Nighthawk M2 - Firmware Update Stuck

[naro]

Hi,

I've currently on firmware: NTGX24_10.17.08.00 with modem SDX24_10.25.00.06.

Whenever I try to update the firmware via the physical device's GUI or via the webapp, it just hangs forever.  There appears to be no way of manually uploading firmware and I can't see if I'm on the latest firmware version.

Can you help?

Thanks.

[Jake74]

1. the router continually drops connection to EE mobile network. It worked when I first purchased it but now it hardly ever connects. 

2. There are no firmwear updates in the download centre? 

3. I am about to throw my Nighthawk in the trash and buy a Huawei. 

I will appreciate any help or guidance I can get.

Thank you in advance.

[JohnPeng]

---

@naro wrote:

Hi,

I've currently on firmware: NTGX24_10.17.08.00 with modem SDX24_10.25.00.06.

Whenever I try to update the firmware via the physical device's GUI or via the webapp, it just hangs forever.  There appears to be no way of manually uploading firmware and I can't see if I'm on the latest firmware version.

Can you help?

Thanks.

---

Just checked. Your device is already on the latest release.

Thanks

John

[Jake74]

If my modem is already on the latest firmware release, why can't I connect to the EE mobile network in the UK? 

My EE sim card has perfect reception when in my mobile phone but it won't connect when it is in the MR2100 router?

thanks 

[JohnPeng]

---

@Jake74 wrote:

If my modem is already on the latest firmware release, why can't I connect to the EE mobile network in the UK? 

My EE sim card has perfect reception when in my mobile phone but it won't connect when it is in the MR2100 router?

thanks 

---

UNfortunately, EE MR2100 is a carrier SKU. We can't push out the new update without EE approval. 

Thanks

John

[Jake74]

Thanks for responding John. 

I have have now tried a Three 3 SIM card and the router will still not connect to the Three 3 network.

What network in the UK do you suggest I try. The router was working with EE and I entered into a contract with E on that basis. Besides, EE and Three,  can you suggest another network in the UK?

Thanks in advance.

[AyeAyeAye]

EE firmware is crippled.

Every other network is slowed down in my EE M2.

Same as all EE MiFi units regardless of manufacturer. The Alcatel EE120 MiFI firmware is the same, I can’t get more than 45Mbps on any EE firmware device on any network. Mobiles & non EE devices with Mimo 4x4 all get 100 megs here on o2 & Vodafone, Three 50-60Mbps. EE also hands me off to (slow) Band 20 800MHz (under <10Mbps on Mimo) & I need to lock bands to stay on high speed Band 7 2600MHz for 30Mbps.

All 4 networks have the same base station - a ex industrial chimney less than 200m away.

Honestly avoid EE hardware its all speeds capped/restricted at firmware and then base station transmitter, the network isn’t that busy 24/7 on Band 7 it hands me to Band 20.

Would be great if anyone on these support forums with coding experience could check the EE firmware & compare with N generic. Something is really holding back the device in EE firmware as well as just lesser Band support, it’s crippled beyond reason.

What a waste of £150 & hardware, it’s appalling what Britosh Telecom do to their firmware, advertising CAT X upto XXXMbps products with more interferEncE than a analogue transistor radio.

EE120 is a Alcatel CAT 12 600Mbps device, I can’t get over 50Mbps anywhere on it or M2 in any network in the city, all networks have Mimo 4x4 active.

Netgear has took a decision to allow EE to damage their mobile hotspot N Nighthawk brand. I won’t be buying another, infact I bought a Moto G50 5G for £145 for use solely as a Hotspot device, 100Mbps 4G on Mimo 4x4 no problem 200-300Mbps 5G on Voda/o2.

How many more people won’t buy Netgear devices again due to poor EE firmware performance. Many.

[Jake74]

Thank you AyeAyeAye

I purchased the NightHawk and a contract with EE thanks to a vanlife/motorhome vlogger who could say enough good things about the Night Hawk & he "guaranteed EE provided the best coverage in the UK". It looks like it was a load of crock. 

I purchased the above and a Pointing antenna for the motorhome. 

As mentioned in my previous post, the Night Hawk Mr2100 won't connect at all to Three or EE!

At least you have been able to connect to networks?

It looks like I will have to accept I have wasted a lot of money with the Night Hawk router and EE.

Cheers

[AyeAyeAye]

EE selling point is it has the best U.K. network, B20 coverage is not the best speed network. Neither is it’s new 5G 700MHz band if it duals that to 4G also.

There is a reason EE don’t show 4G+ (aggregation) on your phone, they don’t want to you know when you are using their crappy slow band 20 frequency that covers a lot of the U.K.

EE Netgear M2 is 5 Carrier Aggregate possible, their fast 1800/2600MHz do not Carrier Aggregate.

Things are going to get worse if EE rollout also 700MHz on 4G for M2 users.


What Three APN are you using?

By the way if you are plugged in with no M2 battery and change sims you have to reboot M2 or you’ll get that ‘searching‘ error with any SIM card, M2 needs a reboot when changing sims, another crap part of the M2 firmware, that may only be the EE firmware? It’s more FxckwarE than firmwarE at British Telecom.

