We've had TMobile Home Internet for several months, and it's been rock solid from day one.
Until the last 24 hours.
Every 10-30 minutes or so, our devices get 'Connected, No Internet', and the only way to fix it is to power cycle the gray trash can (as we call the modem).
Very confused, as it's location hasn't changed since initial setup, nor have any of its settings.
Any help would be appreciated.
Best answer by BlueSurf
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+8
Our engineers mentioned your device is connecting correctly to our towers; however, they are working on optimizing the area and this could cause issues like you are experiencing. This will be resolved soon, and your service will stabilize.
T-Mobile should figure it OUT. The statement made above should be sent to known users in a given area prior to work on equipment. Customers would be more satisfied IF they were informed vs. fighting with the routers and having lots of frustration and speculating possible solutions. Here where I live we went through the same experience back in June. There was a week of repeated disruptions and calls to T-Mobile support ONLY to be informed about the work on the tower after the second to third call. Does that promote customer satisfaction or loyalty? Heck no! It just shows how T-Mobile does not have a proper handle on their support initiative. Support is taking a back seat to reaching out for the dollars from subscribers. Well, I worked customer support for 22 years and the company I worked for did NOT do it this way. We took support serious and always tried to maintain a proactive approach to customer support. T-Mobile needs to reflect a mature corporate posture in the environment to play with the big boys and be successful. They need people in key positions in support that KNOW how great customer support works.
Happy customers stay customers. Bad news travels faster than good news. It is truth.
Ours is running the current software version above.
We tried a reset (went through the entire setup process again).
And again, within 30 minutes, received the 'Connected, no internet' message from all of our devices.
So frustrating, as we were starting to think TMobile Home Internet was a viable alternative to cable (the only other alternative in our area).
We will try reaching out to T-Mobile.
Well, I’m checking out.
It turns out, T-Mobile will not refund the monthly autopay once you’re past the 90-day mark. And, while there is a “suspend” option on the account, that would cost me $10 a month for no service at all. I might as well take a ten dollar bill and put it in the shredder once a month.
Given the numerous topics on this community forum reporting loss of internet access, the picture is becoming clearer. If I had to guess, I’d say T-Mobile oversold the internet service and found themselves in a bind when they discovered they had insufficient capacity. Not wanting to hurt their mobile phone business, they have had no choice but to cut off their internet gateway customers. “Problems associated with tower work in your area” is merely a fabricated excuse in most cases.
In my case, a so-called engineer’s report traced my service interruption to being in a poor coverage area. Not only is this nonsensical (because I get three bars on the gateway device and the service worked great for ten months), it also makes it clear that they have no intention of fixing the problem. Never mind that I was told at the time of signup that I was in range of their cell towers and that my projected usage (2-person household, primarily video streaming and online shopping) was exactly the kind of traffic for which the system was designed.
It’s been a disappointing experience. T-Mobile can certainly expect that I will not be recommending any of their products to anyone. Also, I’m sure the FCC will be interested in their questionable practices.
Good luck, folks.
I’m in Oklahoma and have been having the same issue, it is connected then it goes down then comes back up, it goes through this cycle about every 10 minutes or so, this is not a software issue as I have the newest modem they offer, I have done several factory resets and the issue still persists, I like the service but this is getting ridiculous, we as paying customers should be given an update on the issue that is consistent across CSR’s in T-Mobile, it’s really frustrating when you talk to four or five different reps and there answers are all different so we know the didn’t actually take the time to read notes or research into the problem, also we as customers would like to know if a fix is being put into place and a time frame, T-mobile has a big issue with there lazy customer service reps and there internet.
The Samsung Z Fold 3 has a known network connection issue. The issue started with the latest Android 12 software update. There is a fix, as of February 18, that is supposed to correct the issue. And, as far as I have learned, you need to wait to receive the updated fix in order to correct it. In the mean time, changing your Network mode from 5G down to LTE 3G and turning on WiFi calling will help temporarily.
