Q about Skinny Wireless Broadband and Smart Modem 2

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Q about Skinny Wireless Broadband and Smart Modem 2

johno1234

1332 posts

Uber Geek

#303092 16-Jan-2023 11:26

Happy New Year, all.

Due to our contractor damaging the Chorus fibre cable under our old driveway, we lost our internet and are waiting until hopefully tomorrow to get repairman onsite. In the meantime, I brought our Skinny Wireless Broadband modem from Whangamata up to Auckland and plugged it in. It worked fine for a day until yesterday. Since then, the LED for "4G/LTE" has gone off. Can connect wifi to it, but no internet. Power it off and on, the 4G/LTE LED comes back on briefly along with internet - then goes off again after less than a minute. Any idea why?

2nd question: This device is a Spark Smart Modem 2. Our fibre modem is a Spark Smart Modem 1 and we have two Spark Mesh 1 units. I attempted to pair these Mesh devices to the Skinny modem and it doesn't seem to have worked. Should Smart Mesh 1 work with Smart Modem 2?

Thanks

DjShadow

3952 posts

Uber Geek

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#3021979 16-Jan-2023 11:33

I believe those routers are locked to the cellsite it first connects to hence won't work if you move it, may need to talk to Skinny support.

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johno1234

1332 posts

Uber Geek

#3021990 16-Jan-2023 11:48

DjShadow:

I believe those routers are locked to the cellsite it first connects to hence won't work if you move it, may need to talk to Skinny support.

Good point. It did work for a day - maybe they only check this on a schedule. Waiting on the online Skinny chat for a human to confirm...

cbrpilot

890 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#3022025 16-Jan-2023 13:27

Pretty sure the SM1 mesh units are not compatible with SM2 or SM3. Sad, but true.

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johno1234

1332 posts

Uber Geek

#3022027 16-Jan-2023 13:42

cbrpilot:

Pretty sure the SM1 mesh units are not compatible with SM2 or SM3. Sad, but true.

Ooh, rats!

johno1234

1332 posts

Uber Geek

#3022038 16-Jan-2023 13:54

The problem was that the broadband number is configured to an unlimited plan, but the current location does not allow unlimited. They've remotely allowed it but it is not working properly yet. On reboot the internet works for about 20 seconds then drops. Our signal is not very good - but usually gets 2 bars or better...

johno1234

1332 posts

Uber Geek

#3022040 16-Jan-2023 14:00

Found a better location in the house with 3 bars... seems to be holding onto it's 4G/LTE now. The Spark/Skinny 4G map shows a boundary between "good" and "fair" that runs right through the center of the house.

Only issue now is that the modem is a couple of rooms away from the TV and the streaming device which is also wifi (current generation FireTV Stick). If only the mesh units would work.

snnet

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#3023007 17-Jan-2023 23:04

How many mesh units do you have? If more than one, you can plug one into the wireless modem and set it up that way (as per instructions for use with non-smart modem (1)) but you may have to reset it first.