I’m thinking if you have hard wired the M2 in with antenna & mains etc in your motorhome you may not know to reboot between sim swaps on the EE firmware (?) with the battery removed for sim swap.

Try reboot after the 3sim is in, APN is best used as: 3internet

not: three.co.uk
as 3 sims default too.

Try both them, I’ll help where I can but I can’t help with that nonsense EE firmware, they should defo rebrand back to Britannia Telecom, that company is as broke as the Empire was 59 years ago when the UN decolonised the world 😉

[AyeAyeAye]

Trying to post recommendations for alternative networks as asked but Posts keep being deleted??

[JohnPeng]

---

@AyeAyeAye wrote:
EE selling point is it has the best U.K. network, B20 coverage is not the best speed network. Neither is it’s new 5G 700MHz band if it duals that to 4G also.

There is a reason EE don’t show 4G+ (aggregation) on your phone, they don’t want to you know when you are using their crappy slow band 20 frequency that covers a lot of the U.K.

EE Netgear M2 is 5 Carrier Aggregate possible, their fast 1800/2600MHz do not Carrier Aggregate.

Things are going to get worse if EE rollout also 700MHz on 4G for M2 users.


What Three APN are you using?

By the way if you are plugged in with no M2 battery and change sims you have to reboot M2 or you’ll get that ‘searching‘ error with any SIM card, M2 needs a reboot when changing sims, another crap part of the M2 firmware, that may only be the EE firmware? It’s more FxckwarE than firmwarE at British Telecom.

I’m thinking if you have hard wired the M2 in with antenna & mains etc in your motorhome you may not know to reboot between sim swaps on the EE firmware (?) with the battery removed for sim swap.

Try reboot after the 3sim is in, APN is best used as: 3internet

not: three.co.uk
as 3 sims default too.

Try both them, I’ll help where I can but I can’t help with that nonsense EE firmware, they should defo rebrand back to Britannia Telecom, that company is as broke as the Empire was 59 years ago when the UN decolonised the world 😉

---

Thanks for your help to post the suggestions. 

Yes. All Netgear Mobile Hotspots don't support SIM hotswap. Please power cycle after changeing the SIM card.

If connection can be set up with a SIM card, please check the APN setting.

Please help to capture a model.json file when using EE and 3 SIM cards. You can send the private message to me to check the logs

- Logon to the webui (http://192.168.1.1 ) as an administrator
- Navigate to URL http://192.168.1.1/model.json via the same browser window
- Capture the results (by selecting all + copy) and send it back

Thanks

John

[AyeAyeAye]

I Just re-read that @Jake74 & I would disconnect the antenna first (that maybe the issue?) and try get the EE/Three sim working. If it doesn’t work do a reset (have your sim unlock
code handy incase it relocks), see if that works, if not then attach antenna and reboot.

Three/EE share most base stations (I don’t know if you have a signal?)

Lycamobile use o2 and £19 unlimited data/mins/texts is available on 30 day prepaid terms. 100Mbps speed cap but plenty enough.

Any questions ask away Jake 😉

[AyeAyeAye]

@JohnPeng

Can you have a look at mine too if I send them ?

Moto G50 4G/LTE mode:

https://www.speedtest.net/result/a/7628288613.png




M2 5Ghz Wi-fi a metre away from G50

https://www.speedtest.net/result/a/7628334863.png

M2 5Ghz Wi-fi a metre away iPhone 7

https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/4719668825.png


M2 at £500 should be smashing a £150 mobile phone performance.

[JohnPeng]

@AyeAyeAye Definitely, please send your model.json to me using private message. I will take a look.

Thanks

John

---

@AyeAyeAye wrote:
@JohnPeng

Can you have a look at mine too if I send them ?

Moto G50 4G/LTE mode:

https://www.speedtest.net/result/a/7628288613.png




M2 5Ghz Wi-fi a metre away from G50

https://www.speedtest.net/result/a/7628334863.png

M2 5Ghz Wi-fi a metre away iPhone 7

https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/4719668825.png


M2 at £500 should be smashing a £150 mobile phone performance.

---

[JohnPeng]

@AyeAyeAye To compare with your phone, please use the USB cable to connect M2 to your computer and run the same throughput testing on your computer. This will show the TP that M2 can achieved. When you tested on a phone using WiFi, there will be impact on the TP the device is capable to do.

Thanks

John

[AyeAyeAye]

Yeah sorry maybe should have posted that as comparison. It’s marginally better. Same on all the other three main networks, Voda, Three & o2. EE is the worst M2 performer by far. As I said all other non EE supplied devices I have all get circa 100Mbps city wide except M2 & the EE rebranded Alcatel
EE120, HUAWEI B612/B818 - even 4G/LTE only selected Xiaomi Mix 3 5G, Realme 8 5G, Moto G50 5G..

https://www.speedtest.net/result/11884941836.png


Will post later to private message ASAP, it’s dinner time so I’m a little bit busy chef’ing.


