I always pays to check your internet speed. Sitting outside the Amex Centurion Lounge I connected to its WiFi and ran Speedtest.
Since it seemed pretty slow I tested the normal airport WiFi.
Seattle Tacoma Airport WiFi
Tag Archives: internet
LTE wireless on SIM7600G-H 4G HAT (B) for Raspberry Pi
After coming across the recent and well written article Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi, I decided to give it a try myself. I looked at his parts list, and then ended up going in a different direction by buying an all-in-one unit designed explicitly for the Raspberry Pi Zero.
- SIM7600G-H
- FE1.1S USB HUB chip
- NAU8810 audio decoder
- RT9193-33 voltage translator
- USB HUB input D+/D- pogo pin: for Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero W MicroUSB connector: for other Raspberry Pi boards or PC
- Pogo pin power supply 5V: connects to 5V pin of Zero/Zero W, up to 2A current GND: connects to GND pin of Zero/Zero W
- USB extended ports USB1~USB2: USB-A connectors USB3: solder pad
- SIM card slot supports 1.8V/3V SIM card
- 3.5mm earphone/mic jack
- MAIN antenna connector
- AUX auxiliary antenna connector
- GNSS antenna connector
- Power indicator
- Network status indicator
I’m using Google Fi Unlimited Plus as my network on my phone right now, and one of its features is the ability to have multiple data only devices using part of your data allocation. That makes experimentation with a device like this fairly easy as I was able to order a data sim from Google and put it in the device and it just worked.
I’d never heard of pogo pins before. These are spring loaded contacts that line up with pads on the Raspberry Pi Zero to make electrical contact. They worked the first time I screwed everything together, but when I took it apart and put it back together a second time the board wasn’t recognized. I removed power, pushed down the pins with some tweezers, restored power, and the board was recognized again.
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1e0e:9001 Qualcomm / Option
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ lsusb -t
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=option, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=option, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 2, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=option, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 3, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=option, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 4, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=option, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 5, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=qmi_wwan, 480M
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo apt install libqmi-utils udhcpc ifmetric
I went through the test commands from Jeff Geerling’s post related to QMI Mode setup, then created a config file for my wwan0 interface:
auto wwan0
iface wwan0 inet manual
pre-up ifconfig wwan0 down
pre-up echo Y > /sys/class/net/wwan0/qmi/raw_ip
pre-up for _ in $(seq 1 10); do /usr/bin/test -c /dev/cdc-wdm0 && break; /bin/sleep 1; done
pre-up for _ in $(seq 1 10); do /usr/bin/qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --nas-get-signal-strength && break; /bin/sleep 1; done
pre-up sudo qmicli -p -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --device-open-net='net-raw-ip|net-no-qos-header' --wds-start-network="apn='h2g2',ip-type=4" --client-no-release-cid
pre-up udhcpc -i wwan0
pre-up /usr/sbin/ifmetric wwan0 400
post-down /usr/bin/qmi-network /dev/cdc-wdm0 stop
You can see in the image above that my Wi-Fi network is running IPv6 and the default ping uses that interface, while specifying the wwan0 interface causes the traffic to travel a different path.
