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?
rdiiorio wrote:
You may have some neighbor or even some equipment in your house interfering with how your computer connects viaWI-FIi. Your operating system on your computer have be corrupting NETWORK drivers used for communications or an installed app may be interfering with the computers built in Wi-Fi card. Again it may be a bad t-mobile device too.
I’ve looked at all the neighborhood WiFi signals that I can see with Inssider app. I’ve moved my signal to the most open channels I can find.
With my computer off Wifi right now, my iPhone shows over 500Mbps down on cellular data and 51Mbps down connected to my Wifi. That tells me either some other nearby device is harming my wifi signal. But more likely, I am competing with a lot more internet traffic in the evening as other T-mobile 5G internet customers fire up their 4K big screen TV or sit down for some intense gaming, etc.
Or someone’s mining Bitcoin nearby 😂
You may have some neighbor or even some equipment in your house interfering with how your computer connects viaWI-FIi. Your operating system on your computer have be corrupting NETWORK drivers used for communications or an installed app may be interfering with the computers built in Wi-Fi card. Again it may be a bad t-mobile device too.
snsokstan wrote:
I believe the problem is indeed prioritization. Cellphone traffic is prioritized over internet traffic as i understand it.
A couple days ago, my 5G internet slowed to 10.4 down/6 up. At that same moment, my 5G iPhone registered 389/12.3.
It’s not my WiFi as I’ve registered over 500 down in the mornings.
Last night, my streaming 24in kitchen TV had constant buffering and dropping to very low resolution. My phone on wifi was around 10 down but on cellular over 200 down.
Would deprioritization cause a full on disconnect thought? I have seen slower speeds on the home internet vs my phone's data which would certainly be due to deprioritization. We are having issues of full on internet loss, I wouldn't think a tower would cut a modem off completely.
I believe the problem is indeed prioritization. Cellphone traffic is prioritized over internet traffic as i understand it.
A couple days ago, my 5G internet slowed to 10.4 down/6 up. At that same moment, my 5G iPhone registered 389/12.3.
It’s not my WiFi as I’ve registered over 500 down in the mornings.
Last night, my streaming 24in kitchen TV had constant buffering and dropping to very low resolution. My phone on wifi was around 10 down but on cellular over 200 down.
I have had the newest 5g modem for a couple months. Tmobile has already sent a replacement due to this issue. I get great speeds all the time, over 300mbps. But at least once a day, always around 10am, it looses internet for about 6 minutes. Sometimes it does it multiple times a day. As I said, I'm on my second one in just a few months and still the same issue. I'm wondering if it may be a firmware issue.
Let it cool down totally
CharlieBoy wrote:
I used to think it was throttling or congestion then I unplugged it put the device near my ac unit to cool it down completely. After restarting device which felt too warm for comfort beforehand . A very noticable improvement occurred. Also placing by window was not the best spot for me actually room Center gave me 5 bars I was getting ready to return and give up. I imagine that unit's have an internal struggle for possibly maintaining signal , packet info size or 4k compatibility causing heating issues , And eventhough I provided the unit with a heating fan. In the end seems to be working better by having it get a Total cool down when issues arise. Good luck T- Mobilers
Interesting thought. I have an infrared thermometer near my gateway. Right now it measures 123°F internally under the top grid and about 110° on the metal rim of the top. I'll check it later with both TVs on and see.
I tried walking my unit all over the house and didn’t see any difference in bar whether upstairs, downstairs, or on the N/S/E/W side of the house.
I used to think it was throttling or congestion then I unplugged it put the device near my ac unit to cool it down completely. After restarting device which felt too warm for comfort beforehand . A very noticable improvement occurred. Also placing by window was not the best spot for me actually room Center gave me 5 bars I was getting ready to return and give up. I imagine that unit's have an internal struggle for possibly maintaining signal , packet info size or 4k compatibility causing heating issues , And eventhough I provided the unit with a heating fan. In the end seems to be working better by having it get a Total cool down when issues arise. Good luck T- Mobilers
I have the same issue. My Apple TV will flash a No Network Connected message and my Roku streaming stick will flip back to the no-signal screensaver image.
These usually last either a few seconds or maybe as much as 30 seconds.
I don't lose cellular service on my iPhone. I presume the buffering capacity in the streaming devices makes the interruption appear a brief interval after it actually occurs,
Right now it’s not worth ditching T-Mobile’s price, free Netflix, airline wifi, etc.
dahc wrote:
… it worked for maybe 8 or 9 months and i was very happy with it until 2 weeks ago. It too started dropping 5g that could be reconnected with a modem reboot last week that option failed ...
Same thing with me. Always fanned and worked reliably for 9 months, then for whatever reason, the Nokia gateway decided to switch from reliable n41 5G band, to n71. Horrible after that, with slower speeds and constant drop outs.
Rebooting and restarting (NOT resetting) the gateway did nothing. Still stayed on n71. As a last resort, I removed the Nokia battery, and cold-started it. It chose n41 once again, and has been stable for over 2 weeks now.
Maybe the battery keeps the band configuration, and by removing it, forces the gateway to start from scratch with band choice.