Well, actually…
I too have been experiencing loss of internet here in Ft Lauderdale. I made contact with T-Mobile on Twitter and after a few days got this response:
Our engineers mentioned your device is connecting correctly to our towers; however, they are working on optimizing the area and this could cause issues like you are experiencing. This will be resolved soon, and your service will stabilize 😊.
No relocation of Gateway or adding a cooling fan is expected to help. No definition of how long “soon” would be. I am getting ready to cut off Comcast, but now thinking twice.
Same issues here. I still have a good connection with the Tower but No Internet. A power cycle on the Can will bring back the Internet. Seems to happen more often if wife is watching a movie on TV and I start surfing the Internet. This is my second Trash Can and they both had the same problem. Download vary from 120Mbs in AM to 30Mbs in the PM. Uploads have always been slow, 4Mbs if I’m connected to B66 and less than 2Mbs on B2. I’m testing a VOIP phone service and it works great but afraid to cut off land lines until this stabilizes. That being said, it’s better than DSL for sure but I wish they would get it fixed.
+8
K4VW - Which GW do you have? The Nokia or the Arcadyan? If the 4G LTE signal source is changing bands what about the 5G NR signal? Does it also change? I am guessing both change. When you have the internet working with each 4G LTE signal check the PCI values for both 4G and 5G. I believe with the Arcadyan seeing the PCI values would be possible with the mobile application. With the Nokia I prefer to use the browser from my MacBook Pro. If you have a client that you can connect to the wired Ethernet vs. the WIFI when the internet is reported down just try to ping 9.9.9.9 or any DNS server on the internet and the gateway IP 192.168.12.1. Do both the wired & wireless fail or not? You need to look at the cellular information & confirm the cellular signals are both down when it reports no internet. I would assume both would be down but when I was seeing disruptions here back in late June 2021 it was a similar issue. I have not seen the download speeds vary as much unless there was a tower issue and the engineers were working on it.
The reason I ask about the PCI values for both 4G & 5G is so you can confirm the GW is making a transition to another tower. With the PCI, physical cell identifiers, you can use those to locate the towers and then use Google Earth to determine the distance to the towers. If you are on the edge of two cells and the signal is making a transition, that is not working well, that might account for the behavior. I say might as work on the towers could well be taking place. The distance to the source of the signals is important. The 4G LTE can travel farther out. The n71 5G will travel and penetrate better than the n41 GHz signal. The n71 can radiate out maybe 10 miles but is really not as functional beyond 5 miles. It all depends upon the terrain and IF true line of sight is present between the source and node receiving the signal. The n41 signal can really only reach out about 3 miles but to get the rocking speeds you need to be closer in. A good clean n41 signal 1.5-2 miles provides great results.
The cellular metrics for RSRP, RSRQ & SINR help to profile how the signal is received. That will change with environmental conditions. If you are between two towers and on the edge of both that could lead to the gateway making a transition from one to the other but that might be impacting the active sessions causing them to hang at times. If you get more data on the operation it is possible to work on improving behavior. Of course if the tower is being worked on then just have to find out from T-Mobile.
I would do a factory reset. Do you know when you device was upgraded to the new version? Was it last 24 hours? This is the new Version:1.2103.00.0338, If its updated something could have caused an error. A total reset is the best way to clear that. If this first doesn’t fix the problem, then you need a device replacement. Good luck to you.
We've had TMobile Home Internet for several months, and it's been rock solid from day one.
Until the last 24 hours.
Every 10-30 minutes or so, our devices get 'Connected, No Internet', and the only way to fix it is to power cycle the gray trash can (as we call the modem).
Very confused, as it's location hasn't changed since initial setup, nor have any of its settings.
Any help would be appreciated.
The posts about resetting to factory settings are incorrect!!! This is NOT a fix. After 6 weeks and 10 hrs with Advanced Tech Support dept (unable to help) I have solved the problem. As background I had flawless fast service for 2 months, then it was terrible. I'm 600ft from my 5G tower in a major metropolitan city too.
