The Huawei B593 LTE discussion thread

I managed to pick one up at Edgars for R1499 - standard price it seems, not special.

They're supplied to the Edcon stores by Telkom Mobile, they bundle them with a SIM card so I think the price is subsidised in some way. So I would recommend looking at Edgars/CNA stores if you're looking to get one as this seems to be the cheapest place.

Stock apparently goes fairly quickly when it comes in though, so I'd phone and check before going to the store. I found one at Northgate Shopping Centre Edgars, and they said they still had quite a lot of stock.
 
The Telkom courier delivered my B593s-601 this morning. :D

I'm feeling like a total n00b though, I can't get this guy on to my network. I've changed the IP address to a valid IP on our network and disabled DHCP on the B593 but can't seem to pick it up on my network now. Pinging the new IP simply returns a timeout. What am I missing?
 
Speedster said:
The Telkom courier delivered my B593s-601 this morning. :D

I'm feeling like a total n00b though, I can't get this guy on to my network. I've changed the IP address to a valid IP on our network and disabled DHCP on the B593 but can't seem to pick it up on my network now. Pinging the new IP simply returns a timeout. What am I missing?
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What this router does, is when you connect to its IP address via HTTP, it redirects you to https://homerouter.cpe/. It sounds like you're experiencing the effect of this behaviour

If the B593's DHCP is enabled, and your PC receives its IP and DNS settings from the B593, then this process is handled automatically and should work on its own

But if you've accommodated it on your EXISTING network/DHCP setup, then you need to take this fact into account and make a static DNS workaround so that when your PC tries to resolve 'homerouter.cpe', it resolves to the custom LAN IP you've assigned to the B593. This can be achieved by adding a record to the C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file, or by setting a static DNS entry on your existing DNS server/router

Edit: nevermind. Just realised you cant even ping the IP. In that case you've done something else wrong. Make sure its on the same IP subnet and that you typed the IP addresses correctly etc.
 
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Speedster said:
I can't get this guy on to my network. I've changed the IP address to a valid IP on our network and disabled DHCP on the B593 but can't seem to pick it up on my network now. Pinging the new IP simply returns a timeout. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
If it makes you feel better, we've all been there! The first re-connect after an IP change (especially with a different network mask) is always a bit nervy lol.
I guess you checked all the usual things before committing the change, like IPs on the same subnet and proper network mask ?
But otherwise it should work with no major caveats.

One thing I have noticed is that the B593 'Web UI becomes quite unresponsive when it can't register or connect to the cell network. Was it already connected to the Telkom LTE network before you changed the IP ?
If not, maybe just be a little patient and give it a minute or two before trying something else. Once it connects (or gives up trying) it will respond as normal.

Otherwise, I'd suggest just trying the usual tricks, like disabling and re-enabling the network adapter on the client PC to force a new address. If all else fails you can always do a factory reset and try again.

Maybe also do ALL the initial commissioning (including getting it connected for LTE) using a straight LAN cable with a peer-to-peer (ie laptop-to-B593) setup and the B593 LAN defaults (DHCP on etc). Don't forget to back up the config at each step so you don't need to start over if you have to default it.

@fragtion : useful snippet, that - thanks. I've had occasional 'homerouter.cpe' problems too, though usually only when trying to connect from the WAN side with port-forwarding in place. Trying to 'go out' on the internet from a local LAN address, and 'back in' on the WAN sometimes gets you this result.
 
Thanks for the help guys, think it might just have been a faulty cable. All good now.
 
How do I go about finding out which tower it is connecting to? Want to try figure out where the best place to place it would be.
 
@Speedster
jcheek said:
Maybe also do ALL the initial commissioning (including getting it connected for LTE) using a straight LAN cable with a peer-to-peer (ie laptop-to-B593) setup and the B593 LAN defaults (DHCP on etc). Don't forget to back up the config at each step so you don't need to start over if you have to default it.
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^ This.
If you have other router on the LAN, auto configuration do not always work. Unplug all other devices, connect only PC to the router, then power on the router. Configure router according to your requirements, then plug in all other network devices. If you are not sure, there will be questions for the other thread.
 
jcheek said:
Seems Cell C has finally made it to the LTE party in SA - see here - with switch-on happening in the greater Johannesburg-Midrand area, to start with :

Reading between the lines, it looks like Cell C has deployed in the 2.1GHz band, presumably with FDD-mode LTE ?

If so, that'll mean that the (otherwise) "all-purpose" B593s-601 won't be able to work with Cell C LTE, unfortunately ... 2.1GHz is not one of the bands that the 's-601 covers.
Click to expand...

So it's now confirmed : Cell C LTE is going commercial from tomorrow (1 Oct 2015), and on 2.1GHz :

20150930 CellC LTE announcement.JPG

Source : Cell C LTE tested
 
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jcheek said:
So it's now confirmed : Cell C LTE is going commercial from tomorrow (1 Oct 2015), and on 2.1GHz
Click to expand...

Heard on ECR yesterday that the first X many customers getting a sim from Umhlanga store 1 Oct, get 100gb free or something on the network. Offer valid for a few days only.
Sorry no other details, but seems to be a number of launch specials around.
 
Sneeky said:
Heard on ECR yesterday that the first X many customers getting a sim from Umhlanga store 1 Oct, get 100gb free or something on the network. Offer valid for a few days only.
Sorry no other details, but seems to be a number of launch specials around.
Click to expand...

See here, yes.

Data only valid for 90 days and coverage is still quite limited right now. Nothing in Pretoria yet, for instance.
 
jcheek said:
'fraid so.
Of the model variants commonly available at the moment, it looks like the B593u-12 would be the best fit if you plan to use LTE from Cell C, MTN or Vodacom. But then that model unfortunately won't work for Telkom LTE :-(
Click to expand...

but then no TM LTE - really a bummer that the two cheapest networks can't be used on either the -12 or -601 :-(
 
Quick one, I spent quite a bit of time configuring this router, filtering and all that.
I have saved the config file through the router option in the UI and have the file.

I want to do some testing and need to reset.
Simple question is will ALL settings be restored when I re-upload the backed up router file, the mac filtering, white / blacklist, wifi access, passwords etc.
 
Sneeky said:
Quick one, I spent quite a bit of time configuring this router, filtering and all that.
I have saved the config file through the router option in the UI and have the file.

I want to do some testing and need to reset.
Simple question is will ALL settings be restored when I re-upload the backed up router file, the mac filtering, white / blacklist, wifi access, passwords etc.
Click to expand...
Yes, the config file will contain all your configurations upto the time of backup. You could even clone your router to another unit with that file long as certain criteria match eg: could be requires firmware versions to match etc etc
 
Thx kianm.

It was for some reason a mission to setup, my previous netgear or tplink adsl routers seemed much simpler or intuitive, so dont want to do it all over.
 
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