Forum Discussion
5G home internet keeps dropping
I'm having a problem with T-Mobile 5g home internet that has not been resolved despite many calls in to the help line. I've had T-Mobile 5g home internet for almost a month now, and the short version is that every so often the gateway drops the network. When I say "drop the network," I mean to say it throws everything off of the Wifi that it's broadcasting, and anything plugged in via ethernet says "no network found. (To elaborate this point, cell phones switch to cellular data because wifi is gone for them, and computers hardwired into the gateway think that they are no longer plugged into anything.) Turning off the gateway and turning it back on resolves the issue, but doesn't prevent it from happening again. Whatever is happening doesn't seem to affect our connection speed/strength when the gateway IS providing signal to devices in the home, but due to the nature of our work, we need a connection that won't just disconnect randomly.
To address this, T-mobile has so far run a bunch of tests on their end, and seem to have ruled out a tower issue (which makes sense, as the tower shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not the devices on the gateway's wifi or ethernet connection get thrown off of the network.) They've sent me a replacement gateway, which is experiencing the exact same problem (3 times in the last 36 hours, in fact). I've noticed that the device gets pretty warm, so I set up a computer case fan as a cooler to force air through the device, thinking that perhaps it's an issue with the device overheating. However, while the gateway is notably cooler than it was without the fan, it has not prevented the issue from persisting. The last thing that I can think to do (and my most recent attempt at resolving this issue) is to plug a router into the gateway via ethernet, and allow the router to handle the wifi/connections w/ devices in the house, and to disable wifi from the gateway all together. Maybe the gateway is simply too overburdened with connections and gets somehow overwhelmed and shuts down, and having the router handle the "heavy lifting" of taking care of all of the individual device connections will resolve it? I don't have a great deal of faith that this will fix the issue (as the gateway also kicks ethernet things off of the network when it experiences this problem), but I'm running out of options/ideas of what to do in order to just get a stable, constant internet service.
Is anybody else having this issue, has anybody resolved this issue, or does anybody have any advice or feedback regarding how I might get this resolved so that I can get back to having stable internet?
If you can't get any help from T-Mobile's support staff, take your complaint to the FCC (see my signature for a link to their complaint department). If the FCC accepts it, they'll forward your complaint to T-Mobile who has to respond to your issues. I'm still in the middle of my own complaint without much change in T-Mobile's behavior, but it did give me a chance to speak with someone from T-Mobile's Office of the President. Still waiting to see the results of my pestering, but if they think they're going to blow me off that easy, they're underestimating the stubbornness of a pissed off consumer, haha.
Unfortunately you aren't the only one having these issues. A quick search on this site will show you how many others are experiencing connection drops, speed issues, and general dissatisfaction with T-Mobile's Home Internet service.
This thread discusses the overheating issue, but since it hasn't fixed your problem, it probably won't do you any good.
https://community.t-mobile.com/tv-home-internet-7/home-internet-overheating-36560
There is another thread that talked about connecting the gateway to a router like you talked about toward the end of your message. From what I remember reading, that may not be the solution you're hoping for either. If I can find that thread, I'll link if here too.
I know this hasn't helped any, and I wish someone who actually works for T-Mobile would address these concerns. From my experience, constant pestering has gotten me further up the chain-of-command to voice my complaints, but even that hasn't gotten me any closer to resolving my own issues. Not trying to discourage you, but if you have any other internet options, you may consider switching.
T-Mobile's Home Internet push, particularly to rural Americans with no alternatives, has been plagued with issues, ranging from inadequate service, gateway device problems, and unethical billing/benefit practices. It's a mess, and if T-Mobile actually cared about its customer base, they wouldn't roll out a service with so many issues.
(Here is the link I referenced before https://community.t-mobile.com/other-devices-11/alternative-router-for-home-internet-service-need-bridgemode-33531)
Constantly drops. I changed from the white gateway to the 5g round black gateway hoping to get away from the disconnecting issue...I still disconnect from the internet for extended periods a day, multiple times a day.
The app shows that all is well and connected to the internet but that is not the case. This internet is very unreliable and frustrating. I have to manually reload several of the devices that get kicked from the internet.
I will be forced to cancel the service if this continues...confidence in the TMOBILE products is deteriorating.
@jdt254 already linked to my overheating post. Even with two cooling fans running when I was using the built-in wi-fi I would still lose my connection every few days. Offloading the wi-fi to a dedicated router helped me get an 18 day uptime. I think I managed to crash it last night with a solid upload and download running at the same time. I'm also only getting a 4G connection. If you're getting 5G speeds it may run even hotter. I would definitely switch to a dedicated wi-fi router though. Rebooting twice a month is much better than rebooting twice a day.
@Fredreed I'm still on hold waiting to report this again. I've asked a number of times what they're going to DO to fix this, and asked more than once if they'll send somebody out. I think I'm about a phone call away from cancelling, as this is eating up too much of my time. I don't understand how my cell phone can have a constant internet connection, but a device that's much simpler can't.
I'm having the same problem. The first month we had no issues. We had great service and connection quality. For the last two weeks we have had a lot of problems without changing anything. Throughout the day we reset it the unit more than hourly. Our phones have great signal but the internet unit drops out. It's very disrupting and if it persists, we will need to change providers. We will get service from the provider that give us good service.
Yes the tech support for their home Internet service is terrible and the biggest problem I have is that they can't speak English clearly so you can't understand what they are saying to you. But if your having problems with the service I would recommend that you try a router and if that doesn't work My only suggestion then is to try a different service for home Internet. For me I can about 300 to 350 for download and about say on a good day Upload 40 to a low 20.
So as a quick update, I'm still running a case fan under it (and it DOES seem cooler), and I now have turned off the WIFI from the gateway, relying on two ethernet cords for connection (one for my router, and the other for my smartthings hub). It has, unfortunately, failed again in less than 24 hours. The tech I was talking to is supposed to call me back at some point about possibly trying a new SIM card, as well as report back about what the engineering team is finding, but I'm starting to lose faith pretty quickly that I'll find something that'll work for me.
18 days of uptime is pretty amazing @jdt254 . If I could get to that, I’d probably just restart the thing once a week just to be sure that we don’t get intermittent faults at times that would impact our work, but at this point, I’m not clearing 24 hours even with a case fan and a router handling the heavy lifting of my home network.
So after another hour and 45 minutes on the phone, it was another "turn it off and back on," more promises that they're going to fix it right away, and yet another mention that the engineering team should get back to me about it very soon. It's pretty obvious that they don't really know what the problem is, and may not be capable to fix it at this time. I suspect I'll have to pursue another ISP if I want stable internet.
