Replies posted by tmhotspot5895

29 Replies

G
GracieAllenRookie
posted in Android

T-Mobile and being "SO MUCH better than when we had it last

Yeah, I presume that’d be the problem.  Lots (LOTS) of noise at sign-up about how T-Mobile has DRASTICALLY improved, AND gained a bunch of <something> from Sprint, and they’re now the absolute BEST for coverage.  Even discounting the usual sales “exaggeration”, it seems odd that it’s worked so consistently poorly .  Apparently, they haven’t done a lot of that “improving” on the Gulf side of Florida… BTW:  Here’s where we are at this time.  ON the T-Mobile coverage map.  Looks like a huge RED area with at LEAST 4G all around here.  So far, the “coverage” on the coverage map has been very optimistic (ok, completely inaccurate) in the locations I’ve been in Florida.  So what information can we actually expect to be accurate from the coverage map? 

9
S
1 month ago
G
GracieAllenRookie
posted in Android

T-Mobile and being "SO MUCH better than when we had it last

Now at Midway campground in the middle of Big Cypress swamp…  Visible (Verizon) has 1 bar - it’s functional but low data - less than 1MB - adequate for email.  AT&T hotspot - 26Mbps for the high and it hasn’t been lower than 9.  T-Mobile - dead.  ZERO bars, no 5G, no 4G, no ANY Gs. 

9
S
1 month ago
G
GracieAllenRookie
posted in Android

T-Mobile and being "SO MUCH better than when we had it last

Bought from T-Mobile.This whole topic is just anecdotal - of the “this is what I’m using, this is where I’ve been for the last X weeks, this is how well T-Mobile has worked” - variety.  YMMV.The chances are pretty slim that I’m going to run into someone and have a conversation about how their T-Mobile phone does with data…Isn’t that what the COVERAGE MAP is for?  To show a detailed view of where you SHOULD be able to expect various levels of performance?  Or is that marketing hype too?  The favorite excuse with Visible has always been that “you’re in a micro-dead spot and that’s why performance is poor”.And it wouldn’t matter anyhow - if they said it was “great”, it still wouldn’t tell me it actually WAS great - there are people that think Visible is “great”…  If they told me it sucked, it would just further confirm that T-Mobile service doesn’t match what you should be able to expect from their coverage map.It’ll be interesting once I get into Big Cypress and/or the Everglades to see

9
S
1 month ago
G
GracieAllenRookie
posted in Android

T-Mobile and being "SO MUCH better than when we had it last

Not that I’ve noticed.  There are lots of people walking around with cell phones, but I have no idea what network they’re on.  I know the AT&T hotspot works FINE.  Visible sucks, but Visible sucks most of the time ‘cause it’s Verizon’s left-over garbage.  Even so, at least Visible, on the OLD, cheapest possible ZTE Blade A7, will run the TV on SD, which the T-Mobile phone hotspot won’t do.I figure it’s either the phone or T-Mobile.  It’s a Samsung Galaxy S22, and we’ve had Samsung devices several times in the past - they’ve all been more than adequate, so I suspect the problem ISN’T the phone.  That leaves T-Mobile. I figure it MIGHT be acceptable if the phone doesn’t work in the middle of Monument Valley or the middle of Death Valley, but jeez, I’m in the middle of urban sprawl in Fort Myers, with the most major highway on the Gulf side of Florida nearby, and this thing is a data paperweight.Give or take 100 feet, the black dot is where the RV is.  The huge, pink road about a quar

9
S
1 month ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

It’s now been 28 days with the Arcadyan box.  No crashes.  A few slow spots every day, but NOTHING as wretched as the Sagemcom box.  For the most part, software downloads - usually between 200 MB and 1.5 GB, have been fast AND have not disrupted other network-hungry concurrent operations.SO FAR, it’s been good enough that we terminated the service with the 17-year-old DSL. Next comes a bigger challenge.  I’ll be in Florida, going down the Gulf side, across the Big Cypress and Everglades and up the Atlantic side.  I”ll have the Samsung S22 on t-Mobile, the Visible data phone on Verizon, and my Nighthawk M1 on AT&T.  I’ll be able to SEE where I have service, where I don’t, and how good it is. 

