Question

5G home internet keeps dropping

2 years ago
1 July 2021
264 replies
69747 views

Userlevel 5

jtheiss
Learner
11 replies

I’m having a problem with T-Mobile 5g home internet that has not been resolved despite many calls in to the help line. I’ve had T-Mobile 5g home internet for almost a month now, and the short version is that every so often the gateway drops the network. When I say “drop the network,” I mean to say it throws everything off of the Wifi that it’s broadcasting, and anything plugged in via ethernet says “no network found. (To elaborate this point, cell phones switch to cellular data because wifi is gone for them, and computers hardwired into the gateway think that they are no longer plugged into anything.) Turning off the gateway and turning it back on resolves the issue, but doesn’t prevent it from happening again. Whatever is happening doesn’t seem to affect our connection speed/strength when the gateway IS providing signal to devices in the home, but due to the nature of our work, we need a connection that won’t just disconnect randomly.

To address this, T-mobile has so far run a bunch of tests on their end, and seem to have ruled out a tower issue (which makes sense, as the tower shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not the devices on the gateway’s wifi or ethernet connection get thrown off of the network.) They’ve sent me a replacement gateway, which is experiencing the exact same problem (3 times in the last 36 hours, in fact). I’ve noticed that the device gets pretty warm, so I set up a computer case fan as a cooler to force air through the device, thinking that perhaps it’s an issue with the device overheating. However, while the gateway is notably cooler than it was without the fan, it has not prevented the issue from persisting. The last thing that I can think to do (and my most recent attempt at resolving this issue) is to plug a router into the gateway via ethernet, and allow the router to handle the wifi/connections w/ devices in the house, and to disable wifi from the gateway all together. Maybe the gateway is simply too overburdened with connections and gets somehow overwhelmed and shuts down, and having the router handle the “heavy lifting” of taking care of all of the individual device connections will resolve it? I don’t have a great deal of faith that this will fix the issue (as the gateway also kicks ethernet things off of the network when it experiences this problem), but I’m running out of options/ideas of what to do in order to just get a stable, constant internet service.

Is anybody else having this issue, has anybody resolved this issue, or does anybody have any advice or feedback regarding how I might get this resolved so that I can get back to having stable internet?

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Userlevel 7

Do yourself a favor and use www.cellmapper.net to learn where the T-Mobile towers are. Record the information about the ones close to or around you with attention to the PCI (physical cell ID). If you go into the router with the web UI at 192.168.12.1 you will see the primary and secondary channels/signals on the overview page. That will show you the connections and RSRP/RSRQ/SNR values to know the signal strength, signal quality, and signal to noise ratio. Then go to the status page and record the band, and PCI information from the primary and secondary signal reporting. If you proceed to the “statistics” page you can select cellular and record the statistics there. See if there are packet errors or packet drops. If you have problems using cellmapper.net open a call with T-Mobile support and ask them point blank where is the tower my router is serviced by. They have the PCI information and can tell you the coordinates of the tower. You can use Google Earth and a drive about to confirm what you know and get a good ideal how to improve matters. Use your phone to locate the tower. If you use an iPhone put it into field test mode and read the PCI value it knows. Chances are both may use the same tower. It is not a given but a good datapoint.

With the PCI information for the primary and secondary channels and the bands used you can use the information from cellmapper.net to determine where the tower is that sends to you. With this and some testing you may be able to better locate your router. Watch out for metal screens or buildings in the path to the tower. If a window has a screen that is metal either put the router above the screen or remove the screen from the window to prevent shielding of the signal. Don’t just rely upon the bars on the top of the router. They are actually rather generic as vendors don’t have a MUST directive for how to deal with those but a recommended use. One feature of the LED display on the top of the router is the alarms. If the router does have temperature issues it will or should report an over temp alarm. The only way I have seen to get the alarm is to use the LED display on top of the router. Forget the mobile application it is about as useful as well blah… It is very unreliable and not much value.

