Forum Discussion
I wish the T-Mobile Home Internet Gateway was JUST a modem!!!
I just left Breezeline due to horrible service for over a month, and when it went out from home, my T-Mobile iPhone became my hotspot. After realizing it was more reliable than my landline Internet, I tried the T-Mobile Home Internet. I was shocked to get 700 down and 60 up, consistently, so after two weeks of successful stress testing I dropped Breezeline. With that said, here are my two main frustrations:
I have a UniFi network with several APs in my home all connected to a UniFi switch and UniFi router… I am sure you can see where I'm going with this… 1) I do not need the Sagemcom Fast 5688W router OR 2) its WiFi. You cannot disable WiFi on the unit, or put it into bridge mode to bypass the router. I have tried getting into the device with no luck.
So now, I have a double NAT situation and the T-Mobile gateway is emitting frequencies that are going unused. This is a huge oversight on T-Mobile's end.
T-Mobile, if you read these, I know a few people using your home internet, and they're all complaining of the same thing - Forums are also littered with this feedback as well - Please listen. Allow 1) Turning the WiFi radios off, and 2) bypass the gateway's routing using a bridge mode (I think that will work).
This is very disappointing that it's so locked down, but with that said, I am happy with the reliability. I just would love to see some additional functionality added as I'm sure I'm not the only person using my own router or mesh system with their gateway.
If anyone has any suggestions would love to hear. ¡Gracias!
You can turn off the Wi-Fi by any of these methods. However, the Gateway is still a router. I have found no way to operate it in Bridge Mode. Therefore, I still have the double NAT issue and cannot access my home network remotely via VPN. T-Mobile, please provide just a 5G modem with out a router or give the ability to operate the Gateway in bridge mode!
There is also the HINT Control app, which I am using and allows a easier method to remove and add SSIDs to a T-Mobile gateway. You can read about it here: https://www.tmonews.com/2023/05/developer-creates-app-for-t-mobile-home-internet-gateway-devices/
I hope this helps.
Thossessess wrote:
1) Turning the WiFi radios off
There is a backdoor method to turning off your WiFi radios:
How To Turn Off Wifi -T-Mobile 5G Home Internet- Sagemcom Fast 5688W - Separate 2.4 & 5 GHz
I used the HINT Control app - WOW! It was SO easy!!! For iOS, just click on the TestFlight link…Download the Test Flight app first. The HINT app was super user friendly and obvious. The whole Wi-Fi disable took less than 5 minutes, including the time it took to setup the app. Believe it or not, my home network AP, that was right next to the T-Mobile gateway, is now faster due to less interference. T-Mobile should be making us this happy, but instead some random internet app guy is solving their problems.
https://github.com/zacharee/ArcadyanKVD21Control/blob/main/README.md#macos
This leads me to this: SHAME ON YOU T-MOBILE - Some random dude shouldn't be spending his own free time creating a free app to make YOUR customers happy…YOU SHOULD BE DOING THIS!!! Update your app - Get on it!!!
I just got T-Mobile Home Internet, I'm reading through the above posts re: turning off wifi, HINT app, etc I don't understand why you would want to turn off wifi or the need for Hint,etc. Is this a way to improve signal or something? Any explanation I would greatly appreciate.
Some of us have more elaborate needs than a dumbed-down consumer device will provide.
In my case, I have a >$200 Asus router with mucho better WiFi than the T-Mobil gateway and the kinds of customization that I want for my own LAN - things like multiple devices behind the Internet gateway with fixed IP addresses for each of them. It also reboots itself every Sunday in the middle of the night (to clear the RAM) and has a provision for embedding my Proton VPN right into the router instead of running an app on all of my connected devices.
And so on.
When I was using residential DSL, the DSL "modem" had a setting for "Bridge Mode," i.e., its WiFi was disabled, it did not provide Network Address Translation and did not give IP addresses to connected devices; it became a simple signal passthrough to the extremely-capable — and a alta velocidad — Asus router.
That's what I want to do with T-Mobile's supplied 5688W gateway, except that it's locked-down for reasons known only to God and Her angels.
@Cyberfunkjy you would want to turn off the gateway SSIDs if you have an additional wifi router. For example, my setup looks like this:
T-Mobile Gateway (provides internet access) > Netgear MR60 mesh wifi router (connected via ethernet cable to the gateway) > Devices point to the MR60 SSID for internet access.
If the t-Mobile gateway SSId was still on along with the MR60, then the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz signals would be stepping on each other - inefficient.
I hope this helps.
I just have eero plugged into the back, so should I consider doing what they are all talking about above?
I’m also curious if anyone has their TV’s connected to stream netflix and hulu using t-mobile home internet
@Cyberfunkjy you and I have a similar setup so you would benefit from disabling the SSIDs on your T-Mobile gateway.
As for streaming Netflix and alike from your TV, you should setup your TV to use the SSID of your Eero. For example, if your home SSID is "Cyberfunky" on the Eeero, then the TV should be using the same Cyberfunky SSID. The TV doesn't care if you have T-Mobile internet, Verizon, or Comcast - internet is internet.
Your TV setup would look like this: TV > Eero > T-Mobile gateway.
Wow!! Thank you soo much for helping me understand this. Now, how do I turn off T-Mobiles's SSID?
I've seen a bunch of YouTube'rs hacking the T's Gateway! I don't think I have the patience right now to start tearing apart the box lol just funny how there's always someone who will bust open an issue that these service providers try to block us from getting the best bang for our buck! lol
I know how to log into my T-M’s Gateway Admin can I turn off the SSID in there?
Yes, use your T-Mobile Internet app to add/delete SSIDs.
On the Home Screen, tap the "NETWORK" link at the bottom of the screen > tap on the existing SSID to edit or delete it. Tap the + at the bottom of the screen to add an SSID.
