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iTinkeralot
Bandwidth Buff
Joined 4 years ago
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Re: admin page
OK, so with the 1.00.16 firmware upgrade of the Arcadyan you can NO longer enter the admin level with the gateway. You are forced to use the mobile application if you want to do so. It is a step in the wrong direction in my opinion but it is how T-Mobile has decided it will be I guess. Maybe the developers just messed up and now the admin option is not there or it was a decision they made. I personally dislike the mobile application as I prefer the web GUI interface for management. It makes no sense to me as you can ONLY use the mobile application to communicate with the gateway when connected to the WIFI. That prevents you from being able to make changes with a wired Ethernet connection and not having to wait for the gateway to respond after changes to the wireless LAN settings. Lets see, you have a problem with your phone or don't have it on you so you cant manage the gateway. A single inferior option for management is a poor solution. Letting the bean counters drive the solution is always a bad idea. It is what it is. If users want tomakenoise and push for improvements they all have to make lots of noise. It is about the bottom line more than likely. Pushing to make more money with less effort. 2022Re: ITS TIME TO SUE T-MOBILE BAD INTERNET SERVICE
I really believe the reality is if you have a discussion with T-Mobile and make a firm, rational demand for a refund after explaining the situation they will come through and provide a refund. The only one who really wins in a lawsuit is the man in the $2000 suit and Italian custom shoes. 5G Cellular internet delivery is still in its infancy and still has a way to go. Coverage for ALL areas is not a reality. It is NO different with a cable or fiber solution. The carriers do not just dump a bunch of money for a Joe on a mile long dirt road for free. They might for a large fee but then again may not. The information about what the T-Mobile solution can and cannot do is in the FAQs and in multiple T-Mobile conversations in the community and say Reddit or on Facebook etc… The $50/month, no contract, no fees, no equipment costs etc…is attractive and for some like myself was the only viable solution. It works for me. Sure it had its moments at times but it was fixed. Lawyers love class action lawsuits as that just fuels their expensive cars and heats their pools. Time to move on. Just have the conversation, get a refund and get another solution and enjoy life. Please.Re: TMobile Gateway IP Addresses
The T-Mobile gateways do have a DHCP server which is set with the fixed gateway IP of 192.168.12.1 and the network mask of /24 for theClass C, IP network. The DHCP scope appears to be from 101-254 and the gateway address is excluded. Some users do connect an additional wireless router and double NAT just to have additional local network controls and features. Devices that do connect to the wireless or Ethernet network directly via the available gateway resource are restricted to the 192.168.12.X/24 network. There are workarounds for ways of communicating across the 464XLAT environment but of course it all comes with a cost. T-Mobile does run 464XLAT and they leverage IPv4 and IPv6 so there are some limitations for port forwarding with the technology. It is a move toward support for IPv6 and migration as IPv4 addresses are in short supply now and the cost to obtain IPv4 addresses is prohibitive. The use of IPv6 provides the enormous pool of available addresses and given the explosion of internet connected devices moving forward with IPv6 is really the most cost effective solution. As more hardware and software developers provide IPv6 vs IPv4 for content delivery many limitations imposed by the prior paradigm for IP communication could be resolved. It will be years before the industry moves forward with applications that embrace the future requirements. It is pretty much like people still having ICE vehicles due to the infrastructure and the cost of electrification of vehicles and the enormous costs associated with making the move to build out support infrastructure to make it happen. Cost is a big factor period. User email in/out from the local LAN works. If there iscontent filtering taking place then that is a different issue. I have used Windows, Apple, and Linux clients for email service/delivery and it seems to work fine for me. T-Mobile has pushed to be innovative and push forward with the 5G cellular internet delivery. They provide the service at a lesser cost than "some"big ISPs and do it without contracts, extra hidden fees, and they don't even force the new subscriber to buy the gateway nor add hidden connection fees and etc…plus the cost is not going up every year or at a renewal period. Is it perfect? No. In some environments the delivery is very good. Cellular communication has some limitations for some locations as there are many external factors to contend with. I don't work for T-Mobile. I am just a user since January 2021 and I have seen some glitches here and there but service from the 5G cellular solution with T-Mobile is much faster and more reliable than the provider we had using DSL which was more expensive and much, much lower bandwidth. If the T-Mobile cellular solution does not fit for you go find internet nirvana and be happy. Life is short.Re: Replacement Gateway same as old one