If you only have say the 5G signal dropping from time to time it could well be T-Mobile engineers are working on the equipment on the tower in your area and that is the cause not the router itself. I highly suggest to not just accept mediocre service but talk with T-Mobile support engineers, try the router in different locations, get the information about the tower location and be patient. Record your findings from trying new locations and then dial it in. If you do the same thing, expect the same results.

If I can help you understand what you see and help you dial it in I am happy to do so.

You can add me to this list as well. I was having drops nearly every 2-3 hours 2 days ago.

That’s when I discovered this forum and learned that my problem wasn’t unique.

So far what I’ve done is taken the outside cover of the trashcan off (Similar to the YT videos of people adding an external antenna but not reassembling it), and placed a fan under it (Fan is inappropriately sized) and that had given me a 1D,12HR and 58MIN uptime. After that time, all devices (Two wired and one wireless) said there was no internet connection from the trashcan (but were still technically connected to the trashcan itself). Looking at the gateway panel, it had showed that I had 3 bars connected to my cell tower at the time of the disconnection with a -96 dBm value. I measured the temperature at the top grill at the time of disconnection and I found that it was 88F. The trashcan is placed near a window with a light window curtain, at the time of disconnection it was sunny.

Temporary setup attempting to cool the trashcan down

I haven’t had issues in terms of staying connected to at least one cell tower at all times. However, I do occasionally have issues with the trashcan staying connected to two towers at once, but I have learned that isn’t the issue that’s causing the drops (AFAIK) and have attributed that to living in the woods.

On a sidenote: I had also removed the battery from the device in an attempt to see if that was causing some type of internal voltage issue as I saw someone somewhere mention that everytime the battery hit 100%, they’d have a dropped connection.

Userlevel 7

Sorry I did not intentionally ignore the reference to the MTU size that Amith Kamur discusses. He is obviously a very intelligent and talented engineer. His article is well written and offers a solution where the use of the VPN is desired. Encountering MTU issues can be possible, and maybe pretty common, as the VPN adds overhead to the solution with the size of the packet. You have to limit the data contained to have the wrapper small enough so every node along the path can handle the MTU. If you stated you use a VPN regularly I would have taken more focus on that but well. As you state, may be unrelated, and I would not rush down that rabbit holeright away. Analysis of packet captures and looking at the physical layer and moving up the stack from the bottom up would be more productive.

Userlevel 7

I had another thought or two about troubleshooting this. You have clients upon the ASUS and still have LAN 2 for leverage. The Roku test was informative but what about connecting a small gigabit switch to LAN 2 and using a client or two multi-homed in effect. You could use the investigation client(s) with wireless to the ASUS and have an Ethernet connection to a switch on LAN 2. If the client has issues hitting the internet through the ASUS then disable the wireless and enable the Ethernet port and check results. Maybe take a client and the Nokia router with the 2.5 Ghz wireless on a different SSID and look at results from that angle as well. The Asus ac68u has four Ethernet ports as well as the 802.11ac so take advantage of the physical ports on the ASUS as well. Test and verify. If you have a client with multiple Ethernet interfaces and plenty of resources stand up some virtual machines as well. Linux would provide yet another data point and physical Ethernet LAN ports tend to just work with Linux. Lots of tools in the Linux environment to play with. Use different clients, Apple, Windows, Linux, Android, Raspberry PI clients. OK maybe I am making assumptions but today it is not uncommon to have all of the above.

Another parallel investigation you can do is leverage your cell phone and if it is an Apple iPhone put it into field test mode. See if it communicates to the same tower as the Nokia router by confirming both report the same PCI values for the tower signals. Android phones have applications for tower location so yet another option. If you have not yet used cellmapper.net to validate the location of the tower your router connects to i highly recommend doing so. It is simple enough to use and very informative. What cellular channels are you linking to? How strong and clean are the signals? Do the cellular signals bounce/change from one channel to another? Do any of the local devices record errors or drops? Profile the behavior in detail. Focus on any device that can be influential and stands out but keep an open mind on other actors in the path.

Use the web searches to get ideas but focus on the facts. The values and behaviors you can confirm. Don’t overlook all the tools you can put to work. Keep notes and analyze the operation in a systematic periodic manner.

The objective: Determine with more certainty where the problem resides. Look at the physical layer before you go up the stack.

