Forum Discussion
Do you have 1609 gateway firmware update yet and how is it working for you?
It's September 14, 2021, and the awaited 1.2101.00.1609 gateway firmware update was finally pushed out to me automatically. You can see if you have it yet in the GUI. Select "Overview" and It is called "Software Version" below the gateway icon to the right.
You can see the GUI for your gateway by typing 192.168.12.1 in the address window of a browser. If you haven't gotten the new 1609 version pushed out to you yet, you will see the old version 0178 still. Please note that Tmobile does these gateway upgrades automatically, pushing them out over weeks, so you may not get yours for a few weeks yet.
According to the T-mo Report of a month ago, here is what is in the update:
The update claims to fix two known VPN issues, one with Cisco AnyConnect and one with GlobalProtect. More importantly, the update claims to improve the poor 5G signal experience. Apparently, this fixes situations where a 5G signal is poor and the LTE signal would be a better connection.
If you think that means if you have a poor 5G signal, and this update will make the signal stronger, like you'll be getting more bars or something, please re-read the statement. That is NOT what it is saying. It says that for people with a better 4G speed than 5G at their house, this software update is supposed to help their gateway connect to the 4G (Primary only) band, instead of their gateway getting stuck on what is for them a very slow 5G band combination (Primary and Secondary).This is probably a situation involving only about 5% or less of Tmobile customers. Before this fix, people in that situation would have to revert to the old 4G white rectangular modem/router if they wanted faster speeds.
I've been on Tmobile home internet for three months and I believe this is the first gateway firmware update since April. For me, no noticeable differences so far. If anyone gets the update and notices any changes in their service, good or bad -- faster speeds, fewer disconnections, whatever -- please mention them in this thread.
Lastly, if someone who doesn't have the update feels there is a compelling reason for them to get it, like they are one of these people with faster 4G LTE speeds than 5G in their location, they can call up and request it be pushed out to them while they wait online. I didn't do that because I do not have either of those two VPN issues, and 5G is many times faster than 4G at my house.
There could be other improvements in the update that we don鈥檛 know about.
It has been a month now since I got the 1609 update, and it's time to report what changed for me. I no longer get disconnected. I haven't been disconnected even once since the update a month ago. Before the update, I got a disconnect about every other day. It would always reconnect after restarting the gateway. It was a minor problem for me in an otherwise great experience with this service. I read a comment of one other person, not on this board, who got disconnected a few times every day and the 1609 update also helped him, no more disconnections. I understand that for the vast majority of users with this disconnection problem, the update probably did nothing.
Had the 1609 update for a while. Gateway used to connect to bands B66 and n41 at 100 to 200MB. After the update the gateway connects to bands B2 and n41 at 200 to 300MB. So it appears the 1609 firmware picks bands that provide higher data rates.
I removed the battery and have the gateway plugged into a digital timer that turns it off and on nightly. I did this after it dropped out several times on the 0178 update. This resolved the drop outs. I haven't noticed any drop outs on the 1609 update in this configuration.
shelnian wrote:
Had the 1609 update for a while. Gateway used to connect to bands B66 and n41 at 100 to 200MB. After the update the gateway connects to bands B2 and n41 at 200 to 300MB. So it appears the 1609 firmware picks bands that provide higher data rates.
I get the same two band combinations as you with similar speed differences, only my top speed is 100 higher. After the 1609 update, I still connect "naturally" (without doing anything) to the slower combination about 80% of the time, but I can get the faster B2/n41 all the time just by restarting the gateway in the morning, being sure to pause 5 seconds with it off for it to drop the slower band, and then it will usually remain connected for the rest of the day on the fast combination.
It鈥檚 good to hear that someone got your benefit out of the update though, because a few of the first responses at the time of the update were that it did the opposite -- a few people were unable to get a fast combination they used to get after the update.
Timsw wrote:
shelnian wrote:
Had the 1609 update for a while. Gateway used to connect to bands B66 and n41 at 100 to 200MB. After the update the gateway connects to bands B2 and n41 at 200 to 300MB. So it appears the 1609 firmware picks bands that provide higher data rates.
I get the same two band combinations as you with similar speed differences, only my top speed is 100 higher. After the 1609 update, I still connect "naturally" (without doing anything) to the slower combination about 80% of the time, but I can get the faster B2/n41 all the time just by restarting the gateway in the morning, being sure to pause 5 seconds with it off for it to drop the slower band, and then it will usually remain connected for the rest of the day on the fast combination.
It鈥檚 good to hear that someone got your benefit out of the update though, because a few of the first responses at the time of the update were that it did the opposite -- a few people were unable to get a fast combination they used to get after the update.
I have done quite a bit if studying these gateways. In general the logic is flawed but what it is doing is in your example grabbing the n41 being the better band but most likely (you don't post any of your signal reading) something is not that great with the n41 maybe low SNR. So the gateway decided to switch and try a more stable band in the area.
My home has a B66 .5 to the W, a n71 2 miles to the NW, and a new n41 3 miles to the SW. I have many post and have invested countless time in this unit. If I were to put the can in the S window to get the n41 and the B66 it would just like you after reboot and for a while then move over to the n71 and crap speeds. I installed an outside antenna pointed at the n41 now my signal from the n41 is fantastic, B66 is much better even though ant is not pointed in that direction and it stays locked day after day like a rock.
I easy get 650 down and 125 up it was worth every penny to buy the ext ant.
