I have decided to keep Clear; the final decision to cancel my DSL is now in question (do I really need to 6Mbps+ lines to my house?).
I am disappointed that Clear does not offer a reasonably priced Static IP option ($10/month is not acceptable). However, it does appear that my external IP as remained unchanged since I started using the service about a week ago. The DHCP lease time is 24 hours- so perhaps as long as I do not go offline for more than a day I will continue to renew with the same IP (which makes sense if it is typical DHCP). The Dynamic DNS options offered are very inadequate (DynDNS, Dyns.cx and ZoneEdit) as well.
That said, I ran into my second issues with Clear: They do not have a SMTP server. The two email addresses provided with each account by Clear are actually Google Mail accounts- so if I need to send a message out from an application on my server (Such as GeoVision alerts), I need to authenticate and send it out to the Google SMTP server: the problem I have is that Google only accepts SSL SMTP (on TCP port 465) messages and my application cannot use this. As a work-around, I am using a legacy Yahoo account (which had POP/SMTP before Yahoo started charging) to route my out-bound email alerts.
Configuring the modem to co-exist with my current router (D-Link DGL-4500) was fairly easy: log in to the router (default at http:\\192.168.15.1, password is ‘motorola’), disable the firewall:
and setup a DMZ IP address for for the one your router picks up from the modem:
The above two steps will take any traffic from the external IP address and forward it to the WAN interface of your internal router.
This configuration allows me to control external port access/forwarding for my GeoVision camera system, access my internal webcams, monitor/control my home alarm system and RDP to my desktop from remote locations (most of them from my G1 Android phone).
An alternative would be to configure the port forwarding in the router to the system you need in-bound access to from the internet:
I need a wireless router for my wireless devices- and I want to keep them on the same subnet with my PCs and servers- so I chose to use the router behind the WiMax modem (double-NAT is not THAT bad).
I am still trying to find the 5 bar Nirvana to see what speeds I can obtain. I have found that an unsteady 5 bar (i.e. toggling between 4 bars and 5 bars of connectivity) is much worse than a solid four bar. The router appears to need to re-negotiate each time the signal strength changes- causing large dips and spikes in download bandwidth.
Unlike the XOHM Zyzel WiMax Modem, the Clear Motorola WiMax modem does not have any connectors (SMA, TNC or N). I purchased the WiMax modem, so I decided to take it apart to see if there are any antenna interfaces. The modem has no external screws; the bottom held on exclusively by plastic snaps:
Careful use with a plastic putty knife was all that was needed to open the bottom an reveal the router board:
A careful inspection found what appears to be two SSMT Mini Coax connectors in the top of the board:
I am not sure if this was designed for an additional antenna, but I am toying with the idea of finding two SSMT Mini Coax to SMA (or N) male connectors and making some holes in the modem casing to mount these through. Once I have accessible antenna connectors, I could then order an external antenna to see if I get a better signal. :)
25 comments:
Excellent!
I've been trying to get an external Antenna on this bad boy for a LONG time. Let me know what you find, and if you set it up correctly. I'm actually leasing my mode right now so I don't dare open it or make holes.
That makes sense with the 4 1/2 bars..
I'm toggling between 3 to 4 and i'm noticing some ping spikes here and there.. My quest is for a solid 4... would be nice to get 5 if that antenna works for you.
Keep me posted!!
Where did you buy the connector?
Thanks for the posts about this subject. I just purchased the Wimax modem yesterday and got it to work fine when plugged directly into my computer last night.
However, I ran into a snafu when trying to plug it into my wireless D-Link router. The router was still setup for my Comcast cable modem. Know I need to change the configuration, so I'll try some of the things you mentioned tonight when I get home.
If I get Clear working through my router, I'll probably get rid of cable like you did DSL. Any other websites you found for router configuration with WiMax? My searches have yielded not much so far.