Userlevel 7

OK you are troubleshooting intermittent connectivity. Let’s break this down just a little. Your solution with the ASUS and the Pi-Hole network-level advertisement and internet tracker blocker opens a whole plethora of variables. The Pi-Hole is a creative, interesting software solution. It acts as a DNS server but what big boy DNS server upstream does it use? I would probably test with pings to the Google, Quad9 and CloudFlare DNS servers and pick the one with the lowest latency to point the Pi-Hole at to feed it what it needs. Given the Pi-Hole sits in the middle maybe in the tools folder there are some useful trinkets. Even without clever tools in the Pi-Hole I would speculate you have a Linux client or two, I do. Using the terminal and “netstat” there are various options for how to get the facts and build what we know vs. what we think. Taking packet captures and doing analysis on the functions of sessions is another option. Using Wireshark or taking a tcpdump can provide important clues. I don’t have a Pi-Hole but I can download it and install it on one of my Linux clients to tinker with. Since I have not used the Pi-Hole software I am not the best resource on that solution but I find it very interesting. If you suspect an incompatibility between the Nokia router and another router/device then look at the communication across these devices. The answers are quite possibly in the frames/packets, session information, from the TCP/IP stack etc… There could be some issue that looks like an incompatibility but is really just a fundamental bug. With the data you will have the silver bullet to put the wolf down.

On a side note. I observed first hand that if I leave a HTTP session with the Nokia router too long, I have not timed this, the web UI of the Nokia router will report no network connection. I used my MacBook with CAT 6 direct to LAN 1 on the router and a Linux client with a wireless connection. I opened three terminal windows and ran simultaneous pings to the Google DNS, Quad9, and CloudFlare DNS servers. All the pings went right on through and the router was really connected to the tower but the web UI reported incorrect information. I closed the tab and opened a new session to the Nokia router and taadaa the router reported the real facts. Sometimes it takes multiple forks to get proper confirmation and it takes time. I am sure you are putting considerable time into your solution given it is not a garden variety solution. You stated the ASUS was reporting the internet down but how do we quantify that? It seems similar to when I observed, on multiple occasions, the web UI of the router HTTP server being unresponsive. Sure I should have taken packet captures to confirm which side of the session was being mute but it was not that important to me as I know how to work around it. It may be how the Nokia router caches information and when the session fails it acts like Jack Oneall in Stargate, “I got nothin.” I could be accused of that at times. :-)

I have spent most of my time investigating the network disconnects with ONLY the T-Mobile Nokia router and my local clients. I know it seems rather rudimentary but it has worked for me quite well. I did 3rd level network troubleshooting for +20 years on enterprise networks so since I retired I have taken a little more relaxed approach to my current network solution. I currently have over 10 days of uninterrupted uptime on my network with just the Nokia router so the KISS principle does have some merit. There are some interesting posts out on the web but don’t let all that chatter take you too far down the rabbit hole. Look at the basics before jumping to the more complex thoughts. Taking packet captures will provide hard data points so you know what you know and not think what you know. My father always told me if you know the why you can figure out the how. It works for me. Around 20 years ago a network escalation engineer told me, “I don’t want to know what you think. I want to know what you know.” I listened to Dave and became a much better engineer. I ended up taking his seat in the office in CA and did the job for +20 years. The key was to open my mind, eat humble pie, and dig for facts. I was also fortunate to have landed in a position with some very creative team members who all became great friends.

The T-Mobile “router/gateway” may not be God’s gift to mankind but it is not a “trashcan”. Don’t let others put a negative spin in your head. Think for yourself and determine if you really think it is a trashcan or not. I have found it very limiting for visibility to the actual network operations but in the end with careful investigation working around its limitations I managed to obtain a stable solution. The problems I had with these same issues were not with the Nokia router but with the cellular equipment on the tower. By working with the T-Mobile support engineers I was able to see the problem through. It did take a couple of weeks before things became stable but they fixed the problems. I get 10X the download and upload speeds I got in CA for less money using the T-Mobile home internet solution. It was a huge win for me. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If you can get some hard data and I can help out I will try. Please just call it a router and keep it neutral. Best wishes!

