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 Have been rooting for you T-mobile. You are severely letting me down. I am paying more than $200 a month for FOUR locations (via two different accounts, one business and one not), yet, you will not help me. And better yet, your "promised" business hotline will NEVER pick up the phone. I have attempted to call multiple times all for me to sit on hold for great lengths of time.
This neglects all of the previous issues mentioned T-mobile are ignoring. I was only getting 1-2 disconnects a day from the same issue everyone else is however, after some outsourced employees messed with my router and reset it, I'm getting a disconnect for greater than 60 seconds at a time DOZENS of times an hour. Makes the internet utterly useless. This is an ongoing problem at every single location I have these routers launched. I was promised that the Business line was local for the greater portion of the day, I can't even confirm because they will not pick up the phone!
TMOBILE. STOP IGNORING EVERYONE AND PICK UP YOUR ACT. I was rooting for you. Now I'm not.
I can't wait for LinusTechTips to review this heaping piece of garbage and trash this home internet. Not like it's available in Canada anyways.
We're having the same issue with losing the connection. We've had T-Mobile home internet for about 6 weeks. It was fine for about a month, but the last 2 weeks the modem will lose connection about every 1.5 to 2 days. Unplugging the modem and plugging it back in will fix it for another 1.5 to 2 days before it drops again and I have to unplug it again. I have no idea why it was good for a month then started having issues every other day. The only change I made was to add a second SSID that broadcasts just the 5Ghz signal so I can connect my cell phone to it because my phone would always connect to the 2.4Ghz network rather than being directed to the 5Ghz signal on the SSID that broadcasts both signals.
jtheiss wrote:
@Fredreed I unplugged it again and did another walk around the house. Aside from one spot in the house that I get four bars about 5% of the time, and 2 bars the rest of the time, I think it's in the best spot. Whatever's happening seems to be getting worse, as I'm now up to my fourth crash in two days.
I have 4 bars had my device in same location by window for a year no problems what so ever 2 to 3 months after the one year drops internet all the time they gave me a new gateway and guess what same no internet connection why would things work perfect for a year then mess up I don't get it
Ok so far problem seems solved I called tmobile and talk to tech they sent me out another tower. This time I didn't switch out the Sim cards but called t mobile and had them configure the Sim card that came with the unit so far so good almost a week without a rest
Worked so very well yesterday. We are 4 days into our trial.
Today nothing!!! T-Mobile techs state that their customers are experiencing congestion on the network. We live within two miles of 4 towers.
Priority is given to cell phone customers first. 5G Home Internet is not a priority, therefore throttling is applied. Need to increase their capacity to provide seem less uptime connectivity.
It is a tower issue. T-Mobile sets it up to constantly be switching from tower to tower. Sometimes it will do it seamlessly, while other times you'll notice a little interruption in service and then it will continue, unfortunately there are times when the tower switch is delayed long enough that it kicks you off the system altogether. They need to fix this by either not having the system switch towers or by making sure tower switches are close enough so the delay isn't so long that you completely lose signal.
It's possible that there could be a blockage coming from the tower but if that's not the problem then it could be something else causing the signal to be blocked. If you tried everything like all possible locations In your house then the only other thing it can be is something has to be blocking the signal. What you could do is take your device to your friends house in your location and see If they get the same problem if so then you would know that something is wrong in your location and t-mobile needs to investigate It further.
well that brings it back to something has to be blocking the signal or causing the signal to be weak and whatever It is causing It who knows. If there's nothing wrong with the tower it has to a blocked signal or something has to be causing the signal to become weak. I'm sorry but I'm out of ideas except that but good luck.
Clearly not a tower issue. After several calls to Asian tech support, using the direct number they gave me because the 611 IVR doesn't understand "home internet support", when the latest agent continued questioning my ability to wire an effective home network, he finally got the picture when I wired my laptop directly to the trash can and received the same dismal Speedtest that the iPad confirmed wirelessly, then disconnecting iPhone 7 from WiFi and Speedtest next to the trash can yielding >150Mbps down. My wired Bravia with severely pixelated and buffering YouTube TV was clearly not a sufficient indicator.