I also just got clear a good deal but I am only getting between 2 and 3 bars let us know how the external antenna works out
Hmmm... the connectors do not seem to be Micro Coax- or MMC. I picked up a MMC connector from Fry's (yea- I was surprised they had them as well!) and it is a different connector. I took some additional photos that I will post later.
I have been looking through www.mouser.com and www.jameco.com and there appear to be different flavors of this connector- none of which exactly matches the port on the CPEi 150...
I am now looking to get a used router off of eBay that I can take apart (and keep apart) for more experimentation.
Broo, I suspect that it might be the same connector as on my cell phone. I have the Samsung Upstage and I believe the connector is a FME. I will go home and compare connectors with my modem to confirm.
Follow up on my comment if anyone is interested. Once I disabled the firewall on the Motorola router, and assigned my D-Link router to the DMZ like you described, it almost worked.
I had to do one more thing - I had to disable wireless N on my test D-Link router and only use B/G. But that's because I'm using WEP security which is not compatible with N. All of my wireless adapters are older 802.11 b/g anyway so I'm OK with that.
This had nothing to do with Clear however. Now I'm working on consistently getting higher bars. Getting 2 bars downstairs, toggling between 3 and 4 upstairs. Problem with having the Clear modem upstairs near a window is my WiFi router would not be centered in my house like it is now, so I'd have to run permanent Cat5e/Cat6 downstairs to keep the WiFi router centered which is not going to be easy, but now I'm really digressing from the point.
Ok, my first guess was way off because of a mislabeled cable. Broo, do you think this might be a SWG connector? Google image search "SWG connector"
"The SWG series is high durability, with a lifetime of more than 100 mating cycles." Uh oh, looks like this was designed just for testing.
Pepsi- thanks for the info; the connector looks like a match for SWG.
the '100 matings' rating is normal for small coax cables- they are designed to be connected and left alone (like the MMC connector in a laptop that connects the antenna to the WiFi card).
The SWG connector also looks to be made exclusively by Murata Manufacturing- so now I am trying to see if they make any kind of SWG-to-SMA adapter that could be use to connect to an external antenna:
http://www.rfwel.com/shop/home.php?cat=179
I'll be watching this thread closely. I really like Clear, but it's obvious that I need an antenna boost of some sort to get the service to the level it should be. Thanks for the research.
We're all behind you Broo.
First of all, I suck with networking. I was trying to port forward port 8000-8001 (SHOUTCast) on my DLink but it wasn't working, so I figured it had something to do with the Clear router. I googled and found this blog post. I disabled the Firewall and put my IP on the other thing. I also have the ports forwarded on my Dlink which I did by following the guides on portforward.com. Now when I try to navigate to my external IP with port 8000 attached to the end, it still says "Problem loading page".
Oh and another thing, I don't want people to be able to login to my router by navigating to my external IP, I noticed a setting on the page where you can disable the firewall, but it's uncheckable. Is there any way of making it so others cannot access it?
Thanks,
Christian
Please keep us updated on this subject. I'm only getting 1 bar on my CPEi 150, and it drops every 5 minutes.
A Clearwire tower is only 1/2 a mile away from my house, but I live in a very wooded area, and the trees are blocking the signal. An external antenna hack sounds like the way to go to solve this problem.
I lack the skills to figure out a hack on my own, but can probably follow along, step by step, if someone can figure out all the correct connections needed. I don't know the difference between the SWG, MMC, FME, etc. connectors.
Please post if anybody figures this out, and where to buy the connectors and antennas. Thanks!
I read about someone who tried taking it apart, and he soldered the connections into the supposed external antenna spots. It would appear they are not active in the firmware so no luck on adding an external antenna to this bad boy. Rumor has it they are working to get the XOHM (which does have an external antenna connection) working on Clear's network in the very near future.
Can anyone tell me the URL to get the Google map of Clear's towers?
