• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Sprint Airave (Post #1 has a quick "FAQ" for help)

vicshalls said:
Well here is hoping for the best. One more thing while i am here. I read on Sprint that you have to go into your phone and do *99 to get it to work on your phone. Have any of yall had to do that? I have not seen anyone here say anything about that. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Where on Sprint did you find that info? I don't see any mention of it in the user guide:
http://support.sprint.com/global/pdf/user_guides/samsung/airave/airave_by_sprint_ug.pdf

Didn't see it in the FAQ's either:
http://support.sprint.com/global/pdf/user_guides/samsung/airave/airave_by_sprint_faq.pdf
 
*99 just confirms if you are in airvana coverage or not. once the unit is active on your account and its locked into your broadband connection, there is nothing else you need to do.
 
vicshalls said:
Well here is hoping for the best. One more thing while i am here. I read on Sprint that you have to go into your phone and do *99 to get it to work on your phone. Have any of yall had to do that? I have not seen anyone here say anything about that. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I don't remember that at all..
 
marctronixx said:
*99 just confirms if you are in airvana coverage or not. once the unit is active on your account and its locked into your broadband connection, there is nothing else you need to do.
Click to expand...

Thank you for califing that for me. The way some of the people on the sprint page were talking it was like they had to do that every time they came home cause it was not connecting and they were having to do that to force it to connect. here is were i saw them talking about it though. seems there are several threads on there that they mention something about this *99

Sprint Community: Lack of help with airave, no service in my house, ready to drop Sprint ASAP!
 
I got mine today. Zero issue hooking it up and so far so good. Have great signal in the house. On a down side is was out and about today and was trying to look something up real fast and my Internet as usual was hanging up. My wife pulls her phone out which is the same as mine and it worked great. Went on down to sprint and they did some testing on my evo lte and sure enough there was a problem and they ordered me a new phone. All this time I was blaming my lack luster service on them up grading the towers in my area. Once again sprint has taken care of me. Not thrilled with setting up a new phone since I had just gotten mine the way I wanted but I am happy that sprint is making sure I have the experience possible by giving me the airvana at no charge and exchanging out my phone on my tep.
 
Daddo said:
Do you have the unit near a window or did you connect the GPS antenna to the cable and place it near a window so it can pick up the GPS satellite signals?

Mine came pre-activated and didn't work until I placed the GPS antenna near a window.

I have a good signal at home, but at work my office is in an area that blocks good signal reception. Sprint was kind enough to comp me the Airwave and monthly fee.

Works great! Sprint is a wonderful company and has always been good to me.

Edit: I received my Airave after calling Sprint Customer Care and explained the poor reception issue I was having at work and how I could not complete a call without dropping connection. After going through all the troubleshooting steps, they recommended the Airwave as a solution and offered to provide it free with no monthly fee (I never even had to ask). It may have helped that I've been with them over seven years and I always try to be cordial and kind when I speak to the representatives-I know how stressful their jobs must be because few people call in to say how much they love their phone or how much they are appreciated for providing support.
Click to expand...



This is the same experience we've had as well. Long time customers - awful reception inside spouse's office, great reception in the parking lot. Sprint comped us the Airave as well as the monthly service. Spouse uses WiFi for data. We've had it for a couple of years now with no problems.
 
Ok. So I have the Airave 2.5 and am having an occasional issue with the GPS lock. 95% of the time, all the lights are green and I have no problems using it. About 2x-3x a day, the mobile and GPS lights blink red for about 15 seconds and then turn green again. My unit is next to a window and the GPS "block" is INSIDE the window's inner frame. (Yes, line of sight to the sky)

I thought GPS satellites were stationary. :confused:

Any ideas as to why this happens? I've never lost a call because of this.

(Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE)

Setup: Modem, Airave, Router (Yes, I want it that way. I also have only my number allowed to access the Airave "whitelist" via the Sprint website)

Thanks! :)
 
could be in part due to sprint doing network upgrades in your area.

do you notice any delay when sending or receiving SMS messages?

putting the airvana in front of your router is really a waste of bandwidth. you are not gaining anything by that setup and you are causing more harm than good, just FYI.

I would also contact airvana support and have them look into this gps issue.
 
marctronixx said:
could be in part due to sprint doing network upgrades in your area.

do you notice any delay when sending or receiving SMS messages?

putting the airvana in front of your router is really a waste of bandwidth. you are not gaining anything by that setup and you are causing more harm than good, just FYI.
Click to expand...