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

I have three towers that are close - the closest is about 2 blocks and line of sight.  Another is downtown, max ¼ mile and again line of sight.  The third is a little farther away but probably an extra 2 blocks.  I’m not sure which one provides the very high speeds I would see periodically with the 2 Sagemcom boxes.  Support SAYS it’s the one that’s 2 blocks away.I don’t know what tower the Arcadyan is using - it never hits the speeds the other boxes did, but it also doesn’t fall on it’s face a dozen times a day and go below 1 Mbps.Like yours mine is “almost always +30 Mbps”, though it’ll get down to 20 for the lows.  I can live with that.  I’d prefer NOT to see numbers down below 10 Mbps, though SO FAR we haven’t had an abnormal amount of buffering when streaming, and large-ish downloads on my computer have been reasonable.What I’ve noticed today is that the average speed over the last 22 hours (midnight last night to 10 pm) has trended DOWN from a starting average of about 160 Mbps t

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

After a lot of continued problems, wasted conversations with support, and getting contradictory information from most everybody I’ve talked too, we were ready to dump the thing and stay with the SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD DSL.  Last several conversations went pretty much the same“The box isn’t communicating with the tower.” “Except at THIS MOMENT the box is working fine.  I have Internet and it’s between 300 and 400 Mbps.” “But the box isn’t communicating with the tower.”“So how WOULD I know this?” “OH, you’d have REALLY POOR PERFORMANCE!”  (This while the thing has been running between 300 and 400 Mbps for the last hour after the last time it crashed and rebooted)The support person was DETERMINED that the second box was “bad” and wanted it replaced.  SO, back to T-Mobile for ANOTHER Home Internet box... This time the local T-Mobile replaced the Sagemcom box with an Arcadian (not sure of the spelling).  It appears to work about the same, but SO FAR, we're not getting the extremely fast 400Mbps

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

Interesting……..  Things had not changed…  Here’s what the graph looked like a couple days ago.A normal day here - higher and wildly fluctuating at 5 a.m., slowly degrading.  Then, about 2 p.m., it falls on it’s face and only gets above 10 Mbps 4 or 5 times for the next EIGHT hours.  It GRADUALLY improves after 10 pm.Tuesday, had another conversation with t-Mobile support Tuesday morning, where THIS person essentially contradicted everything thing the person from LAST week said, except for stating clearly and repeatedly that this was NOT the performance to be expected.  And that MINIMUM download speed should not be below 37 Mbps and max out around 130 Mbps.  Which numbers would make me happy.OK...But, he created another ticket, and THIS time he stated repeatedly that HE would call me back Thursday to see how things had improved…Continued monitoring yesterday.  This morning, after the normal overnight series of points around 60 with a few falling on their face, THIS happened…Between the

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

I’ve continued monitoring the Home Internet speeds.  I presume everybody must be on their way to grandma’s house ‘cause last night between 7 and 10 it DIDN’T suck as badly as usual.  It only got down to below 1 Mbps 3 or 4 times in the 3 hours, and mostly seemed to be between 4 and 7 Mbps with the monitor taking a reading every 10 minutes…  FAR from stellar, and far from what I was told by support that I’d be getting on Thursday, but I’ll see what happens Monday or Tuesday.If I can’t put the Verizon/Visible SIM in the spare Moto G7 Power, and performance continues to be bad, and support doesn’t come up with anything, the box will have to go back to T-Mobile by the end of next week.I was told by the support person that they’d credit the month of service AND guarantee me I could return the device beyond the 15 days, but they never sent me anything confirming that, so I’m guessing it was “inaccurate”...

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

Just got off a chat with Visible (the subsidiary of Verizon we were with), and they insist the phone is unlocked…  I haven’t found a list anywhere on T-Mobile that tells me whether a 2020 (or maybe 2019) Motorola G7 Power would be compatible with T-Mobile or not.  But if it’s actually unlocked, it doesn’t work.

9
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

Just for giggles, since I’m “reseating” the SIM card anyway, I put the SIM in the supposedly unlocked Moto G7 again.  It shows T-Mobile, so I went into network settings and checked that the APN is fast.tmobile.com (which looks right).  Then I found the Network and turned off automatic.  I got a display of networks including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.  Told it to connect to T-Mobile, and after a lot of churning it FAILED…  Which the information I have means the phone is locked.  Except according to the information at Verizon, it would have been unlocked YEARS ago…Annoying!

9
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

Yeah, the first thing I did was go read that topic to see if they had an actual FIX…  Mostly it seemed to be about devices other than the 5688W, but it appears to have the same problems.  The only things I saw were to to reseat the SIM card and put a fan under the thing…BTW:  This same error happened Thursday when the support person was working doing whatever he was doing on his end.  Told me not to worry about it.BUT, I’ll try reseating the SIM tomorrow and leave the sliding cover open.  Can’t hurt.  Might even be able to turn up a computer fan or 2 I can put somewhere though I’m not sure how I’m going to power it. 