Here's the solution(s)... use the T-Mo Home Internet app. Switch to 5ghz from the standard 2.4ghz if you're close to your tower. 2.4ghz is for longer broadcast distances. We switched and service definetely got better but was still unacceptable. The real thing that worked was (on the same page of the App) select WAP/WAP2 from the default WAP2/WAP3 encryption. Our cell tower must have had a software update that is not prioritizing WAP2/WAP3 encryption IP traffic. I took the entire router to my boat in another city/state (that's not even available for TMo Home Internet) and with the original settings it was passing 240MB down with 31ms ping. This is how I knew it was a problem from my local tower. Roll back the encryption standard and your service will come back. I'm getting about 44mb down now but the ping is about 200-300ms.
+8
K4VW - The PCI, physical cell identifier, is the identification for the cell that is the origination for the band. If the tower information in cellmapper.net has both the B2 & B66 LTE bands you might be sort of in the middle of the zone where your gateway tends to move back and forth between the two. They could be on different towers but without looking up the PCI information in cellmapper.net I could not say if both are on different towers or not. Use cellmapper.net to locate the 4G LTE cells via the PCI values. You also may be able to locate the 5G NR signals as well. CellMapper.net is roughly 80% accurate as the database is populated by users uploading info. With an account and using application software on an Android phone users can get their information to the servers and in the database and that helps everyone that tries to find cells. Not possible with an iPhone, an apple thing. If it is I have not seen any way yet. I have been reading the info on cellmapper.net and Android and Win10 mobile apps available but not for iOS. Using cellmapper.net is free and very helpful.
One thing you might try is to rotate the gateway say 5 degrees at a time and watch the signal metrics. The arrangement of the Nokia is such that there are multiple antennas in it which run vertical. I found if I point the back of my gateway, i.e. where the switch and Ethernet ports are, in toward me and have the front left, from the back orientation, facing toward the tower I can improve the 5G NR signal. I usually can get 3-4 dBm improvement on the 5G NR signal just by turning the gateway to improve the signal wash over the two antennas on the front side. I oriented mine to improve the 5G and ignore the drop on the 4G LTE signal. I don’t do much in the way of heavy uploads so the download speed on the 5G signal is where I have worked to improve the exposure. So, you can with a simple rotation of the gateway impact the signal metrics and improve your performance. You can use the chart to translate the metric values so you can dial it in. You might get it to hold 5G with a stronger, cleaner signal with just a simple spin on the gateway. I did have success with this.
+8
Some people get improved performance with the Arcadyan GW vs. the Nokia and others report results that are about the same. Users that have the Arcadyan and the Nokia have BOTH reported heat related issues. Nothing is perfect in this world. I have the Nokia and I would not trade it for the Arcadyan. I have been in service here with the Nokia since early January 2021 and had two flakey outages. Both were due to work being performed on the tower equipment. Upgrades and programming I suspect. After the second period it has been stable for the past 11 months. I prefer the Nokia and I am familiar with the interface and it has more configuration functionality than the Arcadyan GW. The Arcadyan firmware has been improved but I don’t know how much as I don’t have one to tinker with. If my download and upload speeds were less I would use an external antenna just to be able to locate the gateway so I could improve WIFI delivery over the house better. With 180 Mbs down and 40-60 Mbs uploads I don’t have the demand for the external antenna. If that changed in a negative way then I would probably give an external antenna more priority.
+8
K4VW - “The unit is in a window in my garage.” If the garage is hot; heat may be part of the problem and a fan may help. I seem to recall some of the users with heat issues reporting similar behavior so put a fan on it and exhaust heat.
If you can locate the GW with good exposure to the tower in a room with better air conditioning that might be better. Some gateways do have the heat issues. :-( A fan will NOT hurt. You might query the Community threads for heat or fan and find a quick response that gives you a line on the size and price. They are not expensive and can be had on Amazon or other sources online pretty easily.
I’m having the same problem with my 90 year-old Dad’s internet. It was good (20 mps) when I first got it for him last October. Since the beginning of July it’s been terrible. Like, 0.15 mps terrible. It’s so bad that I can’t even bring up a webpage to run a speed test. I’ve called T-Mobile tech support 4 times and I’m getting really tired of hearing their script. No internet means my Dad (who lives alone) has no TV and no phone. That’s right, the connection is so bad VOIP doesn’t even work.
