MG21/E pricing and UK network support

[AnythingHosted]

Where can I find the pricing for MG21/E. Doesn't appear in CCW and my Meraki rep hasn't got back to me yet.

I have a requirement for a customer (city centre Scotland) where no fibre is available and would like to provide a quote before initiating a trial. Currently they are getting 10Mbp/s and almost nothing on upload.

Thanks,

Chris

[PhilipDAth]

This is very sketchy in my memory - but I think it goes on the GPL the first week of December.

[Roska]

@PhilipDAth is right, orders are flowing from Dec 5th onwards, at the moment skus are in CCW but marked as invalid. You can price them but you can´t buy them yet.

[IanH]

Hi

I can see that the MG21 and MG21E are available on CCW, however, what isn't clear from the documentation is if the MG21 and MG21E has the same license SKU.

As it stands i can see LIC-MG21-ENT-#Y

But i can't see any license for the specific license on the MG21E SKU..  Eg. LIC-MG21E-ENT-#Y

Can anyone advise if the MG21 and MG21E have the same license pattern, or have i jumped on too early an we are waiting for the 21E SKU License version to be released?

Thanks

Ian

[AnythingHosted]

From the webinar it looks to be a single licence for 21 and 21E

[ayham]

Confirmed - same license for both 21 and 21E

[ConnorL]

Hey, Chris. Just as an FYI, I've tested this myself with Vodafone, EE & Three (didn't have an O2 SIM to hand) and they all connected successfully. It's worth noting that some carriers are finicky about allowing SIM cards in non-mobile phones if it's a standard phone contract, so make sure you choose a mobile-broadband SIM/contract.

[Uberseehandel]

---

@ConnorL wrote:
I've tested this myself with Vodafone, EE & Three (didn't have an O2 SIM to hand) and they all connected successfully.

---

Connor - O2 will send out a free data SIM for use in dongles, so that would/should work for Meraki devices.

https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/sim-cards/pay-as-you-go/delivery?planId=9999-6f3aec12-5bc7-4639-9d0a-142bf... 

[ConnorL]

Hey Robin, I ended up running down to Waitrose and picked up an O2 SIM, came up fine as expected 🙂
Central London can be pretty poor for LTE speeds but I got a solid ~10Mbps.

[Uberseehandel]

@ConnorL 

Good to know there weren't any surprises.

5 G is requiring about 50(fifty) times as many cells as 4 G, so I don't see any of the MNOs spending much time filling in 4G holes, as 5G coverage makes them more than competitive with the fixed line ISPs, which will eventually make burying copper under the streets obsolete. Which is why BT wants to buy a major UK MNO, but is being stopped by the crazy prices being asked by the potential vendors. BT (and DTAG) have significant Managed Services divisions, Meraki would be a good fit if they addressed the IPv6 and multicast IPTV issues 👻

[Peter-77]

Hi Connor,

Is there any chance you can share the setting you used to get this working with EE please?

I have configured the APN settings are directed by EE, and the MG21 connects to their network, but does not get an IP address or DNS server address.

Here are the APN settings used:

APN: everywhere

Username: eesecure

Password: secure

Cellular Auth: PAP

Cellular IP Type: IPv4v6

Thanks

Peter

[Uberseehandel]

@Peter-77 

I use EE for my Z3C.

I had some stuffing around to begin with and a couple of calls to EE and help from Connor.

I am not using it ATM, being "grounded" at home. But, I just have cellular enabled, didn't have to do anything with APN

[Peter-77]

Thanks! That's useful to know.

Did the calls to EE provide any guidance? Did they change anything on their side?

There are so few settings to alter and EE have confirmed the APN settings I was using from information I found on their community site are correct.

I'd assumed Meraki would have documented somewhere the known working settings for each Carrier for the MG21.

[Uberseehandel]

---

@Peter-77 wrote:

Did the calls to EE provide any guidance? Did they change anything on their side?

---

I'm still laughing . . . .

The nice folk in Ulster hadn't realised that people were using externally acquired devices on a data-only tariff. I gave them the product code of the cellular/LTE subsystem (it shows against Model in the dashboard) and suggested they checked with the engineers if they had any questions. In any event we didn't change anything.

