Cradlepoint Bounce Pages are Evil

tz1

The problem as I mentioned elsewhere is the type of redirect they are doing is WRONG in that it says the real content of the page you are asking for becomes the "no modem" or "modem not working page". There are sections of I-90 which I was driving where I knew this to be a problem. The KR1 would recover or eventually reboot if deprived of a connection long enough. I could see the signal on my UM-150. Part of the problem seemed to be the switch into and out of EVDO/1xRTT or home/roam.

So not only will you lose typing, history, cache, whatever when the modem is switching, if you are using something that is automatically grabbing files, it will be horribly broken. It does not redirect to a single bounce page (or one for no signal and one for no modem), it appends a random serial number, and instead of it being a simple "can't connect", it is a huge blob of javascript and formatting which rapidly fills a mobile device.

This "Feature" makes me regret getting the CradlePoint. The whole point of having a "mobile router" is to use it in mobile environments. Including while moving. The problem is if it ever hiccups, it will regurgitate all over your browsing or download session.

I can understand the security redirect, but I can turn security off and avoid that bounce page entirely.

For this to be useful in a mobile (including GPS) environment, I need to turn these bounce pages off too.

I re-emailed the request to their support asking it be given a higher priority.

Again, if you are using it and the signal hiccups, it will redirect you to a page explaining the modem is having problems COMPLETELY DESTROYING THE URL. THIS INCLUDES CACHE AND HISTORY BECAUSE IT IS TELLING YOUR BROWSER THAT THE BOUNCE PAGE SHOULD OVERRIDE ANY EARLIER COPY BECAUSE IT IS THE "REAL" PAGE AND POINTS AT THE ROUTER, NOT AT THE ORIGINAL URL. You will either have to find something linking to it in your bookmarks, another page, or retype it completely. And any software that uses web access for data (e.g. Google Earth) will break in some way that might be difficult to fix.

If you were considering getting a Cradlepoint for use "On the Road", or any other place the signal might dropout during connections, I would put it off until they fix this bug or get some other device.

strollin · Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:15 pm Post subject:

From reading Cradlepoint's website regarding the CTR-350, I don't believe they market it as a 'mobile' device but as a 'travel' or 'portable' device so you may be trying to use it outside of it's design. I've used mine while going down the road and did not encounter the problems you've seen but it was just a short test so I don't know if it was relevant.

Bottar · EVDO Newbie Joined: 04 Oct 2007 Posts: 5

Interesting scenario, thanks for the post.

The reason CTR/PHS redirects the way it does, forging the DNS, is so that it can redirect when there is no WAN/Modem connection and inform the user of the situation. In your case, tz1, this is bad.
Being able to turn off the redirects sounds like a good idea.

jackrodgers · EVDO Addict Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1131

Seems to me the proper design would be to open a NEW browser page and use that for the redirect...

On the surface, satellite seems more appropriate for a moving router.

tz1 · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:01 am Post subject: Cradlepoint Bounc

They could do several things.

1. Give ANY of the STANDARD HTTP error messages - resource not found, resource temporarily unavailable, etc. They could include both status (in a big, bold font) and a forward, diagnostic, or retry link.

2. "Redirect" via popup, new window, or something which PRESERVES the original window and URL, so simply dismissing or clicking BACK (and maybe forward) would allow you to return to the page you want. They could provide the bounce page content with the original URL.

3. Just act like they do for EVERY OTHER PROTOCOL - telnet, ftp, ssh, etc. and just let it timeout. This is simple disabling.

4. Hold the connection open (leave the SYN in the buffer) in case the modem might come back. Some of the gaps in connectivity were only a few seconds, and a new session was quickly established, then let the connection through.

5. Do a N second "redirect" and instead of presenting one page, keep reloading the bounce page until the connection is restored then go to the original page. They have enough javascript on the page, they could add code to check and restore automatically. The automated downloaders would wait or go through the redirections dutifully until the connection was restored.

Consider the problem if you are doing a batch download of photos or something from a photo site - you WILL get the hundred downloads, but all will be the bounce page instead of the actual image.

There are a few areas where the signal is low, or where the modem has to switch between home/evdo and roam/1xrtt. The UM-150 has a signal strength indicator, and I could watch it go to zero, then up to 4 (max) bars in a few seconds (and I could see the tower, and it slowly dropped to 3, 2...), and home/roam is what the evdo map indicates. Something like this happened several times. The modem is programmed to prefer a very weak home signal to a strong roaming signal, and I-90 in southeastern MN is right on the edge.

Meanwhile, I've been working to get my n810 (and/or n800) to connect to the UM150 directly. Actually it does connect and I get an IP address and DNS info, but there is a hiccup somewhere in the USB subsystem which causes a phantom endpoint to appear which causes a kernel null pointer dereference (shuts off the modem until a reboot). I shouldn't need the router at all after that (I would be limited to an ad-hoc wireless network, but the tablet would function as a router if I needed to distribute the link).

tz1 · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:09 pm Post subject:

They have gotten back to me on the report and request to fix it, and are working on it with me and I have some private test firmware. So far I'm satisfied, though know the firmware I'm using is still a test version.

If anyone really has problems with bounce pages, contact their support for help as they may have something which will fix it.

You probably don't have to wait for the next release to get a router.

The people at CradlePoint are great! (As are those here at 3gStore!)

Michael · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:00 pm Post subject: