Before yesterday (10/17/2022), I've always had a command prompt window (MS Windows) up running a constant ping at 3 second interval - so I can tell when the network starts to degrade or just stops responding (which has become very frequent in the last few months).As of yesterday morning, both ping and tracert commands consistently fail. As in no longer any response. So it appears the ports used for those commands are now being blocked on the 5g network? I have a 5g phone on Tmobile, and I see the same result. On 5g with hotspot turned on, with computer connected, ping and tracert fail 100%. If I force the phone to use LTE and stay off 5g, ping and tracert start working again. Don't really understand why Tmobile would block such a basic network analysis command.This is in downtown Scottsdale AZ. As a sidenote, service on the 5g network degrades consistently every day after about 8am, and usually is consistently bad all weekend long. Works great before 8am most days.

Yes, as of my post it seems T-Mobile is actively blocking Ping, Tracert, Traceroute and ICMP in addition if they do go through at all, they are deprioritized to the point that they are not effective to use in any capacity.This sucks really bad... I use multiple uplinks and depending on the RTT, RTTSD, Loss it switches providers to balance connections across them… This behavior from the ISP breaks tons of functions as well as my link down failover automations. I hope T-Mobile realizes that ping and tracert/tracroute are 1000% necessary for proper network management and trouble shooting. Verizon and AT&T don't have this problem of blocking pings, it is a T-Mobile specific issue and really makes the brand look cheap and the network mismanaged. You can have a secure network without blocking normal and essential network tools that have existed since before I was born.

I am in east TN with the Nokia gateway and I ran a quick test with a Macbook Pro and a Linux client. With the Macbook Pro the pings have a significant delay where several request time out messages were reported prior to an actual response typically 140+ ms between responses. I went to a Linux client and did a forced ipv6 ping based upon a prior test. I get a similar response performing IPv6 and IPv4. Both have extreme delay times and are not very useful Of the forced 23 ipv6 ping packets 5 were received with a ~78% loss. So, yes it appears T-Mobile has jacked up the use of ICMP as a trouble shooting tool. Based upon the two tests I ran it appears pings with IPv4 fail much worse than IPv6 pings but the use of pings now is pretty much useless.I fail to see why they feel this would be positive for users. Make it more difficult for users to identify potential issues so they are totally blind. It just makes calls to TMO support less productive when users with such basic knowledge cannot tell support what they do not see.

I can understand that. Another user was using the T-Mobile solution as a back up and doing a similar tactic with his negate firewall. In order to insure the failover could take place he had to disable the ping processing. When the Starlink fell it still transitioned to the backup. I don't mean to lessen the importance of being able to have ICMP packets passed. I have seen the excessive loss and latency of the ICMP responses to 150 ms or more so I get it. I just don't think T-Mobile will be invested in resolving it right away. It is hard to tell how extensive the behavior is but it is generating some noise. Maybe with lots more noise they will pay attention.

ShanStewart wrote: Ok, i spoke to T-Mobile tech and they said they no longer support ping so that is interesting. FFS. Since we'e picking & choosing cucial communication potocols now, I've decided to no longe suppot the lette 'r'.