The Nokia unit is showing 4 bars and the tower is less than a mile away. I think I know what the problem is but there doesn’t seem to be any way to correct it. The 5G signal is “poor” but the LTE signal is “excellent”. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off connection to the poor 5G signal. I had even considered asking for a 4G router instead but I’m just going to get rid of the service. Why should I spend all my time trouble-shooting their lousy service? Fios is coming on Thursday and Dad is on a hotspot borrowed fomo the Library until then. I really wanted to like T-Mobile Home Internet and I did at first. Now, however, I hate it and I doubt I will *ever* try it again - even they get their act together
If T-Mobile GW isn’t working for you, there could be chances of technical issue from T-Mobile side or on technical issue on GW itself, you can have go through this guide to fix the issue.
I am having the same problem with the Nokia gateway. It does not appear to have anything to do with the tower. Most of my connected devices remain functioning at high speeds while others show “no internet connection”. For instance, My OOMA, iPhone and wife’s laptop will stay connected to the gateway but show no internet connection. Simultaneously my iPad and laptop are working just fine at nice high data speeds. The devices loosing internet are largely random, though some tend to loose internet more frequently. A total reset and numerous reboots and a software update have not solved the problem.
I am hoping they will send me another gateway, preferably not the Nokia since others seem to be having the same problem. My service was perfect for the first 6 months, the last two have been miserable.
Having constant drops of home internet for last week in Kent WA. When was working good I was getting over 400 down and 80 up on home internet and over 600 down and close to 100 up speed on iPhone 14pro max .
Today got a replacement of the modem and same thing happened after 15 min of normal working order. Since I connected the new modem about 5 hours ago had to restart it 3 times. Not sure what else to do except of getting a different company and forgetting T-Mobile.
Well you did the basic to get your service back to normal. Since that didn’t help it can very well be a hardware issue. Overheating has caused problems. I use a cooling fan and it has been just great.
Your next step is Tech Support 844.275.9310, tell them everything you did to try to fix your Gateway.
They can do stuff remotely which may turn out to be a new replacement. Good luck.
Just fyi I was rock solid first few months too and same issues it got progressively worse week over week and now can't get on at all. I think they are adding more people than they can accommodate. Why else would I suddenly not be able to use it when it was great in the beginning but also gets worse every week. (yes at peak hours and weekends)
I'm desperately trying not to go back to spectrum but it's looking like that will need to happen.
I got a replacement and it is the same issue!
This started happening again yesterday. :( Only this time WHILE I was watching Roku connected to my router! Several devices were reporting no internet connection. Hmm. Did a power cycle on the router and everything came back. I was so glad it wasn’t T-Mobile taking done a local node without any notification. I wonder if “node down” is the default explanation to no service?
I am liking the service (when it works) but just get tired of running into poor customer support, or “canned responses”. I’ve done worldwide tech support for a fortune 100 and this would never be acceptable from my staff.
+8
So if it does come back on its own without a reboot does it connect to the same cells? It really could just be T-Mobile is working on the equipment doing upgrades or programming and don’t provide any warning about maintenance activity. When they get the equipment upgraded and set it usually does improve but it is frustrating while they monkey with the radios. We had the same behavior here and once they got the equipment dialed in service did improve and get stable.
Well, actually…
I too have been experiencing loss of internet here in Ft Lauderdale. I made contact with T-Mobile on Twitter and after a few days got this response:
Our engineers mentioned your device is connecting correctly to our towers; however, they are working on optimizing the area and this could cause issues like you are experiencing. This will be resolved soon, and your service will stabilize 😊.
No relocation of Gateway or adding a cooling fan is expected to help. No definition of how long “soon” would be. I am getting ready to cut off Comcast, but now thinking twice.
