WARNING!!! Aug 8, 2024 - Potential Flaws in G4AR 5G Gateway Firmware Update v1.00.09 Related to External Antenna Use

T-Mobile has recently updated the TMO-G4AR 5G Gateway firmware from v1.00.02 to v1.00.09.  Firmware updates are automatically performed between the hours of 1:00 am and 3:00 am and occur at different times in different regions over a period of weeks or months.  I cannot confirm the exact date my firmware was switched from v1.00.02 to v1.00.09 but based on extremely poor performance of my internet connection suddenly beginning on or about July 21, 2024, I would say that's when the firmware was updated.  My first assumption was that the tower serving my internet connection was undergoing maintenance or improvements.   

My T-Mobile internet service began in November 2023.  My location is near the bottom of a foothill canyon with sloping hillsides obscuring direct line of site to T-Mobile service towers.  It was absolutely necessary to install a several-hundred-dollar external 4G/5G internet antenna which provided sufficient T-Mobile 5G 2-bar (weak) reception at my location.  The 2-bar 5G reception was rock-solid and dependable until July 21, 2024.  Suddenly I was only getting 1-bar (poor) service showing on the gateway screen plus frequent internet disconnects lasting for hours.  Normally these disconnects would eventually reconnect all by themselves, but now they required a gateway restart.  By Aug 2, I was unable to reconnect the gateway to the internet at all.  

I've experienced periods of loss of internet service due to tower maintenance twice before this latest loss of internet service incident.  So, I decided to wait out the loss of service hoping for improved internet service when maintenance was completed.  But the interruptions of my internet service continued for nearly 2 weeks and were getting longer and worse.  I finally called T-Mobile technical help on Aug 2 to find out if maintenance was being performed on the T-Mobile tower.  The technician had great difficultly accessing a computer application that provided tower maintenance information, but finally concluded that the tower was NOT undergoing maintenance.  However, data showing an exceptionally large number of internet disconnections of my internet service over those 2 weeks in question convinced the technician that there was indeed a problem and offered to immediately ship a new G4AR Gateway for me try to see if my current gateway had a problem.  I accepted the offer. 

After calling T-Mobile technical help, I made another attempt to reconnect my gateway to the internet.  This time I first switched the antenna connection from "external" to "internal" and then disconnected and reconnected the power to the gateway to restart it.  The gateway restarted and reconnected to the 4G and then to the 5G network on the "internal" antenna, oddly showing 2-bar reception.  Reception on the "internal" antenna is extremely poor and slow with totally unusable download speed, and yet it is given 2-bars???  I switched the gateway back to the "external" antenna and it finally connected to the 5G network with only 1-bar showing.  But now on my computer, the reception speed was nearly just as good as it had been prior to July 21 with 2-bars showing.  Something was weird...  I found the gateway would remain connected to the internet so long as I had an active website running.  Without an active website running, the gateway eventual disconnected, and I had to again manually switch from "external" to "internal" antenna and restart the gateway all over again to reconnect to the internet on the "external" antenna every time there was a disconnection!!!  Extremely annoying!!!  Clearly something was faulty in handling the gateway's internal connection to the "external" antenna.  And that was the problem!!!

3 days later after Aug 2, I received and connected the new replacement G4AR Gateway to my computer.  First, the SIM Cards were swapped between the old and new G4ARs.  It's a bitch to disconnect and reconnect the very stiff external antenna coax cables to the tiny, cramped G4AR antenna connectors.  I had to first reinstall 4 L- connector adapters before reconnecting the stiff antenna cables.  Finally, the new G4AR was connected to the computer, and I used the T-Mobile Internet app (emulated on my PC) and my PC webcam to scan in the info from the G4AR QR code and initialize the gateway settings.  I also added the new gateway to the emulated T-Life app on my PC.  The new G4AR came with v1.00.02 firmware installed.  With the "external" antenna connected, the gateway screen displayed a 2-bar (weak) 5G signal, just like my old gateway displayed prior to July 21.  It looked like the new G4AR solved my problems with the "external" antenna connection until it turned 1:00 am.  That's when the G4AR began receiving the v1.00.09 firmware update from T-Mobile.  I witnessed the v1.00.09 firmware being fully installed on the new G4AR.  I had to switch to "internal" antenna and restart the gateway to get it going.  Finally, I switched to "external" antenna and got 5G going.  Now after the v1.00.02 firmware was replaced, instead of 2-bars, only 1-bar (poor) was showing on the gateway screen.  Now it became very clear.  The G4AR gateway is NOT the damn problem!!!  The problem is the damn v1.00.09 firmware!!!!!!  It does NOT properly handle the switching between "internal" and "external" antennas!!!!!!!!!  That said, the new G4AR did reveal there was a problem in the old G4AR.  The old G4AR had a tendency to randomly and frequently disconnect the gateway from the internet.  The new G4AR does not randomly disconnect from the internet (at least not frequently), and it eventually reconnects to the internet all by itself if it does disconnect.  

The new G4AR varies between displaying 1-bar and 2-bars on the screen, not rock-solid, but I do receive the internet at nearly the same speed as before July 21 (which is typically between 7 and 11 Mbps download, 1.5 to 3.0 Mbps upload with excursions beyond.)  However, the v1.00.09 firmware is definitely flawed and NOT properly tested by T-Mobile's software "experts".  It does not properly handle the G4AR's "external" antenna switching function and is NOT displaying the appropriate signal bar strength.  The low bar strength may be related to the problem of the G4AR randomly disconnecting the gateway from the internet because it perceives the signal as being too weak to be received.  Since the problem is exclusive to those T-Mobile internet customers who rely on external antennas, the fault in v1.00.09 was likely overlooked by T-Mobile firmware programmers.  Another issue that needs to be addressed is that the T-Life app omits important Gateway information that is available on the T-Mobile Internet app which includes the Firmware version number.  That information should NOT be omitted from the T-Life app!!!!!!!!!!  Why was it omitted?????  Also, why doesn't the T-Life app display the signal strength bar pattern as shown on the gateway screen like the T-Mobile Internet app????????