Arghh! Echo Dot 4th Gen, Three Mobile

[chinesewhispers]

Just need to vent this.

 

Background

- Home broadband on Three with Huawei Router

- Old Ruckus Kit with 3 APs

- Huawei portable 4G HotSpot available

- Vodafone Contract in mobile phone

- Three 4G PAYG SIM available

- Three Unlimited SIM available

- Alexa and Sonos devices in the house

- Internet and all devices working OK

 

Issue

New Echo Dots (4th gen, the spherical ones) purchased for Xmas presents. Unable to get them online. They connect to the app in setup, see the WiFi, register on the WiFi, but then fail. I tried different SSIDs, created new ones, 2.4, 5, direct WiFi to the Router, WiFi via 4G hotspot, all the same. Tried the 3 different Three SIMs in all the above configurations, all the same.

 

After several hours, I put my Vodafone SIM in the 4G hotspot and that worked first time.

 

I've then put the same Voda SIM into the Huawei router, got the 2 Dots setup first time again (different WiFi so have to go through setup again). Swapped the SIM back and the Dots continue to work.

 

It appears (for me at least) that the setup process on the 4th gen echo dot does not play well on the Three network. Why? No idea. Annoying? Very much. Frustrating Xmas day? Indeed.

 

Just thought I'd put this here for info, and if anyone has any idea why this might have happened.

[Meldrew]

Do you have the adult filters switched on with three? I seem to remember when I was using a 4G modem with three, the filter blocked something you wouldn't have thought would be included in the adult list.

 

Meldrew

[chinesewhispers]

The original SIM has it switched off, so this shouldn't have been causing it, I did think that.

 

The only things I haven't done since getting it working (but may do if I can be bothered) is to reset one of our older dots to see if it's just the 4th gen that's affected, and reset one of these now working 4th gen ones to see if it happens again in the same way.

 

I can't troubleshoot anything, only identify the symptoms!

Edited December 26, 2020 by chinesewhispers

[mel_brady]

Thanks so much for this solution, I never would have thought of it and it worked like a charm! I also have 3 broadband and thought I had a faulty device, but I've just tried this trick and it set up within seconds of putting a Vodafone PAYG sim in, and kept working when I swapped back to the 3 sim. I'm going to call amazon to report this issue and suggest everyone else with this issue does the same so hopefully they might fix it!