Forum Discussion
Connected, No Internet
We've had TMobile Home Internet for several months, and it's been rock solid from day one.
Until the last 24 hours.
Every 10-30 minutes or so, our devices get 'Connected, No Internet', and the only way to fix it is to power cycle the gray trash can (as we call the modem).
Very confused, as it's location hasn't changed since initial setup, nor have any of its settings.
Any help would be appreciated.
I would do a factory reset. Do you know when you device was upgraded to the new version? Was it last 24 hours? This is the new Version:1.2103.00.0338, If its updated something could have caused an error. A total reset is the best way to clear that. If this first doesn't fix the problem, then you need a device replacement. Good luck to you.
BlueSurf wrote:
Well you did the basic to get your service back to normal. Since that didn't help it can very well be a hardware issue. Overheating has caused problems. I use a cooling fan and it has been just great.
Your next step is Tech Support 844.275.9310, tell them everything you did to try to fix your Gateway.
They can do stuff remotely which may turn out to be a new replacement. Good luck.
Just fyi I was rock solid first few months too and same issues it got progressively worse week over week and now can't get on at all. I think they are adding more people than they can accommodate. Why else would I suddenly not be able to use it when it was great in the beginning but also gets worse every week. (yes at peak hours and weekends)
I'm desperately trying not to go back to spectrum but it's looking like that will need to happen.
I got a replacement and it is the same issue!
I am having the same problem with the Nokia gateway. It does not appear to have anything to do with the tower. Most of my connected devices remain functioning at high speeds while others show "no internet connection". For instance, My OOMA, iPhone and wife's laptop will stay connected to the gateway but show no internet connection. Simultaneously my iPad and laptop are working just fine at nice high data speeds. The devices loosing internet are largely random, though some tend to loose internet more frequently. A total reset and numerous reboots and a software update have not solved the problem.
I am hoping they will send me another gateway, preferably not the Nokia since others seem to be having the same problem. My service was perfect for the first 6 months, the last two have been miserable.
My connection has stabilized somewhat. Don't lose Internet anymore, knock on Wood, and can live with T-Mobile. Morning downloads 100 plus, busy afternoons and evenings, 35-45 MBS. My uploads speeds have always been bad, 2-4 MBS. I'm happy for now, sure beats AT&T DSL. Good Luck..
I have had the same problem in Atlanta of "connected without internet." Had days of good service, followed by great instability of the internet connection. Tower signal remained constant. Six calls to tech support, replacement of the gateway device, etc.
Finally, I spoke with an engineer (opened a trouble ticket) and a supervisor re-booted my virtual gateway on the T-mobile side (his explanation). Service has been restored and running as anticipated.
The solution is only 24 hours old (August 16, 2022), so anything can still happen. Still awaiting a response to the trouble ticket opened to understand root cause for the problem and why T-Mobile was unaware of this problem and unable to monitor/log my internet service.
Will wait a day or two. If still stable, will call T-Mobile Customer support and ask for a credit for service not delivered.
So I would argue for those focused upon the cellular connection and no internet that it will be helpful to know if you are connected to the same cell source or if it has had a handoff. You will not know unless you keep up with the PCI, physical cell identifier. There is some buffering of data to try to deal with handoffs but there is routing as well. If the routing does not update then your outside NAT address may not be seeing the return of the routed traffic so you get the behavior. It could be a routing issue with the gateway software. Without some debugging the T-Mobile engineers can't see what is going on. If the gateway is rebooted then the ARP table and routing table would be flushed and the gateway should be reconnected to the routers that handle the traffic on the T-Mobile network.
Replies that offer suggestions for a better signal from the cell tower are completely missing the point of this discussion.
I, too, have lost internet connectivity after about ten months of what I would call "stellar" performance with my T-Mobile internet gateway. (I have the grey Nokia device.) I'm not talking about reduced speed or an intermittent connection. I'm talking someone-flipped-a-switch-or-tripped-over-a-wire dead-as-a-doornail no internet connection. I'm still connected to the tower antennas and, therefore, as far as I can tell, to the T-Mobile cellular network. I say stellar because I was getting download speeds between 30 and 50 Mbps with occasional stretches in the 100 Mbps range. I'm on my backup ADSL service right now, which tops out at 7 Mbps down and which is the main reason I am able to participate here.
