Forum Discussion
Intermittent Service t-Mobile 5G
I just received my 5G gateway and have set this up. I'm a software engineer with a solid knowledge of electronics and telecoms but I'm not up to date with latest stuff.
Anyway I have the device setup, we also have ADSL but I want to explore 5G so I subscribed to see how it behaves.
I have a single PC cabled into the gateway, nothing else in the house communicates (yet) with the gateway (my phone does talk to the gateway over wifi to inspect it, but that’s all).
I got a 3bar signal and set the unit on my desk and it seemed OK, very much faster than ADSL.
But after an hour I began to get randomly "No internet" and the device had disconnected. This has been the case for the past two hours now. Up then down like 10 mins, 5 mins, 2 mins, 8 mins uptime then brief loss of connection.
The 3bar signal strength seems steady.
There are a primary and secondary signals reported on the web page that proves the gateway.
Does anyone have any idea what lies behind these disconnects?
My zip is 85207 and all indications are we have “5G Ultra Capacity” I am a few miles away from various buttes that have lots of towers, one is west of me and during the setup my phone indicated a signal source west of me, so I’m assuming that tower is the location of the signal.
Because of these buttes and my proximity to them and no tall buildings around I’d assumed I was advantageously placed.
So what to do? I can see numerous threads about this from other people, is the service really that poor?
My ADSL - though much slower - has no reliability issues, up 24/7.
I'm getting ready to dump this horribly inconsistent service.. can't take it anymore. I've had both the arcadyan and the Nokia.. the service sucks and is intermittent at its best. Makes streaming impossible.
I have firmware version 1.2104.00.0286 running and I use both LAN interfaces with Ethernet switches and have at least 6-7 wired clients plus wireless clients but I have seen no behavior like that.
The standard for gigabit Ethernet requires CAT 5e or better. I prefer to run CAT 6 cables and all my cables are high quality build by a reputable manufacturer. OK, so I do have a couple that might be Cat 5e but no Cat 5 now. I tossed all those.
Check the statistics and see if there are “Sent or Receive Errors” or discards on the wired connection.
I have not seen any conversations where users have reported issues with the wired Ethernet ports. That is not to say there could not be one. I have not seen any posts as such. Make sure the Ethernet cable is secure in the RJ45 port. It might be a driver issue or just a cable that has a RJ45 connector that does not mate well with the RJ45 port on the Nokia. Having out of spec connectors is usually when a connector is not made per the specifications where a manufacturer does not have good controls. It could be a problem with the gateway Ethernet module. It would be a strange one. I would expect to see errors on the statistics if that were the case.
I can understand the frustration with the intermittent disruptions and buffering. We had a couple of episodes like that but the problems were resolved. If the service in your area is a newer deployment they may still be working on the towers. That is when such behavior is fairly common. Unfortunately they dont provide any prior notification related to maintenance work being performed.
Ah… you found a draft. I had found the End User Guide some time ago.
I found cell LTE cell PCI154. It is just West of South Ironwood Drive and between W Apache Trail and W Broadway. The cell ID is 226331147 and the eNB ID 884106 - LTE (i.e. the tower.) Not sure how far that is from where you are based the map you posted. Too hard to nail down with out exact locations. You should be able to find that tower with the search for the eNB.
When filtering for 5G NR towers I don't see the tower you are referring to. Need the eNB number. Not sure where that n41 5G signal originates but I can see the 4G LTE.
iTinkeralot wrote:
I have firmware version 1.2104.00.0286 running and I use both LAN interfaces with Ethernet switches and have at least 6-7 wired clients plus wireless clients but I have seen no behavior like that.
Hola,
Have you tried connecting a computer right to the LAN port? not via any switches/networks?
When filtering for Band n41, NR-ARFCN 527790 I can see three towers that have band N41 but none of them have the PCI 166 on record.
gNB ID 3671592 - NR has Cell 301; cell identifier 7519420717, ARFCN 527790 PCI 297
gNB ID 3685636 - NR has Cell 301; cell identifier 7548182829, ARFCN 527790 PCI 33
gNB ID 3672002 - NR has Cell 302 ; cell identifier 7520260398, ARFCN 527790 PCI 325
I can't seem to locate n41 with a PCI 166. It may be there but not yet in the database. There is no info to determine the direction of the cells so I suspect there to be another tower where PCI 166 must originate.
Respuesta: I did connect my MacBook Pro on the gateway direct but prior to this software. It is connected now as it is my main management client. So yes I have had a single client connected to the gateway. I have Windows 10, Apple iOS, and MacOS both, and Linux clients. I currently have 17 clients live and I am getting 137 Mbs down and 51 Mbs upload so it looks pretty good tonight.
What OS is your wired client running? If you are running a Win 10 client it is pretty simple to go into the network settings for the NIC and instead of allowing it to auto negotiate set it gigabit. Force it in effect. The capability handshake negotiation between clients is a low level and there might be some low level signaling that is not working well between the client and the gateway. As a test it might prove helpful.
I use two different gigabit switches by different vendors plus I have used my MAC direct against the gateway. I can't remember if I used one of my W10 clients or a Linux client direct against the gateway. Given how many users connect routers to the T-Mobile gateways I don't believe there is a major issue with Ethernet ports on the gateways. The technology is very mature. It might be a bad Ethernet module but without testing equipment it would be hard to say.
IF you have an Android phone there are Network analyzers. Red Cell Info Lite on the Google Play store could be used to locate the 5G cell towers, assuming you have a 5G Android phone.
Open Signal might be helpful if nothing else but to get a direction for the tower. It might be the 5G cell you receive is on a tower with 4G LTE but is not in the CellMapper.net database. I don't see a reference to that PCI value for an n41 5G NR signal.
Using an Apple iPhone makes the task difficult. You can put the iPhone into Field Test Mode and get information about its service. Like dialing a phone number but *3001#12345#* then enter/send.
