Bad CellID on Nighthawk M1

Question

Hi,&nbsp;&nbsp; New member here. I have an MR1100 NightHawk M1 mobile router with T-Mobile hotspot SIM. The location is on the edge of mobile service so I have external antennas connected to the router. The M1 can see 2+ bars of service, the problem is that it consistently locks on to a CellID which does not allow traffic to flow. I called t-mo tech support multiple times and they are not able to see the SIM or the CellID on their network. I've tried all the settings including enabling / disabling roaming, LTE vs WCDMA, APNs and static vs auto carrier, but nothing helped.&nbsp;I also have a LB1120 mobile router with a different SIM. LTE connects nearly instantly with 2 bars of service, but locks on to a different CellID.&nbsp;Question: Is there a way to block a tower in the configuration so that the MR1100 will move on to a different connection?

clocker · Answer

Little more information.After rebooting the router it connects to Cell ID 4294967295 and cycles through multiple LTE bands and carriers (MNC and MCC). Given enough time and circumstances (24-48 hours) the M1 will sometimes select an alternate tower Cell ID 5747971. At that point the dashboard page shows "Connected", but the status page does not show the carrier or service number.&nbsp;My LB1120 nearly instantly connects to Cell ID 5747971 with correct MNC and MCC for t-mo and allows IP network traffic to flow.&nbsp;&nbsp;

JSchnee21 · Answer

Sorry, no dice.&nbsp; You'll need something more flexable / configurable like a Mofi or similar.&nbsp;Alternatively, you could try a highly directional antenna w/wo an amplifier and point it at the tower you want to use.

JSchnee21 · Answer

The Mofi website seems a bit stale.&nbsp;Cradlepoint or SierraWireless are the next step up.&nbsp; But they are more expensivehttps://www.cdw.com/search/networking-products/wireless-networking/wireless-broadband-routers/?w=n25&amp;ln=0&amp;b=CRJ.SIW&amp;a1590=50001658&nbsp;SierraWireless is what they use in police cars and fire trucks for examplehttps://www.sierrawireless.com/products-and-solutions/routers-gateways/vehicle-networking/&nbsp;They have new LTE Advanced models and ones that even support FirstNet (as you would expect).&nbsp; But you'll need dedicated power and a proper antenna.&nbsp; But, for Rural home networking you'd probably have that already.

clocker · Answer

Thank you for all the great advice. Maybe Netgear can add this as a feature request. It seems that tower blocking would be a great expert feature to the products.&nbsp;Per your advice on more pro solutions I wonder if adding a cell booster with directional antenna(s) would not be an intermediate solution. That way I could get signal on my phone and on the cell router while still keeping the M1

Dwayne_11 · Answer

JSchnee21&nbsp;wrote:The Mofi website seems a bit stale.&nbsp;Cradlepoint or SierraWireless are the next step up.&nbsp; But they are more expensivehttps://www.cdw.com/search/networking-products/wireless-networking/wireless-broadband-routers/&nbsp;Krogerfeedback&nbsp;SierraWireless is what they use in police cars and fire trucks for examplehttps://www.sierrawireless.com/products-and-solutions/routers-gateways/vehicle-networking/&nbsp;They have new LTE Advanced models and ones that even support FirstNet (as you would expect).&nbsp; But you'll need dedicated power and a proper antenna.&nbsp; But, for Rural home networking you'd probably have that already.Great post. It was much needed. Love your simplistic style of explanation. :)

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Bad CellID on Nighthawk M1

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