Dealing with T-Mobile tech support out of India (my guess) has been utterly frustrating. I can't tell you how many times I've accommodated their "script" -- performing reboots, factory resets, SIM card reseatings, and readback of IMEI and other numbers ad nauseum. They've replaced my gateway device, also to no avail. It is difficult enough to understand these so-called tech reps because English is clearly not their first language. It is even more difficult to get them to understand that, after several hour-plus sessions on the phone playing their diagnostics game, the problem is not with customer premises equipment or setup. The gateway device continues to show connection to the cell network, and its router functions are all OK.
At the moment, I am waiting for a callback with an "engineering" status report. Apparently, there have been some equipment upgrades that might have caused this problem. But it's been three weeks, folks. C'mon…
I love that at the end of each telephone tech support session I am asked, "Have I satisfactorily addressed your issue today?" or some such thing. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I may have to jump ship, but it will be a sad day. The T-Mobile internet service was my ticket to a happy day -- the day I cut my cable connection.
K4VW - “The unit is in a window in my garage.” If the garage is hot; heat may be part of the problem and a fan may help. I seem to recall some of the users with heat issues reporting similar behavior so put a fan on it and exhaust heat.
If you can locate the GW with good exposure to the tower in a room with better air conditioning that might be better. Some gateways do have the heat issues. :-( A fan will NOT hurt. You might query the Community threads for heat or fan and find a quick response that gives you a line on the size and price. They are not expensive and can be had on Amazon or other sources online pretty easily.
Some people get improved performance with the Arcadyan GW vs. the Nokia and others report results that are about the same. Users that have the Arcadyan and the Nokia have BOTH reported heat related issues. Nothing is perfect in this world. I have the Nokia and I would not trade it for the Arcadyan. I have been in service here with the Nokia since early January 2021 and had two flakey outages. Both were due to work being performed on the tower equipment. Upgrades and programming I suspect. After the second period it has been stable for the past 11 months. I prefer the Nokia and I am familiar with the interface and it has more configuration functionality than the Arcadyan GW. The Arcadyan firmware has been improved but I don't know how much as I don't have one to tinker with. If my download and upload speeds were less I would use an external antenna just to be able to locate the gateway so I could improve WIFI delivery over the house better. With 180 Mbs down and 40-60 Mbs uploads I don't have the demand for the external antenna. If that changed in a negative way then I would probably give an external antenna more priority.
Thank you very much, bunch of great info. I did notice my N71 secondary has switched from PCI 320 to 359. I found the tower site #125290 SE of me. Have you tried external antenna? I know, I don't want to do it either but would like to see what kind of improvement I got. Would like to try one of the new Gateways. Thanks again and I'll keep working on it. Great support!
K4VW - The PCI, physical cell identifier, is the identification for the cell that is the origination for the band. If the tower information in cellmapper.net has both the B2 & B66 LTE bands you might be sort of in the middle of the zone where your gateway tends to move back and forth between the two. They could be on different towers but without looking up the PCI information in cellmapper.net I could not say if both are on different towers or not. Use cellmapper.net to locate the 4G LTE cells via the PCI values. You also may be able to locate the 5G NR signals as well. CellMapper.net is roughly 80% accurate as the database is populated by users uploading info. With an account and using application software on an Android phone users can get their information to the servers and in the database and that helps everyone that tries to find cells. Not possible with an iPhone, an apple thing. If it is I have not seen any way yet. I have been reading the info on cellmapper.net and Android and Win10 mobile apps available but not for iOS. Using cellmapper.net is free and very helpful.
One thing you might try is to rotate the gateway say 5 degrees at a time and watch the signal metrics. The arrangement of the Nokia is such that there are multiple antennas in it which run vertical. I found if I point the back of my gateway, i.e. where the switch and Ethernet ports are, in toward me and have the front left, from the back orientation, facing toward the tower I can improve the 5G NR signal. I usually can get 3-4 dBm improvement on the 5G NR signal just by turning the gateway to improve the signal wash over the two antennas on the front side. I oriented mine to improve the 5G and ignore the drop on the 4G LTE signal. I don't do much in the way of heavy uploads so the download speed on the 5G signal is where I have worked to improve the exposure. So, you can with a simple rotation of the gateway impact the signal metrics and improve your performance. You can use the chart to translate the metric values so you can dial it in. You might get it to hold 5G with a stronger, cleaner signal with just a simple spin on the gateway. I did have success with this.