I am currently troubleshooting the same issue. My set up is the trashcan connected to the WAN, fire walled, side of an Asus ac68u. The Asus is handling all LAN Wi-Fi DHCP etc. I just did a test hooking up a Roku directly to the trashcan (using the 2nd Ethernet connection) at the same time that the Asus was showing the Internet down, The Roku was able to still stream on it’s wired connection.

My current working hypothesis is there is some incompatibility between the trashcan and a separate router (LAN side) vs the t-mobile is dropping the internet (WAN Side) my prior working hypothesis).

This seems unrelated, but I wonder if there is some MTU incompatibility between the WAN side of the asus and the LAN side of the trash can. https://amithkumarg.medium.com/resolved-t-mobile-home-internet-vpn-issue-2f5ca594c23e Does not seem too easy to change the MTU on the asus though.

Update on troubleshooting so far. Noticed that the WAN DNS on my asus was pointing at my LAN pi hole….and DHCP on ASUS was giving out itself as DNS server to clients This was working OK when with Xfininity for several months. Have changed so that ASUS DHCP is giving out the Pi Hole as the DNS server - how it should have been all along. This has also had the effect of improving the statistics from the pie hole has it now no longer shows all queries coming from the Asus router. WAN DNS server on the ASUS is now Default, meaning is getting it from the Trashcan. I also turned off the 5Hz WiFi on the asus and turn it on on the trashcan, with the theory that if I use that while working from home & VPN in to work it should be more stable. That combo seems to of worked OK, meaning I’ve had about 12 hours of what I think uninterrupted uptime. Not sure if fixing the DNS server, or just changing the DNS server helped.. The advice to change the DNS server came from “Nater Tater”’s you tube channel - he has a bunch of guides on the t-mo trashcan.

Userlevel 7

The Nokia router has 4 U.FL connectors, one for each antenna. The U.FL connectors are small and making the connection takes great care. When seated properly there is a distinctive click feel as the U.FL connector seats. This is a mechanical connection. The location of these U.FL connectors in the router does not offer a huge amount of real estate so making these connections would take care and focus. Maybe some of these are not connected firmly. It would take 5-10 minutes to confirm this and it might explain signal connectivity issues if this were the case. It might be a long shot but maybe not. If the cellular statistics report packet errors or drops I would investigate this. The guide waveform has is excellent so checking this is super easy. One point I would like to clarify is that IF you ever need to remove the SIM be sure to have the router horizontal with the SIM card holder so that the retention screw is to the right of the SIM when removing the SIM. There is nothing holding the SIM in the holder so if it is in a vertical position when the SIM tray is removed the SIM will fall out of the SIM tray. Just pay close attention to details as progress is made. If the U.FL connectors are checked and they look to be seated properly I would not disconnect them as they are rather delicate but careful examination would not hurt anything. Removal of the shell of the can is easy. Just take a look at the guide and read each step. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so or don’t have the tools that is fine. Getting a replacement router might be possible, in time, but also offers the possibility of introducing new variables.

Link to waveform guide: t-mobile-5g-gateway

Userlevel 7

I know when the power is not to the router it turns off the WIFI radios and only maintains the cellular radios. I still am not convinced a software reboot would be as effective as using the switch on the back of the router. A software reboot via a script may only perform a soft reload not a hard reload. My guess is the switch on the router is there for that very reason, to allow for a hard reboot. If the battery is not disconnected to prevent power to the board then the soft vs. hard reboot are not 100% equivalent. I believe it would actually depend upon how clean a reboot must be to achieve a total restart. Sometimes a soft reboot is enough and other times a hard reboot is required. It comes down to objectives. If the LAN ports stay up when external power is removed then using a hard wired client to run a script could be used or in the case of external wireless connected to the router via the LAN with Ethernet cabling then running a script from a local client to reload the router should work fine. I run all my equipment on UPS backups to avoid possible damage during power outages due to spikes so I can maintain internet for a good bit of time even should a power outage take place. In rush of power after an outage can do serious damage to equipment. I know from experience with the problem from living in CA and being stuck with PG&E service. Outages with PG&E in CA have been a frequent and constant problem. Using UPS systems on expensive gear is really helpful.