9
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

At the stroke of 6 o’clock +/- a few seconds, the HI crashed with a WAN002 error.  It told me there was an Internet connection problem, and to shut off the switch for 10 seconds then restart.  Came back up and its working at the moment.Having read a few hundred of the problem entries in here about Home Internet, the whole thing seems like a kludge.  And the information from support is inconsistent… They TELL me “it’s all fixed now and you should be seeing MUCH higher speeds”, but not actually changes - it gets worse with this WAN002 error.This just keeps getting more bizarre.

9
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

So, the SIM started life in device Y (a 5688W home internet box).  I pull it out and put it in device Z, a Moto G7 cell phone with LTE and a mobile hot spot.  Does T-Mobile look at something and flag it that the SIM is no longer IN device Y?  And refuse to let the computer connect to the mobile hot spot?  Or is there something set wrong in the phone or it’s locked - though Verizon phones are supposed to unlock after 60 days and this one was in use for a few years.  I presume the APN was set to fast.tmobile??? or whatever it’s supposed to be, though I didn’t think to check…I may mess around tomorrow again and see if I can see anything obvious.Anyhow, we’re at 4:30 and it’s been mostly working around 17-20 Mbps with a few .6 today, but we having hit 7 pm yet.I may try putting the SIM in the Nighthawk again tomorrow and see what message I get, but I checked the IMEI on AT&T and THEY say something about the device being in someone else’s account and they can’t unlock it.  So it may be

9
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

Once the T-Mobile box did it’s normal, morning slowdown, I took the SIM and put it in the Nighthawk - it’s only ever been used with AT&T and IN THEORY, it was unlocked.  I don’t think it is ‘cause it booted then gave me an error which I can no longer remember. So just to try it, I put it in the OLD phone that was on Verizon and WAS ALSO supposed to be unlocked.  Booted fine, knew it was on T-Mobile, but when I turned on the hot spot and attempted to connect I always got “connect, no internet”.  So, I’m not sure WHAT it’s doing, or what I need to do differently.I DO recall WAY back, having to use a 3rd party to unlock the Nighthawk ‘cause AT&T was refusing to unlock them.  It’s been several years and I don’t remember what all was going on.In any case, I don’t SEEM to be able to use the HI SIM in any of the devices - unless the old phone is also locked and I can somehow unlock it.In conversation with TMobile support yesterday (I’ve now learned how to get past the phone answering

9
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

A different viewThis is yesterday from 5 a.m. to midnight.  Starts ok higher, goes down, goes up at lunch, back down when kids get home from school, back up during dinner, and tanks when steaming/gaming/whatever in the evening happen.  EVERYBODY in town on this tower CAN’T be seeing the same lousy service or it would have been fixed, I presume…Today will be with the box in the South-facing, UPSTAIRS window - that’s where the T-Mobile app SAYS the tower it’s using is…  BTW:  this morning at 6 a.m. it’s only at 20 Mbps... 

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

I suspect you’ll have much better luck than I’m having.  And yeah, we switched to Youtube TV a while back to get rid of Directv.  It’s mostly OK.BUT, From 6 this morning (you’ve already seen the data) the Home Internet dropped off from the 50s down into the 30s, but stayed in that range ‘til about 3:45 this afternoon.  Took a sharp drop down to around 10 Mbps, then about 5:45 back into the 20s til around 7:30 when it fell on it’s face.  Between 2 Mbps and .3 until around 9:45 when it climbed back to around 6.I have this strange feeling it matches “3:45: kids come home from school and do whatever”, then “5:30 or so, family or someone stops to eat dinner” then “7:00, everybody streams, plays games, whatever” then 9:30 or so “kids go to bed” and the load goes down some… BUT, it DIDN’T drop any connections and it didn’t crash - SO FAR.Tonight I’ll move it upstairs again and put it in the window that faces the tower the cell phone app TOLD me it’s using.We’ll try that tomorrow, starting whe

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

The local store just opened a week ago, so they’re not swamped yet.  But, they also don’t have any of the “old” equipment.  The only Home Internet thing they have is the one I’ve got - the 5688W.SO FAR today, the speed hasn’t gotten “BAD”…  Other than the two very low outliers, speeds have stayed above 20 Mbps.  NOT great by any stretch, but about as good as the 17-year-old DSL. We’ll see what it does this evening when things normally compost.

