Problems With New Telo 4G Adapter

[twofingerrightclick]

Made it through 2 days now with no issues with NetStick Install

I hope your parts arrive timely.

[8459130052]

The Plugable active power cable arrived yesterday. Now I get a steady green light on the Netstick. The Telo still doesn't like this setup... funny thing, I had the 90 degree on for two days running without a hiccup. Go figure...

I am moving today so my setup will be pinging a different tower soon... let's see how that plays out.

EDIT: Left the Telo off overnight with the Netstick on the powered cable... just booted it now it's working!!!

[52JPrivate]

I noticed for that for the first time since the Netstick has been installed, the Ooma app now shows the signal strength for the new device (under "4G Adapter Status.") This just started showing up in the past two days -- before that it wouldn't show anything except that the "current connection" was "adapter." Under the "Signal Strength Journal," the first entry with a valid status was yesterday. Before that, going back to right after the last time the old Sprint adapter was removed, the entries are all "Poor" for the status.

For those of you who are more tech-savvy: What do the "db" levels indicate? The most recent entries (with the "Good" status) are 101-104db. The prior "Poor" entries are all 130db. And the last Sprint adapter reading ("Fair") was 108db.

[DisasterRecovery]

@52JPrivate

signals can range anywhere usually from (-120) to (-60) when measured coming from the towers to the devices/phones. -118 to -120 is where most signals drop out and anything over -120 is considered poor to non existent.

These readings are usually represented as negative numbers -- so the closer to "0" -- the better the signal.

As you stated your readings of 101-104 indicated a better "status" than those reporting 130 and being poor. Surprised it was actually connecting any at all with signals that weak at -130. lol

@8459130052 Your EDIT gives me hope -- still waiting on the delivery -- Amazon seems to deliver late here on East Coast. How are you powering the cable? Do you have it split and running off the battery like the Telo?

Initially -- I am going to power mine separately (no back-up power) -- but I hope I can use a splitter on the battery and have the "back-up" ability -- if the Net-stick they sent my mom becomes happy like yours -- I will be one step closer.

Thanks for the updates!

[DisasterRecovery]

Possible Success!?!?! Take 1...

My cable arrived so I went and picked it up and could not wait to see if it solves any problems or creates a new one. lol

I goofed and had the power to the USB already plugged in separate before the Telo was plugged back in -- but noticed immediately the net-stick was acting different -- it powered right up and locked on a signal before I ever powered up the Telo.

As pictured, it actually would not play nice and set in the window from the weight of this nice USB cable that arrived.

Not sure if you can see the solid green light, but I noticed while trying to get it to play nice and set in the window -- that it never give any signs of "disconnect". It actually acted like a totally different net-stick. I had it in every direction possible and it stayed solid green no matter.

So I decided to leave it on the table by the Telo for giggles -- and stability -- for testing.

Also for giggles -- I left it in the base -- as I am not certain it is actually bad -- more on that in Take 2...

I rang the line, didn't pick up, my mom rang it from her cell -- we just did not try to have a conversation -- ugh...

-Net-stick is solid Green -- powered separately buy active usb cable...
-Telo is solid blue and happy -- phone is ringing at least -- powered from Telo battery back-up...

Of course we decided to leave it at that to test it out and did not get very far.

I tried calling after I got home and we were not even in conversation 1-2 minutes and she went silent...

After a few calls back and forth, I had to go back and see why it appeared as if something was interfering with the Internet connection -- as repeated calls back and forth yielded drop-outs with my cell phone never dropping the call until I hung up the calls myself.

[DisasterRecovery]

Possible Success!?!?! Take 2...

Ditched the base for now -- Do not think it is a problem -- I think this solid green light I keep seeing on the Net-stick is a lie...

Velcroed to the inside of the window frame -- to test my theory -- but did not want to go all out and mount the base and all right away in the window. I stuck it to the back of that USB cable and Net-stick -- they are fully connected even though they do not look like it.

I am suspecting a signal issue...

While I am at it -- I remember I had a mini hub and go ahead a tidy up the wires and now have both the Net-stick and Telo powered from the battery at the same time. I will re-claim this and order a Y-adapter if all continues to work.

After getting the Telo to have a call longer than a minute and no burps -- I have left it at this.

After getting back home and writing this up -- I have loaded an Ooma app on the phone that gives me the signal info and as suspected -- that green light -- IS A LIE !!! I have it mounted in the window as pictured -- it says fair signal?

When I left it on the table by the Telo previously -- it must not have had a good signal -- since this is all I am getting from the window is "fair" at -111 to -112. This would include the very first day I plugged this thing into the Telo itself.

I will now use the app to read the levels and hopefully get a little better signal. It is useable but kind of a noticeable different than the old antenna -- as for sound quality -- right off the bat.

I will also use the base to mount it where the Net-stick itself is not touching anything -- sometimes this can reflect the signals in a bad way. I do not think the base is a problem -- but we'll find out.