Currently T-Mobile has three different 5G home internet gateways. The Nokia, Arcadyan, & theSagemcom Fast 5688W gateway. The official word is these are intended to be pretty much equivalent in that one is not intended to be different in any significant way. The most recent Sagemcon gateway was added to fulfill the demand for additional inventory for subscribers. The Sagemcon is very equivalent to the Arcadyan gateway. Both the Arcadyan & Sagemcon require management be performed via the mobile application. Both have a very limited WEB GUI reporting capability. The Sagemcon is more spartan than the Arcadyan. Obtaining more information about the operation of either of these is only possible via the mobile application. The mobile application can only access the gateway from the local WIFI. (normal operation)The prior Nokia can be managed via the WEB GUI and the mobile application and provide much better reporting and a superior experience for management via the WEB GUI interface. (my opinion) Regarding disconnections to the cellular source. With any of the gateways this is the one common beast to deal with. I know some T-Mobile support techs will state upgrade issues with the tower and there is some truth to this but it is NOT universal. The common signatures I observed with equipment upgrades in our area was the repeated disruptions during the middle of any given business day. The behavior might go on for a week or only a few days. With the Nokia it is much simpler to use the browser and check to see if the PCI values for the 4G LTE and 5G NR cellular signals flip and change when disruptions take place. The mobile application can also report cellular metric information I just find its use unpredictable and more effort. When you are trying to solve a problem being stuck doing so on a small screen navigating a menu is just not a positive user experience. Re: Diagnostics You can leverage the management "tools" at your disposal to get as much information out of either the browser or the mobile application. Using the cellular metric reporting does help explain behavior. The PCI or physical cell identifier will tell you if the signal you had prior to a disruption is the same one as you have after a disruption. The other key bit of information is the cellular signal. Does the 4G go from B2 to B66 for instance and also does the 5G go from n41 to n71. If you see the frequency change frombefore and after, the gateway is not staying connected to the same cellular source. In some cases this could be due to equipment maintenance but this could also be due to the gateway location being between two sources and the signal receive strength drops and a move to the stronger signal source takes place. Factors can change and like a cell phone moves from one tower source to another the gateway might also move to a stronger signal source. In a busy urban area where tower maintenance is taking place this can be a reality. Once the maintenance is completed then things tend to settle down. The LED bars on the display are rather generic and do not provide proper diagnostics. You can see if the signal is weak or strong but nothing more useful there. Only with the cellular metrics from the management application can you see more and have a bit more of a clue as to why a disconnect has taken place. With the information below it helps to know what is going on: PCI physical cell identifier RSRP radio signal receive power RSRQ radiosource receive quality SNR/SINR signal to noise ratio The PCI associated with the 4G LTE and 5G NR frequencies helps to be able to locate a cell tower. One of the best tools for that is CellMapper.net. It takes a little exploration to learn but is not too hard. Their database is roughly 80% complete so not all cellular sources are recorded. Knowing where the tower is in relation to your gateway is helpful especially for improved placement and expectations. If you are a long distance from a tower expect slower speeds and possible unpredictable behavior. External influences are always a factor to consider with cellular. Trees, buildings, rain, other RF sources etc…all have to be considered. If you are in line of sight of "the" tower with the cell and nothing is between the gateway and the cell a solid clean signal is quite possible but in many cases a clean direct line of sight to the cell source is not the case. Too much inteference and the signal can be marginal or not work well at all. Good cell coverage for every location is often difficult or in some cases not possible without a much larger investment. If the service was working for a long time and becomes flakey well, it could well be due to an upgrade that has changed the equation. Some of the gateways are prone to heat issues and need a fan to help cool them. Some have SIM trays that don't work quite as well as they should so SIM connections can be another factor to consider. Are the contacts on the SIM card clean? Is the SIM properly seated in the tray making proper connections on all the contacts? Sometimes a simple SIM card reinsertion can help. Be sure to power off the gateway before doing a SIM card reinsertion. Be sure when posting to the community conversations to include specific information. Gateway model, cellular metrics, gateway behavior etc…The more you share on the community the better the responses you get. Don't rule out Reddit and the T-Mobile subreddit forum or Nater Tater's YouTube videos. Those are good sources of information. There are others as well including the T-Mobile FAQs for some things. Speaking of How Tos:https://www.t-mobile.com/support/phones-tablets-devices **Page down to the lower part of the page and expand the "T-Mobile Home Internet" menu option. Well, I hope something here is helpful. I know others could add more to the discourse. Got to go. Best of luck, hope you get your internet nirvana!Re: 5G Home internet keeps dropping!
