Home Internet Goes Out Every Couple of Hours

Same issue here. It also kicks device off the network randomly

Update…Possible Fix.

I had noticed my 5G Gateway was very warm to the touch at the top of the unit. I always thought this was a normal behavior of the unit. After reading various other blogs about possible unit overheating, I decided to buy a small computer fan to place under the Gateway to see if this made a difference. I purchase the small fan and USB adapter on Amazon (see below).  You'll need the adapter if you want to plug and power the fan directly into the gateway's USB C input. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07R659J8Z?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07XYTHCXV?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

After having the Gateway turned off for a couple hours, I powered on the Gateway and plugged the fan into the gateway and placed the gateway on top of the fan. The gateway has maintained a noticeable cooler temperature and my Wi-Fi has been more stable in the last 24 hours. Speeds have also been somewhat back to normal.  Not sure if this is all just coincidental, but I wanted to share it anyway. 

I also wanted to add that T-Mobile offshore customer support has not been helpful at all. They are very friendly, but lack any real tech knowledge. All they are trained to do is apologize, tells us how much they value us as customers, send a signal refresh and say the engineers are working on it.  They may even credit your account.  I've been "promised" countless times that my Gateway connection issue will be corrected "very soon."  That was six weeks ago.  Correcting the issue is usually not something they are able to do. Speaking to an actual engineer is not possible.  This is very frustrating because they are the people who can actually provide corrective remedies.  We are left to troubleshoot on our own and find solutions through these community forums.  I live in a rural area with limited ISP options.  My Gateway cooling fan is only a bandaid, I'm really hoping Starlink will be my long term solution when it becomes available.  I also wish T-Mobile would monitor theses forums and assist with customer concerns.  I'm only one single customer, so my concerns and issues are not going to generate any movement from T-Mobile.  That's just the unfortunate reality. 

djdeluca wrote:

This is noon Sat., 9/11. This shows a before and after I rebooted the Gateway:

Well, I intended to paste  copies of photos of my internet speed. But apparently this site can't handle it. Before I rebooted it was 0.74. After rebooting it went up to 62.0. An hour later, it is 54.0. Why does this happen? The T-Mobile tower is less than 2 miles from my and a straight line from my window.

Try rotating inch by inch and/or elevating the gateway in your window, even repositioning it side to side a few inches, and and after each position change turning it off and on by the button on the side, each time trying for the highest speed you can get on a speed test. It should take two minutes to reconnect automatically after each restart. The trick is to find a position where you consistently get your highest speeds and avoid a position where you get the unusable speed.

If you have an attic or 2nd floor, that is also worth trying as a gateway location also, but it is very good that you have a window that faces the tower. 

It is normal for speeds to fluctuate on T mobile home internet. I get downloads between 90 and 350, and I'm 5 miles from the tower, but I'm also lucky to have the more desirable n41 instead of n71 signal on the tower. The max speed (if you're less than a block from the tower) is 225 on the n71 whereas the n41 can carry a speed up to 800.

Before I got this, given that my 4G connection here is quite slow, I thought I would be very happy with anything over 30 on 5G. So I know how lucky I am because, obviously, that my lowest speed would be a dream for the people who are getting much less, and sometimes the really low speeds don't even work for people. If you fluctuate down to 1, that means you are very likely to get zero some of the time and have no connection. 

If you want to get the details of what signals you are receiving, whether you are even on 5G, you can see this at the GUI by typing in the following number in your browser’s address box: 192.168.12.1

I bookmark that page, so I can return to it easily.

Select “Status” in the left column, and click on the dropdown arrow to the right of Primary and Secondary, noting the “Band” you are on for each one. 

If you are getting 5G, you  should see a B band in the Primary and a n band in the Secondary signal, because 5G is a non-standalone signal pair, 4G/5G.

If you are getting 4G alone, then you won't have a signal on the Secondary at all, just blanks. That can account for your speed being in the lower range of 50 to 60. 

Selecting in the left-hand column, "Overview," that will show your signal strength on both Primary and Secondary, assuming you're getting both signals, and the drop down arrows near the signals will show data. But just in the basic view of that, you're looking for a gateway placement that shows the most bars on both Primary and Secondary.

You may wonder, if this is a 5G gateway, how is it possible that some people get only the older, slower 4G LTE. Well, some do, because there is something about their house or location that is quirky, and they're not getting the 5G signal.

A minority may actually get a better 4G signal at their house, and that's their faster speed. That's why looking at the GUI is good to know.

Like a cell phone, the gateway switches to towers and band combinations on those towers dynamically. There is no way to lock on to your fastest speed range, other than trying to encourage it by finding the best placement of your gateway.

Don’t be discouraged if you find you are on the n71 instead of the n41, because chances are good that in the next year or two, your tower may get the faster n41, or maybe something even newer and faster that T mobile comes up with. 5G is just in its infancy and improving rapidly.

They should be coming out with a new firmware (software) update that will be pushed out automatically (installs by itself) to your gateway, and that might help some people's speed and/or connection stability. It was due last month but I suspect may be delayed for several weeks. You can see what version you have in the GUI, with "Overview" selected on the left, and by looking at the number near the gateway "Software" the last four digits which will probably be 0178, but the new version is 1609 or higher. I haven't gotten it yet.

I'm having this issue as well. For some turning and back on fixed it, but now I'm getting 8 Mbps. I did have DSL and got 12 Mbps. This is completely unacceptable. Don't advertise 50 Mbps if you can't deliver. 

I've also been having same issue for the last month. 5G gateway was working fantastic for months…then the tower "modernization" took place…all my problems started after that. Probably called the home internet tech support over 20 times on the last month. Nobody knows what the problem is, how to fix it or when, if ever, the problem will be resolved. All they can say is they are "sorry" I have no internet. We tried every resolution in the book. They even replaced my gateway. Nothing has fixed the constant internet drop offs. All my T-Mobile cell phones work great…it's only the home internet that has problems. The gateway shows 4 bars signal strength at all times, just no internet. Reboot usually gets me online again for about 5-10 minutes, then looses internet connection again. Very frustrating…I should have never left my old ISP.

I am also having this issue.  I had something similar about 1-2 months ago and it eventually resolved itself but it is happening again. Typically it will show that the 5 ghz is working but it won't allow me to log into the app to even do a restart.  So I have to remove the battery each time.  It is becoming frustrating.

Same issue here. Signed up in April 2021, service was pretty good for 2.5 months; no dropout until last week. Then it started happening overnight, then every 4 hours and then after about 1 hour. They sent me a replacement Gateway, I set it up this morning only to come home tonight to a no internet situation. I don't think it's linked to temp, it's been pretty constant where the unit is placed, if anything a little cooler. I usually connect a laptop directly to the Ethernet port and check if there's a connection. The web interface stays responsive, connection on both cellular bands is indicated as 4/5. The gateway report that internet is working with a green checkbox. But all phones and computers can't reach anything. Looks like a weird DNS or routing issue. Their whole service is built around IPv6 and seems finicky.

Previous comments about the offshore customer support are right, they are beyond useless. I've been bounced around for over 2 hours on hold, twice transferred to the wrong place. And you can't check anything on the device that would actually be of any help. If only they had an actual team of engineers working on fixing issue. I'm about to cancel, shame because when it was working it was better value than competitors.

Anyone found a solution for these Internet dropouts? My status screen showed Internet connected but nothing on the home network was working. Rebooting the gateway worked, but where is the issue? The gateway? The towers? Some weird DNS/routing thing?

Juts started seeing this issue as well. My speeds have dropped off significantly since the first few weeks and I end up losing service and having to restart the modem on a daily basis. 

No help at all.