Forum Discussion
Cannot Reliably Connect Devices Home Internet
I just got T-Mobile Home Internet and while the speeds are great and very consistent, the internet service is not very robust. I have the 5G Grey Cylindrical router. If I try and connect Samsung TVs or my Directv box to the network, either by Wifi or wired ethernet, it often won't connect. When the devices do connect they are unreliable. Most streaming services won't work. The connection to the router is fine, but the connection from the T-Mobile end to the internet often just hangs.
The same is true on my PC or Tablets. It all appears to work well but it's very prone to just hanging one process as if its trying to open a connection that will never open. A good example of this is uploading videos to facebook, this almost always hangs. It never begins the upload although other processes can use the internet fine at the same time. It can USUALLY upload ok to Vimeo or Youtube but these also periodically just stall. It's very flakey and unreliable internet. This is with wired or wifi connections, and while one program is stuck trying to open a data connection, another program on the SAME PC at the SAME time can open a data connection.
It makes the entire internet unuseable and frustrating. While it generally works it's not reliable enough to play games etc. You can be playing a game, or updating software, and all of a sudden that program will hang with 0 bytes going in or out. But if you open the browser or start a different program that uses the internet, that new program can connect and download fine while the old one is still hung.
It's all inter-related. The reason a lot of devices can't connect very reliably is because they are doing some sort of test that shows this internet is flakey. Usually they will say something like the auto settings didn't work and to configure the network manually.
It's very frustrating because my speeds and latency are fantastic, the connection to the T-Mobile network from the router never wavers it's always solid. The connection via wifi never wavers its always solid. But data ports from programs often just hang and won't open.
I still have Verizon Home Internet and I switch back and forth. Verizon is MUCH slower but its reliable, I never have any issues like this with them. Even right now.
Can anyone help? Is there something that T-Mobile can do on their end to make data connections work more reliably.
The only thing that is really always reproduceable that demonstrates this is uploading video to Facebook, that pretty much never starts although once in every 20 or 30 tries it will start and when it does it works fine for that file.
-Roger Uzun
San Diego, CA
uzun wrote:
I just got T-Mobile Home Internet and while the speeds are great and very consistent, the internet service is not very robust. I have the 5G Grey Cylindrical router. If I try and connect Samsung TVs or my Directv box to the network, either by Wifi or wired ethernet, it often won't connect. When the devices do connect they are unreliable. Most streaming services won't work. The connection to the router is fine, but the connection from the T-Mobile end to the internet often just hangs.
The same is true on my PC or Tablets. It all appears to work well but it's very prone to just hanging one process as if its trying to open a connection that will never open. A good example of this is uploading videos to facebook, this almost always hangs. It never begins the upload although other processes can use the internet fine at the same time. It can USUALLY upload ok to Vimeo or Youtube but these also periodically just stall. It's very flakey and unreliable internet. This is with wired or wifi connections, and while one program is stuck trying to open a data connection, another program on the SAME PC at the SAME time can open a data connection.
It makes the entire internet unuseable and frustrating. While it generally works it's not reliable enough to play games etc. You can be playing a game, or updating software, and all of a sudden that program will hang with 0 bytes going in or out. But if you open the browser or start a different program that uses the internet, that new program can connect and download fine while the old one is still hung.
It's all inter-related. The reason a lot of devices can't connect very reliably is because they are doing some sort of test that shows this internet is flakey. Usually they will say something like the auto settings didn't work and to configure the network manually.
It's very frustrating because my speeds and latency are fantastic, the connection to the T-Mobile network from the router never wavers it's always solid. The connection via wifi never wavers its always solid. But data ports from programs often just hang and won't open.
I still have Verizon Home Internet and I switch back and forth. Verizon is MUCH slower but its reliable, I never have any issues like this with them. Even right now.
Can anyone help? Is there something that T-Mobile can do on their end to make data connections work more reliably.
The only thing that is really always reproduceable that demonstrates this is uploading video to Facebook, that pretty much never starts although once in every 20 or 30 tries it will start and when it does it works fine for that file.
-Roger Uzun
San Diego, CA
The 5G silver tower does produce great wifi speeds BUT it does not connect to all smart devices. I cannot connect my blink cameras, wemos or my ecobee thermostat anymore. It decides which band-2.4 or 5.0-to connect to and if it is not the right one you are out of luck. You can connect 128 devices but if you can't get your devices to connect to it what good is it. It is only good for your computer tablets and phones. T-Mobile has to address this through the tower or the GUI to allow you to choose the correct band….help!