Txs, Rick
"soldered the connections into the supposed external antenna spots"
Do you have a link or pictures? I don't see why he wouldn't just solder to the internal antenna since it's right there too. If mounting an direct connection to the antenna doesn't work, could it be possible to create a dish or cantenna around the internal antennas? I noticed that merely placing my 2.4ghz (not quite the right frequency) cantenna behind the antenna, I get 1 more more signal.
Here's a link to their 3g coverage. In a few months they'll have 3g/4g modems.
http://www.clear.com/shop/3g_coverage_tool.php.
I used the live chat option and just asked the person where the closest tower was. Then I used google streetview to find it.
http://www.clear.com/what_is_clear.php#
Here's the web page where the guy talked about soldering to the modem: http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/1463547-1.html; search for "burnin240sx".
FYI: Clear tech support says any modem configuration other than default is not supported, and if bricked by user configuration it will be $200 the replace modem. (leased) This is from Tier 2, still no documentation regarding integrating into existing LAN setups that were otherwise setup with transparent WAN IP's. Beware.
I disabled DHCP, UPnP, with no port forwarding, attempting for transparent bridging, and changed the access name to "clear" and am not able to get any ip assignment, even though modem connects to WiMax.
I made the mistake of not noting my modem/wimax ip, subnet,
& DNS to see if I have WAN ip access. If anyone knows a hard reset (i.e. power sequence) method please post.
Will update as I find out more info. I'm in Portland.
PS:
see this blog about 10M provisioning
http://www.michaelgossett.me/
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Very nice! I just got my new Clear modem and, being at the edge of coverage, am deeply interested in the antennas.
I see that J15 (Transmit 1 and Receive 1) and J16 (Receive 2) are the main antenna connections (the 5-connection connectors near the SSMT connectors, J10 & J11). I see filters, I see LOTS of stuff (Like how there's twice as much antenna devoted to RECEIVE as their is to TRANSMIT! Hmmmm).
I'm working with a putty knife, though with limited success.. did you, by chance, dismount the board to look at the other side and take pictures?
I'm aiming to make an external signal amplifier, like the small parabolics on my WiFi router and seeing what the antennas look like (the old modem had a 4 element patch antenna) would really help! So if you happened to take, but not post, the OTHER side of the board, please do.
Thanks
(I'm doing this anonymous, I don't know how the "OpenID" and "Name/URL" things work)
To anyone who doesn't want to put the antenna near a window for the concern that their wireless wont be centered... I suggest you go by some HomePlug adapters.
I keep my wireless router centered in my house and plugged into my normal net via homeplug adapters which run the lan over my internal electric grid. Works great for me and I can put my WiMax antenna anywhere I want.
Yeah, I purchased my modem for this exact reason. Taking it apart was no problem. Once I had it apart, finding where to attach an antenna is how I found your post… Thanks for doing so! TX1/RX1 is going to be the transmit and receive (duh) and the other, RX2, may be our second antenna. I have an external MIMO Omni-directional antenna that I am going to strip the wires and solder onto the board. There are 3 wires on the EX3(external MIMO) but the inside of the wire is only 2. One that is the shield, and then the other is data TX wire. Very similar to a co-ax cable. I do not see why pairing them up (2 on the RX2 side and the left over one on the TX1/RX1 side wouldn’t work. I am going to hold out and wait for your next post to see how far you got with this, and in the mean time I will keep doing my research. I am a network engineer and am surrounded by techies all day long, so If I get any ideas from them I will definitely share.
Thanks again for the post, and if you have any interest in networking information check out www.tcsusa.com there is a blog that we just started www.tcsusa.com/data-bits that needs to grow. Also, if you’re a zombie fan, of course I am, check out H1N1Zombie.blogspot.com.
As a new customer of Clear WiMAX Internet I feel each and every one of you.
After countless attempts to increase my signal I finally found a position that allows me to get 4 bars 90% of the time.
Really looking forward to anything you write about Clear in the future.
Here's my results so far.
Clear High-Speed Internet tips and tricks index
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