My Flex 8600M registers with Smartlink but cannot get past the red test light?

K8JK

I have a very interesting Smartlink problem - my 8600M will register the radio to Smartlink, but I cannot get past the dreaded “red dot” on testing network settings.

Before we walk down the road of CGNAT and other network settings, I worked with Ken Wells for several hours reviewing network and radio settings. We tried the automatic settings and the port forwarding settings, to no avail.

I brought (bribed) a friend over with their 6600M, and connectivity on my network is no problem. I took my 8600M to their house and I still have the same issue I have at my house.

Ken Wells walked through getting an RMA for me, but sadly I believe the RMA got tangled up with another issue on my 8600M - fan noise that reminded my of hydraulic lifters on my 63 corvair…

The radio is back from a visit to Flex. Despite the technician’s report stating no problems were found with the fan, the fan noise is gone! What is puzzling is the technician stated they performed a factory reset on the radio, but upon return to me, my smartlink account was still logged into the radio.

Other things I’ve tried was yet another network that I know to absolutely NOT be CGNAT (so now we’re up to 3 different networks), a new Smartlink account, a different power supply (someone will ask, I know).

Other thoughts will be appreciated, especially constructive ones. I know the network and operator configuration are usually the first (and rightfully so) targets, but I think I’ve covered all my bases up till now.

So this morning, I loaded a UPnP analyzer tool (I could have used Wireshark, but it’s been a few minutes since I’ve used that tool, and didn’t want to reintroduce PTSD) and the discover packet is displaying NO DATA….that’s really strange…..

Yes, I’ve logged a ticket again, but it’s a holiday weekend…. I even responded to the support survey (that showed up before the radio did) that I’m not happy…(OK, I’m happy that for whatever reason the fan doesn’t sound like the ground start PU of an F14)….just really not happy.

Yes, I own some blame for having two tickets on the same radio at once in the system, but shouldn’t a smart ticketing system show this?

Thanks for your time and patience reading this….I wish I would have kept my 6600M….I didn’t have this issue on the exact same network….

Jim K8JK

K8JK

Well, it was an interesting experience. Out of nothing but desperation I removed any trace of the Flex 8600 from my network, then forced a hard reset of the radio without it being connected to the network, I had completed some of these steps before but went on to chase other bunny rabbits....so this ws the first time through all of this in this order.

Magically (something I cringe about) UPnP data started showing up from yhe radio to the network, and I was able to get the rig logged into Smartlink, and made it past the "green light" test... Lookss like I won't have to replace the 8600M with a nice shiny new Icom after all.

73
Jim K8JK