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?
I am currently troubleshooting the same issue. My set up is the trashcan connected to the WAN, fire walled, side of an Asus ac68u. The Asus is handling all LAN Wi-Fi DHCP etc. I just did a test hooking up a Roku directly to the trashcan (using the 2nd Ethernet connection) at the same time that the Asus was showing the Internet down, The Roku was able to still stream on it's wired connection.
My current working hypothesis is there is some incompatibility between the trashcan and a separate router (LAN side) vs the t-mobile is dropping the internet (WAN Side) my prior working hypothesis).
This seems unrelated, but I wonder if there is some MTU incompatibility between the WAN side of the asus and the LAN side of the trash can. https://amithkumarg.medium.com/resolved-t-mobile-home-internet-vpn-issue-2f5ca594c23e Does not seem too easy to change the MTU on the asus though.
I just purchase an Alexa Power Strip with three AC and three USB ports which you can control. I setup a routine that rus at 0215 which turns the power off and then back on. We'll see how that works.
jdt254 wrote:
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.
Thank you for your work, if only we could all be as persistent. Annoy the life out of the company as long as you have problems.
I've had the same issue with my 5G trashcan. I'm actually on my 3rd one now. I use a separate router now plugged into mine, but it still randomly reboots. I don't think there will ever be a fix for it, to be honest. We'll all probably have to wait for a new equipment solution.
I suggest a couple of actions to see if you can get a better idea of what is going on. Open a command window and run continuous pings to say the quad9 DNS server 9.9.9.9 or Cloudflare at 1.1.1.1 and let the pings run. When you halt the pings you can see the success/failure rate for the given period of time, average latency etc.. When you go into the HTML interface of the T-Mobile router look beyond the overview and review the current cellular statistics. Use the refresh switch or refresh the page itself or use the F5 option key to refresh the statistics. Do so several times to confirm if the send and receive counters both increment. It would be interesting to know if the router is sending but nothing is received or vice versa. Since you have your wireless device connected, via ethernet to the router be sure to look at the RX/TX counters for the ethernet connection between the two on both sides of the link. Do both agree on RX/TX values and if there are errors recorded or not. If you have multiple clients run pings back and forth from one to another on the local LAN and have each also ping the router gateway IP address. Evaluate the viability of the local and remote traffic and see if there is possibly some communication issue between your local wireless solution and the T-Mobile router. It might be interesting to see if there are search results for others that use the same wireless devices and the T-Mobile router. The T-Mobile router is 802.11ax capable so using a client direct to the router WLAN with a separate SSID might be good to also test with parallel to your current solution. If a wireless client connection direct to the T-Mobile router continues to work while a wireless client upon your personal wireless device does not that would be a good data point. There might be some operational compatibility problem between your wireless device and the T-Mobile gateway. It might be as simple as a software upgrade of the personal wireless device or the T-Mobile router. I can only speculate but if you get more data points it should help clarify where the failure takes place. Record your data periodically and see if things change over time. Taking a screen clip of the overview, status and statistics reporting at each interval and making a document for review will help profile the operation to know what is taking place over time. The more you keep an eye on it the more you will "know". It is not what we think that matters, it is what we know that will make a difference. I also suggest to record the statistics recorded before you reboot the T-Mobile router. FYI, from time to time, ok more frequently than I like, I have seen the T-Mobile router HTML server refuse show squat. It will render the page contents at times but NOT any vital statistics. It can report no connection, no statics counters etc… I believe if you allow the webpage to stand idle for a bit then the data goes stale and you get squat. In that case just close the tab and open a new browser tab/window to the 192.168.12.1 address again. You can always tell when it is in that state by opening a terminal window and sending pings to one of the DNS servers. If your pings are successful but the HTML page rendering reports not connected well the basic cached information seems to render but nothing else so it can be deceiving. ¡Buena suerte!
My 5G gateway does not have any wifi enabled but uses my home network router and access points. About the same time every day, it refuses to connect any of the clients to the internet. When I connect to the web interface (192.168.12.1) the status shows the internet and the gateway with a green check. I can reboot it and get my internet connection back but it is a pain. I was on a call with a support lady when I rebooted and it came back up but she said she would refer it to one of the product specialists. We will see ...
As I recall for customers that do want to return the router by the end of the initial trial period you would not be charged if it does not work out. If you do run into problems with the billing just keep calling back in and stay after it. Early on I had a couple of charges that they did not get removed properly and they kept charging/billing me even though it was supposed to be resolved. Don't just give up keep after it as they will resolve improper billing if you are persistent. When you get with a support person that is solid and knowledgable they can and will resolve disputes over billing.
If you call in for a tech call I recommend using the call back option in the menu if you do not get to a support engineer right away. It has always been more acceptable to me to not waste my time just sitting on a call listening to elevator music. I found calling early in the morning was more successful than later in the day or evening. Avoid what would be peak hours and it does help to not have to wait. Have your questions ready and give them as many data points as you can. Get the trouble ticket number before you hand up as well. Work the system.
I've now been on hold for 2 hours waiting on technical support. I think I many have made a terrible mistake ordering this service. It has dropped 4 times today alone
Yep after many hours of the same answers from the Techs mainly that the tower has problems I canceled and only had this useless paper weight for 8 days I am being charged a full month and didn't get it till Aug 4 th. Oh well done with T Mobile. I wanted it to work but I guess they don't ?
good luckadd my name to the list. i’ve only had the device for a week, but it has dropped several times and rebooting does fix it. i am not using the WI-FI and my device runs about 110F…..on hold with support as i am typing
