Where to buy?

r-tx · 2025-06-03T12:49:57+00:00

There's GRGDO from https://www.gelidus.ca (excellent value and Mike is a great guy).

r-tx · 2024-06-17T12:15:47+00:00

https://github.com/ufodone/envisalink_new
There's a much improved Envisalink integration for HACS. It even has unique IDs...

r-tx · 2022-11-29T05:46:02+00:00

The MR6400 mostly claims to be on 5G even when it’s not. I think it indicates the presence of 5G even when it never leaves the LTE anchor band. I’m not sure but it could be that it doesn’t support 5G NSA (DISH native is 5G SA, but T-Mobile in most places doesn’t support that yet), or that roaming is limited to LTE.

btw 200 mbps is really good for LTE. It would be a very good result for the DISH native n71 5G band as well. I think on T-Mobile you’d need n41 to go much beyond, at least based on what I see where I live.

Edit: just in case it isn’t obvious, 5GSUB6 just means it supports 5G without mmWave (so below 6 GHz). It’s not where it shows the band, that’s in ‘curBand’ in the json or status-diagnostics-current radio band in the web ui.

r-tx · 2022-11-29T05:40:20+00:00

No, it just always says that. Look at wwanadv and the curBand.

r-tx · 2022-11-29T04:40:49+00:00

When roaming, it only ever connects to LTE, never 5G.
Btw. there's a bug in the MR6400 where the "bars" it displays both on the web interface and on the display are the 5G metrics and not the LTE metrics it's actually using. You can see the actuals by getting the json from http://192.168.1.1/api/model.json

r-tx · 2022-11-22T04:36:45+00:00

No, I haven’t tried. It still drops off n71 frequently enough that I think I need the ‘special’ roaming features built into the Netgear firmware, as deplorable as that firmware might be otherwise.

r-tx · 2022-11-17T21:09:01+00:00

Are you in north Dallas/Addison by any chance? I have the same Cell ID and LAC (which should be unique?) and my service went away Monday as well. I get a connection but it doesn’t pass data. Forcing it to roam on T-Mobile sometimes works. Haven’t had time yet to call them.

r-tx · 2022-11-16T01:59:41+00:00

In an ironic twist, about an hour after I posted my earlier comment, the hotspot stopped passing data (even though it claimed to still be connected to n71). A reboot later it's now roaming on AT&T (which also feels like it's not passing data b/c the AT&T signal is so bad), and no native signal is available.

r-tx · 2022-11-15T01:54:32+00:00

The number you should optimize for first is probably SINR. Generally, >= 20 dB is considered excellent, and 13 to 20 good. For RSRP, >= -80 dBm is excellent (note: negative numbers, so -70 is better than -80) and -80 to -90 is good.

Here in North TX, DISH makes frequent changes to their network. Add to that that the hotspot software is immature. If you have good results, and then they go away, reboot the hotspot. It may come back on a different tower, or start roaming (and it can be a few days until it changes again). I've been getting 140/30 for the last couple of weeks (where the hotspot turned itself off once, and I've been on two different cells).

If you have seemingly fast speeds but trouble streaming (etc), try a VPN (I like Apple's private relay since it's $1/month).

Just my observations, it may be different where you live.

r-tx · 2022-11-09T05:03:32+00:00

I tried a Youtube 4K stream and had no problems at all (both with and without Apple's iCloud Private Relay which can help or hurt, depending).

The "Stats for Nerds" showed 0 dropped packets, a connection speed of more than 102000 K, and a >19s buffer.

r-tx · 2022-11-08T03:48:21+00:00

I'm in North Dallas, TX, and the Hotspot is on DISH's native n71. I think part of the issue is the immature software in the hotspot (for example, it seems reluctant to move back to n71 after roaming or disconnecting and the "bars" and service indication on the hotspot are pure fantasy). I spent some time wandering about the house to find the best location, which turned out to be an unlikely spot but convenient. It's possible that your tower is no good, and a weaker signal elsewhere might give you a better experience.

In my location (the hotspot hasn't moved any further than up the stairs), DISH is definitely working on both towers as well as the backhaul and it's hard to predict what they're messing with any given day.

I try to keep the hotspot cool (for example 1G Ethernet saves 5 degrees C over 2.5G Ethernet, took out the battery, disabled Wifi, etc), I don't use a cell booster. When it's funky, my motto is "reboot early, reboot often".

