This guide reviews steps to follow if you having trouble connecting to the Hologram network. You should try these steps before posting on the community forum or reaching out to our support team.

When troubleshooting, our main objective is to isolate the issue to either the hardware, SIM card, the cellular network, or potentially downstream application traffic such as a web server. The following steps help us to hone in on the source of the issue:

1. Check that the status indicator for the device on the Hologram Dashboard is green (meaning the device is 'Ready') or blue (meaning the device is 'Connected'). If the indicator is not green or blue, then your SIM has not been properly activated.
   
   
   
   
2. Power your device off and remove the SIM. 
3. Re-insert the SIM. Confirm your SIM is inserted properly. Make sure the notch on your SIM matches the location of the notch on the printed hardware guide for your device. Check that the circuit contacts of the SIM slot touch the gold plating on the SIM. Lastly, confirm that the SIM is making good contact with your device. SIMs should fit snugly inside your device. If you feel like your SIM is too loose, try inserting a thin and flat object, such as a piece of paper, between your SIM and the top of the SIM holder (not between the metal contacts). This can be the result of manufacturing or assembly variance of the SIM holder parts on circuit boards.
    
   
   
   
4. Confirm that you are in a location that receives cell service. Check that Hologram supports the required carriers and radio access technologies in your area by checking our coverage map. 
5. Power your device on.
6. Check any data roaming settings on your device and make sure they are enabled (no additional charges will be incurred). This should be documented in your device's manual. Roaming is what allows us to connect to networks of our 470+ carrier partners.
7. Confirm that your device's APN is set to "hologram".
8. Send an SMS message to your device from the Dashboard's messaging tool and confirm that you can receive SMS messages sent. SMS is a separate network that does not require our APN. Checking this will help us determine if we are registering to the circuit switched cell towers successfully. 
9. Try receiving and transmitting data. 
10. If you are still having issues and you have access to an unlocked phone, place the SIM into the unlocked phone. If the phone is able to receive SMS and transmit data, there is likely a hardware issue. You can search our forum to see if others have had a similar issue with the hardware you are using.
11. For additional help, please contact us. You can also check our status page to see if there are any reported outages. 

Advanced troubleshooting

Advanced troubleshooting can be performed if you have access to your device's modem via AT Commands.

If you do, please run the Modem and SIM diagnostic. The diagnostics provide information about available networks in the device to validate coverage, cell module information to check any specific cell module issues, and SIM information for proper configuration. You can post the results to our forum. You can also contact support@hologram.io with your results.