The continuing problem is that the EE Billing team didn't envisage people having PAYG data-only SIMs. So whenever I need to top up, I have to call the boys'n'girls in Ulster, who are very polite but mystified. Don't make any bomb jokes.

If I used the Z3C more regularly, I'd get a monthly subscription, although I'd leave my phone on O2. When EE gets organised where I live (on the S Coast) I'll look at dropping the fixed line contract, as long as the 5G option includes multicast capability.

[ConnorL]

Hey Peter,

I didn't use any APN to get the device to come online with EE. Just tried this again with an MG at home and my iPhone's EE SIM, came online pretty quickly without any configuration.

The MG will use the APN configured on the SIM by default. As @ Uberseehandel mentioned, I'd give EE a call if it's failing to get an IP address, you can open a support ticket with Meraki if you'd like us to take a direct look also, let me know the case number and I'll take a look.

[Peter-77]

Thanks for the offer to help Connor.

If you've got an MG21 online with default settings on EE in the UK, that helps, as I'll raise a ticket with EE.

I already have a Meraki case open (05090498), and an engineer spent 30 minutes yesterday poking around in our dashboard and then asked me to manually enter APN settings. This does imply a gap in Meraki support docs internally if APN settings are definitely not needed.

I'll post here with any progress.

Cheers

Peter

[ConnorL]

Hey Peter,

Completely depends on the SIM card to be honest. Mine's a standard contract SIM from EE, other packages or older SIMs may still require the T-Mobile APN for example. But that's best for EE to answer.

Would you be able to describe the SIM package you're using, e.g. is it a PAYG EE sim, phone contract SIM, mobile broadband SIM etc. I only ask as some carriers don't like putting a phone SIM into a Dongle, Three was investigated by Ofcom for such practises (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/bulletins/competition-bulletins/all-closed-cases/cw_0121...)

I see the MG is currently offline, can you bring it up with a WAN connection just so I can have a quick look?

Kind regards,

--

Connor Loughlin
Network Support Engineer

.:|:.:|:. Cisco Meraki EMEAR 🇬🇧

For reference, many questions can be easily answered by searching our online documentation: http://documentation.meraki.com

[Peter-77]

Mine is also a pay monthly EE phone contract SIM. EE confirmed yesterday that it should work in 'wireless broadband' devices, and there were no restrictions on it. The SIM works fine in a phone.

The device is online now in safe mode if you want to take a look.

Thanks

[ConnorL]

Hey Peter,

I'll continue comms over the ticket, when we've found the issue I'll pop the answer in here too so everyone can see it 🙂

Kind regards,

--

Connor Loughlin
Network Support Engineer

.:|:.:|:. Cisco Meraki EMEAR 🇬🇧

For reference, many questions can be easily answered by searching our online documentation: http://documentation.meraki.com

[ConnorL]

Hey Peter & those following this thread!

Hope you all had a great bank holiday weekend and are staying safe.

Quick update, I picked up an MG from the office for some further testing. Initially my EE SIM was experiencing the same behaviours as you, using general.t-mobile.co.uk as the APN and not coming online, however, the following config got it online:

The actual thing that got it working was changing "Cellular IP Type" to "Any" and it instantly came up, I mean... ta-da!

Let me know how you get on!

Kind regards,

--

Connor Loughlin
Network Support Engineer

.:|:.:|:. Cisco Meraki EMEAR 🇬🇧

For reference, many questions can be easily answered by searching our online documentation: http://documentation.meraki.com

[Peter-77]

Hi Connor,

Thanks for your time and effort on this. As confirmed in the ticket, it's working correctly with those settings.

Thanks for stepping in to assist !

Regards

Peter

[RutterVR46]

Connor

Interesting and good stuff.

May I ask, if you were adding this info to the MG21, but your ISP was giving you your own subsidiary of an o2 or Voda APN, so you would have a static IP for instance and you knew it. Has this been entered or tried? 

Or, if it is an 'ANY IP' setting and that the ISP gave you a static IP in the same fashion as above, can it be left as 'ANY IP' but would retain the same IP from the provider e.g. a static one as per their provided APN?

Just wondering if it is a 'Merakism' with this menu option or it just doesn't like a static IP for cellular configuration even if provided one by the SIM provider?