Userlevel 5

007BondMI6
Helper Level 3
341 replies
2 years ago
31 August 2021

I discovered that my attempt to autoreboot the trashcan via an Alexa smart power strip will not work since once the internet is off, so is Alexa services. I am not surprised but sad and still looking for a solution.

Since once the power goes off it switches to battery anything that interrupts the power will not work well. I mean yea after a few min off it will boot to battery then if you put the power back it should boot but not sure this is a good idea. Also yes you drop the internet so that is a monkey wrench too.

I think a small script that logs in and executes the reboot is probably the best amd clean.

My current working hypothesis is there is some incompatibility between the trashcan and a separate router (LAN side) vs the t-mobile is dropping the internet (WAN Side) my prior working hypothesis).

I just purchase an Alexa Power Strip with three AC and three USB ports which you can control. I setup a routine that rus at 0215 which turns the power off and then back on. We’ll see how that works.

Still waiting to see the results of my pestering, but if they think they're going to blow me off that easy, they're underestimating the stubbornness of a pissed off consumer, haha.

Thank you for your work, if only we could all be as persistent. Annoy the life out of the company as long as you have problems.

Crhorsley
First activity
1 reply
2 years ago
24 August 2021

I've had the same issue with my 5G trashcan. I'm actually on my 3rd one now. I use a separate router now plugged into mine, but it still randomly reboots. I don't think there will ever be a fix for it, to be honest. We'll all probably have to wait for a new equipment solution.

Userlevel 7

I suggest a couple of actions to see if you can get a better idea of what is going on. Open a command window and run continuous pings to say the quad9 DNS server 9.9.9.9 or Cloudflare at 1.1.1.1 and let the pings run. When you halt the pings you can see the success/failure rate for the given period of time, average latency etc.. When you go into the HTML interface of the T-Mobile router look beyond the overview and review the current cellular statistics. Use the refresh switch or refresh the page itself or use the F5 option key to refresh the statistics. Do so several times to confirm if the send and receive counters both increment. It would be interesting to know if the router is sending but nothing is received or vice versa. Since you have your wireless device connected, via ethernet to the router be sure to look at the RX/TX counters for the ethernet connection between the two on both sides of the link. Do both agree on RX/TX values and if there are errors recorded or not. If you have multiple clients run pings back and forth from one to another on the local LAN and have each also ping the router gateway IP address. Evaluate the viability of the local and remote traffic and see if there is possibly some communication issue between your local wireless solution and the T-Mobile router. It might be interesting to see if there are search results for others that use the same wireless devices and the T-Mobile router. The T-Mobile router is 802.11ax capable so using a client direct to the router WLAN with a separate SSID might be good to also test with parallel to your current solution. If a wireless client connection direct to the T-Mobile router continues to work while a wireless client upon your personal wireless device does not that would be a good data point. There might be some operational compatibility problem between your wireless device and the T-Mobile gateway. It might be as simple as a software upgrade of the personal wireless device or the T-Mobile router. I can only speculate but if you get more data points it should help clarify where the failure takes place. Record your data periodically and see if things change over time. Taking a screen clip of the overview, status and statistics reporting at each interval and making a document for review will help profile the operation to know what is taking place over time. The more you keep an eye on it the more you will “know”. It is not what we think that matters, it is what we know that will make a difference. I also suggest to record the statistics recorded before you reboot the T-Mobile router. FYI, from time to time, ok more frequently than I like, I have seen the T-Mobile router HTML server refuse show squat. It will render the page contents at times but NOT any vital statistics. It can report no connection, no statics counters etc… I believe if you allow the webpage to stand idle for a bit then the data goes stale and you get squat. In that case just close the tab and open a new browser tab/window to the 192.168.12.1 address again. You can always tell when it is in that state by opening a terminal window and sending pings to one of the DNS servers. If your pings are successful but the HTML page rendering reports not connected well the basic cached information seems to render but nothing else so it can be deceiving. Good luck!

