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 having same issue critical "modem chip down". It reboots itself every few minutes and lost internet connection. I've tried 3 different grey gateway and all doing the same. At this point, I do not know what to do as they are not knowing how to solve this!
JHB wrote:
We had the same issues with our 5G gateway device. We had only 2 bars which was supposed to be enough for a signal, however, when we had a signal our service was extremely slow and it was constantly dropping completely. We contacted customer support, went through all the troubleshooting with engineering (checking the signal, switching towers, moving the device around, etc). Finally, requested T-Mobile reactivate our previous device (the 4G LTE small white box). Solved the problem instantly, strong signal, good speed, no drops, no problem streaming. After reactivating and connecting the 4G LTE Gateway the tech essentially admitted that the new 5G service is essentially a work in progress and isn't up and running smoothly. He said they are working on it and would contact us to upgrade our hardware to 5G when it was functioning properly in our area. Hope this is helpful.
I have all the same problems. Internet disconnects all the time.
I feel like I've been victimized by a bait and switch. We installed the T-Mobile Internet Gateway device a couple months back and had amazing speeds. 150-200 mbps. In the last week, it's like we've been throttled down to the reality of our new device. Anywhere between 0 and 50 mbps, if we are lucky. Several times no more than 5mbps. And nothing has changed in my configuration whatsoever. A couple other people mentioned things were great "initially" only to later sink down to something abysmal with no clear reason why and no solution. Sigh.
I don't know the answer to that. I spoke to probably 3-4 different technicians before we straightened it out. I was told at one point the new 5G gateway was essentially a dual antenna and could receive either a 4G LTE signal or 5G signal. I was also told the gateway looked for, an attached to wherever it received the best signal. So you would assume if there wasn't a good 5G signal it would grab a 4G signal. In our case it didn't work at all. It was my suggestion since we hadn't returned the 4G LTE receiver to reactivate it and give it a try. The tech agreed and after we hooked it back up it worked fine so I stayed with the 4G LTE receiver and sent the 5G back. There seems to be 2 possibilities: 1) The new 5G gateways are not capable of receiving the 4G signal and 2) T-Mobile is putting the 5G gateways out in the market where towers are not yet broadcasting that signal. That's the only explanation I can come up with for our experience.
So there’s no way to force the 5G Gateway to only connect to 4G?
I spoke with a T-Mobile tech this afternoon and was able to switch back to our 4G LTE gateway. That solved the problem, our signal was restored without any problems. Apparently T-Mobile is in the process of upgrading their towers so they are compatible with the new 5G gateways but they haven't completed the process in all areas. As it was explained to me the new 5G gateways are supposed to receive either the old 4G LTE signal or the newer 5G signal but for whatever reason our unit didn't receive either very well.
It appears there are many people who commiserate with your issue but nobody has a resolution. Even T-Mobile has no resolution. I've been a phone user for more than 5 years and have been very pleased with the service. I finally made the decision to "cut the cord" and dropped my cable in favor of the new internet gateway. We do not have 5G service in my area but I don't blame that for the CONSTANT loss of signal. I've had to reboot my gateway tower three times within the last 24 hours. I've added "wifi extenders" throughout my house but I'm convinced the problem does not exist within the walls of my home. I'm normally a patient person but they're pressing the limits. I would like to try Ziply fiber but it's not in our neighborhood yet and I'm reluctant to go back to cable simply for the costs.
We had the same issues with our 5G gateway device. We had only 2 bars which was supposed to be enough for a signal, however, when we had a signal our service was extremely slow and it was constantly dropping completely. We contacted customer support, went through all the troubleshooting with engineering (checking the signal, switching towers, moving the device around, etc). Finally, requested T-Mobile reactivate our previous device (the 4G LTE small white box). Solved the problem instantly, strong signal, good speed, no drops, no problem streaming. After reactivating and connecting the 4G LTE Gateway the tech essentially admitted that the new 5G service is essentially a work in progress and isn't up and running smoothly. He said they are working on it and would contact us to upgrade our hardware to 5G when it was functioning properly in our area. Hope this is helpful.
My service drops out multiple times a day. In each instance, there is a message on the gateway that the modem chip is down. I'm already on my second device after the first one also displayed the same message. The gateway is on a timer so it reboots once a day at 3am. It makes no difference. Is any one else getting the "modem chip down" critical message?
Similar to others, I am having dropped internet on my Gateway. When it's connected, I'm very happy with my service. The problem is that it drops during important Zoom calls.
My computer is hard wired to the Gateway via ethernet and during Zoom calls I disable the computer's wifi. When it disconnects, I quickly turn my Gateway off and back on. Can rejoin the Zoom call within 2 minutes. The disconnects are inconsistent. Sometimes I won't have any. Sometimes I've had it happen once per hour.
Here is a screenshot of my signal info:
I've read most of the responses on this thread regarding over heating and also using Cellmapper. How can I use this information to zero in on the problem and what can I do about it?
