finding best location for T-Mobile home Internet gateway

When the router/gateway is  powered only by the battery it will not energize the WLAN radios. Keep in mind you need to establish uplinks to the tower before you need the WIFI for the local delivery. Just switch it on, it will initialize in a couple of minutes, tap the LED display on the top and swipe to have it show the bars if they are not presented. Once you can see the bars for signal power just take the can for a walk from window to window and see where you get the most bars. If the windows have screens that are metal they will knock down the signal like a Faraday cage.  Once you find the best window or glass door then you can slowly rotate the router a little at a time and see if the signal strength goes up a bar or two with a given exposure. The antennas in the router are radially around the can in a vertical pattern. There are (4) labeled 5G and (4) labeled WIFI. They alternate 5G, WIFI, 5G, WIFI… I found I could expose the portion of the router just to the left of the back panel toward the tower and it improves the 5G connection. Once you have the signal location established just follow the directions T-Mobile has for setting it up. You can use the default wireless settings to get connected but establishing your own wireless SSID and your own personal password for the admin user are best practice. Secure the wireless with at least WPA2. Some printers only support WPA security so WPA2/WPA is necessary in some cases. Older wireless printers might only have WPA. Depending upon the software code on the router the LAN ports may or may not work. I know they do work with version 1.2003.03.0178 and I would guess many newer T-Mobile/Nokia 5G home internet routers are shipping with this now. You can use the HTML communication 192.168.12.1 to see the reporting and configure the WIFI with a computer. It is a rather simple interface and is missing features that are needed really but it does get the basics done and provides some visibility to how the connections are working. If you get confused and are not familiar with setting up a router like this just call T-Mobile support and ask for a call back if there are no agents available. I have found they usually call back in 15-30 minutes and can make the setup complete in no time. They have visibility to the tower information to know how it is connected so it is helpful.

PS56k wrote:

 I have a signal - and its plugged in - showing 2-3 bars….
and then UN-plug it -
it only shows the TM logo and some slowly marching [] [] [] [] boxes -
but no way to scroll to the signal strength bars ???

Usually, those marching boxes means the gateway is restarting.

Perhaps using the manual instructions, may get the gateway into battery mode for signal detection by keeping it unplugged, and recycling the on-off switch.

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/public-files/attachments/T-Mobile%20High-Speed%20Internet%20Gateway%20End%20User%20Guide.pdf , page 11.

Manual setup: identify an ideal location:

The following procedure will help determine the best location for your gateway.

1. Without using the provided power adapter, power-on the gateway by pressing its On/Off button.
2. Walk the gateway around your house and identify the window where it gets the best signal, as represented by the greatest number of bars on the LCD.

When I spoke with the Waveform engineer he was very helpful and courteous. They currently have a guide for the Arcadyan router like they did for the Nokia.

https://www.waveform.com/a/b/guides/hotspots/t-mobile-5g-gateway-arcadyan#installing-external-antennas-to-the-t-mobile-5g-internet-gateway

He pointed me to the guide for the Arcadyan in no time. It seems very clear. Not as simple as the Nokia for opening but not bad. Pretty easy to crack it open and have it spill the beans.

 I have a signal - and its plugged in - showing 2-3 bars….
and then UN-plug it -
it only shows the TM logo and some slowly marching [] [] [] [] boxes -
but no way to scroll to the signal strength bars ???

As I recall when I remove the power to my Nokia router it will restart. Keep in mind if you remove the power and go to battery it will have to drop the WIFI radios & only operates the cellular radio. Once the router has a couple of minutes to complete the restart then the LED on top of the router should provide the bars and respond. 

My take is it is best to know where the tower is from the start. If you ask T-Mobile support where the tower(s) are in your location then you can focus on the windows which provide the best exposure to the signal. Once you get an initial idea of where it gets the best signal strength via the walkabout then I suggest to web into the 192.168.12.1 interface & see the actual signal strength for the primary & secondary cellular signals and also go the "Status" tab/page and find out the radio channels for both primary and secondary. If you post the signal parametric values to the conversation others can help you determine how it is functioning and how make suggestions that could help to improve the connections. Setting up a router via the cellular solution is a bit more demanding than just plugging in a cable modem so feel free to ask questions. The more you understand how it works the better you can get the solution to provide service you really want.

tnx - after I unplugged it - and it had the marching [] bars…..
it did come back to the normal “bars” screen,
and I could walk around looking for more bars…. nope - still 2-3 -

So - ok - just put it back to it’s normal place…

Is that the round shaped Nokia router or the rectangular with the rounded corners, the Arcadyan? If it is the Nokia router you can look at the details in the web interface and get a cellular connection metrics and the internet connection metrics and it will be much clearer as to how it is operating and the signal strength and quality.

I found the waveform antenna kits, according to the cell antenna map I found online, the local t-mobile 5G is on the n71 band, and waveform says the 2x2 system will work for that on the arcadyan gateway, so less expensive. So far though today, the internet speed has been acceptable so will wait and see and may or may not mess with the external antenna. 

The battery in the wireless router serves only one purpose and that is to do just what you think. Walking it around your place until you find the strongest signal. The battery provides no other function.

So, I just hooked up my new 5G gateway, best signal I get is 2 bars, even opened my front door and held it outside, no change. Is there no option for an external antenna?

My internet speed seems pretty good, at least as good as my suddenlink cable internet, but the weak gateway signal strength worries me.

Ran speed test, 40.1 Mbps download but only 1.1 upload.