LTE6 and EE having issues? Anyone else, no LTE for 3 days now and no one can seem to solve it.

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hi… firstly, I am so out of my comfort zone with this. We had the hardware installed 3 years ago, and paid a fortune for over a year for Internet. We soon realised we could just buy an EE sim and get the same Internet connection for a third of the price boom.

It has been working PERFECTLY A FOR A YEAR and then at 1am on Wednesday this week. na-da.

Sim works fine in phone
Router (TP LINK) and AERIAL/MODEM (R11e-lte6) taking to each other all fine.
No Internet signal being received. No “ISP” connection at all.
EE have said there isn’t anything wrong with they mast.
Tried every kind of reset,reboot,resetting configuration through webfig you can think of.
I’ve trawled through these help pages (which have been great) and made sure we’re set up with right bands, APN profile etc.

We sound to an engineer who said we weren’t the only ones saying this, and that he wonders if EE have changed the configuration of their Masts which now makes them not compatible with the older models of aerial/ MODEM.

Does anyone have any insight here? We’re in a rural location with no 3g so can’t ebbed send messages, make calls, turn alexa lights on etc. With 2 small kids the lack of iplayer and Disney+ is seriously driving me loopy.

I’m desperate. Thanks so much.

2

Could it be the same (or similar) issue as this:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/hardware-failure-sxt-r11e-lte/171707/1
https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Network-discussions/Problem-with-MikroTik-router-intermittent-4G-connecting-as-3G/td-p/1336175
(hopefully solved with upgrading the firmware)
That one was in December 2023, maybe EE is making these changes (whatever they are) sequentially area by area?

3

I doubt it’s IPv6 only, but suspect that’s related. One thing to try is change the “IP Type” in the APN profile (under Interface > LTE APNs > default) from “auto” to “IPv4”.

Quick google suggest more may need in the APN for EE (https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Data/EE-APN-Settings-Where-to-find-them/td-p/1145404):

So if those are right, then in same APN profile, you may need to:

  • set APN “everywhere”
  • uncheck “use network APN”
  • set authentication to “PAP”* in dropdown
  • set username password to:
    Username: eesecure
    Password: secure
  • (*it may be CHAP, dunno, so if does not come up, then try CHAP)

If those don’t work, you may want to ask the EE for the “APN” needed information for your SIM.

Modern smartphone lookup/store all these kinda of things for all/most carriers, so they work without configuring the SIM card. On a router, you need to provide the correct APN for the SIM card – although there is some automatic stuff, it’s up to the carrier to support network provisioning. Or need to set it by hand using APN profile as above.

Also, another older thread here suggest same APN above: http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/sxt-lte-cme-error-100-using-ee/132793/3 :

It seems EE is alone in requiring an APN setup - I used the following (think its just username and password needed which I put in as CHAPS):

4

Thanks all! Looks like the firmware update did it.
Had to download local file and upload to mikrotik files.
And then got LTE SIGNAL BACK! Thank the lord!!!

5

Yeah there have been a few different things that have come up with EE from reading the forum.

Curious if you need to do anything with APN, or was the default with “Use Network APN” checked enough for it to work (along with the modem firmware upgrade)?

Might be helpful to others in future with EE.

6

I think that I have the same problem. What file did you download to fix it?

7

There is not “One file for all” the firmware update you can try depends on your specific device model and on the LTE modem it has.

8

In general, you should be able to upgrade the firmware using LTE interface. There was some pre-release firmware for one of the modems, but I’d imagine it’s been integrated into the stable build by now.

While depending on modem… you’ll likely better of making sure both RouterOS (/system/package) and firmware (/system/routerboard) are at stable and matching too… then check on the LTE interface using the “Check Firmware” button after upgrading the OS/firmware.