Pepwave help!

[FigNewton]

Hello all, I need any assistance with setting up our Pepwave with new ATT simcard. Not real tech saving and this is kicking my but.

[kittmaster]

What do you mean by setup? Did the factory install it? Did you install it? What model is it?

Do you have access to the admin panel of the unit? Can you access the WiFi from the modem itself?

Please provide more info on what exactly you are trying to do, what works, what doesn't.

Welcome to the forums.

[FigNewton]

Thanks for the reply. Factory installed in our 2019 classic. Pepwave Max. No access to admin panel, it's just a small black box. I put a new AT&T sim card in for monthly Data service. It wont connect to data. I have a strong wifi signal, just no access to the internet. Spent 45 min with ATT and no help. ??

[kittmaster]

Knowing that, you need to verify that you have a "hotspot" plan as that is how the device is treated on their network and others. I use T-Mobile as a hotspot plan 100GB a month on 4G for $50. AT&T was our original carrier when all this mess started with AS Connected and us losing our unlimited plan from AT&T because of people who abused the system.

Your device will work...but HAS to be a 4G plan and NOT on a 5G plan.....and must be a HOTSPOT plan.

When I converted to T-Mobile, they put the device on a 5G plan and it worked for 5 days until the system realized the device was not 5G compatible and kicked it off the network...once it was on a 4G network plan.......we've used it all this year and works great.

AT&T was the original carrier, but it will work with Verizon and T-Mobile.....do not even think about Sprint even though they take new orders under the T-Mobile umbrella.

If your AT&T plan is a hotspot and valid and still can't get it to connect....then you will need to contact Cory Rex at Airstream and have him review your account and firmware settings as they have FULL ACCESS to your Peplink router admin panel via InControl.

EDIT: Also, the "strong" signal you are seeing is the Wi-Fi connection to the device, NOT the cellular signal to the towers, if memory serves, that can only be seen in the Admin panel....I don't use the app much, so they may or may not have changed that visibility to the cellular tower signal strength, unsure as of this writing.

That is some history and starting point for you to sort out what could be wrong.

[BGClassic]

Kittmaster,

Thanks for the post. Having similar issue here. New Classic 33, activated the ATT plan for the Smart Control Tech. Calls to Airstream and ATT. AT&T verified the IMEI and ICCID are valid, router's "cellular" LED is not lit. Checked Poynting antenna cables are correct, I can see the WiFi, not getting out to the tower. AT&T says they will give me a new SIM card if I go to the store.

AT&T tech support is outsourced, but they say the SIM should work in my router. They originally said it was for a tablet. Do I need to call them back and tell them it is for a hotspot?

[kittmaster]

Originally Posted by BGClassic

Kittmaster,

Thanks for the post. Having similar issue here. New Classic 33, activated the ATT plan for the Smart Control Tech. Calls to Airstream and ATT. AT&T verified the IMEI and ICCID are valid, router's "cellular" LED is not lit. Checked Poynting antenna cables are correct, I can see the WiFi, not getting out to the tower. AT&T says they will give me a new SIM card if I go to the store.

AT&T tech support is outsourced, but they say the SIM should work in my router. They originally said it was for a tablet. Do I need to call them back and tell them it is for a hotspot?

They used to call it "buy a session", here is the link to where we used to login and pay/extend the plan.

https://buyasession.att.com/sbd/ProcessLogin

That is what ATT plan we were using when we first got it as unlimited until they nixed it.

See if that helps.

[BGClassic]

Thanks, but no joy. It bugs me that the URL Airstream sends me to in order to get this Smart Control and AT&T rebate set up no longer exists, and AT&T has no clue of the Airstream Pepwave, and Airstream told me not to even mention this was in an Airstream. I may try to get a new SIM, but most likely will get a refund and go with a Verizon SIM.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

When I set up our Pepwave ( not a Max, but one of the 5G models ), pretty much nothing from any outfit worked. The drill was to call tech support and let them fiddle for a while. With T-Mobile, this worked ok on the first call and it only took about an hour. With AT&T, the first 4 hour call did not get the beast running. They claimed the router was defective and I should return it. After it was running with T-Mobile, Next day, I called AT&T back and they got it running in just under two hours.

None of this was unexpected (at least not by me). I set everything up in the family room and set aside a couple days to get it all running. I pretty much knew that no matter what I told the folks at the local stores (and what they told me), the SIM they gave me was unlikely to work right.

Bob

[BGClassic]

Thanks Bob. We foolishly thought, that for this much money, we would not have to deal with some of the issues. I plan to get a new SIM and go from there.

[kittmaster]

Originally Posted by BGClassic

Thanks Bob. We foolishly thought, that for this much money, we would not have to deal with some of the issues. I plan to get a new SIM and go from there.

It has been a bumpy road....for many of us...between the wifi/cellular disable from early on, signal drop out, loss of the unlimited plan scramble...

You're not alone...

