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Nighthawk M6 Pro MR6500 Dropping internet
My Nighthawk M6 Pro MR6500 keeps disconnecting from the internet. It will show it has a signal on the device itself but my computer will have no connection. I only use the ethernet port, I don't use ...
Proprietary charger? If you consider Qualcomms QR charger systems as proprietary: Yes, they all are, indeed.
Netgear does nowhere specify 9V/1.8A in any MR6550 documentation - that's your own or based on some wild Internet ideas. The point? Netgear have missed to provide exact specs of the power supply for many of these devices, stating the device requires a Quick Charge 2.0 (or higher), clearly do us all a great disservice.
Any QC 2.0 compliant power supply (adapter, converter, whatever) does provide the correct voltage and power - the user does not have to worry about. And no, without a device connected, doing the handshake between the power supply and the operating/charging device, only an USB standard default voltage might be available.
This is similar to IEEE PoE 802.3af, 802.3at, and 802.3bt Ethernet. With the difference that a a PoE PS does not apply power to the wires without any request from the powered device (PD) and successful negotiation - there is no risk killing Ethernet devices not designed for PoE (the most fear users coming to the community and asking for). Users don't need to know about the voltage and the power here either! However, systems listing voltages in some specs should be looked for carefully - these are typically proprietary, dumb, passive power devices.
Said this: I'm convinced also in the US one can find QC 2.0 or higher power adapters.
The standard? Yes, there is one in the USB standards! It's called USB Power Delivery (PD), and allows complaint devices to get up to 100W of power and more. 28V, 36V, and 48V fixed voltages - enabling 140W, 180W and 240W power to the powered device. The free USB-C cable might or might not be sufficient for carrying 5 Amps - for these purposes look for purpose built USB-C PD cables for 100 or for 240 Watts.
I won't talk on the sense (and nonsense) your favorite mobile provider does over there in the US - from what we see with customers (I don't talk of Netgear!) overseas it's just a mess, and Netgear suffers as much as other vendors, too. Yes you can upgrade and downgrade plans (in the sense of bandwidth available) on the fly, but you can't randomly change SLA, contract types, and more .... JohnPeng knows exactly what I'm talking about ... so you do good and listen to what he is posting to the community. Yes, he mentioned of QC 2.0 earlier, too.
QC, PD, PoE are newer technology for many, a new world - difficult to understand that just voltage and amps alone are the right answer.
Regards,
-Kurt.
> Netgear does nowhere specify 9V/1.8A in any MR6550 documentation
It's the output voltage listed on the AC adapter that ships with the device. However, you're correct that the adapter is a QuickCharge one. I missed that logo when I was looking at it yesterday. My apologies.
Anyway, I did some more testing overnight and today at home with different cables and chargers and have been unable to replicate yesterday's signal drops. For now, it seems the solution is to change the plan as JohnPeng suggested and then wait a few hours for the change to propagate. I've even rebooted it since and it connected to the internet immediately upon picking up signal.
I also picked up an Inseego MiFi 5G X PRO today direct from Verizon for comparison. So far the Inseego is much easier to setup and doesn't need a reboot for stuff like changing the Ethernet port status, but the MR6550 has 3 dB better SINR at the same location (~2x better) and of course has the antenna capability.
I'll test both at the problematic location from earlier in the thread next week (hopefully Monday).
The MR6550 lasted an entire weekend at home in my basement without any connection drops. Testing some more in the remote location this week. So far, the MR6550 is able to maintain an internet connection for longer, but still drops eventually. The Inseego MiFi X Pro 5G's connection is both faster and has fewer drops. I'd run a speedtest on both, but I had difficulty loading an entire page on the MR6550.
I'm actually posting this message from the Inseego connection.
I ordered a Proxicast antenna for the MR6550 over the weekend; it should be delivered tomorrow. I'll see how it performs later this week.
Left the MR6550 at home today as the antenna hadn't been delivered yet and the Inseego MiFi X PRO works better in the remote location.The Inseego was trouble-free today.
Firmware update to NTGX65_12.01.54.00 within the past hour. Gonna factory reset as typically advised - ironic, since the firmware update wipes some of the UI customizations anyway - and see how it goes. Might not be able to visit remote location again until next Monday, so further testing in that environment may be delayed.
Wound up going to the remote location today after all and it was bad news for the MR6550. Network Map was fine when I got there but then dropped to ❌ as before. Even a reboot failed to fix the problem. About to try the Proxicast antenna, though I'm not sure how that might help the fact that the MR6550 can't connect to the internet in the same conditions and same location as the Inseego MiFi X PRO. The antenna is already here though, so might as well try.
Update: Antenna test is a bust. Can't get the TS9 connectors on the antenna to mate with the ones on the MR6550.
So yeah I'm out of ideas at this point. Gonna set up an RMA for MR6550 shortly.