tommiefern Report post Posted August 8, 2019 Hi-new to forum-has anyone taken advantage of the unlimited offer and if so how does it work? Pros and cons-thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elkhartjim Report post Posted August 8, 2019 Do a forum search and decide for yourself. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
desertdeals69 Report post Posted August 8, 2019 Sprint coverage is scarce across the country. I have Verizon and the wife has Sprint. My phone and data coverage are a lot better than hers. Her Sprint in Asia was good as she had unlimited texting including pictures. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mdalfano Report post Posted August 8, 2019 I have the Sprint Tech Connect mifi. Where there is Sprint service, it is really good. As fast as our Verizon and ATT phones. My wife, myself and my grandson used it for 10 days through out New England with no problems. We were trying it out to see how it worked. We used a lot of data on three iPads with no throttling. What I found interesting was checking data usage, it does not list any usage. I guess it is truly unlimited. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobfoster Report post Posted January 14, 2020 I just received my Sprint Mifi 8000 MiFi device today. It is failing to connect to the internet and I can't find a good tech support number. The number that came with the start up guide will only handle Carrier calls. It tries to connect and then says to contact customer service. Any thoughts? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manholt Report post Posted January 14, 2020 bobfoster. Welcome. Where are you at? Just State would help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermanmullins Report post Posted January 15, 2020 bob, If you got you unit through FMCA contact Jgabberd@fmca.com. Jason can direct you to someone that can help. Herman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
huffypuff Report post Posted January 15, 2020 I just tether my Sprint phone to my laptop when needed. Works the same with unlimited 60 gb without slowdown. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobfoster Report post Posted January 15, 2020 Thank you to all! The people from the number in the guide I received responded to an e-mail apologizing and letting me know do provide support. I ended up driving into town and was able to get it working. When I was home it acted like there was no signal. I got it working in town with 3 bars. Now that I'm back home I have 3 bars at home now. I've been in IT for 20+ years and this was a weird result but it's up and working so as I've learned over the years, you just have to settle for being glad its working! Next step, I'm connecting it to a WiFi Ranger in the next few days so I can do some testing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lrallen1 Report post Posted January 15, 2020 I've had the Techconnect Sprint WiFi since June. Yes, it can be a tad spotty. But it has served us pretty well, most of the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raypesek Report post Posted January 18, 2020 My FMCA Franklin R910 suffered a bulging battery and actually popped the back cover off. I received the new Inseego Mifi 8000 last week as a replacement. It's supposed to be the same hardware as the Verizon 8800L Mifi device. The Mifi 8000 is what Sprint is now selling to their customers instead of the Franklin R910 and it can have an external antenna connected to it. It would not activate so I worked through the FMCA TechConnect page and Aaron White (Membership Services Manager) responded, who was fantastic to deal with. He is extremely responsive and competent. It turned out that FMCA needed to contact Sprint to get the phone number moved from the Franklin R910 to the Mifi 8000 and then it just started working, probably because the Mifi was a replacement device provided by Asurion and shipped directly to me. I knew when it switched because the R910 stopped working. :) There is a firmware update that may be needed on the original Mifi 8000 devices, firmware 1S but mine had it when it was shipped to me from Asurion. Aaron provided the firmware update directions in case that was the problem but it wasn't. The area we're in right now is kind of spotty on coverage. If you understand signal strengths the Mifi is showing -122 to -125 dbm, which is quite weak. Sprint's map shows I need to relocate out of the campground in any direction for about a mile and coverage will be fine, of course. I just ordered a directional antenna from Amazon for these areas so we'll see how it works when it arrives in a week or so. https://www.amazon.com/Inseego-Hotspot-External-Periodic-Low-Loss/dp/B07XY7D6VS/ref=sr_1_3?crid=J9KLSCWPJCPR&keywords=mifi+8000+mobile+hotspot+external+antenna&qid=1579362721&sprefix=mifi+8000%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-3 HTH, Ray Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
