ATT Cell Booster (picocell tower question)

I'm moving this thread to the Wireless forum.

@markbnj  Read my Cell Booster Tech Guide, link is in my sig line.

If all of the lights are a solid white, then the CB is operational and connected to the AT&T Mobility Servers.

If you phone connects to the CB, the "LTE" alpha tag should be displayed. If connected to WiFi-C (WiFi Calling), the alpha tag will indicate "AT&T WiFi". You can use WiFi-C with an active CB but your phone will connect to whichever signal is the strongest as you move around your home. There is no way to "force" the phone to connect to the CB without disabling the cellular radio on your phone (Airplane Mode).

If the CB is having connection issues, as indicated by the lights changing from a solid white to flashing or amber, then there is an issue between the CB and AT&T. That can be cause by lots of reasons, usually a poor internet connection. AT&T Support will just have you run thru the basic troubleshooting scripts as most of Support really hasn't a clue how the CB (femtocell) actually works.l

So, how is the CB setup?

Any recent updates to either your phones or internet devices (modem/router)?

Who is your ISP?

How's your weather been?

Thanks Otto:

So, how is the CB setup?

AT&T fiber.  BGW320 

I have the CB directly connected to the bgw320.

I also have a second Ethernet port connected to a hub

The problem seems to be (my wife has a phone which does wifi-calling, mine doesn't do it)

before we got the CB I had zero bars,  once connected, I had 5 bars all over my apartment.

since we got the CB/femtocell, my wife turned off wifi calling.

Earlier in the week, she started dropping calls (wifi was on, and had a good connection, and the lights to the cb were all solid white, including the last one (4g/lte)

but still dropped multiple calls to different (as well as same) #.

she switched to wifi calling, and the cb went  crazy, and all the lights went off/amber, and it seemed like it was rebooting.

She then turned wifi calling OFF, and all lights went on again.

Is there anyone that can actually read the status logs of this CB/cell unit?

I'd like to try and RESOLVE this, instead of just hearing lots of "B S "

Any recent updates to either your phones or internet devices (modem/router)?

Who is your ISP?

How's your weather been?

WiFi-C shouldn't have any effect on the CB. It would affect the phone depending on which signal was stronger, WiFi or cellular. That being said, I would not use both at the same time to avoid phone connection issues for the WiFi-C capable phone.

WiFi-C does use some of the same ports that the CB uses to reach the AT&T Mobility servers so there may be a conflict on AT&T's end. I did take my CB out of the closet and connected it. Took about 10 minutes before it connected and was stable. I turned off WiFi-C on my iPhone and was able to use the CB with no issues. I then turned WiFi-C back on and the CB remained stable (solid white lights). I took my phone to the same room that has the CB and placed a call. My phone connected to the CB (flashing white 4G/LTE light) with the LTE alpha tag appearing on my phone. Downstairs, my phone connected to our WiFi network (stood next to the router to make sure the signal was the strongest) and was able to place a call. I disabled the CB, put it back in the closet, and went back to WiFi-C. So, in my case, there were no issues with the CB and/or WiFi-C. To be clear though, AT&T is not my ISP and I use my own modem and router.

I'm sorry you think my responses are "B S". There is no way for AT&T, or I should say easy way, for AT&T to check the status logs (if there are any) of the CB other than the basic connection/communication status. 

I would try to reset the CB following my Guide and once the status lights are solid white, see what happens. Do you know if the 320 received any updates? Have you reset the 320?

You could setup port forwarding for the CB based on its MAC address to see if that gives it a more stable connection when WiFi-C is enabled on the other phone. 

I tested the CB extensively at the beginning of last year for AT&T and while it did work, it did and still does have issues, and that's why it's in the closet most of the time and we use WiFi-C exclusively. AT&T Support is not that helpful other than have you run thru the usual scripted trouble shooting steps.

If the CB craps out every time WiFi-C is enabled, and is fine when WiFi-C is disabled, I'd start to suspect a setting or configuration in the 320.

The reason I asked about who your ISP was is that I initially missed the fact that you stated AT&T fiber. My bad. 

oh, I apologize, I am extremely grateful for ALL the work you do and have done on the guides, and stuff.

The B S was in regards to official channels or support (or lack thereof..)

I still wish there were logs that were viewable, (i.e,. I'm sure that like most devices these days [including PC's, phones, iphones, tablets, and routers] they

ALL run SOME variant of *NIX)

(and I'm old enough- -and of the generation that DID work at AT&T, to know that if ONE STUPID product MANAGER hadn't tried to make a profit

on the UNIX 7300 PC in 1980* , we'd all be running AT&T UNIX  today instead of Windows (or linux, or NExT, or android!!!)

* instead of selling the Unix pc for cost ($3500), he doubled the price to $7,000.  If he had only sold them at cost to developers, we'd be in a different world today.

Sigh..

No offense intended Otto...

@markbnj  No apologies necessary. Sometimes what is read isn't what was intended.

Detailed log information is probably available on the backend somewhere (it would almost have to be) but finding an IT/Engineer person who understands the information and then be willing to dig deep to determine the cause just won't happen. Deep support for the MicroCell, and now the Cell Booster, has always been lacking (hence me writing the Tech Guides). Support really does try to help but they themselves don't get the support and adequate training (and re-training) that they need to keep up.

If your Cell Booster issue ONLY happens when WiFi-C is enabled on one of your phones then it almost has to be a setting or priority status in the gateway somewhere. Try the port forwarding method. If it works, then enable WiFi-C on the other phone and see what happens.

If your router settings under the firewall/WAN menus has a tick box to "Disable SIP/ALG"? Turn on that feature to *Disable* SIP/ALG forwarding. I recently replaced a home router due to old age. A shiny new Nighthawk Netgear AX series "Imperial Shuttle" looking slick black brick of plastic. The AT&T "Cell Booster" would not fully boot until toggling off SIP/ALG with a coexisting Ooma Telo-2 and Android Ooma app running on devices simultaneously operating on network.

Everything now simply works rather fabulously including number sync on tablet. Zero defects.

@wolfox  The possible SIP/ALG "interference" is covered in my Cell Booster Tech Guide. Even tho the CB does not use SIP/ALG, depending on how the device mfr implements it, it can affect the CB in some cases.