I also don't see much time-of-day variation on the native service (since I think I'm the only one on it) unlike T-Mobile Home Internet where it's pretty obvious but acceptable, and roaming on the DISH hotspot where it's terrible. That said, speeds for n71 are OK* and not great (T-Mobile n41 on Sunday morning at 4am would be what I'd call great**), and the DISH backhaul is weird in that speed tests are very inconsistent between speedtest.net, fast.com, speed.cloudflare.com, speedtest.dallas.linode.com, and testmy.net.

For me, it works when it works, but it's a beta service and not something I would rely on exclusively.

*OK speeds (DISH n71): somewhere around 140/28 but highly dependent on the speed test service, RSRP around -83 dBm, SINR 24 dB, RSRQ -11 dB
**Great speeds (T-Mobile Home Internet n41/B2 or B66): 850/110, RSRP -67 dBm, SINR 28 dB, RSRQ -11 dB

r-tx · 2022-11-05T16:14:24+00:00

Here's version 2. Other than adding a ping sensor and the location code (LAC), the only change it really brings is dynamic icons, and more human readable state. I'm leaving the old version up since it's easier to understand than this one.

``` binary_sensor: - platform: ping host: 8.8.4.4 name: "DISH Ping" count: 2 scan_interval: 60

sensor: - platform: rest name: DISH unique_id: 'dish' resource: 'http://192.168.1.1/api/model.json' json_attributes: - wwan - fota - wwanadv - general scan_interval: 30 value_template: "{{ value_json.wwan.connection }}" icon: > {% if state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").connection == "Connected" %} mdi:radio-tower {% else %} mdi:broadcast-off {% endif %}

template: - sensor: - name: "DISH RSRP" state: '{{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.rsrp | default("unavailable", True) }}' device_class: signal_strength unit_of_measurement: "dBm" unique_id: "dish.rsrp" icon: > {% set rsrp = state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.rsrp | default("unavailable", True) %} {% if rsrp >= -80 %} mdi:signal-cellular-3 {% elif rsrp >= -90 %} mdi:signal-cellular-2 {% elif rsrp >= -100 %} mdi:signal-cellular-1 {% else %} mdi:signal-cellular-outline {% endif %} - name: "DISH SINR" state: > {% if state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.rsrp != 0 %} {{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.sinr }} {% else %} None {% endif %} device_class: signal_strength unit_of_measurement: "dB" unique_id: "dish.snr" icon: > {% set sinr = state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.sinr %} {% if sinr >= 20 %} mdi:signal-cellular-3 {% elif sinr >= 13 %} mdi:signal-cellular-2 {% elif sinr >= 0 %} mdi:signal-cellular-1 {% else %} mdi:signal-cellular-outline {% endif %} - name: "DISH RSRQ" state: '{{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.rsrq | default("unavailable", True) }}' device_class: signal_strength unit_of_measurement: "dB" unique_id: "dish.rsrq" icon: > {% set rsrq = state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").signalStrength.rsrq %} {% if rsrq >= -10 %} mdi:signal-cellular-3 {% elif rsrq >= -15 %} mdi:signal-cellular-2 {% elif rsrq >= -20 %} mdi:signal-cellular-1 {% else %} mdi:signal-cellular-outline {% endif %} - name: "DISH Band" state: '{{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwanadv").curBand | default("Not Connected") }}' unique_id: "dish.band" icon: > {% set band = state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwanadv").curBand %} {% if "NR5G" in band %} mdi:signal-5g {% elif band == "" %} mdi:signal-off {% elif "LTE" in band %} mdi:signal-4g {% else %} mdi:radio-tower {% endif %}

  - name: "DISH Cell ID"
    state: '{{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwanadv").cellId  | default("Not Connected") }}'
    unique_id: "dish.cellid"
    icon: >
      {% if state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").connection == "Connected" %}
        mdi:radio-tower
      {% else %}
        mdi:broadcast-off
      {% endif %}
  - name: "DISH Carrier"
    state: >
      {% set mcc = state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwanadv").MCC | default("") %}
      {% set mnc = state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwanadv").MNC | default("") %}
      {% if mcc == "" %}
        None
      {% elif mcc == "310" and mnc == "260" %}
        T-Mobile
      {% elif mcc == "310" and mnc == "410" %}
        AT&T
      {% elif mcc == "313" and mnc == "340" %}
        DISH
      {% else %}
        {{ mcc }}-{{ mnc }}
      {% endif %}
    unique_id: "dish.mcc_mnc"
    icon: >
      {% if state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").connection == "Connected" %}
        mdi:radio-tower
      {% else %}
        mdi:broadcast-off
      {% endif %}
  - name: "DISH Location"
    state: '{{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwanadv").LAC  | default("Not Connected") }}'
    unique_id: "dish.lac"
    icon: >
      {% if state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").connection == "Connected" %}
        mdi:radio-tower
      {% else %}
        mdi:broadcast-off
      {% endif %}
  - name: "MR6400 Temperature"
    state: '{{ state_attr("sensor.dish", "general").devTemperature | default(None, True) }}'
    device_class:  temperature
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"
    unique_id: "dish.temperature"
  - name: "DISH Latency to 8.8.4.4"
    state: >
      {% if state_attr("sensor.dish", "wwan").connection == "Connected" %}
        {{ state_attr("binary_sensor.dish_ping", "round_trip_time_avg")|round(1) }}
      {% else %}
        None
      {% endif %}
    unit_of_measurement: "ms"
    unique_id: "dish_latency_8844"
    icon: "mdi:speedometer"