REI60 Report post Posted January 21, 2020 1-20-20 Got Sprint hot spot 3 weeks ago. Left Knoxville Tn area for Cape Canaveral Fl area. Hot spot worked fine till we got into campground here at Cape Canaveral. MIFI8000 showed 1 bar and wanted to roam. Sprint coverage map showed good coverage at campground. I contacted FMCA and they told me as long as it showed yellow coverage on Sprint Map it was ok to say yes to the "Domestic Roaming " message. It was in coverage zone for Sprint. Once it went to roaming I was downloading at 6 meg, Not great but ok for my use. Hope FMCA guy was correct on the domestic roaming message. I have ATT in the car and it is about the same speed. Any input on the domestic roaming would be great Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tmcblane Report post Posted February 6, 2020 I received my mifi 15 minutes ago from sprint. First test was 95meg down, only 3 up but dang! We are in the rv meca of quartzsite area about 20 miles east. My att is running about 17 down and verizon is .5meg at 4 in the afternoon. So far REALLY happy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raifordr Report post Posted June 13, 2020 Just got my Mifi 8000 from Sprint. Am preparing for an RV trip so have been trying to use it at home which is in an extended range (roaming) section of the Sprint coverage map. I never suspected that the colored and cross hatched extended area meant that the device wouldn't be able to work as two Sprint tech supports very unhelpfully volunteered. Interestingly enough, right out of the box it fired up and worked just fine. Did the happy dance, but WAIT! I turned the device off for the night. When I turned it back on the next morning, got the "your device is not activated" message and told to call Sprint. Before I did that, I explored all the menu options and settings logged into my device from my laptop. Nothing jumped out, so I did a hard reset. Still nothing. Called Sprint Tech Support group at 800-927-2199 per FMCA email. Well. Since I'm not in direct Sprint coverage, the lady couldn't help. She did offer to send some type of reset signal but doubted this would work since I wasn't on their network. I verified that "roaming" was turned on, and in a few minutes (presumably after the special signal was sent) the Mifi8000 started working again and did so all day just fine. Well, turned if off again last night and tried again this morning. After resetting, doublechecking and testing, the device said it was connected to the internet but I could not access anything on the internet - like the DNS didn't even exist. Kept getting site unavailable type messages from many common sites (e.g. MSNBC.com, CNN.com, my bank, etc.) Another call to Sprint tech support resulted in another lady informing me that she couldn't help since I wasn't directly on their network. Denied any responsibility for this failure and suggested that FMCA should have known this wouldn't work well in a mobile RV environment unless you only drive near Sprint towers. So, I'm wondering if any techies on this forum might realize what's going on and be able to suggest something other than mailing this back to FMCA (they did furnish me the address) and giving up. Recall that this worked just fine out of the box until I turned it off for the night. Never the same since. I liked the Sprint plan of month to month with unlimited usage, but doesn't help if it won't work from day to day or only in their special spots. I won't spend two hours each morning hoping to get the thing to work, and I don't really intend to leave it on all the time as Sprint suggested. Wouldn't help anyway now that it isn't working. So, for those still thinking about this, proceed with caution. If the FMCA contact mentioned in one of the other replies can help, I'll let everyone know what the problem was/is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
docj Report post Posted June 13, 2020 In the cellular world, the kind of plan that FMCA sells is called a "reseller plan" since it isn't sold directly by the carrier. Many (most?) reseller plans don't work in the "extended range" portions of the coverage maps. I'm not sure why yours did work there before, but that's probably the reason you're having so much trouble now. Historically, Sprint has always been the weakest of the cellular carriers with more holes in its coverage map than the others. Supposedly Sprint customers can now roam on the T-Mobile network (as the first phase of the merger) but I don't know if that applies to reseller plans. IMO T-Mobile's coverage is also pretty poor compared to Verizon and AT&T so, as a full-time RVer, I won't consider them either. I have low-cost unlimited connections with both Verizon and AT&T and use both of them in a load balancing router. That's what it takes to stay connected all the time and even that solution isn't perfect. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raifordr Report post Posted June 13, 2020 Thanks for that background, Doc! I still don't see how this thing can connect to the internet (it was even able to look for s/w updates this morning) but I not be able to access any sites. I asked the Sprint techie if they somehow blocked me, but that idea was adamantly rejected. Still, no one seems to know why this thing worked perfectly two days in a row but will not start up once turned off. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