I hand't thought of the upgrades. They did mention when I got the Airave that they were doing work in the area as well.

Thanks for letting me know about the data usage but, I checked my data usage on Comcast and it is about the same since before I got the Airave. It uses about 15k/hr or 360K/day on standby (no calls or texts being used) and my internet on my computer moves the same as it did before I got the Airave. So, I'm not concerned at all about that. I have never come close to my limit on Comcast for data usage. Also, the call clarity is much better. I tried both ways and made a test call from PA to WA. The clarity was better between the modem and router. (4 computers on network, 2 running Prime95 constantly) The SMS was slower, with a noticeable delay, with it set up attached to the router. With it set up between the modem and router, there is no delay. Overall, for the last month, the Airave only added about 500MB to my data usage with calls and standby. Since the call quality is better (at least for me) and the data usage isn't a problem, I will leave it where it is. (Modem, Airave, Router)

How do I know when my phone or the Airave receives a pushed update?
 
you will not know if the airvana had received an update. there is nothing to alert one of this. I mean updates to the sprint network that could be causing issues with your service.

putting the airvana in front of your router is not giving you better phone quality vs putting it after the router. the only reason the airvana should be upstream before the router is if you were using VOIP with sprint. Since sprint does not at this time have VOIP service, you are not getting the benefits of QoS the airvana is hogging from your data.

I did not mean to say the unit will cause you to USE more data, it just prioritizes more bandwidth to the airvana and takes some away that you can put to good use downstream.

cellular voice calls, use very little bandwidth to encode, so you can have a gigabit bandwidth stream allocated to the airvana and you will not get any more better voice calls.

also "whitelisting" your number on the sprint page does not do anything, unless they have changed something within the last couple months. early on , especially with the first airave, one could whitelist certain numbers to use with it, but if others around would complain their service (sprint) was poor and sprint found out your unit was in the area, they would remove the whitelist from the equipment. with the second airvana, the whitelist was not reliable-for example, i would put only certain phones on the list, only to come back and see they were removed. but, they could have updated it... :)

i dont want to take this too far, if you are enjoying your setup the way it is, who am I to argue, I just want you to be aware its not doing anything better for your call quality, since the airvana only uses a certain amount for cellular voice calls but WILL HOG MORE bandwidth and it will sit unused... ;)
 
marctronixx said:
could be in part due to sprint doing network upgrades in your area.

do you notice any delay when sending or receiving SMS messages?

putting the airvana in front of your router is really a waste of bandwidth. you are not gaining anything by that setup and you are causing more harm than good, just FYI.

I would also contact airvana support and have them look into this gps issue.
Click to expand...

marc, just want to clarify for my own knowledge (and in "tech-for-dummies" terms). What you're saying is that, the airrave should be set up as such, correct:

modem>router>airrave

That's the most advantageous setup, right? Just want to be sure because that's how I was told by Sprint to set up (when Airrave first came out).
 
marctronixx said:
putting the airvana in front of your router is not giving you better phone quality vs putting it after the router. the only reason the airvana should be upstream before the router is if you were using VOIP with sprint. Since sprint does not at this time have VOIP service, you are not getting the benefits of QoS the airvana is hogging from your data.

I did not mean to say the unit will cause you to USE more data, it just prioritizes more bandwidth to the airvana and takes some away that you can put to good use downstream.

cellular voice calls, use very little bandwidth to encode, so you can have a gigabit bandwidth stream allocated to the airvana and you will not get any more better voice calls.

also "whitelisting" your number on the sprint page does not do anything, unless they have changed something within the last couple months. early on , especially with the first airave, one could whitelist certain numbers to use with it, but if others around would complain their service (sprint) was poor and sprint found out your unit was in the area, they would remove the whitelist from the equipment. with the second airvana, the whitelist was not reliable-for example, i would put only certain phones on the list, only to come back and see they were removed. but, they could have updated it...
Click to expand...

