Forum Discussion
T-Mobile Home Internet setup video
Good day,
As a user of T-Mobile Home Internet (TMHI), and someone who answers questions about the setup in this forum, I thought it might be helpful to post a few videos on the setup. There are many setup videos available, but the one linked below seems easy to follow and understand. For advanced users, you will find it boring.
NOTE: if you are in an area where a T-Mobile cell tower is not close, your signal and performance may not be adequate and this service may not be for you. However for me and many others, we are within about 1-2 miles (line of sight) of our cell tower for 5G service. If so, you should get "4-5 bars" and get over 75 - 150+ Mbps download speeds.
Also - you can change your SSID / wifi network name and password (please do so) during the setup process when using the T0Mobile Internet app to setup your new gateway/device.
And, with the second video, if the user would have rotated his gateway a few degrees and waited and check his signal, he would have probably seen a signal improvement (the 5G antennas are located at the corners of the gateway). Most users find that using the process of rotate - check speed/bars - repeat, provide good results.
Finally, use the include app function to set the gateway/device close to a window and inline with your cell tower (placement function in the internet app). I used "share location" and "camera" to point your camera in the direction of the cell tower in your area...seemed to work well.
I hope this helps the greater TMHI community. Did it help you setup your T-Mobile gateway? What are your speeds (speeds will vary based on your location)?
All the best!
What about those of us who followed the setup procedure and got a great setup with fast speeds of about 275mbps down….. for about two months and now we are lucky to get 12? What do we do?
formercanuck wrote:
I will agree with the OP on this. Location is a Very key factor. If you have an Android phone with TMobile, I'd recommend using Cellmapper.net app to locate your tower. Also, Google Earth can give a 3d line to your location. These 2 will help determine any obstructions between the tower and your location.
I've found on the Arcadyan device to point it 30-45 degrees counter clockwise from the face pointing towards the tower. Ymmv
Placement isn't always obvious, and some trial and error is necessary
As a side note, Arcadyan kvd21 has different rotation than newer g4se/g4ar. G4se recommends the back towards the tower. Also, not all material is as good for signal. Ive found that my glass slider is worse for sinr by 2 to 6 db than the wall a few feet over. Of course, open door beats both, but not great for weather.
As far as performance goes, i get best performance in early morning hours, even if signal is the same. Eg. 5am, 730Mbps with sinr around 17, rsrp -100. While sinr of better than 20, no real download difference, upload will improve
As another note:
Many other posts on this, as it hits many users as of Oct 7. TMobile G4SE modem has what appears to be a bad update, which specifically affects users of services behind VPN (don't have specifics, but inhave been impacted with service freezing while using VPN). As there isn't an ability to roll back, the only option is for a new release, which isn't ready. They are replacing those affected with unpatched devices that have a block for the bad release.
According to the US based rep, this was the October 2nd update, and affecrs Xircom g4se, not g4ar.
For me, it also coincided with a site backhaul upgrade, giving me close to 1gbps
Adding another note. That was g4se device, after October patch. Almost no change between internal and external antenna, but high performance, until dreaded Oct 2 patch. G4ar gives slightly worse performance on external antenna, but better on internal … and slower speed (might be due to patch or other reasons), but is more … stable.