When it works, it works good.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

The Pepwave is designed and marketed as a "Pro" device. If you look at their marketing ( and dive into the device ), it's set up for somebody to buy 300 of them and equip their fleet of busses. It very much is *not* designed for a quick and easy "end user" sort of deployment.

That said, swapping SIM's is often a mess, no matter what the device. Unless you are dealing with the "right guy" at the store, the outcome often is a return trip. That applies even on the latest and greatest iPhone purchased at that store .....

Crazy !!

Bob

[s1000pre]

Not sure what your dashboard looks like. Does this help? You might be able to cross reference settings.

[kittmaster]

Originally Posted by s1000pre

Not sure what your dashboard looks like. Does this help? You might be able to cross reference settings.

If airstream is in control, he won't have access to the admin panel of the router. And if he forces a factory restore, he just nuked his warranty with AS.

[BGClassic]

Stewart,

Kittmaster is correct, I do NOT have access to the admin panel. I'm trying to take advantage of the AT&T rebate for data, which of course I learned today that expired the day we picked up our Classic. I went to the AT&T store and got a new SIM, and same issue, not LED for cellular on the Pepwave. Called AS, tech said it may be for 5G, of course the card the SIM came on is labeled 5G, but I believe it's backward compatible, but what do I know. AS did tell me the last time the Pepwave communicated was on the day before we picked up the trailer.
I guess the partnership died that day too.

Next step will be to tell my salesman. Steve at AS gave me instructions on how to enable him to look into the router via my cell phone on WiFi. Will try that too.

I think the long term plan will be to slick the config and put SIMs in it so I can
stream. I don't want to monitor tanks from my phone.

[Ephraim]

Airstreams implementation of the smart features has been buggy from the start. Not to mention that Airstream techs are arrogant and bad mannered (looking at you , Cody). After much frustration, I booted Airstream from the router by resetting it to factory defaults and dealing with it myself. That is probably the best decision I ever made. Contrary to what people often say, the peplink router is not difficult to use/program and it just works. I’ve not had a single issue with Internet connectivity since I booted them out and it seamlessly integrated with Starlink. I have mine set to give highest priority to Starlink, then campground WiFi, then cellular. The peplink switches between those wan options with no further input from me and it just works.

If I don’t want campground WiFi, I just don’t connect it to the campground and the pep wave just sees it as a non working wan and ignores it. It will seamlessly fail over to the cellular connection. As soon as I connect the Starlink to the wan port, it immediately jumps to using it as soon as it establishes a good data lite link.

The only thing I lost from the system when I did that was the location services built into the app. If you still want location services, you just need to find a provider that runs a map service and the peplink can be set to send tracking data to it. I run my own server at home and it can be accessed with any web browser ( that has the login credentials). I don’t miss Aistreams techie people at all!

[kittmaster]

I will add, the PepLink from AS is 4G only. I can only speak for T-Mobile at this point but when I switched from ATT to Sprint to finally merging to T-Mobile, the BR1-Mini worked for 4 days and then suddenly stopped...…turns out I was on a 5G plan and the system eventually kicked the device for not being 5G compliant with the plan it was associated to.

They found the root cause and put me on a unadvertised grandfathered plan of 4G only with 100G for $50 a month with seasonal disconnect.

It has been working flawlessly since.....and I'm responding to this thread from the Airstream.

Not sure if that helps, but it may nudge the carrier to look beyond the scripted responses and troubleshooting methods.

T-Mobile has a specific department called "Specialized Tech Care" and THOSE are the people that understood what was really happening and deal with devices that are not phones and knew how to resolve an obtuse issue like this. I wrote down that departments name specifically so I'll always know WHO to ask for when/if I have troubles again.

Hope this helps.

[BGClassic]

Originally Posted by Ephraim

Airstreams implementation of the smart features has been buggy from the start. Not to mention that Airstream techs are arrogant and bad mannered (looking at you , Cody). After much frustration, I booted Airstream from the router by resetting it to factory defaults and dealing with it myself. That is probably the best decision I ever made. Contrary to what people often say, the peplink router is not difficult to use/program and it just works. I’ve not had a single issue with Internet connectivity since I booted them out and it seamlessly integrated with Starlink. I have mine set to give highest priority to Starlink, then campground WiFi, then cellular. The peplink switches between those wan options with no further input from me and it just works.

If I don’t want campground WiFi, I just don’t connect it to the campground and the pep wave just sees it as a non working wan and ignores it. It will seamlessly fail over to the cellular connection. As soon as I connect the Starlink to the wan port, it immediately jumps to using it as soon as it establishes a good data lite link.

The only thing I lost from the system when I did that was the location services built into the app. If you still want location services, you just need to find a provider that runs a map service and the peplink can be set to send tracking data to it. I run my own server at home and it can be accessed with any web browser ( that has the login credentials). I don’t miss Aistreams techie people at all!

Ephraim,

Interesting. I remember reading about the issues with the tech under the earlier name, figured it would work by now. I assume you do not have the Transit router? I have no set up to work with campground WiFi, but the Poynting has the antennas. I would love to see your setup, at least on paper.

