Forum Discussion
Anyone at T-Mobile know how their Home Internet product works?
I have T-mobile 5G Home internet. I like it .. for the most part, I get good up and down speeds. I'm out in the semi-countryside and there happens to be a cell tower not too far from my house.
Sometimes, say every 6 months, they work on the tower without notification, maybe for about 24 hours, and my speeds go down to 1-2 mbs. I can live with that I guess.
However, what really irks me is the lack of a technical support team. I feel they have a bunch of people who can sell the product but nobody who knows how it works.
Two main issues I have right know are the inability to port forward and the inability to change the IP address on the 5G Nokia tower gateway (or the trash can, as it’s been called).
I call the support number, 844 275 9310, they are usually busy and I leave a number for them to call me back. T-Mobile cell phone crew always call back, I have to explain I'm not calling about a cell phone but for Home Internet. They transfer me to an expert or what they call "technical support" and inevitably the person has no idea what I'm talking about.
So I have the old T-Mobile gateway, it's a small white box, about 6x4 inches. It works, I like it. I changed the IP on it from the default 192.168.1.1 to a different private address. I don't want the addresses on my devices to be default and predictable. But they wanted me to try the new Nokia 5G gateway. I received it and I don't like it. You cannot log into it (using name and password printed on the bottom of the device) unless the device is actually connected to T-Mobile. So you can imagine that if your internet connection goes down, you can't even log into the gateway to troubleshoot. The old white box does not have that issue. So I had to take the SIM card from my white box and put it in the Nokia to get connected and logged in. I see the IP of the Nokia is 192.168.12.1/24 (and it gives out DHCP addresses on that range). There is no option to change the IP.
I called Tmobile a few times to ask if there was a way to change the IP. None of them understood the question. They say things like "your IP will automatically change". They start looking at the manual and I can hear them struggling with what I'm asking. I'm not trying to denigrate them. I wish T-mobile would put real tech support people on the end of the phone line.
Previously I had called to ask if they allow port-forwarding. None of experts know what that is.
Any information I got about my issues, I got on places like this forum, by users asking the same questions and having the same experiences with tech support.
Anyway I am sending back the Nokia and keeping the old white-box
Will the tmobile
intermet devices (Nokia)connect to winegard connect 2.0 4g?
Sorry to hear about your troubles.
Seeing that you are currently STUCK with the trash can and cannot go back to the LTE 4G gateway, you should consider making the trash can an edge device on your network, that only gives an address to your border switch or firewall or Wifi router. Do not use the trash can for DHCP for your whole network. So for example if your LAN was 192.168.85.0/24, you would keep the IPs on your existing devices, keep your LAN DHCP server, etc
TM-Gateway (192.168.12.1)
para
Router (192.168.12.100 outside), (192.168.85.1 inside)
para
All your other LAN devices (192.168.85.0/24)
of course you may have to buy a firewall or a border device, you can make one with a Rasperry PI, a MikroTik firewall or a cheap Wifi router,
I have TM-GATEWAY -- MikroTik FIrewall --- Cisco Switch --- Internal LAN and IOT.
I could have done the same thing, but I decided to keep the 4G LTE gateway, because I didn't want to have that crappy 5G trash can period! You rally only have one choice.
I'm going through this now. I have been using the ASKEY 4GLTE gateway for years and twice it started dropping LTE randomly, sometimes 4-5 times a day, requiring a reboot (which I can only do if I am physically at the device).
They replaced it once and it was good for about a year before the replacement started doing the same thing. This time they sent me the newer 5G Nokia "trash can" which is really living up to its nickname.
I got it configured and was able to connect to its Wifi and confirmed that the UL/DL speeds are noticeable better than with my older gateway. BUT locking us into the 192.168.12.xxx IP range means that I now have to touch the DOZENS of IoT/Smart Devices that are configured for my existing IP range and point them to the new one. More worrying, is that the DHCP Server cannot be disabled, so my PiHole that I have been successfully using with T-Mobile for years now will have trouble acting as my DHCP server. And if the Nokia's built-in DHCP Server decides to change one of those device's IP addresses, I'll be SOL trying to figure out what the new IP is *since the Nokia Configuration Portal shows the number of devices on the network, but not the MAC/IP of those devices.
This is the LEAST user-friendly gateway device and the most CRIPPLED Gateway/Router device I have ever encountered in my 15+ years in IT. I understand you want to make things "dummy-proof" but t-Mobile should at least just hide the advanced options in the Advanced Options section of the config. Instead, we don't even get an Advanced Options section.
Not allowing for Power Users to configure their LOCAL LAN they way they see fit is a HUGE miss on T-Mobile's mark. I am currently seeking alternatives for my Home Internet service because of this. A DHCP Server, that I have no control over, doing as it sees fit on MY LAN is not acceptable to anyone who manages a legitimate home network.
Unfortunately, reverting back to the archaic-but-somehow-more-feature-rich Askey LTE gateway is not even an option either. I would consider taking the speed cut to have a LAN I can manage as I see fit, but if it is just going to randomly drop LTE and need me to be physically present to fix it, that is not something I can really live with.
T-mobile, you need to do better. I know you can, you just need to step up. I'll be glad to talk to any actual Network Engineers you may have on the payroll about this serious oversight.
Two main issues I have right know are the inability to port forward and the inability to change the IP address on the 5G Nokia tower gateway (or the trash can, as it’s been called).
Re: Response to the two "issues".
Home internet routers/gateways will have what is referred to as NAT which is where port forwarding would come into play. The new 5G gateways also have NAT the rules on the NAT solution are strict and port forwarding is not an option. Support cannot help you with that in any way.
The default IP addressing on the 4G LTE gateway you have, I suspect that is a 4G LTE gateway is of course 192.168.1.1/24 on the 192.168.1.0/24 Class C private network. So, with the newer 5G gateways T-Mobile does NOT allow the change to the private network 192.168.12.0/24 to anything else and the gateway IP address would be 192.168.12.1. The DHCP server that runs on the gateway provides the scope for dynamic addressing and also cannot be changed.
If you are satisfied with the 4G LTE gateway and can continue using that then why change? From the information I have seen the 4G LTE gateway allows the web GUI interface for management. The newer 5G gateways, the Arcadyan and the Sagemcon both require the use of the T-Mobile home internet mobile application on your cell phone for management access. If you have an Apple iPhone my experience tells me you would probably be very disappointed with the experience. The FAQs on the T-Mobile pages provide information about the various gateways. I guess you have the Askey LTE GW.
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/home-internet/askey-lte-gateway.html