Must be so frustrating. I've had my 5G21 router for about 6 weeks. Just for comparison sake, I have had no problem with any websites, apps, or VPN to my office. Also, I have FireTV with YouTubeTV on three TVs w/o issue.
Sorry for the issues. Inexcusable for an ISP.
Same issues here. I have had T-Mobile Home Internet since December 2020 and many apps simply won't connect or function properly on my Android phone. I don't seem to have issues with my PC and surprisingly I can use it with my Xbox. I think I'm at the point though where I'll return it because I can't stream from my Android using Chromecast.
They have to expose the router settings to the user so we can enable ipv4 in addition to ipv6. They are aware of the issue but they need to get authorization and figure out how / when they will do that.
I suspect in the next few weeks they will address this in some manner. They are aware of the problem and it can be corrected in the Router settings but they have to get authorization from other depts to allow this, or figure out how they want to do it.
It might be a couple of weeks or maybe a few months. It's all on their end.
^^ Is this a problem that can be solved via a software/firmware update fairly soon, or is it more complex than that? My first bill for this service is due on the 23rd, and I'm trying to decide whether to cancel or give them another month to try to fix these issues.
By the way, what is the software version for your router? Mine is 1.2003.03.0143, I'm not sure if that's the latest or not (I've seen a couple people on Reddit have a different one, 1.2003.00.0620
The router will not be able to connect to an ipv4 data socket. Windows thinks that it can use ipv4 or ip6 freely. many older devices are ipv4 only. If a router cannot open data sockets to sites requiring ipv4, then the application will hang. So even if the PC basically seems to work most of the time, the first time it encounters a site that wants to communicate using ipv4 the router will NOT pass any data, thus it hangs. So even if the PC basically works, it will open dead sockets from time to time.
Even if the streaming box/tv etc basically connects, the first time an app tries to open an ipv4 data stream it will hang, and your streaming will say no longer connected to the internet.
You see this a lot, it happens momentarily sometimes and corrects itself or other times the app just hangs waiting for data that will never come/go.
The way devices and the internet works right now, in 2021, you need a router that can pass data via ipv4 and ipv6 connections for the apps to work reliably. I've noticed with a cellphone, or with an ipad websites and apps seems smart enough that they ONLY use ipv6. Or at least almost NEVER require ipv4. But with streaming devices, and with PCs this is NOT the case.
^^ Why does ipv6 mean that most devices will not connect reliably to the internet using this router? I'm not network savvy at all and have no idea of why ipv6 vs ipv4 would make a difference. I'm using the T Mobile router by itself and just want my PC internet to work and my PS5, Roku TV, my dad's PC, and my phone to be able to connect to the router. My phone oddly enough seems to be the only device that doesn't have any connection problems with the T Mobile router.
T Mobile support called me last Friday saying that they needed another 24 hours for my support ticket and said they'd call me back Saturday. I haven't heard from them since. If they don't call by tomorrow afternoon, I'll call them myself for an update.
I got a call from Tech Support today regarding this issue. The new 5G Cylinder routed is ipv6 ONLY, it does NOT have ipv4 enabled. The hardware allows it but they are not yet legally able to expose those settings to the users.
So for now this is an ipv6 ONLY router, which means MOST devices will NOT connect reliably to the internet using this router. PC's work but are flakey as a PC can sometimes get ipv6 connnections to a certain site or operation and sometimes they get ipv4.
So that is the source of these issues, they are working on allowing users to be able to change the settings or changing them on their end.
tmo_mike_c wrote:
This is definitely something we'd need to have our Tech Care team file a Service Desk Ticket for. I'd reach out to them to see if they can get one created for you.
@tmo_mike_c How do you get ahold of this "Tech Care team"? If it is the main support line, then they don't have answers. They are just reading from a script and say they will forward to engineering and they never get back to you.
uzun wrote:
… But T-Mobile just doesn’t work on a lot of websites, and is not at all reliable with any streaming boxes or Televisions.
I am seeing the same issue too. my Samsung TV failed to streaming news in haystack and CBSN app not working too. Anyone seen this and have solution?
