Latest Gateway Firmware Discussion

I just called to complain about the VPN issue.  Instead of pushing me a firmware update they asked if it was OK to send me a new gateway.  I said yes.  I'll have it on Friday.  Bet it comes with the new firmware.  I was still on 0168.  

I have had the T-Mobile GW since early January 2021 and the GW has taken a few updates. Currently it is on 1.2003.03.0178 which appears to be the most recent. I opened a support call on Monday due to operation being flakey. I would not say 1.2003.03.0178 is the holy grail. The unit tends to drop the secondary channel on the  n71 band more often than it should in my opinion. It will hold the primary channel B2 fairly well most of the time but reporting can be deceiving. The LED panel on the top may report 3 or 4 bars but the login via the software interface does not provide significant clarity as the two views can differ. My Linux, Windows, and Apple clients can have a solid WIFI signal and burp… no internet service so sessions drop. At times a reboot of the GW can recover partial operation but it takes more time for it to establish a lock on the secondary n71 band. With just the primary B2 channel latency is higher, LTE, so performance drops pretty much in half what both bands deliver. The newer code does engage the RJ45 connections as I run CAT 6 from my MAC to avoid the WIFI but when the GW to tower channel drops take place it is still a problem. I think newer code is still necessary.

It really is unpredictable for service delivery. If T-Mobile engineers are messing with the gear on the tower the signal drops. Given T-Mobile's aggressive expansion of services this would not surprise me. With the GW outside the house both the primary and secondary signals still drop at random times. The signal is a little improved by a few dBm but not that substantial given the tower is direct line of sight less than 2 miles to the SE. 

For anyone that is interested in more details about the T-Mobile gateway waveform.com has an interesting and informative article that provides more understanding about the reporting and how to improve the operation. Of course they promote external antenna solutions but well if you want to improve the signal quality this can improve data rates and make the solution more enjoyable. In my case i know I have reporting for "Good" to "Excellent" signal strength on both LTE and 5G signals but the 5G signal could have improved "Signal Quality" but it is still in the Good range. So, it makes it difficult to know why the signals are dropping at random times repeatedly. It still could be a software issue that results in communication issues with the tower but this is a hard one to determine alone.

I just received mine and it has 1.2003.03.0168. I was really disappointed to see no options to change the lan or DHCP settings. It works great after I reconfigure everything else on my network to use the new subnet. :|

Fortunately, DHCP seems to assign at 192.168.12.200+ so I can keep static addresses and use my  existing 801.11ac wireless.

I got 1.2101.00.1609 last nite. Today speeds seem much slower than yesterday as in very slow having issues with work video calls.

Since I am mostly new to the service and I was down for a week waiting for replacement gateway I am not sure on historical performance.

I have moved the can around. The best spot is a second fl window kinda between the 5G and an LTE tower. I can put it in line of site of the 5G tower but always seems slower there as it cannot lock on a secondary signal.

Why does it keep the LTE as primary when the 5G has the better stronger signal?

I do have the fan under the unit and all Wifi off.

007BondMI6 wrote:

I got 1.2101.00.1609 last nite. Today speeds seem much slower than yesterday as in very slow having issues with work video calls.

 

How much is the total usage for the month to date? I thought Home Internet came with unlimited usage and no throttling but I keep seeing warnings on their website about throttling if over 50GB of data is used. That may just be for phones but the information available isn't particularly matched to their Home Internet customers. I'll need to wait until next month some time to see if I actually get my speed reduced.

WilliamF wrote:

007BondMI6 wrote:

I got 1.2101.00.1609 last nite. Today speeds seem much slower than yesterday as in very slow having issues with work video calls.

 

How much is the total usage for the month to date? I thought Home Internet came with unlimited usage and no throttling but I keep seeing warnings on their website about throttling if over 50GB of data is used. That may just be for phones but the information available isn't particularly matched to their Home Internet customers. I'll need to wait until next month some time to see if I actually get my speed reduced.

Not much was on vac then got back gateway broke was offline for a week.

Kinda bummed speed was 500 now I’m getting 1-15 video buffering on all calls today.

Odd is the upload is great 25-50 just download is slow.

Just rebooted no change same speeds off to another call now.

007BondMI6 wrote:

Not much was on vac then got back gateway broke was offline for a week.

Kinda bummed speed was 500 now I’m getting 1-15 video buffering on all calls today.

Odd is the upload is great 25-50 just download is slow.

Just rebooted no change same speeds off to another call now.

I only have 3 bars on 5G connection and still get over 200 megabit and video is good. I connected the LAN 1 port on my router to a local switch instead of using WIFI for most things. Are you using Wifi or ethernet? Can you watch Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc?

https://fast.com/ will show you how your Netflix connection is specifically for a test. If it still shows over 100 Mbps then it's probably not your connections. Perhaps there's a specific issue with streaming.

Speed tests on http://www.dslreports.com/ can show you connections more generally. 

Also, today I have 1.2101.00.1609 as well.

WilliamF wrote:

007BondMI6 wrote:

Not much was on vac then got back gateway broke was offline for a week.

Kinda bummed speed was 500 now I’m getting 1-15 video buffering on all calls today.

Odd is the upload is great 25-50 just download is slow.

Just rebooted no change same speeds off to another call now.

I only have 3 bars on 5G connection and still get over 200 megabit and video is good. I connected the LAN 1 port on my router to a local switch instead of using WIFI for most things. Are you using Wifi or ethernet? Can you watch Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc?

https://fast.com/ will show you how your Netflix connection is specifically for a test. If it still shows over 100 Mbps then it's probably not your connections. Perhaps there's a specific issue with streaming.

Speed tests on http://www.dslreports.com/ can show you connections more generally. 

Also, today I have 1.2101.00.1609 as well.

Fast shows 8.9 so slow. All Wifi on can disabled with fan under can on full.

Can is ethernet to Google Wifi mesh. However do note connecting laptop to second ethernet port on can yields the same results so it has nothing to do with the Google Wifi.