Pepwave TTL knowledge share

[Neal]

For those using the Pepwave with Firmware 8.0.1 or later you have the ability to set a TTL value to be enforced in the Cellular details (settings) area. Let's use this thread for those that experiment with it and what you find.

Since I started beta testing this I really couldn't tell if it was working or not so I just landed at 65 for a value per the video we've seen about the TTL trick to try and make carriers think we're using a cell phone which typically is favored for speeds. I'm now at Casa Grande, AZ and I decided to tinker with TTL's a little. Once again Sprint is showing some strength interestingly as it has been in a few AZ locations. Anyways, I tried 64 then 66 and I did notice a difference in my tests. 66 seems to taste good to Sprint and I'm going to leave this. I did see a noticable difference in upload speeds doubling from 64 tests to 66 tests. Downloads are pretty good at over 20. Sprint has a pattern of very slow upload speeds which I think has some importance I'm finding out for WiFi calling. AT&T is now at 66 as well and I "think" it's showing positive results with 66 over 64 but I don't know if much difference over 65. So for now I'm going to run at 66 TTL and see how it goes.

 

[CoreyinWP]

Could be just serendipity, but after making change to 66, running 30% faster on att

 

[Neal]

Could be just serendipity, but after making change to 66, running 30% faster on att

The cell radio resets on the TTL change so that "could" be part of it. Just like going to disabled, wait a minute, re-establish. But yeah, I'm holding on to 66 for now to watch it too.

 

[Neal]

TTL of 66 continues to perform well. My comparison is AT&T in the Pepwave (Mobley plan) against my AT&T iPhone. Typically the iPhone will show faster because it's an iPhone! When I arrived yesterday with TTL of 65 at that point and time moon phase etc. the iPhone was faster, probably by 5-10 MB/s. This mornings compare on TTL of 66 has the Pepwave faster. I test this of course by turning off WiFi on the phone so I'm pure AT&T LTE. It looks promising but in my opinion cellular testing is not a constant. Yesterday could be meteorological, tower use, time of day, etc. But all in all TTL 66 is not degraded and if anything it is improved. Continuing with TTL on 66.

 

[Neal]

AT&T was acting funky this morning so went back to 65. Again, the cell radio resets on the change so who knows what the cause is. Speeds after the change are good again.

 

[Neal]

Ehh, AT&T not great this morning. Switching to Sprint.

 

[CoreyinWP]

It is such a crapshoot. Was stalling this morning and rebooted and came back at 18 down.

 

[Neal]

Yeah, this is cellular and it is frustrating! I would love to have an ethernet port on the pedestal where we can get residential Internet at the CG!

 

[Neal]

Setting up nightly reboot would help this situation but I can't do it as I have to maintain my connections/IP addresses for my business scenarios (getting through my firewalls, etc.)

 

[Neal]

I went back to 65 and will park there again.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Here is an example of changing TTL to defeat throttling.

 

[CaptainGizmo]

Just to keep this subject alive...here is proof that TTL = 64 produced CRAZY results!! I went from under 1Mpbs, to over 27...I’ll take it!

I ran several tests, including switching back to Auto, and after 3 rounds, have come to the conclusion that 64 works magic for Verizon, who throttled THE CRAP outta my Pre-paid SIM!!

June 18, 2020: I found that 64 made the Verizon SIM smoke!

 

[Neal]

Interesting, I thought 64 was the number to avoid. Sometimes rebooting the router helps as it may be locked on to a distant tower and maybe it finds a better tower to serve you? I don't know. There are so many factors involved with this but I'm glad you found gold.

 

[Joe Hogan]

From my experience and understanding, it appears to have more to do with the change then the actual number. As long as the TTL number is "valid" the VZN throttle algorithm needs time to catch up to the change and apply the throttle again.
If you run that TTL for awhile you might see the throttle reapplied once VZN determines your use.
VZN throttling is Like playing whack-a-mole.
Also as Neal said there is a tremendous amount of factors other than TTL that determines your cell signal bandwidth.

 

[CaptainGizmo]

Hmmm...I’ll just go back to hating Verizon. It’s much easier. LOL