Bill

[BGClassic]

Originally Posted by kittmaster

I will add, the PepLink from AS is 4G only. I can only speak for T-Mobile at this point but when I switched from ATT to Sprint to finally merging to T-Mobile, the BR1-Mini worked for 4 days and then suddenly stopped...…turns out I was on a 5G plan and the system eventually kicked the device for not being 5G compliant with the plan it was associated to.

They found the root cause and put me on a unadvertised grandfathered plan of 4G only with 100G for $50 a month with seasonal disconnect.

It has been working flawlessly since.....and I'm responding to this thread from the Airstream.

Not sure if that helps, but it may nudge the carrier to look beyond the scripted responses and troubleshooting methods.

T-Mobile has a specific department called "Specialized Tech Care" and THOSE are the people that understood what was really happening and deal with devices that are not phones and knew how to resolve an obtuse issue like this. I wrote down that departments name specifically so I'll always know WHO to ask for when/if I have troubles again.

Hope this helps.

I have no idea if the new SIM I just installed is 4G or 5G. I really think I have a bad router, or possibly a bad config (SIM "A"), since it worked the day we arrived for orientation and to pick up the Classic. I don't know enough yet. Thanks for the info on T-Mobile, though.

[Ephraim]

Originally Posted by BGClassic

Ephraim,

Interesting. I remember reading about the issues with the tech under the earlier name, figured it would work by now. I assume you do not have the Transit router? I have no set up to work with campground WiFi, but the Poynting has the antennas. I would love to see your setup, at least on paper.

Bill

My son is helping me produce a video of our Starlink install. It has several parts to it and part two deals with the hardware. That might make it in there. If not, I'll make another one dealing with it.

Airstream caught so much flack that they dropped the BR1 mini and moved to the transit. Probably jumped the gun on it though. Had they waited just a couple of months, they could have stayed with the mini which is much more affordable. their original design used the MAX BR1 mini (HW1) which was 2.4 GHz wifi only. that didn't bother us because I just turned their WiFi off and only use the radio for WiFi wan (Campground WiFi). I have my own local Wifi router (using Ubiquiti UniFi) which gives me complete control as well as video surveillance.

The new BR1 mini (HW3) has dual radios (2.4 & 5.8) as well as higher throughput (100Mb/s vs 300Mb/s) and is the router they should have used. The throughput isn't really that big of a deal as who really needs higher than 100Mb/s on Internet (Yeah, I know Starlink is supposed to be faster than that, but in practice, they mostly are not due to overselling the system). But the addition of the 5.8 radio is nice. I've been at several campgrounds that offer it and it will alsmot always be faster than the 2.4 due to customer loading.

Yes, Airstream tech department has issues. The manager thinks he knows everything but is really incompetent. IF (and that is a big IF) you get to talk to him, he will dismiss everything you say even if you are a Network engineer with 30 years experience and expertise in the systems that they are using. CZone is an awesome system, but their implementation leaves much to be desired.

[BGClassic]

Originally Posted by Ephraim

My son is helping me produce a video of our Starlink install. It has several parts to it and part two deals with the hardware. That might make it in there. If not, I'll make another one dealing with it.

Airstream caught so much flack that they dropped the BR1 mini and moved to the transit. Probably jumped the gun on it though. Had they waited just a couple of months, they could have stayed with the mini which is much more affordable. their original design used the MAX BR1 mini (HW1) which was 2.4 GHz wifi only. that didn't bother us because I just turned their WiFi off and only use the radio for WiFi wan (Campground WiFi). I have my own local Wifi router (using Ubiquiti UniFi) which gives me complete control as well as video surveillance.

The new BR1 mini (HW3) has dual radios (2.4 & 5.8) as well as higher throughput (100Mb/s vs 300Mb/s) and is the router they should have used. The throughput isn't really that big of a deal as who really needs higher than 100Mb/s on Internet (Yeah, I know Starlink is supposed to be faster than that, but in practice, they mostly are not due to overselling the system). But the addition of the 5.8 radio is nice. I've been at several campgrounds that offer it and it will alsmot always be faster than the 2.4 due to customer loading.

Yes, Airstream tech department has issues. The manager thinks he knows everything but is really incompetent. IF (and that is a big IF) you get to talk to him, he will dismiss everything you say even if you are a Network engineer with 30 years experience and expertise in the systems that they are using. CZone is an awesome system, but their implementation leaves much to be desired.

I'd love to see a good video of your setup. In our last RV, a Unity FX, we had the Winegard. It worked OK as a TV antenna, nothing more. It worked at one campground once for WiFi, and sometimes on other trips would not even come up. We did not get a cellular data plan for it. The Winegard seemed to have a problem with captive portals, and would drop the connection. The construction quality was iffy.

I need to get this sorted soon, as we have a trip to New England starting in mid-August, and would like to have a better system than the Jetpack.

100 Mb/s is enough for us, and we don't need Starlink, yet.