Forum Discussion
Extremely high latency with home internet
Just recently got the home internet gateway and it's been incredibly disappointing.
For the price of it and the fact we have cell towers, including tmobiles towers, within less than a milebof our home, it's been incredibly underwhelming.
Speeds are anywhere between 20mbs and 300, meanwhile the latency is consistently well over 120ms (as high as 800) on downloads and several thousand milliseconds on upload. We've had the gateway in every spot we could think of, each one reading "excellent" signal on the gateway and app and single location was better than any other. Even had it sitting outside the balcony and it was still horrendous performing tests directly on top of it.
Is there anything to bother trying with this or just send it back? Was hoping for something at least halfway decent compared to what I had last and somehow it's come up even worse for wireless connection.
Are you kidding me! latency is extremely important If you need a quality connection. It is one of the most important measurements that you can use in determining how responsive (or 'fast') an internet connection is, and is completely unrelated to bandwidth which is a measure of capacity. These problems definitely exist. They are sometimes hard to fix especially with a 5g gateway. I would try a different gateway and see what ya got
High latency still interrupts downloads....hence why it's called "latency", it's a delay... Using it for netflix alone might not be an issue for some of you, but when you're running multiple applications (whether work related or gaming related) it greatly hinders what you're trying to do. For something that gets marketed as being "great" for all around use, it's starting to look like it isn't.
I'm sure if all I did was browse a few apps or sites a day it'd be great...but not when I actively *need* the service to run properly. And if this is "just how it is", it's got a long way to go. But again, I'll give another unit a shot. I've got my doubts, but hey, can always cancel the service and find something that works as it should in 2023
My "upload" and "download" ping latencies are in the same range as yours (as well as standard ping and speeds), and I haven't had any issues with performance. I can stream on multiple devices, my security cameras work fine...all basically good. I don't game, however. I'm curious what you mean when you say it "disrupts everything"?
I have had TMHI for over a year and I have been very satisfied. I'm not a gamer; my primary uses are streaming and browsing. I do a Speedtest fairly regularly. My download speed is usually over 400 Mbps. (However sometimes it is much less; I have not identified a pattern. It has not been a problem for me.) The latency numbers are in the neighborhood of 600 ms download and 120 ms upload.
If those numbers are unacceptable, then you probably want to look for fiber rather than 5G home internet service.
dwbradley wrote:
Glad I read this. Latency is important to anyone that is doing more than browsing the web and email. Even those operations if the response is more than a few hundred milliseconds is going to be annoying. If you're into online games, you're going to want at least 50ms or faster. I'm considering T-Mobile Home Internet, but I will be sure to confirm what the latency actually is. Anyone who uses T-Mobile Home Internet and understand what latency/ping is, care to report what they're getting?
Download ping 288. Upload 619.
dwbradley wrote:
Anyone who uses T-Mobile Home Internet and understand what latency/ping is, care to report what they’re getting?
I agree, the latency is an issue. I get random disconnects from my companies VPN and it appears to be related to latency. I came here hoping someone might have a trick to make it better.
Recently, me, too, get disconnected from my companies VPN very frequently.
This is mine in Ft. Lauderdale area today.
We don't have many choices here. Verizon, Comcast, AT&T?
@Mm21 if you are close to a tower, then you should have great service. I am close to my tower (< 1 air mile away) and I get 150-300 down and 30-80 up.
if you have the T-Mobile home internet service, then you must qualify for being in a 5G network area and able to receive a 5G signal from a nearby cell tower.
That said, let's try to diagnose the cause so that we can resolve your issue. Please answer a few questions that will be helpful in the diagnosing the problem.
Did you use the Placement Assistant in the T-Mobile Internet app? If not, you can access it from the app Home Screen: tap the More about connection quality link on the Home Screen > Launch placement assistant > OK! Let's do this > you can watch the video if it will help, then "skip video" which will launch the placement assistant > enter your address or share location (if you use "share location" and your address shows up then you are assured to be connected to the network). It will take 30-45 seconds to confirm your location. Use the "Camera" mode for a direct visual of where your cell tower is located to where your gateway is located in your home. Try to make sure your gateway is located in a high point of your home and clear of any obstructions. Here is a helpful video: https://youtu.be/Q-DmRbQFuo0
What are your metrics - now that you are confident your gateway is located in the best possible location, your metrics will show the quality of your connection. In your T-Mobile Internet app > tap "MORE" at the bottom of the Home Screen > tap "Advanced cellular metrics" > tap "5G" > and let us know your RSRQ, RSRP, SINR and which band you are connected to. You should be on band n41 or n71. Look at the chart posted above in this thread for. the ideal readings. to get the best readings, slightly rotate your gateway about 1/8th of a turn and then check the metrics to see if they change for the better. Repeat until you get the best metrics.
Let us know the results. I hope this helps.
Shows an excellent connection every where I've connected it. Using the camera showed nothing at all, literally just sent me in circles. Point it towards the location of two nearby towers and just keeps saying turn left over and over. Again due to close proximity of a few towers, the connection remains "excellent".
Regardless, the "connection" shows excellent. Download has peaked at around 400mbs but it's useless when the latency is sometimes nearly as high and could be 10x higher than upload speeds.
The test attached is just a quick one I ran from my phone at this time. I've even attached gigabit routers to the gateway to see if they'd be of any help and it's changed nothing.
Again, speeds are not the problem. It's the latency. The latency disrupts everything else drastically. Speed could be 800-1200mbs (like my last provider) but it's completely useless when latency is so high, hence why I thought I'd try this out