007BondMI6 wrote:
Timsw wrote:
shelnian wrote:
Had the 1609 update for a while. Gateway used to connect to bands B66 and n41 at 100 to 200MB. After the update the gateway connects to bands B2 and n41 at 200 to 300MB. So it appears the 1609 firmware picks bands that provide higher data rates.
I get the same two band combinations as you with similar speed differences, only my top speed is 100 higher. After the 1609 update, I still connect "naturally" (without doing anything) to the slower combination about 80% of the time, but I can get the faster B2/n41 all the time just by restarting the gateway in the morning, being sure to pause 5 seconds with it off for it to drop the slower band, and then it will usually remain connected for the rest of the day on the fast combination.
It鈥檚 good to hear that someone got your benefit out of the update though, because a few of the first responses at the time of the update were that it did the opposite -- a few people were unable to get a fast combination they used to get after the update.
I have done quite a bit if studying these gateways. In general the logic is flawed but what it is doing is in your example grabbing the n41 being the better band but most likely (you don't post any of your signal reading) something is not that great with the n41 maybe low SNR. So the gateway decided to switch and try a more stable band in the area.
My home has a B66 .5 to the W, a n71 2 miles to the NW, and a new n41 3 miles to the SW. I have many post and have invested countless time in this unit. If I were to put the can in the S window to get the n41 and the B66 it would just like you after reboot and for a while then move over to the n71 and crap speeds. I installed an outside antenna pointed at the n41 now my signal from the n41 is fantastic, B66 is much better even though ant is not pointed in that direction and it stays locked day after day like a rock.
I easy get 650 down and 125 up it was worth every penny to buy the ext ant.
What external antenna do you have?
Also there is a Facebook group just for TMHI tons of good info Internet residencial de T-Mobile
I still cannot connect my Cisco 801W router to the internet. I have been on with support 4 times now, with well over 1 hour waiting each time. The Cisco support team instructed me to confirm that VPN passthrough and/or Port Forwarding -TCP/UDP500 was open. The support team could not answer this and would research further. I received a call back and was informed the Gateway does not support those types of configurations. They insisted the issue was on my end since they have fixed "All" Cisco AnyConnect issues.
So they are not helping in any way. I had one last session last night, I requested the firmware be rolled back to .0168, since that is what I can see has worked in other comments and an associate of mine who has the exact same setup had his gateway reverted to that and it works fine.
I was told they "are not allowed to roll back to that version" and refused to do so. I asked to speak to a manager, was put on hold for 55 minutes (it was obvious they were hoping I would give up and hang up) and a manager finally came on the line and said they can't help. I pushed for a reason, since others have had it done and after some back and forth, HE HUNG UP ON ME. I know they have my # since they had called me back previously. He never called back.
This is horrible and totally unacceptable, T-Mobile is not a good company in my mind and am considering dropping all our phone plans as well.
My advise is to look elsewhere for internet providers. T-Mobile may be cheaper but the service is so bad it is not worth it.
Dpmac wrote:
I still cannot connect my Cisco 801W router to the internet. I have been on with support 4 times now, with well over 1 hour waiting each time. The Cisco support team instructed me to confirm that VPN passthrough and/or Port Forwarding -TCP/UDP500 was open. The support team could not answer this and would research further. I received a call back and was informed the Gateway does not support those types of configurations. They insisted the issue was on my end since they have fixed "All" Cisco AnyConnect issues.
So they are not helping in any way. I had one last session last night, I requested the firmware be rolled back to .0168, since that is what I can see has worked in other comments and an associate of mine who has the exact same setup had his gateway reverted to that and it works fine.
I was told they "are not allowed to roll back to that version" and refused to do so. I asked to speak to a manager, was put on hold for 55 minutes (it was obvious they were hoping I would give up and hang up) and a manager finally came on the line and said they can't help. I pushed for a reason, since others have had it done and after some back and forth, HE HUNG UP ON ME. I know they have my # since they had called me back previously. He never called back.
This is horrible and totally unacceptable, T-Mobile is not a good company in my mind and am considering dropping all our phone plans as well.
My advise is to look elsewhere for internet providers. T-Mobile may be cheaper but the service is so bad it is not worth it.
Sorry to see you go I am totally happy and recommend it to all my friends to each his own.
It is a cell phone so it does not work in every inch of every state for everyone. But for many of us it works just fine.
Here in Hawaii my Nokia connects to B2 & N71, huge improvement in speed with the 1609 firmware. My previous best speeds were 40 down/10 up ... now those are my absolute minimum speeds. With the built-in WiFi my average is now 80/10. I no longer use the internal WiFi so I turned down the 2.4/5GHz transmission powers to 12%.
I recently added an Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro SE & WiFi 6 Lite Access point in a double NAT configuration and was surprised to see peaks at 250/70, average 140/40. Until Tmobile gives us bridge mode that's how I roll my Nokia FG-21.
I鈥檓 now a happy camper with Tmobile Internet.
I have been having terrible speed issues for almost a month and I don't know if it's the 1609 update but it was around that time things started getting bad. I've spent so much time on this and the only thing that got my speeds up to normal was when I took the sim from the LTE model they sent me to try and put it in the trashcan, my speeds instantly went back to normal. 2 days later my speeds are back to 5mbps. My speeds when I first got this service (for 5 months) were around 180mbps down so I know good speeds are possible. Has anyone found a fix for this? These are now my normal speeds. (The second picture is my TMobile cellular service)