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether b8:27:eb:7c:6a:80 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.53/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute wlan0
valid_lft 10482sec preferred_lft 9132sec
inet6 2604:4080:1304:8010:8a38:1e12:3b21:5443/64 scope global dynamic mngtmpaddr noprefixroute
valid_lft 24sec preferred_lft 14sec
inet6 fe80::ea0d:3fe8:b6c4:da64/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wwan0: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/none
inet 100.198.30.32/26 scope global wwan0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --nas-get-signal-info
-get-serving-system
sudo qmi-network /dev/cdc-wdm0 status
sudo qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --wds-get-packet-service-status[/dev/cdc-wdm0] Successfully got signal info
LTE:
RSSI: '-74 dBm'
RSRQ: '-12 dB'
RSRP: '-102 dBm'
SNR: '4.4 dB'
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --nas-get-signal-strength
[/dev/cdc-wdm0] Successfully got signal strength
Current:
Network 'lte': '-74 dBm'
RSSI:
Network 'lte': '-74 dBm'
ECIO:
Network 'lte': '-2.5 dBm'
IO: '-106 dBm'
SINR (8): '9.0 dB'
RSRQ:
Network 'lte': '-12 dB'
SNR:
Network 'lte': '4.4 dB'
RSRP:
Network 'lte': '-102 dBm'
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --nas-get-home-network
[/dev/cdc-wdm0] Successfully got home network:
Home network:
MCC: '310'
MNC: '260'
Description: 'T-Mobile'
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --nas-get-serving-system
[/dev/cdc-wdm0] Successfully got serving system:
Registration state: 'registered'
CS: 'attached'
PS: 'attached'
Selected network: '3gpp'
Radio interfaces: '1'
[0]: 'lte'
Roaming status: 'off'
Data service capabilities: '1'
[0]: 'lte'
Current PLMN:
MCC: '310'
MNC: '260'
Description: '����.��i'
Roaming indicators: '1'
[0]: 'off' (lte)
3GPP time zone offset: '-420' minutes
3GPP daylight saving time adjustment: '1' hours
3GPP location area code: '65534'
3GPP cell ID: '45023373'
Detailed status:
Status: 'available'
Capability: 'cs-ps'
HDR Status: 'none'
HDR Hybrid: 'no'
Forbidden: 'no'
LTE tracking area code: '11316'
Full operator code info:
MCC: '310'
MNC: '260'
MNC with PCS digit: 'yes'
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo qmi-network /dev/cdc-wdm0 status
Profile at '/etc/qmi-network.conf' not found...
Getting status with 'qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --wds-get-packet-service-status '...
Status: connected
wim@WimPiZeroWCamera:~ $ sudo qmicli -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --wds-get-packet-service-status
[/dev/cdc-wdm0] Connection status: 'connected'
Retrieve Wi-Fi Password in Windows 10
Sometimes I go to a place I’ve been before and my computer remembers the WiFi password while my brain does not. The following Windows PowerShell commands will display most of the remembered passwords.
netsh wlan show profiles
netsh wlan show profiles name=’ProfileToDisplay’ key=clear
The first command displays all of the networks your computer has remembered. It can be rather long if you’ve had your computer for several years and done a reasonable amount of traveling and using WiFi in strange locations.
The second command takes the profile name that you retrieved with the first command and displays details of the selected profile. The password is displayed as the Key Content section of the Security settings.
IPv6 Testing on Apple Personal Hotspot
I have IPv6 set up and running on my home network, but there was some testing I wanted to run remotely. My local Starbucks WiFi isn’t running IPv6 according to my quick test with https://test-ipv6.com/
The same test from my iPhone on TMobile shows it’s running IPv6 by default.
I had read somewhere that Apple supported IPv6 on the personal hotspot through a loophole in the netmask routing algorithms used by most providers..
When I tested the local network connection on my computer while connected to the Apple Personal Hotspot, it appeared to be running IPv6.
Mon 10/28/2019 14:57:08.69 C:\Users\Wim>ipconfig /all
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : WimSurface
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : WIMSWORLD.local
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : WIMSWORLD.local
Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 4:
Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #4
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : B6-AE-2B-C1-21-16
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 6:
Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #5
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : B6-AE-2B-C1-24-16
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:
Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : B4-AE-2B-C1-20-17
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth PAN HelpText
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : B4-AE-2B-C1-20-18
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2607:fb90:f2a:1b9b:4d30:692:7441:1cf4(Preferred)
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2607:fb90:f2a:1b9b:2495:be8c:b229:b0b6(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::4d30:692:7441:1cf4%4(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.20.10.2(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.240
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, October 28, 2019 3:01:16 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, October 29, 2019 2:46:49 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::1089:a438:80a9:f8e%4
172.20.10.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.20.10.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 95727147
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1D-D8-F3-3B-B4-AE-2B-C1-20-17
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::1089:a438:80a9:f8e%4
172.20.10.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
Mon 10/28/2019 15:03:26.55 C:\Users\Wim>
Unfortunately when I connected to my phone from my computer via the personal hotspot, I wasn’t able to get positive IPv6 results. Obviously the hotspot was working since I was able to get to the test site via IPv4 without issues.
