Advanced 4g/security camera diagnostics

[EvansSOS]

I’m tearing my hair out here, please help me….

I have a Farmstream camera watching livestock or not as the case may be. This camera worked for 5 months with an EE 4G  Pay-as-you go SIM card in it.  The only issue we had was that every month when the subscription plan expired the credit on it did not turn into data and we had to get EE to manually do something. I don’t understand PAYG so I’m a bit vague but I did not believe this is relevant just offer these facts as part of the story.

On the fourth month that it stopped working, having been told four times it was sorted and would DEFINITELY work next time, I gave up and put it on contract.  So here goes summary of where we are currently with the camera just saying “connecting”

1. SIM card /account is now contract
2. Camera has never worked on SIM/account as contract HOWEVER first failed whilst on PAYG
3. The camera works on my phone SIM card perfectly
4. My phone works on the camera SIM card accessing the internet with no issues
5. The camera SIM has been swapped out, this has no effect on anything
6. If I enter the incorrect  password on the camera with my phone SIM  card in it I get “incorrect password”
7. If I enter the incorrect password on the camera with the camera SIM card in it all I get is “connecting”
8. The camera has a local Wi-Fi thingamy Bob, if my phone SIM card in it pulling up a web page for it shows one data connection along with the upload and download speeds
9. As number 8 with camera SIM card in shows no connections and obviously no speeds

Now EE are saying it’s not them owning to points 4 and 5

Camera people are saying it’s not them become of points 3, 7, 8 and 9

I understand both.  I’ve proved it’s not the camera,  I’ve proved it’s not EE. I’ve proved it’s not the network because there is an exact same camera and EE setup 20 foot away (and no I’m not prepared to mess with this one for fault finding purposes).

The only thing I believe I haven’t proved (forgive me for how I’m illustrating this I don’t know how else to pit. It)

Me hellos camera, Camera Hello there……which means I then don’t get asked for the password 

I’m hoping I’ve included everything I know. Where do I go from here?

[Chris_B]

@EvansSOS  your Sim card sounds like it’s going into hibernation. This will happen if it’s not used to make a chargeable call or text before 3 months is up using data is not chargeable,  credit on the account does not go towards data usage.   

Have a read of THIS 

You’ll be better off purchasing something like THIS  as this will last 12 months and is pre load with data and just data.   10Gb per month might be too much data per month but you’ll know it’s good for 12 months.  You then just purchase another one when needed. 

[EvansSOS]

I am absolutely gob smacked that the solution could be this simple!  It makes so much sense and the timeline is pretty much perfect to what has happened.  I will call EE when they open and confirm but I’m sure this will be the solution.

Thanks for replying and I will post an update late

[EvansSOS]

Okay EE say card is active not hibernate etc

Not sure if relevant but when the account went to  contract, on my EE app the card came up something along the lines of bill not paid. It should’ve been added to my main account and then to the direct debit. Nobody could explain why it wouldn’t. The line then went into suspended but it wasn’t working weeks before that 
The timeframe would be hibernated than recycle before it became contract. Is it possible it could be hibernated as. PAYG and then moved to contract without anyone noticing and then causing issue 

[James_B]

Hi @EvansSOS,

You wouldn't have been able to transfer the number to a pay monthly contract if the account was in hibernation.

If your SIM has a working data connection when in a phone, then it points to an issue with the camera.

Have you tried a factory reset on the camera so you can set it up again from scratch?

James

[EvansSOS]

Yes it’s been factory reset,

What would your explanation for the camera working with other SIM cards be if it was the camera?

[James_B]

Hi @EvansSOS,

I was wondering if the camera was 'remembering' the connection to the other SIM and failing to setup the other one, but a factory reset would have ruled that out.

Have you tried reaching out to the camera manufacturer to see if they can help?

James

[EvansSOS]

From my first post 

Camera people are saying it’s not them become of points 3, 7, 8 and 9

[James_B]

Hi @EvansSOS,

Is there an option in your camera settings to switch between IPv4 and IPv6?

James

[EvansSOS]

Yes it can be set to either. Do you want it changed to try something