Thank you 

Adam

[ConnorL]

Hey @RutterVR46 ,

I was just using my personal EE SIM card. I didn't contact EE for these settings and it was plain ol' trial and error. 'everywhere' is the standard APN for EE.

I don't have the exact answer to your question sadly, and I'd recommend contacting EE for more info regarding their APNs.

Kind regards,

--

Connor Loughlin
Escalations Engineer

.:|:.:|:. Cisco Meraki EMEAR 🇬🇧

For reference, many questions can be easily answered by searching our online documentation: http://documentation.meraki.com

[RutterVR46]

Connor

Thank you for your reply.

We have a specific APN (no username and password required), and should be 'ANY' IP also, for which should give us a dedicated IP per SIM ICCID from our provider in this case.

We have tried using differing options regarding the settings, which in this case is a 'Roaming SIM', and when connecting the MG is trying to find the best signal, so in this case looking for a 'Vodafone' connection, but won't connect.

I think the issue we have is the 'Roaming' element on the Meraki MG21 as the SIM is looking for the best signal but isn't able to perhaps roam properly to enable our connection.

I have seen some other 'Roaming' queries on the Meraki Community as well, but no answers there.

Thank you 

Adam

[Uberseehandel]

@RutterVR46 

I use a personal SIM, not a roaming SIM. My package gives me free roaming in EU, North America, Australia, NZ a few other places, the upgrade was free.

This is the EE offering - Free EU roaming | Roaming on EE | EE

[ConnorL]

Hmm, I'd recommend opening a Support Case so an engineer can take a look at what's happening.

Are using a Multi-Provider SIM that will connect to the network with the best coverage, rather than a single provider SIM?

[RutterVR46]

Connor

Yes, that is correct, it is a multi-network SIM looking for the best signal.

We have always used specific provider SIMs in the past but with multiple geo deployments sometimes the signal maybe poor with one provider and to try and alleviate this with the first hit and not have to revisit for an alternate SIM provider, we have now got a multi-roaming SIMs with a specific business APN (non-consumer SIM).

Thank you 

Adam

[ConnorL]

Yeah, that's fair enough.

I'd recommend reaching out to Support as they should be able to see what's happening, whether that being the MG is being rejected by the network or some other issue.

Let me know how you get on!

[RutterVR46]

Connor

Hi there. Update.

So, when using the multi-carrier SIMs, originally we weren't able to get them connected, the MG21 status page showed a connection to a network but WAN IP, no DNS and obviously no Meraki cloud visibility. 

Had a call with our partner, had a play with the backend IP stack and allocation on our roaming SIMs, and all now working with just the APN, IP as 'ANY' and with no username and password. All ok.

What we are looking at now is the multi-carrier element to the SIM e.g. if say, a network mast was being work on by an engineer this could take down connectivity to that mast, so the 'multi-carrier' element would kick in.

In testing we tried to initiate this by forcing the SIM to use an alternate network (that had signal) to force over the carrier to use another. This was sort of working, but sometimes needed manual intervention or refreshing from the local status page. Further testing required. And ideally, we don't want to have keep asking end users to reboot the PoE injector for the MG as this isn't practical nor wanted.

What would be good, and I have heard of mention of scripting within the MG21 to auto reboot if a signal is lost (but not found this yet), which would be one thing, but it would be amazing if there was better control of the MGs to do things e.g. reboot, like we can with APs etc, but as the WAN ports of the MXs aren't PoE, this can't be managed via the dashboard to 'shut' and 'reopen' that port to force an MG21 to power cycle if the MG21 had lost cellular connectivity like we could if one a switch?

Anyway, for the forum and interest, I will update you once I know the best format.

Cheers 

A

[PJ51182]

Hi,

I have a strange issue with a Z3C that was working with EE a couple of weeks ago and now isn't.

I've tried the following:

Tested SIM, works fine in a phone.

Tried another Z3C, same issue.

Tried another know working SIM, same issue.

I can see you are in a safe mode and able to enter settings relating to the cellular connection (as shown above in the post by @ConnorL ).  On the Z3C there doesn't appear to be an option to configure this when on the local status page?  Am I missing something with going into "safe mode" as shown on the screen shot?

I've logged a support case, just would like to try what has been suggested here but can't same to be able to get to enter the settings as shown. 

Firmware version: MX 15.42