Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway slow download speed

T-Mobile will tell you they are "equivalent" gateways. Well, I would argue, not so number one. I have had the Nokia gateway since the later part of the BETA period and mine has been a great little "trash can". It may look like a little trash can but it does not act like one. Mine has never presented any heat related issues nor failed to recover after the monkeys on the tower messing with the cell equipment. I much prefer the web GUI management with the Nokia over being forced to use the flakey home internet mobile application on a phone for management. With the Arcadyan you have no option but to use the mobile application for admin access. The Nokia does have better cellular metrics reporting and more control over the WI-FI bands. It is possible to have up to 4 SSIDs on the Nokia. I don't know if you can achieve that with the Arcadyan gateway. I would not trade my Nokia in for either of the newer T-Mobile gateways. It has been solid for me and gets the job done with browser access for management. 

4805591205 wrote:

 I recently got an Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway on a new T-Mobile home internet line and my download speed constantly below 100 Mbps, whereas on my Nokia Gateway on another T-Mobile home internet line, it's usually over 360 Mbps.  Both lines are in same location. I am getting N41 band on both Gateway. Any tips to troubleshoot the issue? 

Is the Nokia Gateway better over Arcadyn ?

Gracias

If your question is purely on data speeds, there are minor variances with the models but the service itself fluctuates too much to draw any conclusions. However, it should not be a 3x difference as you describe. It's possible that your KDV21 is not functioning correctly.

Just to be sure when you say "connected to N41" did you confirm that at the exact same time you tested the data speed? All TMO gateways will switch between N71 and N41 randomly throughout the day depending on signal strength and tower congestion. If you get 300+ on Nokia via N41, you should get similar on KDV21. Lastly your LTE band makes a difference. B2 will give you about 10% higher download but lower upload. B66 gives you higher upload but loses about 10% download compared to B2.

I have the KDV21 and for the past 10 months I get between 250-400 down and 30-40 up when connected to B66 and N41. N71 drops download to 80-100. On a side note, after a two week "tower upgrade" period in Oct when I only got N71, I have been locked to N41 after the tower upgrade with better signal quality. Interestingly, the data speed hasn't changed much, but the fact that I haven't seen N71 for the past two months, I consider it to be an "upgrade".

I started with TMHI about 2 weeks ago with a KVD21. I have a few issues I'd like to see solved, but on the whole, it's worked well and has been reliable.

The first issue, as noted above, is that there is little by way of an interface into the KVD21. DHCP, NAT, etc. are unavailable to the end user. 

The second issue is that my iPhone can connect via 5G with 2 bars just about anywhere in my home (I live in S. Florida) but not the gateway. It defaults to an LTE connection. That speed is fast enough for me to use the TMHI service, but it sure would be better with 5G speeds.

The last issue is there is no external antenna option. For people with questionable signal strength of 5G, an external antenna might be just the solution they need. Unfortunately, there is no provision for that with the KVD21.

Also, I notice speed differences at different times of the day. Weekdays are the slowest, evenings are the best. I hope that they'll upgrade the 5G tower near me soon so I can have the gateway connect to it. I think the interface of the KVD21 would be improved if it showed ALL networks that the gateway sees and give you a choice to either connect to one or the other. This would mimic the interface you have on your iPhone when connecting to WiFi.

I switched from the Nokia gateway to the Arcadian because of weak signals and dropped internet issues. At first it was very acceptable but steadily got worse. I found myself restarting the gateway several times a day as it kept switching towers and losing the signal altogether. I finally made the decision to go back to cable internet to end my frustration but decided to try one last solution. I know this sounds crazy, but I laid the gateway on its side (horizontal position). Suddenly all my problems were solved! I started to get a solid 5G signal and both upload and download speeds became very acceptable. This has worked for the past two days. No dropped signals, no internet issues, everything working as advertised. Pruébala.

YES!! exactly what im dealing with right now and im very angry at my self!! I switched from the Nokia 5G21 that came originally to the evil Arcadyan KVD21! Because i started having issues with speeds/ service in February after 3 months of very very happy internet service i started having when i switched to T-Mobile especially because the evil crooks at cable vision who i had service for 10 years started to charge me monthly $120 for 50mb to 75mb download!!? but instead of $50 a month what T-Mobile charges so i was happy saving so much and speed was with the Nokia 5G21 day time around 80mb download very nice but after 11 or 12am to 6am or so i was getting up to 300mb download speeds!! So February came again 3 months after i signed up and boom service became completely from 11am or so day time crashed often or it became stuck and i had to reboot it but at 6 7pm every day to 11pm just horrific 10mb speeds and on and off very unreliable it was like that every day for weeks so i called them over and over for almost 2 month at least once week like is going on what happened from February?? I asked and 2; months later finally they told me the truth!! In February the 5g tower is getting upgraded for 5 months!! But i tell them im in BROOKLYN NY!! we got Towers every where T-Mobile phone service is #1 the best service in NYC and i told them my T-Mobile phone internet isn't doing this since February?? And they told me that the Nokia Gateway probably doesn't have all the 5g Signal to connect to another 5G tower as its far so go to the to T-Mobile store and switch to Arcadyan KVD21 they said and i went got it and now its reliable 89% BUT!! the  speeds are just horrific day time 25 download!! And max from 6pm about 46 speed after 12am if lucky 60 78 speeds no more 80s or 100s or 200s this Arcadyan KVD21 is complete 20mb download in 2023!! Are you serious really and upload is never past 7 to 12mb??  Im waiting for T-Mobile 5G Gateway (G4AR) to be available to pick it up and switch..stay away from Arcadyan KVD21