Hi, I too wish T-Mobile would fix this, and that the issue deserves to be newsworthy!I have been having major issues related to my T-Mobile home internet, primarily devices like home assistants and their accessories that rely on lower latency to fulfil requests. My Nest Mini now takes on average 10 full seconds to begin loading the response. Beyond that, issues with security since my cameras have increased lag making my doorbell camera less useful, and problems with my DNS not able to properly filter the web. I'm not the only one and neither are any of you: https://community.t-mobile.com/tv-home-internet-7/dns-provider-for-home-internet-38694Clearly this is an aggressive rollout of provisioning. To report my locale, I'm in the PNW but most of you are in the South/Midwest states like Texas. Well, location doesn't seem to matter IMO as I still have noticed many issues recently, to the timeframe given in this forum, in where my web filter has not been able to deny requests properly on one of my home computers. I believe ICMP details noted are related.Sadly enough, I am JUST learning how to network in college, in my second year and taking classes related specifically to latency and ping... So just wanted to note that I am genuinely affected by this… My own learning material has me doing these types of ICMP ping requests in Windows, and some posts here are lining up with my college material, but while learning from other members here has been fun, it also means to realize that my learning just got a lot harder BECAUSE of my fervent interest in bleeding-edge wireless tech… It doesn't have to be this way!When testing using Fast.com and other methods, I'm anywhere between 50ms and 1.2seconds loaded for latency. While that hasn't been an issue, what's different is that now never reporting the lower number. One second of latency means I can pretty much throw away my Xcloud membership LMAO I have much better results playing using my phone's mobile hotspot.Other tests, like Edge's in-browser utility, no longer can report latency at all and therefore the program hangs. Just as another user said, it makes it harder for a given person who doesn't know what's going on understand what's happening. This issue is compounded when the customers end up calling staff who have no source of truth for information on ping/latency leading to no progress for either party.All in all, this is snowballing quickly and the best action really is to roll back these changes or communicate the incoming fixes. At minimum, progress in this would feel like acknowledging that the official stance isn't that "ping isn't used anymore" by T-Mobile and instead the stance customers want to see would be closer to working on a solution to the existing latency and ICMP problem for T-Mobile Home Internet users Nationwide.Thanks to other forum members here, I understand now that if I want to continue to effectively filter my web I now need an addition device, a VPN (a hardware solution akin to a PfSense router) between my modem and personal router… and I would rather configure my own hardware like the ASUS modem I had before, but T-Mobile Home Internet does not support other hardware even if I did try and use a hotspot or 3rd-Party 5G Modem. I really don't want a bunch of networking equipment at home, I'd wanna leave that for school lol... so it's horrible to see this provisioning and clearly it's basically "love it or leave it" unless we outcry. So I'd like to join you all in a big +1 @inductivesoul @iTinkeralot @ShanStewart @Walkabt and ask T-Mobile to sympathize with customers, geeks and nerdy students alike and cool it with the way their locking down these gateways.

Has ping / tracert been blocked on 5g network?

ShanStewart
Transmission Trainee
Hace 3 años
Yeah I am not sure what areas are seeing this issue. Sounds like the Bay Area is not seeing the issue anymore. I just tested from the Phoenix area and still seeing the issue.
ShanStewart
Transmission Trainee
Hace 3 años
T-Mobile called be back today, they are not grasping the issue. Still having issues with ping but clearly they have no clue what that is. They obviously have no concept of tech troubleshooting and when they read back my issue they get it wrong 100% of the time no matter how many times I explained it to them. They must only have a grasp of English as it relates to the script they have. It is so frustrating. Like I say " This is my issue" they so "I understand, what happens if you try a different website". After literally an hour on the phone with this person I just gave up. My only option is to have our employees change ISP.
I should have recorded these calls for YouTube because it is almost comically frustrating.
ShanStewart
Transmission Trainee
Hace 3 años
Walkabt wrote:

in Phoenix area too. These changes may be the cause of our unpleasant experience recently.

1) We have a Ting Fire device that monitor's the electrical wiring of our home and it sends information out. It went offline. Couldn't get it to work, but took the device to a neighbors house and no issues…

2) Had challenges joining a homeowner's association meeting. The HOA property management firm uses Microsoft Teams. I was able to get on after a couple attempts. Microsoft email seems to have quirks sending out emails now too.

3) Don’t know if it is an Apple iOS/tvOS16.1 issue or T-Mobile change issue, but watching services through Apple TV has had streaming services like Disney, Hulu, Amazon say oops, we can’t connect or your are offline, this is sporadic.

Signal strength and quality haven't changed. I check the numbers monthly.

If this were a deliberate decision, T-Mobile may be causing issues with the way other company’s products work.

I hope this is a technical error.