Ok. However, according to VoIP, Google Voice Make Sprint Most Innovative US Carrier , Sprint introduced VOIP in 2011. I also have a separate number on my account for the Airave. Which is why it's $4 extra per month because I'm being charged government taxes and fees for a 2nd line. Also, in the documentation that comes with the Airave, it states that the Airave should be set up Modem, Airave, Router. The behind the router is an option. "It is not recommended to configure the Airave behind a personal router. Some users may want to use this configuration putting the Airave behind the router. This is possible but may result in stability issues for the Airave and voice quality issues" (Quoted from page 3 of the "Technical and Troubleshooting Guide, Sprint Airave 2.5) Again, I'm not at all worried about the data usage or bandwidth as I fly along just fine and didn't see a difference when I attached the unit. (I'm not trying to argue the point, I just want to make people aware of their options. Whatever you have done seems to work fine for you. :) )

I was told by the Airave Rep at Sprint that the whitelist is to only allow my phone number access to the Airave. (So other Sprint phones can't use it) I was told that the Airave will "ignore" other numbers attempting to locate a Sprint "tower" and not let them connect. On the plus side, the Airave doesn't really reach beyond the walls in my house anyway. :D
 
so you are not getting your unit for free? i pay no taxes or anything on the unit.

the documentation is for VOIP service that sprint DOES NOT OFFER. you are not using a VOIP service with the unit.. you are letting sprint route their calls and data through your comcast network. you are helping sprint by offloading your call traffic across your comcast cable.

since the airvana tech support cant troubleshoot other equipment thats connected to it, they recommend you put it before other devices. thats why. its not to give you better call quality, i have been using this service since at least 2008 and i can speak on experience that putting the airvana/airave unite behind the router will work best for the end user who only needs voice calls from sprint on their cellular phones.

all airvana/airave units have a number, thats how sprint sets up accounts. you cant use that number to make any calls to the device. when i had a mobile hotspot on my account, it had a number associated with it. you cant use it, its just for account purposes.

again, if you love your setup, thats awesome. I am just giving you my personal experience.

enjoy your service... :)
 
gallid19086 said:
Ok. However, according to VoIP, Google Voice Make Sprint Most Innovative US Carrier , Sprint introduced VOIP in 2011. I also have a separate number on my account for the Airave. Which is why it's $4 extra per month because I'm being charged government taxes and fees for a 2nd line. Also, in the documentation that comes with the Airave, it states that the Airave should be set up Modem, Airave, Router. The behind the router is an option. "It is not recommended to configure the Airave behind a personal router. Some users may want to use this configuration putting the Airave behind the router. This is possible but may result in stability issues for the Airave and voice quality issues" (Quoted from page 3 of the "Technical and Troubleshooting Guide, Sprint Airave 2.5) Again, I'm not at all worried about the data usage or bandwidth as I fly along just fine and didn't see a difference when I attached the unit. (I'm not trying to argue the point, I just want to make people aware of their options. Whatever you have done seems to work fine for you. :) )

I was told by the Airave Rep at Sprint that the whitelist is to only allow my phone number access to the Airave. (So other Sprint phones can't use it) I was told that the Airave will "ignore" other numbers attempting to locate a Sprint "tower" and not let them connect. On the plus side, the Airave doesn't really reach beyond the walls in my house anyway. :D
Click to expand...

marctronixx said:
so you are not getting your unit for free? i pay no taxes or anything on the unit.

the documentation is for VOIP service that sprint DOES NOT OFFER. you are not using a VOIP service with the unit.. you are letting sprint route their calls and data through your comcast network. you are helping sprint by offloading your call traffic across your comcast cable.

since the airvana tech support cant troubleshoot other equipment thats connected to it, they recommend you put it before other devices. thats why. its not to give you better call quality, i have been using this service since at least 2008 and i can speak on experience that putting the airvana/airave unite behind the router will work best for the end user who only needs voice calls from sprint on their cellular phones.

all airvana/airave units have a number, thats how sprint sets up accounts. you cant use that number to make any calls to the device. when i had a mobile hotspot on my account, it had a number associated with it. you cant use it, its just for account purposes.

again, if you love your setup, thats awesome. I am just giving you my personal experience.

enjoy your service... :)
Click to expand...

I have to second marctronixx on this, the only reason to be right off the modem is for VOIP which Sprint does not offer. The Airave is blocking out a large chunk of your internet bandwidth to reserve it for a VOIP which is not even available. This is a feature of the Airave that Samsung builds in and as far as I know is permanent, the only way to defeat it is to put it behind the router.

