Connecting your machine to cellular, and setting the APN

Cellular is the more reliable option for machines in venues you do not control. The one step that trips people up is the APN.

What an APN actually is

The APN — Access Point Name — is the setting that tells the machine which gateway on the carrier's network to use to reach the internet. Phones fill it in automatically. Industrial equipment usually does not, so you have to enter it by hand. If the APN is wrong, the SIM will register on the network and show signal, but no data will flow, which looks exactly like a broken machine.

Fitting the SIM

1. Power the machine down before opening the SIM tray. Hot-swapping a SIM sometimes works and sometimes leaves the modem in a confused state.
2. Fit the SIM in the correct orientation — the tray or the silkscreen will show it. Do not force it.
3. Power the machine back up and give the modem a couple of minutes to register on the network before you decide anything.

Getting the right APN

When you ask, ask for all of it: the APN name, and whether a username, password or authentication type is required. Many IoT APNs need no username or password, but some do, and a blank field where one is needed fails silently.

Entering the APN

1. Open the network or cellular settings on the machine's screen.
2. Enter the APN exactly as the carrier gave it to you. It is case sensitive and usually contains dots — a single wrong character produces the same symptom as no APN at all.
3. Enter the username and password only if the carrier specified them. Leave them blank otherwise.
4. Save, then restart the machine. Many modems only read the APN at startup.
5. Give it up to five minutes, then check the machine shows as online in the platform.

When it still will not connect

• Confirm the SIM is actually activated. A surprising number of new SIMs ship inactive, and the carrier's portal will tell you in seconds.
• Confirm the data plan has not been exhausted or suspended. Low-cost IoT plans can be small enough to run out.
• Check signal strength on the machine's status screen. A metal cabinet in a basement is a hard place to get signal, and you may need an external antenna.
• Re-read the APN character by character. It is the APN far more often than anyone expects.
• Try the SIM in a phone with the same APN configured. If the phone cannot get data either, the problem is the SIM or the account, not the machine.