaque. I'm assuming wwan => lan is being rejected, but there's no provision to change the behaviour here. Does dropping the 801's firewall expose the 801's wireless network?

DNS relay is mentioned in the specs, but is this in force in bridged mode? What about on the admin only connection? Again, opaque, and no documentation or settings reveal anything. I am aware of the hidden DNS menu however.

Using bridged mode avoids being double NAT'd amongst other things, but I can only assume the admin only internet connectivity is having address translation applied.

The above concerns, and the documentation/portal hints seem to exclude using the wifi interface for anything other than accessing the admin portal. On a whim, I connected a laptop to the lower (two dots) ethernet port, and sure enough, up came the admin portal with the same connectivity behaviour as seen using wfi. This really leaves the wifi interface redundant, and even problematic when it comes to RF noise on the rest of the wireless network.

Disabled seems to be the only option regarding wifi and bridged mode.

Rather than stating that the admin portal can only be accessed via wifi, it would be much more preferable to advise that the second ethernet port be used, and to disable wifi completely when bridged mode is selected. Is anyone using the 801's wifi alongside bridged mode amongst you?

DHCP settings

It's convenient to fix the IP of a dhcp server, and change to default pool so as not to clash with other network devices during network setup. So why is it so difficult on this device? The only way that I've found, is to perform multiple, and unecessary reboots changing one thing at a time.

For example; the IP cannot be changed to a different subnet, and the pool range to suit before rebooting to apply the changes. Indeed, the IP cannot even be changed to anything outside of the current range within the same subnet. The input fields simply throw an error for each. The wan connection must first be disabled causing a rebbot, then dhcp needs to be disabled requiring another reboot. Finally, the desired settings can then be applied, but require another manual reboot. Finally dhcp server can be re-enabled, but requiring the mandatory reboot. This is all completely unintuitive and plainly bonkers!

Random, apparent loss of connection

This is seperate to the random reboots noted above. As reported by others elsewhere in this thread that have experienced the same, the only recourse is to either sit it out and wait for normality to resume, or reboot the 801. This manifests as web pages failing to load ranging from several times a day, to merely once a week. Any streaming services appear to maintain thier connection however. For example: A video stream will continue while all other web pages fail to load on other devices. Except when it comes to adverts, and then the stream fails.

I've performed some investigations during some of these outages, and it seems related to DNS. Not just internet name resolution, but also devices on the local network. The IP's of known internet servers can still be pinged as can local devices, so the network hasn't completely failed but http(s) is completely down. Any attempt to resolve an external or internal name via nslookup fails. Finding this odd, I also fired up wireshark to see if it could reveal anything. It would appear that some kind of dhcp storm is happening. Each and every device is constantly asking who everybody else is. Bizzarely the names of each device appear to be being resloved (possibly wireshark involved) alongside thier IP's and mac addresses.

What is of note, and puzzling to me, is that the static IP of the 801's admin connection is also involved. This IP is known to the rest of the network regardless of a physical connection to the second, non bridged ethernet port. This flies in the face of the apparent isolation between the bridged connection and the admin connection, and can only be being exposed from within the 801. There does not appear to be a valid route, and this may be expected behaviour, so I'd love to hear some insights on this?

Due to the location of my MC801A (loft) an unplug reboot is troublesome. I've mitigated this by pressing an old EDF ecoManager power plug into service to remotely force a power cycle.

My current setup

IPv6 is provisioned in this area, so I do get proper IPv6 connectivity. The main router's wan interface is set to dhcp client, and is assigned 192.0.0.2 from the MC801A as 192.0.0.1 on the selected upper (single dot) eth port. This all seems to work and I have full control over how my network operates.


I have a kind of workaround in my attempt to gain my desired network layout despite all of the roadblocks outlined above and as follows:

MC801A (H3UK B15)
  • Bridged mode
  • Wifi disabled
  • Static IP outside of network subnet assigned to admin connection
  • DHCP disabled
  • Everything else left as default
The admin ethernet connection is connected via a managed switch to isolate it from the rest of the network, and is only enabled as required. Formerly left physically disconnected until required.

Main router/Access point (openwrt bt hh5a)
  • wan DHCP client via ethernet to MC801A
  • lan DHCP server
  • Static IP's and hostnames assigned to all infrastructure, static and persistent clients
  • Wifi enabled - single SSID's both radios for each of main, guest and iot interfaces
  • VLAN's for guest wifi, iot
  • Multiwan failover to nearby wifi hotspots in case of 4/5G problems
  • VPN
Zyxel 8 port managed switch (stock sw GS1200-8)
  • VLAN switch for wired infrastructure/distribution
  • TP-Link POE injector attached for remote Dumb AP
Dumb AP (openwrt netgear WNDAP360)
  • Ethernet connected - POE powered
  • DHCP disabled
  • Single SSID's both radios for main, guest and iot interfaces
Wifi printer bridge (openwrt TP-Link M3020)
  • Wifi client for ethernet only printer
  • USBIP server for USB combo printer/scanner
Proxmox server (Lenovo ThinkCentre)
  • HomeAssistant
  • AdguardHome
  • Various HomeLab experiments


Notes: Despite the apparent complexity of the setup, I do not believe it has a bearing on the connectivity issues I've been experiencing. Especially the net storm events. I have diligently isolated each part, and even reduced the setup to the bare minimum to rule out other causes of the problems. I have also tried substituting the main router with a TP-Link AC1350 (stock fw) as the sole client and access point with the same results of some kind of crash/network storm. This is also the final result after many iterations and additions over the last year of MC801A "ownership" and prior to its addition.