Yeah it's absolutely a T-Mobile issue. I can replicate from and iPhone or Windows computer connected to the T-Mobile home router gateway device. You can test it by opening a command prompt in windows and typing ping 8.8.8.8 and hit enter. You should just get no response in the output. You can replace 8.8.8.8 with whatever you want. For teams it is teams.microsoft.com
i suggest everyone call T-Mobile, maybe if they get enough calls they will take it seriously.
Walkabt
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
I've been down this path with multiple companies recently. Call centers in the Philippines will never report this up the chain, no matter how many call in. I believe that is where 611 goes most of the time now; I never get Abq call center anymore.
IMO. This would have to become newsworthy and hit a news cycle, or it will be ignored.
castironfanatic
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
Stopping by to say I am also seeing pings fail over in Omaha NE. 86% failure rate. Seeing the same when using test-connection via powershell. Very sad, time to switch back to the cable internet provider I suppose, as much as I hate giving them my money.
iTinkeralot
Bandwidth Buff
Hace 3 años
So I will not argue that the blocking of ICMP is not a problem but to me it portends much larger problems for users. If the trend of cell deployment with overloading and ignoring the rapid decline of content delivery on overloaded cells continues it puts out a very bad message. It becomes about revenue at any cost. If customers are not satisfied they can just go pay more to another ISP and someone else will come take that spot on the network. If the revenue continues to grow that is the bottom line. I could list the warts with content delivery but I am sure some would say that is over exaggerated but the reality is the more bandwidth is throttled, the more ports are blocked, the more applications that fail to function all lead to a lack of customer satisfaction and loyalty. If T-Mobile or any service provider wants to grow a business and maintain integrity they need to treat customers with respect and make an honest effort to do so. I understand cellular internet delivery is expensive and complicated but if it is an important part of the business growth then do it right.
I took the time to write a thank you direct to Matthew Keys at thedesk.net after reading the prior post. Yes, it may be a futile gesture but journalists need to know people appreciate their efforts. Just like a note to say thank your for your article yada yada the "likes" on the community forum for the good and bad are necessary. We don't need to be critical and nasty but sharing the honest truth that there are warts on the system is important to keep the powers that be honest.
castironfanatic
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
Stopping back in to say I can ping reliably again. My tmobile service was out for about 10 minutes this morning and then came back up. I noticed when it came back up I was consistently getting replies when pinging. I will still be switching to the local cable internet provider. Then once the local fiber provider is back up and running I'll be adding that again, at which point I'll be dropping Tmobile. I don't trust them anymore if they will just drop "support" for specific things when they feel like.
iTinkeralot
Bandwidth Buff
Hace 3 años
Well, no gateway bounce here and ICMP packet loss still at 80-85% so no universal resolution yet. Time will tell if they are clearing up the blocking or throttling or whatever they have done that broke it. We will see. Good luck! I hope it shakes out how you want.
iTinkeralot
Bandwidth Buff
Hace 3 años
Heads up boys & girls!!
Its back o on the way. After the post from castrionfanatic I tested and my Nokia gateway was 27 days and some odd hours uptime and ICMP not passing. I decided to reboot the gateway and try again. Boom! It works. So, a reboot for you may also improve matters. I am in East Tennessee so locations may be different but it is much improved here.
itinkeralot-MBP ~ % ping google.com
PING google.com (173.194.219.138): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=0 ttl=104 time=41.858 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=1 ttl=104 time=47.267 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=2 ttl=104 time=43.141 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=3 ttl=104 time=53.151 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=4 ttl=104 time=44.556 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=5 ttl=104 time=49.542 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=6 ttl=104 time=56.210 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=7 ttl=104 time=41.839 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=8 ttl=104 time=46.823 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=9 ttl=104 time=45.199 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=10 ttl=104 time=42.422 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=11 ttl=104 time=46.108 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=12 ttl=104 time=49.083 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=13 ttl=104 time=41.708 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=14 ttl=104 time=44.228 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=15 ttl=104 time=45.096 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=16 ttl=104 time=45.386 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=17 ttl=104 time=46.104 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=18 ttl=104 time=41.739 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.219.138: icmp_seq=19 ttl=104 time=42.638 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
20 packets transmitted, 20 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 41.708/45.705/56.210/3.797 ms
jimibak
Roaming Rookie
Hace 3 años
iTinkeralot wrote:

Heads up boys & girls!!

Its back o on the way.

Still no joy in OC NY.