Thanks @JohnPeng

[JohnPeng]

Thanks for the information. Please provide the model.json file to check. I suspected that EE M2 doesn't support some CA combos used in the other networks. That is why you saw lower TP with EE M2. If you can provide the band supports on other networks, that would be easier for me to confirm this.

Thanks

John

[AyeAyeAye]

Yeah that’s what I’m suspecting, EE changing firmware where it’s is always going to perform better on EE even unlocked (that’s if EE actually wasn’t the slowest network here in a city even with the highest 4G LTE 2600MHz broadcasting 200 metres away ).

Now I expect that kind of firmware with a EE rebranded OEM hardware like their EE rebrand Alcatel & HUAWEI products but not with a Netgear branded product or any other EE product being sold as the manufacturer. I bought a Netgear and got a dud EE less functioning product in a Netgear shell.

U.K. Frequencies:
https://www.4g.co.uk/4g-frequencies-uk-need-know/

As I said even on EE the M2 wants to default to slower bands when it should have 5CA available on EE bands. This happens anywhere, I’ve never even seen 70Mbps anywhere on M2 on EE using a phone sim (legal in U.K.), or top ££ business mobile broadband plan, the M2 just doesn’t perform anywhere near expectation let alone its technical capabilities.

(EEs copper broadband is even worse lol)

Netgear need to really nEtgEar mark it’s EE products as a variant with limited functionality as EE sell it based on Netgear there is not even a mention it is a EE variant, firmware on their website or even on the M2 box, even a original Netgear Security sticker so consumers are being duped into buying a Netgear product that is everything Netgear but the firmware.

[AyeAyeAye]

Hey @JohnPeng

I’ve sent PM as requested.

Would be good to know what’s going on especially with CA with EE firmware.

Currently using Lyca a o2 reseller

LTE bands 20, 1, 3, 8, 40

Moving to Vodafone reseller as they have 5G available (via a dedicated mobile hotspot) obviously I want to keep my M2 as back up and hope it works better on Voda frequency bands.

Voda LTE bands 7, 20, 1, 3, 8, 32, 38

1,7,8 should go well but as you said perhaps EE has been a bit too shyster about CA limitations to Netgear M2 programming for a bulk sale.

Certainly o2 is good, but it defo could be better, EE is the slowest of all the networks which makes absolute no sense for EE firmware and as I mentioned it seems to LOVE Band 20 on any EE firmware but M2 doesn’t support it (well so say EE via https://www.netgear.com/uk/home/mobile/m2/ link on their support forums).

Certainly with B3 1800 B1 2100 B7/38 2600 CA EE should be really fast here in a city not 25-30Mbps.

Here’s hoping the Vodafone reseller works out better than o2, it can’t be any worse than EE !

[AyeAyeAye]

Ordered (Vodafone UK reseller) Lebara unlimited min/txt/data sim, should perform well in the M2 given B1 2100 & B7 2600 support. Should being the operative word haha!.

£25 30 days prepaid, currently promo codes floating about the internet for 50% off for three months 😄 £12.50 and hopefully better than o2/Lycamobile, still won’t hold my breath given EE M2 firmware seems nasty and self obsessed even unlocked.

Will pop back with LTE mobiles versus M2 speedies results when the Lebara sim arrives 😉

[Jake74]

I hope it works AyeAyeAye

John asked him to send him a private message with the model.Jason details of my M2 router. Hopefully he will revert back to me. 

in the meantime, connection to either the 3 or EE networks is either non-existent or very patchy. It keeps dropping connection. 

I have rebooted the router a number of times and I have done factory resets, 

I am not a techno wizard and we don't require a very fast connection but it will be nice to have at least some form of connection!

Cheers

[AyeAyeAye]

Well we will see!

I’ve done the same, see what
says, EE firmware seems to make the Netgear M2 not fit for purpose, duped into buying a lessor performance than a actual M2!??.


Sounds like you are in a Thr/EE www.MBNL.co.uk deadspot with M2 firmware, what phones/networks do you use ?

Whatever EE done to the firmware doesn’t help, defo try a Vodafone provider as it has the best band support on EEs M2 firmware variant.

Aye it’s very frustrating , every network on mine performs terrible versus a 4G mobile with 4x4 mimo carrier aggregation, on EE it’s meant to 5CA in all its bands but wherever I go it’s the worst performing in the EE M2.

[Jake74]

Nope, we aren't in a MBNL dead spot. We are currently in Buckinghamshire and reception isn't too bad. 

We travel around a lot in our motorhome and we have experienced the same problems in a number of locations. The connection drops and then it is difficult to recover. 

[AyeAyeAye]

@Jake74 sounds exactly the same as me, dodgy EE firmware.

EE is better in a mobile than EEs M2, all networks perform better than EE in M2 but still terrible versus mobile phones. The firmware definitely needs sorted, if Netgear are going to allow their brand name on a device then they have to ensure performance is near the other M2 firmwares, or rebrand them as EE device with no Netgear logo as this is pulling themselves into legal territory - the device should perform as all the main M2 Netgear webpages state, as you & I know it’s nothing even remotely like it, it’s a M2 that’s DOA.