Network Extender Coonections
ProPHIciency
Enthusiast - Level 1

Is there a way to limit who can connect to my LTE Network Extender (latest 2020 model)? I really don't want random people getting my service. 

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Re: Network Extender Coonections
Jallis
Contributor - Level 1

Nope.

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Re: Network Extender Coonections
jav6
Champion - Level 3

@ProPHIciency wrote:

Is there a way to limit who can connect to my LTE Network Extender (latest 2020 model)? I really don't want random people getting my service. 


This Forum has a Search function for finding previous discussions of topics.  There have been many threads discussing the LTE Network Extenders' OPEN access only restriction and requesting user control over outside connections.  No info has been forthcoming whether CLOSED access is being worked on or will become available.

...Just another VZW customer...trying to offer some assistance...
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Re: Network Extender Coonections
GraniteStateColin
Enthusiast - Level 2

This is the only result I found when searching on this issue. I'm sure I'm just saying things that others have already said, but it's not in this thread so:

  1. Addressing this to turn off Open mode should be a high priority for Verizon, because it's completely unfair to force a customer to consume potentially scarce bandwidth to provide phone and Internet access to everyone in the area.
  2. In my particular case, where we just barely meet the Internet requirements (out in a rural area), I do want my kids to be able to get a cell signal, because talking uses fairly little bandwidth, but I don't want my teenage daughter to be able to consume huge swaths of LTE data for videos and video chat. 
  3. It says in the FAQ about the LTE Extender that "Managed mode will be available in the future." (https://www.verizon.com/support/4g-lte-network-extender-faqs/#troubleshooting) That's been there for nearly a year at least (when I first saw it there). When? 
  4. It actually seems that Verizon is moving in the wrong direction on this, by making this more opaque. The first version of the LTE Network Extender at least made it possible through the web admin interface to the Extender to see what devices were connected and some overall bandwidth usage. On version 2, we can see only the count of devices connected with no information on usage or bandwidth.
  5. Searching for information on this, I saw an older post on the 3G Extender where a person was frustrated because their Verizon MiFi was connecting to their neighbor's 3G Extender instead of directly to the Verizon tower, and getting  very limited bandwidth at times as a result. Verizon recommended they find which neighbor had the Network Extender and be sure to have them turn on white-list only connection so it wouldn't serve other devices. This solution wouldn't even be possible with the new LTE Extender. 

If I had hundreds of Mbps capacity, I probably wouldn't care, but because just a couple of phones connecting to this and pulling heavy data can mess up my Internet connection I need for work, this is a huge problem. Please Verizon, enable Closed/Whitelist-only connections ASAP. As a bonus, let us limit bandwidth per device, or non white-listed devices to only voice connections and trickle data (so they can still get emails and texts for work and emergencies, but not abuse my Internet connection with video streaming). 

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