I noticed a sizable improvement in the internet at our shop when switching it to behind the router. We were using Clear, and surprisingly had a good connection but the tower was visible out our front door.:D
 
marctronixx said:
so you are not getting your unit for free? i pay no taxes or anything on the unit.

the documentation is for VOIP service that sprint DOES NOT OFFER. you are not using a VOIP service with the unit.. you are letting sprint route their calls and data through your comcast network. you are helping sprint by offloading your call traffic across your comcast cable.

since the airvana tech support cant troubleshoot other equipment thats connected to it, they recommend you put it before other devices. thats why. its not to give you better call quality, i have been using this service since at least 2008 and i can speak on experience that putting the airvana/airave unite behind the router will work best for the end user who only needs voice calls from sprint on their cellular phones.

all airvana/airave units have a number, thats how sprint sets up accounts. you cant use that number to make any calls to the device. when i had a mobile hotspot on my account, it had a number associated with it. you cant use it, its just for account purposes.

again, if you love your setup, thats awesome. I am just giving you my personal experience.

enjoy your service... :)
Click to expand...

I received the unit free of charge, but they say I have to pay $4/month in federal taxes because of the "2nd line" But, I'm willing to for better coverage. (Versus the practically non-existent coverage I had before in my house)

And, apparently Sprint does offer VOIP services but only to business accounts at this time. Sprint Business - VoIP

Also, and I'm not sure why they had me do this, but the last time I was on the phone with an Airave tech, they had me go to a VOIP speed test website. :confused: I'm using the Airave 2.5 and there was some talk about VOIP support back in 2010 for this unit
 
the unit supports voip sure. sprint has voip services (as does ATT verizon i believe), but it uses different equipment. what you have is JUST for cellular. you are not paying for voip service. they probably had you go to a voip site because its in their notes to do so.

we can go round and round the berry bush :) , however if you are satisfied with your system then great. I simply dont want you to have mis-information about what the unit is and does.

i dont pay anything at all for the unit. its zero. im not sure what number you are paying for, but the number assigned to the unit is not a number you can call to the unit.
 
marctronixx said:
the unit supports voip sure. sprint has voip services (as does ATT verizon i believe), but it uses different equipment. what you have is JUST for cellular. you are not paying for voip service. they probably had you go to a voip site because its in their notes to do so.

we can go round and round the berry bush :) , however if you are satisfied with your system then great. I simply dont want you to have mis-information about what the unit is and does.

i dont pay anything at all for the unit. its zero. im not sure what number you are paying for, but the number assigned to the unit is not a number you can call to the unit.
Click to expand...

Gottcha. Thanks! :) They make it sound like it is when you call to get one.

I did try to call the number that Sprint assigned to the unit as listed when I log into Sprint's website. "The user you are trying to reach is not available at this time" is the recorded message I get. That makes me wonder why I'm getting charged and you aren't. :mad:
 
no one should get charged for the "number". think of it as an account number assigned to your airvana.... thats all it is.

some people ARE being charged for the unit. Lets say I live in a good sprint coverage area but in my basement, i get poor coverage. so i can lease this equipment to get better coverage there.

some people dont have good coverage AT ALL. sprint confirmed this one way or the other and they offered this service free of charge.
 
marctronixx said:
no one should get charged for the "number". think of it as an account number assigned to your airvana.... thats all it is.

some people ARE being charged for the unit. Lets say I live in a good sprint coverage area but in my basement, i get poor coverage. so i can lease this equipment to get better coverage there.

some people dont have good coverage AT ALL. sprint confirmed this one way or the other and they offered this service free of charge.
Click to expand...

I was one of the people that got it for free because I only had 1 bar in my house and 2 if I went outside. But, for some reason, they still charge me the $4/month for it. According to Sprint, I'm being charge federal taxes for "a second phone line on your account." I agree that I shouldn't have to pay $4/month extra because they couldn't be bothered to have decent service in my area. I'm less than a mile from an expressway just outside of Philly (which I have great coverage on) and I'm not in a valley either.
 
each person's situation is different with sprint, so maybe you have something special to your plan that i dont. I am not really sure.

what i do know, and others also in this thread if you search, is that if you received this for free from sprint, you should not have to pay anything for it.
 
Sprint made me pay $100+ for the device but no monthly fee. Guess I would rather pay once upfront than every month for life. I have no service inside and maybe 1 bar outside if you walk around to find the right spot. Since I have no neighbors I cranked up the power so it works nice for about 100+ feet away but it does kill visitors phones sometimes.
 
there is a page on your sprint account that gives you the option to whitelist certain numbers and also you can change the power level.
 
My wife uses the Airave for her Sprint iPhone4S. Without it, she is constantly dropping calls. It started giving us issues with our internet so we unplugged it. I noticed that my Verizon Motorola Droid Razr Maxx instantly went up to full bars. Does the Airave impede the signal on other carriers devices?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom