Forum Discussion
Is the TM-AC1900 ROUTER still supported?????
A year or so ago, T-mobile provided me with a TM-AC1900 ROUTER ... (ASUS rebranded to T-Mobile). They also provided a Personal Cell Spot 4G LTE which I refer to as an Extender or perhaps Booster.
Started having trouble with the router. Called T-mobile and was told I can exchange it for (even) an updated ROUTER at my local store. Went to store with old one and exchanged it for a 'newer' one. Got it home after closing time and discovered it was a (updated) Extender. At that point, I am ROUTERless. The store is now closed for the night.
Called T-mobile. Explained the situation and was told the right device would be shipped promptly to the house. Got a confirming email ... indicated what was coming was ANOTHER Extender. Called TMO again. The shipment was cancelled and 'the right device' would ship out promptly. Next confirming email ... ANOTHER Extender.
I even emailed the President of T-Mobile. I am not lying. By the time his assistant contacted me, I had yet ANOTHER device (PROMISING IT WAS THE RIGHT THING) en route. His assistant asked if everything was OK now ... I told her 'Presumably .. yes .. but I was not sure exactly WHAT was coming". She said she would check with me NEXT THURSDAY (from today ... FRIDAY). I then got ANOTHER confirming email .... an EXTENDER is on the way ... AGAIN.
I grabbed the box the original (and only) ROUTER first came in. I grabbed the box the NEW EXTENDER came in and headed for the store. After a LONG explanation, they started researching. Here is what I was just told an hour or so ago:
The ROUTER is discontinued by T-mobile. They no longer provide one. If one has one, it will stop working correctly. They are expected to procure their OWN router. FIRST I EVER HEARD of this.
The EXTENDER is still provided but there is an updated one that I needed ... so I can keep the NEW EXTENDER .. BUT NEED TO RETURN THE OLD ONE.
Sooo, I asked the store MANAGER what new router do I need (to work with the new Extender)?. She did not have a firm answer. Soooo, I ordered one on Amazon .. another Asus AC1900 which, I believe is NOT rebranded and is a updated router from the old one, and should work fine with the new Extender. The manager at the T-mobile store agreed with me.
Does anyone KNOW for certain this NEW router will work with the new extender. I am worried for some stupid reason it won't.
Strange to me that I was never notified of this T-mobile change in the first place. NO one at T-Mobile phone-in knew of this (a router provision being discontinued). The only person who seemed to be informed of what the problem is/was is a VERY YOUNG waif of a girl at the T-mobile store who knows more than I do about routers etc. I swear she did not look over 14 .. but seemed to know what she was talking about. Not even the President's assistant ever mentioned any of this. I will let her know on Thursday.
A T-MOBILE provided ROUTER is not even in their inventory anymore.
We do have some troubleshooting steps we can offer for the router we sent. I don't see that it's available anymore for ordering though. To answer your question, I've heard of folks using routers they purchased themselves from 3rd party vendors and they work just fine. If you do need some help with that model, you could reference our Problemas con el enrutador Wi-Fi CellSpot page and use it as a guide for common issues.
I completely agree with the comments provided above. I was one of the people who got the free Tmobile router almost as soon as it came out. It has worked well. But as far as I know it has NEVER gotten an update. Recently I reviewed consumer reports articles on routers. The ASUS retail twin of the Tmobile router is still highly ranked.
BUT the ASUS non Tmobile retail router has had many updates including for security that the Tmobile router has never had.
It is possible to wipe out the Tmobile software and replace it with ASUS retail software but it is also easy to brick the router in trying to do it.
I may try this when I am otherwise ready to buy a new router but will be prepared to accept the bricking and move on...
Anyway, I just had a long text conversation with tmobile support in which they acknowledged tmobile no longer supports the router.
I asked if there was some way to switch over the software without the bricking risk. No useful response.
I observed that I never got an update that I was aware of and never had any communication from Tmobile telling me they were cutting off support.
By the way, despite the now nominal FMV of the Tmobile router- tmobile support confirmed to me, that you MUST still return the router to Tmobile it if you close your account or they will charge you for it!
The router isn't available anymore butnit is still an excellent router. Rhe T-Mobile firmware does lock out a lot of the settings though. It can be successfully flashed to the default Asus firmware for the RT-AC68U. It won't change how it works outside of thenprioritization for WiFi Calling, which still will work perfectly.
I liked the router enough to buy the RT-AC68W, same thing, just in white. Inhave had the T-Mobile firmware on it as well as the current firmware. The Asus firmware is a lot newer and contqins a heck of a lot more security fixes and such.
If the router isn't a big upgrade from the one you have. You can save your settings locally through the Admin tab and then restore that on your new router. Some routers do differ in their settings though. Anything that doesn't match up would be left at the default.
How do I get my hands on old routers that are returned to t-mobile? Is there a tmobile contact? If they are being thrown away, I could buy them from tmobile.
T-mobile asked for my cellspot tm-ac1900 back or I would be charged $99. I recently closed a line I wan't using much. I guess the router was associated with the line I closed. I've been a long time customer with 4 lines+. I'm also a share holder. Kind of sucks and bad customer service to ask for it back or else? I'm still a customer and I had to go out and buy a router. I got the asus-rt68u.
Not good customer service!
John
I still have this router and is still working strong. There was only one update since I got it and no more. I piggy back this to a Spectrum router without problems. My question is can I use a different DNS server besides T-Mobile? I attempted to change the DNS setting but then I couldn't connect to it anymore. I gave a $20 deposit when the router came out. The 5gHz works fast compared to the 2.4gHz signal.
I've had this same router for several years now and finally, I have it working the way I originally wanted it to work. Wanted to use it so that it could use IPv4 and IPv6, could not get IPv6 working without certain settings from the Internet provider, etc.
Recently, the answer was right in front of me, when I logged into the router. Put it in Access Point (AP) mode. 🙂
Once this was done and the setting saved, everything that needed to be disabled, was disabled automatically. Connected phones receive the IP address from the host Internet gateway, with IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity and I found the WiFi signal provided by the router is far better than what the ISP's Internet gateway provides.
I hope at some point, T-Mobile will consider offering this router again, as it’s really a decent router.
We do have some troubleshooting steps we can offer for the router we sent. I don't see that it's available anymore for ordering though. To answer your question, I've heard of folks using routers they purchased themselves from 3rd party vendors and they work just fine. If you do need some help with that model, you could reference our Problemas con el enrutador Wi-Fi CellSpot page and use it as a guide for common issues.
The router you bought should work fine for your extender and realistically speaking you could just rely on the WiFi calling feature. Which is what I am assuming you did before. I also was not aware that T-mobile stoped offering the router which is a bummer since at the time it was a really good one. Anywho I would not worry to much as I said the router you got should be fine for your needs. Wireless tech really doesn't change that much from one generation to the next when it comes to routers. Plus even when it does you would need to have a certain level of bandwidth to even notice the difference. Most people in the US are still stuck with like a 15mb connection so yeah.
Sorry you had the long ordeal but it looks like you will be squared away on this situation, still let us know if you need more help.