This started happening to me this morning in the metro-Boston area. The gateway web page (http://192.168.12.1/web_whw/#/overview) shows connected to primary and secondary with 3 bars, green check on “Internet connected”, devices connected to Wifi, but every 30 minutes or so, the ability to access the internet vanishes. This is a progression of steady worsening over time. I had the trash can running for 2 months with no issues, then a few weeks ago started having to reboot it once per week, then 3 times so far this morning. If their SOP is to “optimize” during the workday and make the network unusable during that time, then this has gone from “so much better than Comcast” to “Guess I should reconnect the Comcast so I can work”.
I experienced the same thing while they were doing tower upgrades in my area last September, 2021. It took them three or four weeks to complete the work, then speeds went up and internet dropping problem disappeared. It’s been stable ever since (it’s now late February 2022).
Thanks to all those posting here, proving that my issue is far from unique and isolated. About 40 days into this failure mode, I am still without internet service via my T-Mobile gateway.
After many, many frustrating phone conversations with “tech support,” I’m on my third device -- this time the Arcadyan model. The problem remains the same: “good” connection with T-Mobile’s cellular network but no internet service… not even a blip... this after about ten months of what I consider stellar internet access, given the paucity of options in my area.
To Jay from Georgia: Thanks for your post, but I sincerely doubt you spoke to an actual engineer. T-Mobile has erected impenetrable firewalls to prevent that from happening. Instead, you most likely spoke to one of their offshore “tech” representatives, who can do little more than perform scripted procedures and file trouble tickets. One of the last reps I spoke to claimed he was the last stop on my journey to a solution, promised to stay on top of it, and would get back to me with updates. I haven’t heard from him in a couple of weeks.
Still, the thought of reconnecting with my local cable company is so odious to me, that I am willing to wait. As long as I keep getting credited (for my autopays) for outage days/weeks/months, I have nothing to lose. Reports here are encouraging in that some users seem to regain service after some indeterminate period. In the meantime, I can limp along with my slow, expensive, rock-solid DSL service.
I will update as I can.
Replies that offer suggestions for a better signal from the cell tower are completely missing the point of this discussion.
I, too, have lost internet connectivity after about ten months of what I would call “stellar” performance with my T-Mobile internet gateway. (I have the grey Nokia device.) I’m not talking about reduced speed or an intermittent connection. I’m talking someone-flipped-a-switch-or-tripped-over-a-wire dead-as-a-doornail no internet connection. I’m still connected to the tower antennas and, therefore, as far as I can tell, to the T-Mobile cellular network. I say stellar because I was getting download speeds between 30 and 50 Mbps with occasional stretches in the 100 Mbps range. I’m on my backup ADSL service right now, which tops out at 7 Mbps down and which is the main reason I am able to participate here.
Dealing with T-Mobile tech support out of India (my guess) has been utterly frustrating. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accommodated their “script” -- performing reboots, factory resets, SIM card reseatings, and readback of IMEI and other numbers ad nauseum. They’ve replaced my gateway device, also to no avail. It is difficult enough to understand these so-called tech reps because English is clearly not their first language. It is even more difficult to get them to understand that, after several hour-plus sessions on the phone playing their diagnostics game, the problem is not with customer premises equipment or setup. The gateway device continues to show connection to the cell network, and its router functions are all OK.
At the moment, I am waiting for a callback with an “engineering” status report. Apparently, there have been some equipment upgrades that might have caused this problem. But it’s been three weeks, folks. C’mon…
I love that at the end of each telephone tech support session I am asked, “Have I satisfactorily addressed your issue today?” or some such thing. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I may have to jump ship, but it will be a sad day. The T-Mobile internet service was my ticket to a happy day -- the day I cut my cable connection.
+8
So I would argue for those focused upon the cellular connection and no internet that it will be helpful to know if you are connected to the same cell source or if it has had a handoff. You will not know unless you keep up with the PCI, physical cell identifier. There is some buffering of data to try to deal with handoffs but there is routing as well. If the routing does not update then your outside NAT address may not be seeing the return of the routed traffic so you get the behavior. It could be a routing issue with the gateway software. Without some debugging the T-Mobile engineers can’t see what is going on. If the gateway is rebooted then the ARP table and routing table would be flushed and the gateway should be reconnected to the routers that handle the traffic on the T-Mobile network.
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