The problem may or may not be with the gateway. You will have to contact T-Mobile support and ask about the work on the equipment in the area. They could be working on the equipment for the cells in the area so it would be a tower problem. From what you can see the internet connection is not available therefore the cellular connection is a highly probable source of the problem. One thing you can look at are notifications the gateway may have recorded so check for notifications via the LED screen. Another thing to try would be to power the gateway off and remove and reinsert the SIM card. If there is a problem with the SIM card, which some Arcadyan gateways seem to have, then this might help if it is related. That is why I would suggest to check the notifications for errors related to the SIM card. Reseating the SIM card will not hurt. If you have a T-Mobile phone and both tend to use the same cellular source that might be another clue. If your phone transitions to another cell when the gateway drops its cellular signal then it could be a tower equipment related problem. T-Mobile engineers might be performing work on the equipment in the area. T-Mobile does not appear to provide any customer notifications regarding work being performed on the equipment.Re: Tower upgrades taking weeks to complete?
When T-Mobile engineers state a tower is being upgraded it really is a vague statement. They might be upgrading older gear with new 5G technology but this really does not define how much work is being done. If they have a plan for multiple cells for coverage in different areas it could take a bit longer for the stated "upgrade". When the 5G was deployed here it was done with n71 in our area. Recently the coverage just changed and a n41 signal appeared. Then the next day it was gone. Then several days later tada the n41 signal returned. It was a total surprise that this rural area went from n71 to n41. It is hard to say how long an upgrade may take. For the Charlotte area by the airport it might be a bit more involved. The longer n71 frequency has more distance and better penetration than the n41 millimeter frequency but does not have the speed capability. I have seen the RSRP, signal strength with the n41 quite a bit less than the n71 frequency BUT the RSRQ and SINR improved and I have seen some impressive speed results. The bandwidth here pretty much doubled even with the lesser signal strength. So it comes down to signal quality and less noise is really important for performance. If the signal is clean they there are fewer damaged packets and fewer retransmissions so performance is better. A tower upgrade may improve service even if you don't see a stronger signal. If you see a cleaner better quality of signal that will most likely improve matters. As long as the signal penetrates the building and environment sufficiently to provide a good or excellent signal quality things should improve. OK so that also willbe dependent upon the routing paths upstream as well. Every environment is a little different. I was a bit skeptical about the n41 upgrade here since I have seen numerous conversations where tower upgrades started out great only to go very bad. So far things have gone well but a rural vs urban solution are two different animals. There are more variables to consider in a highly populous area.Re: Slow 4G connection only, but only sometimes -- SOLVED
This has been an interesting thread. I got the T-Mobile GW on the beta program back in early January and the GW ran solid until the end of June with little to no attention. Speeds were relatively good so I did not take a great deal of focus on mine. Then in July repeated tower disconnects of both the primary and secondary signal became a daily frustration. I did a fair amount of investigation and tinkered with my T-MobileGW/router for weeks. I made 4 support calls and did a great deal of investigating. In my case the tower, i finally confirmed, is 5.3 miles line of sight with no obstructions. The primary signal always locks on B2 and the secondary signal picks up on n71. Well, I could see the RSRP and RSRQ and SNR values were commonly in the good to excellent range but the signal drops over and over were irritating. In my investigations I came across the waveform.com site and they have an very good guide about the device and a step by step for connecting an external MIMO antenna to the router. Well, once I paid attention to the design of the router it gave me ideas. If you examine the device you can see there are 4 5G antennas and 4 WIFI antennas and they are clearly labeled. What I took away from that was a more detailed investigation of systematically rotating the can to influence the exposure of the antenna responsible for the 5G n71 connection. I found I could give up a bar on the B2 LTE signal and pick up 4 bars on the 5G n71 and low and behold the speed tests improved nicely. While testing i used a Linux client to run concurrent PINGs to 8.8.8.8 