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

I’ve got to stop at the local T-Mobile anyhow, so I’ll ask if they have any of the 4G units…  I’m also planning to give T-Mobile a call and see how cooperative they want to be…  Would they like some money for home Internet or none?  And a customer that says good things about them or not?  I’d have been more confident a few years ago, but VERY few companies seem to care at ALL about their reputations these days.  I guess they all figure there’s a dozen customers to replace every one that leaves.A THIRD option my wife asked about…  In THEORY, my Netgear Nighthawk M1 is unlocked (long story, predecessor of Visible that went belly up).  If so, I could pull the SIM out of the other box and put it in there.  That’s a 4G device, and it has always worked really well on AT&T.  I ALSO have a MIMO antenna for it, so potentially it could work fine.Unfortunately, I’m FAR from being an expert at any of this so I don’t know if I could even get the Nighthawk working with T-Mobile.SO FAR, today, sp

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

Seems worth looking at, if possible.I’ve tried to find anything online about deactivating 5G in the FAST 5688W, but haven’t found anything.Another open, though one I wouldn’t try since it would void the warranty, would be to open the unit and disconnect the 5G antenna - I presume that would get it to use LTE, but don’t know for sure.pphw, as far as the speed drop, I don’t know.  I didn’t get the box ‘til Saturday night, so I don’t know what it was like before Sunday, which was dreadful, but MAY have been partially caused by the box rebooting frequently…Here’s the chart and the numbers for the last 14 hours: Starting shortly after 7 pm last evening when I started the monitor, it fell into the toilet (take a look at the numbers below), and didn’t even get to the dismal point til around 11:30 pm.  Then it stayed lousy ALL NIGHT…  What would be causing it to be so wretched overnight when there CAN’T be that many people playing Fortnite or streaming porn?  Then SUDDENLY between 5:30 and 6 a

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Android

New Galaxy S22 and a couple questions

I finally got an answer from the Android forum.  I figured this place would be a whole lot BETTER since they’re T-Mobile and this is a T-Mobile thing…Or at least a Samsung ON T-Mobile… Sounds like it might be counterproductive to ask about a decent voicemail that makes more sense than the “call California for you voicemails” thing that’s on the Samsung S22.

3
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

I don’t think here would qualify as urban - town is about 20,000 people. Is the “Sagemcon gateway” the black box that says “FAST 5688W” that’s on the shelf next to me?  If so, what’s the alternative for home Internet on T-Mobile that WILL work? I have to admit, so far T-Mobile seriously hasn’t covered themselves in glory.  The Home Internet is slow, the cell phones aren’t bad, though on 5G they’re USUALLY not much, if any, faster than the HI.  Though, when they switch to LTE or I switch them out of 5G they’re between 5X and 10X faster than the 5G.Unfortunately, according to the T-Mobile store, I CANNOT do the same thing with the Gateway - change it so it DOESN’T use 5G and uses LTE instead. Anyhow the monitor is running, so I’ll see what it looks like in the morning - I suspect it runs adequately around 2 a.m.

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

The fun continues… Last evening, with the box in the East facing window upstairs, we both lost connection repeatedly.  But, by the time I could get upstairs, it was always up, so I didn’t know if it was crashing or just having some kind of fit. Today, I brought it down and put it in the middle of the house.  Doesn’t seem to make a BIT of difference WHERE it is as far as speed.Worked fine this morning.  This afternoon, at 3:30, we both lost our connection.  And again at 4:35, then at 5:27.  At 4:35 and 5:27 I got to the box quickly enough to SEE it saying “Powering Up”.  Called the T-Mobile store and they had me come over to swap the box.I started running a monitor this morning, and having it check the downloads every 15 minutes for several hours.  Here’s the chart/graph:It ran from about 6 a.m. to about 1:45 this afternoon.  Load was extremely light - NO TVs, very little activity from either computer (mine was the ONLY one on the Home Internet.  Wife went back to the DSL.Started at 100

36
S
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Android

New Galaxy S22 and a couple questions

Hello?  Anybody out there?

3
T
1 year ago
T
tmhotspot5895Speaker
asked in Troubleshooting

Brand new to home Internet and hoping to improve speed

I can’t say they’re NOT doing maintenance.  But at 7 to after 9 pm on Sunday night? I got through to T-Mobile and one of the people had me do a couple things I’d already done a bunch of times.  Then she told me “they’re doing maintenance on a tower in that area”.  I suspect they’re ALWAYS doing maintenance on some tower in that area, but my experience with Visible (Verizon) has left me a bit cynical.Stopped at the T-Mobile store, where they checked and told me the maintenance was ONLY ON 3G and should have NO effect on 5G.  So who’s right?In the end, the ONLY thing T-Mobile came up with was “when the home internet slows down or stops, reboot it”.Which sounds a LOT like Visible support, only faster ‘cause it’s on the phone instead of “chat”.The store used a different program to access the home internet box, made some changes and did something with the sim, and confirmed which tower the unit would be using.  With that, since I know the tower is to the East, I tried all over the upstairs,

36
S
1 year ago
25,467
Topics
102,880
Replies
1,291,715
Members

New badge winners

Show all badges
Terms & Conditions