docj Report post Posted June 13, 2020 4 hours ago, raifordr said: Still, no one seems to know why this thing worked perfectly two days in a row but will not start up once turned off. I assume someone had you verify that the APN was correct? It's possible that the APN reverted to a stored one that isn't correct for this plan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eddylucast Report post Posted June 13, 2020 If you are questioning your DNS try using one of the free DNS servers. Google has a couple free DNS servers, as much as I detest google, try DNS server settings 4.4.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raifordr Report post Posted June 14, 2020 No one asked anything about APN. They were too busy pushing me off saying that it wasn't their fault since I wasn't directly on their network. As if ATT and Verizon were flaky and Sprint was not. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that they cannot keep my device activated. I get a message that "Your device is not activated, contact customer service for assistance." The first time I did, the lady claimed to have sent some type of message and voila, it started working. The second time, the lady refused saying it wouldn't help. I've sent a direct email to Jason Gabbard; we'll see if he can make this work or back it goes - no revenue for Sprint for bad service. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
moonwink Report post Posted September 19, 2020 I just received my Sprint MiFi 8000 and am trying it out for the first time. It was working fine for awhile but when I needed to connect to United Health Care's website, I was blocked and received time out message saying the website wasn't available. Several other sites I tried to connect to also timed out. I then connected to my Verizon phone's hotspot and get right through. I've download, printed and read through the owner's manual without learning anything. I wanted to change the SID and WiFi password but there is no mention of how that's done in the user manual and looking over all the settings available to me on the device don't lead me to any settings where I can do that. I tried the email mentioned in Herman Miller's post only to have my message immediately blocked by the receiver. Owning this device better not be a PITA or I'll dump it like a hot potato. It shouldn't be this difficult to use and manage. Quote bob, If you got you unit through FMCA contact Jgabberd@fmca.com. Jason can direct you to someone that can help. Herman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
moonwink Report post Posted September 20, 2020 I was able to get to the United Health Care website today using the MiFi. Also, I fumbled around the settings and found a way to change the SID and PW for WiFi. None of that was mentioned in the owners manual but should have been. In another thread, I found a tip to increase the setting for when warnings would occur about using too much data (10Gb is the default setting). As advised in that topic, I added 3 zeros so I should never see the warning. While I'm making progress, I'd hate to rely on the MiFi 8000 without a backup device. There was no reason I should have had problems connecting to any websites that gave me trouble yesterday. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raypesek Report post Posted September 21, 2020 (edited) 22 hours ago, Moonwink said: There was no reason I should have had problems connecting to any websites that gave me trouble yesterday. There's always a reason. I've had the FMCA service for maybe a year now and had no issues connecting as long as I had at least one bar. Sure, some places are spotty but with T-Mobile taking over things should get better, or at least not worse. User manuals are not intended anymore to actually convey useful information, as you probably know. I just went through the Mifi screens and figured out how to change the SSID, passwords and DHCP range. Edited September 21, 2020 by raypesek Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dannydanni Report post Posted September 26, 2020 On 8/7/2019 at 8:21 PM, tommiefern said: Hi-new to forum-has anyone taken advantage of the unlimited offer and if so how does it work? Pros and cons-thanks We used the Sprint offer last summer when we stayed at our summer location and absolutely loved it. It didn't throttle down and we used YouTubeTV for our TV shows. We had the TV, 2 computers, 1 tablet, 2 phones and one Echo Dot on the sprint mifi. This year, however, we are having a terrible time with it. Shows keep stopping, connection drops. Then other times it works just fine. It started out fine last month and is just getting worse and worse. We are in the same exact location as last year, so I don't think that is the issue. We have moved the Mifi to different locations in the rig and that helps a little but still issues. Given how good it was last year and how everyone raves about it, I wonder if we just have a piece of hardware that is going bad. If we were going to stay here longer, I'd contact FMCA and get another one, but we will be headed home soon. If it would run like last year, it's fabulous and we were very excited about having an unlimited plan that is truly unlimited. I will definitely try it again next year, as we did have such good service last year. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raypesek Report post Posted September 28, 2020 I've noticed my cameras would disconnect and not reconnect after some time. I started tracking it on my calendar and right about once a month they stop and I have to reboot the Mifi to restore operation for another month. I've also noticed some pretty good slowdowns that are resolved by a reboot. Have you done that recently? Hold down the button on the top and a menu will pop up to restart or shutdown. Ray Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermanmullins Report post Posted September 28, 2020 8 hours ago, raypesek said: Have you done that recently? Hold down the button on the top and a menu will pop up to restart or shutdown. Ray Ray I haven't had this issue but incase I do, which button on the top are you speaking of. Herman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