9.9.9.9 & 1.1.1.1, i.e. google, quad9, and cloud flare DNS servers. When the disconnects took place is was obvious and the PING latency for each was easy to compare and get a clear picture of when the tower connection returned andimproved or became unstable. For the investigation of how the gateway was running I used my MacBook Pro with a CAT 6 cable connected direct to the router on LAN1. The HTML interface on a computer is much better than the mobile application though it lacks advanced functionality it really needs. The overview and status pages were quite helpful in getting better visibility to operation. Knowing the signal strength, signal quality and signal to noise ratio are really helpful in understanding what your connections are doing. I recorded the values over and over and evaluated operation when the unit would ONLY pick up the primary B2 channel and fail to maintain any connection to the n71 channel. Once I started experimenting with rotating the can to influence the signal wash over the various antennas I discovered how much that could help. I read about others complaining about heat and the influence of heat on operation so I put my router outside on the patio, in the shade under the second story deck above in 88 degree weather and for 5 hours it ran solid without a single signal drop for a period of time. It never threw any alarms for over heating. Sure it was running warmer when I brought it in but it returned to a cooler state and suffered no ill effects. The testing was done to confirm, in my mind, that the location inside the glass door was still a good place or not to have it. Given the download speeds of 157-170 Mbs and 50+ Mbs upload testing with speedtest.net I feel it is doing pretty well. The key though to getting it to favor the n71 channel. Upon the fourth call with T-Mobile the support engineer did confirm that they had received multiple trouble calls on that tower and were upgrading it. I had seen the disruptions and even on Monday morning when the T-Mobile engineer contacted me it bounced but after that it has been stable. The take away for me is that being out on the edge of the range of the signal where it is still in the good range and has good to excellent signal quality means that if I decide to buy the external MIMO antenna I can probably improve the communication 3-4 dBm and not have to be so concerned about having it in a specific window. It will also allow better utilization of the 2.4 and 5 ghz WIFI signals in the house. I have seen pretty good signal strength with the router either centered upstairs or downstairs and I am using it to cover 3300 square feet of home on two levels. Actually I am pretty impressed with the unit though I do feel the antenna design might be a bit limiting. If you slip the outer shell off and look at it the antenna layout is super obvious as it is all tagged for 5G-1, 5G-2 etc…and WIFI-1, WIFI-2, etc…After seeing the document at waveform.com a neighbor told me he had dropped his SIM into the replacement router by mistake and it was stuck somewhere in the can. Well, I have handled networking gear for 22 years so I offered to get the SIMs out of it. That is when I got a real good look at the design of the router. My take away is that if you need to remove and replace a SIM, as was the case here, be sure to have the router on its side with the SIM carrier so the retention screw is to the right of the SIM when you carefully remove the nano SIM. If you turn the can upside down and try to remove the SIM it can fall right out of the carrier and into the slot and get stuck in there. It was fairly simple to get it out but it took some small tweezers and care to get it to come back out. The SIM carrier does NOT hold the nano SIM at all. The SIM card just reston the carrier and can easily fall out or off the carrier. From what I could see it is a pretty simple task to connect an external MIMOantenna to the router and that would probably make many marginal installations better. We are in rural East TN with pastures and farms between us and the tower so I don't expect much more but the T-Mobile home internet router solution is 10X the speed I had in CA withbonded DSL lines and $25/month less. My only other option was Hughes net, so well, that was not going to happen. They would have been $20 more per month after two months with a 2 year contract for a solution with higher latency. Duh…not on my watch.Now that the tower upgrade was done it appears to be a positiveimprovement. Like previous posts in this thread it is my hope that if anyone reads this and it helps them to improve their solution then it is worth the time sharing as T-Mobile support can help customers some but we can also help one another.Re: Has ping / tracert been blocked on 5g network?
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.Re: Has ping / tracert been blocked on 5g network?
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 supportwhat they do not see.