I’d read “RIPE NIC: ‘In Five Weeks We’ll Run Out of IPv4 Internet Addresses’ “ earlier today and have always been interested in understanding more of the nuances of using IPv6 compared to IPv4. Getting Ready for IPv4 Run-out has more information on how they are allocating IPv4 addresses..
USPS Informed Delivery Daily Digest and Netflix DVDs
I use the USPS service Informed Delivery and highly recommend it. I get a daily email from USPS with a scanned picture of most of the mail that will arrive in my mailbox that day. Occasionally the email will say that there were items that could not be scanned, but it’s very useful since I don’t check my mailbox on a daily basis, but don’t want to have important items sit for extended times.
My mailbox is fairly secure, but I’ve also read that Informed Delivery has both good and bad features for people related to mail theft or identity theft.
I’ve been getting Netflix DVDs in the mail since 2000. I’ve always been slightly fascinated with the efficiencies the post office and Netflix have worked out. If I take a DVD mailer to my local post office here in Seattle, Netflix recognizes it has been returned the next business day. If I drop a DVD at the local post office on Tuesday, Netflix acknowledges it on Wednesday, and I’ve usually got the next DVD delivered Thursday.
Until recently the Netflix DVDs were scanned like all other mail.
It appears to have changed at the beginning of September. Now there’s a pair of fixed images arriving with a link that will take you directly to Netflix.
The new behavior isn’t bad since all the Netflix disk scans look very similar, but are interesting to note. I wouldn’t be surprised that the new full color image reduces bandwidth over individual scans along with added benefit of the link to Netflix.
Summit Coin
My Summit Coin arrived yesterday!
I ordered this on May 25th, when I thought it was funny and not too expensive. It arrived on August 28th, after I’d given up on it’s arrival entirely. That’s three months after paying for it via a sketchy looking paypal address.
The paperwork was folded in three, both directions, to make it similar sized as the coin itself. That is why it wouldn’t lay flat in my scanner.
The white house gift shop is an interesting company. It claims to have been created under charter from President Harry Truman, but has nothing to do with the US government at all.
The details of this coin blew up on both cable media and social media when Donald Trump announced he would be meeting with Kim Jong-Un, and then further announced that he wouldn’t. After the announcement of the cancellation, the price on the coin dropped under $20, convincing me to buy one as a funny souvenir. After I ordered it, the summit was rescheduled and actually happened.
When I didn’t receive the coin in the first few weeks I looked back in my mail history and couldn’t find any confirmation that I’d actually ordered it beyond the pay-pal receipt. I remembered that I’d ordered the item using the web browser in my phone, while sitting in a coffee shop in another country. I mostly decided to chalk it up to an inexpensive learning experience.
Further research led me to this series of articles, which were interesting details about what the white house gift shop really is, and any relation to the government. WTF Is The White House Gift Shop? A TPM Special Report and White House Gift Shop, TPM Investigation Continues! I recommend reading each of them.
Bad Account Management
I have been getting my hair buzzed at various Rudys Barbershops around seattle for the past few years. They’ve had a web site that visitors can log into to make appointments.
It looks like they’ve updated the engine since I last logged in, and it’s not recognizing the password that I am pretty sure I last used. They have a password recovery link.
Well that’s not useful at all is it? How do you use email address as a unique key for the account and have multiple entries?
VLAN Tagging for CenturyLink
I’ve dealt with CenturyLink provided WiFi access points in two locations I’ve lived recently, and not been happy with their performance. My 5 year old Netgear WNDR3800 seemed to provide better speed with both 5GHz and 2.4GHz than the Actiontec C1900A provided by CenturyLink, which only supported 2.4GHz.
Unfortunately it was not as simple as learning the PPoE credentials that the Actiontec was using and putting those details into the Netgear. Centurylink in their infinite wisdom decided that the network packets need to be tagged to run on VLAN 201.
One solution would be to go out and buy a new WiFi router that supports VLAN Tagging. The newer Netgear Nighthawk routers support tagging, following the details at this support page.
The Netgear AC1900 router (also referred to as R7000) would do what I want, but would also cost close to $150.
Instead I spent $33 on a Netgear GS105Ev2 switch and spent a little time configuring its VLANs and am mostly happy with the result. My only disappointment is that this switch doesn’t seem to support SNMP for traffic monitoring.