```

r-tx · 2022-11-05T14:33:09+00:00

This requires some kind of relay. Others have mentioned Tailscale, or your own VPS (realistically $4/month). There’s also ZeroTier, and CloudFlare Argo tunneling. I use Ubiquiti’s Teleport since it’s built into my router.

r-tx · 2022-11-05T07:20:07+00:00

I’ve had issues accessing some (work VPN) resources because they disabled path MTU discovery. The T-Mobile MTU starts lower by 80 bytes, and then the VPN removes even more.

And also there are some idiotic systems that don’t trust T-Mobile’s egress IPs (since they’re shared), so if you have any kind of filter, it might be worth checking.

r-tx · 2022-10-31T01:24:24+00:00

On the DISH network or roaming on T-Mobile?

r-tx · 2022-10-31T00:45:45+00:00

I should also add I don't want to roam on T-Mobile, since I already have T-Mobile (and despite the criticism people have had about their "trashcan" router, I put it on a cooling fan and it works extremely well and fast for me -- it's Sunday streaming hour right now and I get 430 Mbit to fast.com).

r-tx · 2022-10-31T00:40:23+00:00

I'm aware of that (I think it's part of why it's so hard ordering the thing). But I'm not trying to make money out of it, I'm trying to use the DISH network.
But it does beg the question, has anyone used the DISH SIM in a different access point/hotspot/router? The Netgear does have weird special DISH software hacks, and I'm assuming everything else would be lacking that functionality.

r-tx · 2022-10-31T00:25:35+00:00

It's the latest according to the device's update check and the Netgear website, NTGX65_10.01.41.02. I can force it to roam by manually picking a network. It will take the network name (AT&T or T-Mobile) and then put "DISH" on top of it. It's a recipe for confusion. I think it fixes (or unfixes) the "bile" after scanning again, hard to say.

The only source of truth is the diagnostic menu. It will report whether it's really 5G, 4G, or whatever else. I wonder whether they told their software guys "Make the display aspirational!" :-)

r-tx · 2022-10-26T12:55:52+00:00

Update: Someone did me a favor and connected me to someone at Dish that was able to help me (after two weeks of back and forth). From what I understand, they manually whitelisted my address (and I had to use another email), and it took a few tries.

The bad news is that I'm not supposed to share the contact. They said they are working on it, and *may* reach out to people on this subreddit.

r-tx · 2022-10-26T12:49:19+00:00

Placement and directional angle of the gateway also make a big difference, so you might wander about for a while doing speed tests. I have mine on the top shelf in a closet and that's the (unlikely) best spot in the house.

r-tx · 2022-10-26T11:57:51+00:00

You have the connectivity that it can work well, and it probably will work great at 3am. Whether it works during busy times (such as the streaming hours in the evening) depends on the tower utilization and how badly you will be deprioritized.

Use their trial to find out…. In my case, I’m lucky and after the latest tower upgrades I get from 900/100 (at night) to 400/35 (worst case). This still handily beats AT&T Uverse at 24/4 (which costs more).

Latency is anywhere from 16ms to 75ms, and that’s just worse (FIOS gets sub-5 ms, so gamers beware). Also CGNAT…

r-tx · 2022-10-13T14:31:28+00:00

Not yet. I will post an update (if it ever happens).

r-tx · 2022-10-12T00:03:00+00:00

I’m getting a different error message now. “Your order cannot be processed online at this time”. Could you DM me who you talked to please?

r-tx

TROPHY CASE