@jtheiss - I’m curious to know if both the gateways behaved identically. That is, were you running the cooling fan on both of them? Same exact failure mode, etc? Even if not, there are enough variables in any design that if the problem is with a voltage regulator, for example, many other components “could” be affected differently due to varying component sensitivities to low voltage conditions. This could lead to a difference in failure modes in something as complex as a combination gateway / wireless router. The fact that a Tech Support person offered the fan solution and was surprised that it didn’t fix the problem is significant. I’ve worked in companies where products have known and fixable design issues and management decided to ignore the issue after a cost / benefit analysis. And of course we’ve all heard the horror stories about the auto industry. Thanks for your input. FJ Sorry, I missed this message and never responded. So, the first and second gateways behaved similarl
Yeah, I suspect that having tons of devices hooked up will make it work harder (and potentially get hotter), but in the end for me I disabled wifi all together and had two Ethernet cables connected to my router and smart things hub respectively, so connection wise it was pretty unburdened. Some people have discussed moving it downstairs or on top of an AC vent. I would highly recommend starting to take notes about when the gateway fails, when you tried different interventions and so forth. While well meaning, I dont get the sense that the folks at Tmobile can do much besides check the connection on their end and make the same suggestions you're already getting. Seems like the people that have found success have done so by figuring out how to keep the unit cool. On that note, I wonder if placing it on a timed switch to manually cut the power every overnight would also help, as it would give it 6-8 hours daily to just cool off, but in my opinion the customer shouldn't have to work so ha
Yeah, I still suspect it’s possible the issue was heat related. The one person I talked to at Tmobile that was most helpful (“Haley”) suggested that putting a fan on it is her #1 suggestion, and was surprised when my setup w/ fan didn’t resolve the issue. My gateway (well, both as I was sent a replacement within the first couple of weeks) was out of direct sunlight, sitting in a 3d printed stand which really forced air through it w/ an attached PC case fan constantly on high, and the issue still persisted with complete loss of function multiple times a day. Despite the fan, I could still feel a small amount of constant heat coming off of the top of the unit, so I question what kind of poor design is happening as no modem/router/cell phone I’ve ever had has shut down due to heat quite like that… I really question if actually COOLING the unit (ie, colder than ambient air) is the only way to make it viable due to the design, or putting it in a basement where air is naturally cooler (bu
Well, it's now disconnected for the 3rd time today, which is a record. I have a 12v computer case fan that's running 24/7 in attempt to cool the device, and I can't imagine trying to intentionally lower the speed of the modem to try to get it to cooperate. As it is, we don't do online gaming or 4k streaming, so it's not like we're even really pushing it to perform. I guess T-Mobile 5g isn't quite ready to roll out in our area, which is very unfortunate as our area is otherwise ruled by a monopoly by spectrum.
@jlillard it fluctuates. Anywhere between 60 and 220 down, and 8 and 35 up.
So after another hour and 45 minutes on the phone, it was another “turn it off and back on,” more promises that they’re going to fix it right away, and yet another mention that the engineering team should get back to me about it very soon. It’s pretty obvious that they don’t really know what the problem is, and may not be capable to fix it at this time. I suspect I’ll have to pursue another ISP if I want stable internet.
@Fredreed I’m still on hold waiting to report this again. I’ve asked a number of times what they’re going to DO to fix this, and asked more than once if they’ll send somebody out. I think I’m about a phone call away from cancelling, as this is eating up too much of my time. I don’t understand how my cell phone can have a constant internet connection, but a device that’s much simpler can’t.
@Fredreed I unplugged it again and did another walk around the house. Aside from one spot in the house that I get four bars about 5% of the time, and 2 bars the rest of the time, I think it’s in the best spot. Whatever’s happening seems to be getting worse, as I’m now up to my fourth crash in two days.
I’ve not tried it in other parts of the house, because where it’s at seems to get the best signal. I’m not sure it’s realistic to test it at another person’s house, as we need the internet to work and the fact that it works fine 99% of the time makes it tough to catch the 1% of the time that it doesn’t. (Said another way, if I brought it to another location, I’d have to commit to leaving it there for at least several days to see if it it stays up or not.)
@Fredreed they have run tower tests a number of times, and have stated all is well with that, and the device consistently shows 2-3 bars of signal. Would a tower signal blockage kick devices off the wifi/Ethernet network?
So as a quick update, I’m still running a case fan under it (and it DOES seem cooler), and I now have turned off the WIFI from the gateway, relying on two ethernet cords for connection (one for my router, and the other for my smartthings hub). It has, unfortunately, failed again in less than 24 hours. The tech I was talking to is supposed to call me back at some point about possibly trying a new SIM card, as well as report back about what the engineering team is finding, but I’m starting to lose faith pretty quickly that I’ll find something that’ll work for me. 18 days of uptime is pretty amazing @jdt254 . If I could get to that, I’d probably just restart the thing once a week just to be sure that we don’t get intermittent faults at times that would impact our work, but at this point, I’m not clearing 24 hours even with a case fan and a router handling the heavy lifting of my home network.
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