I have this configured so that Port1 connects to the Centurylink Fiber Termination Box, Port2 connects to my WNDR3800 WAN Port, and Port3 is connected to one of the LAN ports on the WNDR3800.
Port1 is configured to send Tagged Packets on VLAN 201.
Port2 is configured to send Untagged Packets on VLAN 201.
Ports 3-5 are configured to sent Untagged Packets on VLAN 1, the default for this switch.
The steps to get this working, starting with existing setup of Actiontec connected to Fiber Termination box.
- Connect GS105Ev2 Port3 to available LAN port on Actiontec and make sure link connection LEDs appear.
- Find what IP address the GS105Ev2 acquired on local network using a network scanning tool. I used NirSoft Wireless Network Watcher and found that my switch was on 192.168.1.17. Going to http://192.168.1.17/ gave me a login to the new switch with the default password of “password”.
- You should get a switch information page similar to this.
- Select the menu item VLAN, then 802.1Q and the radio button Enable. You should get a warning message that it’s about to erase all current VLAN settings. Hit OK.
- Go under Advanced, VLAN Configuration, there’s a text box on the right that says VLAN ID. Enter 201 and push the Add button above it.
Now we have a new VLAN with no Port Members assigned.
- Go to Port PVID on the left menu. Select Port 1. Type 201 in the text box. Hit Apply.
Select Port 2. Type 201. Hit Apply.
- Now we go to the VLAN Membership setting. With the VLAN ID dropdown showing 1, click Port 1 and Port 2 through the available options until neither T nor U is showing, leaving Ports 3, 4, and 5 showing U. Then click Apply.
- Now drop down to select VLAN 201. Click so that Port 1 is T, Port 2 is U, Ports 3, 4, and 5 are blank, and Apply.
- If you look at the VLAN Configuration, you’ll now see that ports 1 and 2 are assigned to 201, while 3, 4, and 5 are assigned to 1.
- At this point the GS105Ev2 has been configured as much as it needs to be. I had already configured my WNDR3800 to connect to the ISP using PPoE and given it the correct credentials.
- Power off Actiontec and put it in a closet. Connect Fiber Termination device to port 1 on GS105Ev2. Connect WNDR3800 WAN to port 2 on GS105Ev2. Optionally connect port 3 on GS105Ev2 to a lan port on WNDR3800, as it will only gain you one extra gigabit port compared to the four built into the WNDR3800.
Thanks to this post for the same information that I’ve presented here. I’d attempted to do this before with an existing GS108Tv2 switch I had sitting around. What I’d forgotten to do was make the port going to the WNDR3800 send Untagged packets. I’d been properly sending tagged packets to the fiber, but the WNDR3800 didn’t know what to do with the tagged packets. After confirming it worked with the GS108Tv2 I ordered the cheaper 5 port switch just to have something else to play with. My only disappointment with the 5 port switch is that it doesn’t seem to support SNMP to monitor the traffic going over the network.
SpeedTest.Net results from different devices
I’m visiting my parents today, and one of the normal things I run a check on is the condition of their internet.
I’ve got the speedtest.net app installed on my iPad. Running it produced acceptable results. 17Mb/s is not great, but it should be good enough to stream HD video, and that’s the main thing I want to just work when I’m not visiting.
I brought up the website in my browser on my Microsoft Surface tablet and received significantly better results.
71Mb/s download is almost comparable to what I’m getting at home. At home I’ve got symmetric bandwidth, so my upload speeds are often better than my download speeds.
Both of these tests were run through an old Cisco RV110W Wireless-N gateway that only runs on 2.4GHz frequencies.
I’ve registered significantly higher speed transfers on my iPad in the past.
Is the iPad limited in it’s transfer speed when running 2.4GHz? It’s possible that the higher speed transfers in my iPad history were all when I was connected to my home router running 5GHz.
Net Neutrality Countdown Timer
I liked the look of the widget at https://www.battleforthenet.com/countdown/ related to the FCC vote on net neutrality. I tried to inset the code that would embed the widget in this post. It looks like WordPress is blocking it from appearing. Either that or the cross site access is being blocked by Google Chrome.
WimsWorld 