My 5G gateway does not have any wifi enabled but uses my home network router and access points. About the same time every day, it refuses to connect any of the clients to the internet. When I connect to the web interface (192.168.12.1) the status shows the internet and the gateway with a green check. I can reboot it and get my internet connection back but it is a pain. I was on a call with a support lady when I rebooted and it came back up but she said she would refer it to one of the product specialists. We will see ...

Userlevel 7

As I recall for customers that do want to return the router by the end of the initial trial period you would not be charged if it does not work out. If you do run into problems with the billing just keep calling back in and stay after it. Early on I had a couple of charges that they did not get removed properly and they kept charging/billing me even though it was supposed to be resolved. Don’t just give up keep after it as they will resolve improper billing if you are persistent. When you get with a support person that is solid and knowledgable they can and will resolve disputes over billing.

If you call in for a tech call I recommend using the call back option in the menu if you do not get to a support engineer right away. It has always been more acceptable to me to not waste my time just sitting on a call listening to elevator music. I found calling early in the morning was more successful than later in the day or evening. Avoid what would be peak hours and it does help to not have to wait. Have your questions ready and give them as many data points as you can. Get the trouble ticket number before you hand up as well. Work the system.

jacksnbox
First activity
2 replies
2 years ago
20 August 2021

I’ve now been on hold for 2 hours waiting on technical support. I think I many have made a terrible mistake ordering this service. It has dropped 4 times today alone

Polaris One
First activity
2 replies
2 years ago
20 August 2021

Yep after many hours of the same answers from the Techs mainly that the tower has problems I canceled and only had this useless paper weight for 8 days I am being charged a full month and didn’t get it till Aug 4 th. Oh well done with T Mobile. I wanted it to work but I guess they don’t ?
good luck

jacksnbox
First activity
2 replies
2 years ago
20 August 2021

add my name to the list. i’ve only had the device for a week, but it has dropped several times and rebooting does fix it. i am not using the WI-FI and my device runs about 110F…..on hold with support as i am typing

Polaris One
First activity
2 replies
2 years ago
15 August 2021

I have had my T M internet for 2 weeks and have only had maybe 2 full days of service fair been on the phone daily lots of excuses but no fix, speeds are all over the board and as stated here drop outs especially after 7pm that’s when TM Ted’s say that it’s the busiest, The last Tech turned in a ticket? And will here back on the issue, we’ll “NOT” fed up cancelling Monday. Very Unreliable.

Userlevel 7

I spent considerable time monitoring mine and researching. Do get into the web interface from a local client and record the internet connection information for the primary and secondary channels and record the channels recorded for the primary and secondary connections to the tower. The T-Mobile support engineers should be able to provide the coordinates for the tower where your connection is established. If you know how far you are from the tower(s) and what channels are used etc… that helps to have a better idea of what to expect.

I would guess the primary will connect to LTE and the secondary channel should connect to 5G. Hopefully you have good signal strength and signal quality at least. It could be they are just doing work on the tower equipment and you have just encountered the disruptions due to that. I found the web interface to the router from a client can be impacted by my Bit Defender agent from time to time as the connection from the client to the router is not encrypted. That makes it appear as if there is no connection to the router even with a refresh so that was driving me nuts. I ran speed tests and also ran concurrent pings to several of the DNS servers to monitor how the connection was holding. You can rotate the router a bit and influence the signal strength. I was able to improve the 5G signal several dBm just by turning the router to position it so the 5G antennas were receiving the most favorable exposure to the tower. You have to know where the tower is to really get the router in the best location. Also make sure you dont have metal screens on the window in the way of the signal from the tower.

I cannot say for sure about the relationship to heat as I cannot confirm any heat related problem with mine. I did put a fan under it today since I had a small spare laptop cooler. Some people appear to have had heat related problems and appear to have had positive results adding a fan for cooling. I put mine out in 88 degree temp last Sunday to test it for such but it ran fine for hours. It was a bit warmer than usual when I brought it in but it never dropped link while outside the door. I suspect the problems I have seen are more related to engineers working on the tower rather than this router. Good luck with it.