I seriously think it is a signal issue for many. I have 16 feet of cable to place it where needed -- not constrained to the 29.5 inches provided or crammed up it's backside backwards with an elbow adapter... as originally concepted. Clearly each time the Telo was unhappy or as described in starting to drop calls tonight -- this light on the Net-stick was solid green each time -- but there is no way I believe that now that I've seen the readings. I'll just know to trust the app now instead of a green light.


I will update to let you know if it makes it 24, 48, 72+ hours but I think this keeps this version of Telo 4G alive to see a few more years.

[DisasterRecovery]

FCC complaint has been filed in my case. Would suggest others having problems to do the same.

Sometime overnight the Telo again decided it was not connected. It has since connected and reconnected multiple times like something is interfering with the Internet connection.

Problem is now I have the app -- I see the LTE device is not the problem -- but it is. The signals are poorer compared to the Sprint signals -- HOWEVER -- They are reporting in the app as FAIR and gotten a little better since last night. from -111 last night to -107 in the last hour.

So -- there should be no service dropouts -- its a "FAIR" signal.

The Net-stick keeps showing a green light as if it is getting a perfect signal though -- so that's a problem in itself.

The looping I described the other day -- must have been because the signal was too weak -- as I tried to leave the net-stick by the Telo and noted the same behavior last night when we connected it and thought it was good -- and it was not. The green light says it is good -- when it is not. Thankfully the app gives me this insight now to know otherwise.

In dealing with phone company issues for going on 4 years now -- with various providers of mine or my family members -- I have had to file complaints in the past for proper resolution of the problems. Before 2018 -- I never had to reach out to a government agency for assistance -- for anything. Since 2018 -- it seems the companies do not mind their customers being out of services they pay for -- and they make it very hard to deal with them directly on the matters.

I learned last year -- the way to make sure these people know you are upset with their performance -- file the FCC complaint on a Friday afternoon. Most people are skipping out on Fridays or not doing much of their jobs -- if they are even at work. It will be Monday before I hear anything (if past complaints serve a good template of how this will play out.) They have to resolve these complaints as quickly as possible -- for brownie points -- with the FCC.

Other thing I reminded Mom -- she paid for extended warranty. What seems like is going to need to happen is they send new hardware -- but I will make sure this does not go against that warranty. The hardware has not failed -- it has been rendered useless by incompetence of people trying to make changes to the hardware due to T-mobile -- and their decision to keep selling this model -- until they have been caught with their pants down.

IMO they should have never sold the Telo 4G knowing Sprint had been purchased just months after this was launched at CES in Jan 2020. I was lied to in September 2021 -- asking if this device would continue working once T-mobile was done claiming all their assets -- I was told the device would keep working since it was "4G".

I will update and report what -- if anything -- they area able to do -- to resolve the mess they've created.

[Red-Five]

Like others, I received the 90-degree USB adapters from Amazon and had no clue what they were for. Thank you to everyone here who helped fill in the details on what was going on. Especially since I had no clue that I was supposed to take the antenna off the base and plug it directly into this adapter.

For me, once I plugged it in today, the Ooma started flashing purple, which is supposed to mean that it's downloading a software update. After it was finished, I tried making a call and it seems to be working. Hopefully, it was just a matter of the Ooma engineers getting their firmware updated properly and now everyone just needs to download it.

Only minor issue is that when I use the Ooma app and enter the new IMEI number to recognize the new adapter, it then takes me to the plan options, and when I go ahead and select the plan option, it just throws up an error. So the antenna functionally works, but I can't utilize the app to check signal strength and whatnot.

[8459130052]

I've moved to my new home. Netstick boots into blue and occasionally switches back and forth to green with no device connected, only the power adapter on the female side of the USB cable..

As soon as I connect it to my Telo it goes into the typical reboot cycle of death and will not hold a steady connection to it- perhaps the Netstick doesn't like the packets the Telo is sending or there's a buffer overflow issue causing the reboots.

I am ready to downgrade my service and forgo the 4G at this point- have internet being installed July 8 and will connect it to ethernet once more.

EDIT: It's online now, perhaps registering the handsets to it again helped the Telo exit its "funk".

[8473011623]

I could never get the new Netstick to work with two weeks of trying. The system would only stay active for just minutes before simply disconnecting and then go back to reboot (a long process). This was an endless loop.
I tried connecting the Netstick to my laptop. It worked well. Looking at the Netstick IP address and checking status, the Netstick stayed up continuously for 9 hours with good signal strength. I ended the test at that point and came to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with the Netstick adapter.
As a last resort after many attempts to get the Netstick to work with the Telo Base, I removed the T-Mobile SIM card from the Netstick and installed it in place of the Sprint SIM card in the old, original 4G adapter.
That was about 2 weeks ago, and the Ooma telephone has been working fine with the original adapter.
The Ooma app also works fine with this SIM card exchange. The app never worked with the Netstick.
ID's are those associated with the new SIM card.
So, if all else fails, and you feel you (or someone you know) has the skill to exchange the SIM cards, try it!!
Good Luck