ZTE MC801A B12 update : Bridge mode broken

[Gagandeep]

Hi there,

Community / Three moderators, I am hoping you can help me.

I have a ZTE MC801A which I have been very happy with for about a month. I run the router in bridge mode, meaning that another device can take the internet connection and distribute it via my own TP Link router.

A forced update to firmware B12 has broken this functionality, and my entire home network and hardware setup is now left completely non-functional. The ZTE MC801a has become completely unable to handoff a WAN DHCP address and as such I am forced into using the ZTE router, meaning my heating/lights/raspberry pi and VOIP phone are all offline as they are wired to my TP Link Router - the ZTE router doesn't have enough RJ45 ports

Is there a firmware update on the horizon to fix this? This is an absolutely basic function (and offered by all the major ISPS like virgin/BT etc) I am considering making a formal complaint to have the router replaced with the NR5103E as this can actually bridge its connection. In lieu of this, does anyone have any ideas as to what could have happened? All of these problems have coincided with the update on the 14th of October 😞

[jezza007]

I am having a bridge issue with the ZTE MC888
I have been in contact with ZTE, I am still waiting for an update

But I thought I should point out I have tested this symptom on different models, and it maybe helpful for users with this issue to be aware that holding the reset button for 10 seconds only factory resets the modem/router.
What it doesnt do is clear the writable config files in cache.
I found in common with routers with this symptom they are not clearing the NAT or dhcp config tables.

For ZTE and Huawei devices you need to hold the reset button for at least 20 seconds to clear custom data.
For Zyxel you need to hold the reset button for 30 seconds to factory reset and clear config files completely.

Hope this helps anyone who claim the symptom is still present and firmware update and after factory reset, its because the device more often than not does not clear the NAT and dhcp configs.

[doc1964]

HI there, i signed up to 3 home Broadband on 2nd of July and have had a few issues along these lines as well. Previously, I had Virgin broadband and had a Deco M5 mesh kit connected to it. Router was used as a bridge and the first deco unit was hard wired in and set as router. Thought I would simply swap the Mc801a router for the virgin superhub, rename the network and change password for it all to recognise all of my wifi devices (all 49 of them), but no, the new password had to have a symbol included that i had not used previously so had to rejoin every item to my network. When viewing the user interface for the router, it shows the deco unit as connected by cable but also shows several items connected wirelessly. I found this site after a google search on how to se mc801a to bridge mode. I did this but found that it still shows as having wireless devices connected to it, so even though it shows as bridge mode, it is not switching off its own internal wifi. I have spent hours changing all settings on the router and on the deco units to try and have the deco ones as the only ones with wireless devices connected but failed on every attempt. I did think the previous information regarding setting connection to Manual had worked but even with that, it started showing wireless devices connected. I also found that lots of my devices don't connect or cant find wifi randomly but I think this may be down to the router only being able to handle 32 devices and as i mentioned earlier i currently have 49 devices connecting. (18 bulbs, 6 speakers, 5 smart plugs, doorbell, sync module, phones watches and laptops) I did speak to the shop i got my deal from about swapping to the NR5103e but they told me that was for business contracts only, also told me that that the mc801a could handle 64 devices as well despite it being well documented that it can only handle 32. I have this on a month to month deal and am generally happy with the speed, it is greater than the 350 meg I was on with Virgin, oh and this was despite the shop initially telling me I could not get 5g router as the coverage checker does not show me as in a 5G area, I clearly am and the speeds are double virgin. I am hoping at some point to take a 2 year deal with the 5103e but still have concerns on whether this will work properly with Mesh. 

2 final things, my router is on firmware B10 and does not seem to want to update and final point is apologies for this post looking like it has been typed by someone deranged but when i try to use Enter to move to a next line, it is leaving a huge space between lines so that is why it is mostly one huge block of text. Anyway, have appreciated some of the suggestions in here and will keep an eye on it in case anyone gets a proper solution. 

Cheers.

[JonathanB]

Hi @doc1964,

Sorry to hear the solution posted on this thread doesn't seem to be working for you. Have you tried a factory reset of the router to check if this gets the firmware to update? It really should have just updated automatically overnight or when rebooted.

If that doesn't seem to do the trick let me know, and I'll check if there's anything else we can do or try for this.

For the post formatting side of things, "shift + enter" does a normal line break rather than leaving a line gap. 🙂

Thanks,
Jonathan

[doc1964]

Hi there, and apologies, i really should have posted back on this. With all of my messing about i ended up resetting the router several times, on final attempt i reset both router and mesh units and set bridge mode before connecting anything. It is now working as should be with the router showing only the cabled mesh unit connected to it with all other devices showing as being  connected to the mesh units. It has been pretty solid since then even with the now 50 wireless devices i have attached. 

Seen a lot of posts recently about issues with the NR5103e router so undecided if i would want to swap to that if they ever decide to let me take on the 2 year contract despite the coverage checker showing no coverage.

Anyway, thanks again and

appreciate your help. Cheers.

[Wintermute]

To get bridge mode working on the ZTE B15 firmware (and presumably B12):

Go to the APN settings - Settings -> Connection Settings -> APN

Add a new manual APN with the following parameters...

PDP Type: IPv4
Profile Name: Anything except '3internet'
APN: 3internet
Authentication: None

Click set as default, reboot your ZTE MC801A

[leonspok]

@Wintermute Thanks! I followed your steps and it worked. I was banging my head over this issue the whole yesterday’s evening only to find this comment today.

[oiskosminhos]

I'm having the same issue as speacock. ZTE MC801A is not passing on the WAN IP when configured in Bridge mode, even when connected to my laptop. Looks like I'll have to return this.

[speacock]

I've heard nothing since my last post, but the B15 firmware update seems to have caused the issue to become more widespread. There's a comment from @JonathanB on another thread that suggests there may be a fix - https://community.three.co.uk/t5/Broadband/Bridge-and-Public-WAN-failure-MC801A-B15/m-p/10186#M1494

[JonathanB]

Hi @speacock,

Sorry for the considerable delay in updating on this one. I think we may have made some progress recently.

Can you, and any others running into this issue check your APN settings and let me know which Three APN you're connecting on?

It should be set to "3internet", but if you have "three.co.uk" saved instead, this could cause the IP error described on this thread. The three.co.uk APN should only be triggered when using a phone plan SIM (or if manually entered), but I'm wondering if the firmware update may have reset the APN.

You ought to be able to check/edit this in the router admin pages, there'll be a section for "My router", then APN can be set to Manual from there.

Please let me know if this seems to be relevant to this issue.

Thanks,
Jonathan