DSXMachina
First activity
1 reply
2 years ago
10 August 2021

Same problem here. I’ve had the new gateway less than 24 hours and it has dropped all WiFi devices twice in the middle of meetings. No noticeable overheating on mine - it seems like more of a software issue.

The support “technician” didn’t acknowledge anything I said about this being a common issue with other users and suggested that everything was fine if my devices are connected after rebooting the gateway. They said they would check back in three days to see if the issue continues, and only then would they send another device. Rebooting is NOT “troubleshooting” as they suggested and it is definitely not a solution. Troubleshooting would be looking at error logs to see exactly WHY all devices are getting disconnected but, unfortunately, this device doesn’t give access to anything like that through the internal admin page.

Speeds are impressive *when it works* but dropping connections like this is unacceptable.

Userlevel 7

iTinkeralot
Pillar
1230 replies
2 years ago
4 August 2021

Well, you need to translate the problem statement a little and keep in mind, if you continue to do the same thing, you can expect the same results. The newer T-Mobile 5G Nokia built gateway router is yes a totally different appliance but it does have both 4G LTE & 5G capability plus the WIFI is 802.11ax so it also can support the newer 6G wireless clients on the LAN. If you go out and buy a flashy new laptop with a 6G wifi card you will be happy you jumped to the future solution. A “crash” and a uplink to tower signal loss are not the same animal. Some people have reported issues with freezes or other behaviors but nothing is perfect but the newer Nokia 5G router/gateway may just be a major improvement for you. The problems I experienced in July were related to the operation of gear on the tower NOT the gateway router itself. If your location is within 2-3 miles from a T-Mobile tower with the mid band 5G signal you would see a significant increase in bandwidth over LTE and much lower latency for the communication back and forth. The faster 5G mid band n41 channel can provide significant punch in the 1-2.5 mile radius from the tower and a HUGE jump from LTE. The lower broader delivery on the n71 channel will extend out and cover a much larger area and still provide 150-200 Mbs down even 5 miles away from the tower with the 5G and have lower latency. With both the 4G LTE primary signal and the 5G on the secondary signal you have a distinct advantage. You would have nothing to loose going with the newer router. My take is it would be a win. I was given the option to just go with the LTE can or join the BETA program and wait three weeks for the newer 5G router. I opted for the 5G with the knowledge that the latency is lower and the bandwidth capability is much higher. The future is with 5G and 6G NOT 4G LTE. If you are given the chance to upgrade to the newer router my advice is to go for it! Think of it as a sleek version of R2D2 vs a trashcan. Put life in perspective and lets look on the sunny side of life. You will not know until you try it. You might find the issues you were having just go away. I try to keep a sunny disposition with the T-Mobile support engineers as they may not all be perfect but they are there trying to help out. They do appreciate consideration and respond. I try to treat people how I want to be treated as a rule. It pretty much gets positive results every time.

Having remote reboot capability can be possible, but let’s be real. I worked in IT for 22 years and we built in extra terminal servers and IP connected APC power strips with alternate access portals to ALWAYS have such capability. If the connection to the gateway appliance only has the single tower connection we can't expect miracles. This is after all a home gateway appliance and well the price is right. Is it perfect? No but it is decent for what it is. Mine ran from early January through June without much of any burps. Sure July was a bit frustrating but now with the tower upgrade and equipment having attention it is back to stable and has even better bandwidth results. T-Mobile is pushing out the 5G rapidly and anything that is new will have its challenges as it matures. My only option here was Hughes Net with a 2 year contract and $20 more per month after the second month. That was a pretty poor option. I had nothing to loose with the T-Mobile solution and no contract! I get 10X the upload and download speeds I was getting from the provider in California for less cost. It is a win!

Have the LTE router and it crashes all the time. When I’m away there’s no way to reset it. Sometimes calling T-Mobile they can remotely reset it. Often it doesn’t work.

T-Mobile recommended the 5G Trashcan as a fix. Bummed to see others still having the exact same problem with a completely different model.

We’ll see…

Also, no remote reboot is a bummer

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5G home internet keeps dropping

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