Finally, I hope that my kind of review, rant, account, or whatever you may call it, helps anyone else gain insight into fixing a few of the "quirks" this device has. I'd also love to hear any further pointers or criticisms on some of the more puzzling issues I observe.

[Edit to add substitution attempt - further edits for spelling/grammar/clarity]
 
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Good write up. I don't understand half of it but that's just me.
My problem with this router has always been the disconnects. At least once or twice a day. Always comes back on by itself within 5 or so minutes or within a minute if I pull the power, but that's not easy as it's a stretch to get to.
The front lights 90% of the time stay on, but all streaming, internet pages, hive, cameras etc drop out
 
Good write up. I don't understand half of it but that's just me.
Thank you, and yes I did get a little carried away with the technical side merely in the hope some other technical minded member may recognise something.

My problem with this router has always been the disconnects.
Yes, and after having read my own words (sometimes that can trigger inspiration) I have made a change that so far seems to have stopped the drop outs. Rather than introduce a red herring or bias, I'll keep monitoring, but it would be interesting to compare settings with those that also suffer from them. ie:
Have you left the 801 on its default settings?​
Is it in bridged mode?​
If so, is the 801's static IP within the same range as the dhcp pool provided by another server on the network?​
eg. 192.168.0.1 in the same range as 192.168.0.x?​
The UI is clumsy and poorly (literally) translated which confounds some of the settings through ambiguity, so I do suspect the defaults are often left as is.
 
Thank you, and yes I did get a little carried away with the technical side merely in the hope some other technical minded member may recognise something.


Yes, and after having read my own words (sometimes that can trigger inspiration) I have made a change that so far seems to have stopped the drop outs. Rather than introduce a red herring or bias, I'll keep monitoring, but it would be interesting to compare settings with those that also suffer from them. ie:
Have you left the 801 on its default settings?​
Is it in bridged mode?​
If so, is the 801's static IP within the same range as the dhcp pool provided by another server on the network?​
eg. 192.168.0.1 in the same range as 192.168.0.x?​
The UI is clumsy and poorly (literally) translated which confounds some of the settings through ambiguity, so I do suspect the defaults are often left as is.
I've left all in default.
It's not in bridge mode.
Static IP and yes.
I had the Zyxel NR5101 but replaced that as I also had random disconnects, but the difference was it would not reconnect by itself, I had to physically switch power off/power on to get it working again, which was useless when we were away from the house.
I hope you continue with no drop outs. Would be nice to get a resolution to the problem, if you're willing to share👍
 
I've left all in default.
It's not in bridge mode.
Static IP and yes.
Thanks for the details.
I hope you continue with no drop outs. Would be nice to get a resolution to the problem, if you're willing to share👍
My specific problem, and as some others have also reported, happens while the 801 is in bridged mode. I'm not sure if my new adjustment will make any difference to non bridged mode (I haven't tried as it does not work for me eg double or CGNAT)

If your 801 is all default, then it is also serving dhcp (the ip addresses your clients recieve) In bridged mode, dhcp is served from another device. I have discovered that if the 801's static IP is left in the same subnet range (192.168.0.1 by default) and that is also within the same subnet range as the rest of the network, then the admin page cannot be accessed from the wwan ethernet port, but does seem to become involved in the network storm as I described earlier. Simply changing the static IP to 192.168.1.1 (outside of my current subnet) not only seems to have cured the network storms (so far) but I am also able to access the admin pages from my other machines on the other subnet without resorting to using the second ethernet port. It doesn't make sense, but there it is.

I'm not sure this change will help when the 801 is also serving dhcp, and more likely (as I would expect) break your clients getting addresses, or even not being able to make that setting with dhcp enabled in the first place. Caveat: expectations and assumptions need to be thrown away when it comes to how the 801 works.

Now, if only there were some logs available so we could try and make sense of this all...
 
I come with an update.

So, if you are using the "3internet" APN and have the PDP type of "IPv4" set - then if your account has been migrated to "the new IPv6 network" (as in your SIM is set to connect to their new 5G mobile network core (MNC) data centre), then you will typically be limited to 120 Mbps.

There will be no Carrier Aggregation (ZTE shows this always as "No CA" irrespective of load) so I believe this is probably the limit from a single connection - there may not even be any deliberate limit beyond this technical limitation of a single 5G connection to the mast.

However if you switch to "IPv4v6" then your MTU will drop from 1380 to 1352 (due to the additional size of the IPv6 packet that encapsulates your IPv4 packet) and you will not get a public IPv4 address (instead the network performs DS-Lite so IPv4 packets get wrapped into IPv6) and more importantly 5G Carrier Aggregation will be active which will unlock significantly better speeds (depending on congestion).

Obviously having to infer a lot here but I wonder if the IPv4 PDP is just for legacy devices and devices which have compatibility issues with things such as CA. It's a pity that this seems to be the only way to get a public IPv4 address on Three. Could also just be a bottleneck of the 5G IPv6 MNC having to reach back into the 4G MNC SGSN/PGW/GGSN.

A lot of people get confused by the 192.0.0.2 address you get allocated, confusing it with the 192.168.x.x private network (RFC1918) range.. but this is the correct IP for DS-Lite (RFC6890) and outside the other private network range.

The IPv6 address I believe is public but I'm struggling to get DHCPv6-PD to work (perhaps ThreeUK don't support it). That's a different topic.
 
Would that affect latency/jitter and that stuff? I guess MTU being smaller it would. (?)
I have been using 4G only because 5G is just for speeds and not "good" /packetloss/latency.

I have been fiddling with APNs too but I think was all placebo but now you saying that might be something it wasn't.

I have tried a few APN's incluiding the Smarty one (apn.smarty.com), which works too as well as the mob.asm.net
 
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