Home Internet - Frequent Disconnects - Possible Fix

  • 30 September 2022
  • 25 replies
  • 13546 views
J
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I might have found the problem that was causing frequent disconnects (happened multiple times a day) for the last couple of weeks.  The disconnect would require a reboot to get the internet working again.

 

I’m hoping that others having this issue would be willing to give this a try and see if it helps with their issue as well.

 

A Fan!  I believe that my issue is that my gateway is overheating.  After placing a fan blowing directly on it this morning, I haven’t had a single issue with connectivity all day.  

 

If you’re having this same problem, please trying cooling off your gateway and report back whether your issues have gone away or stayed the same.

 

I hope this finds everyone with this problem and will lead to a proper fix.

25 replies

H
Userlevel 2

I am planning to swap out the Sagecom 5g gateway with the Nokia 5g gateway. I am going to try this first to see if this will fix the problem.

Anyway, I never noticed the Sagecom gateway becoming too hot though.

C
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I might have found the problem that was causing frequent disconnects (happened multiple times a day) for the last couple of weeks.  The disconnect would require a reboot to get the internet working again.

 

I’m hoping that others having this issue would be willing to give this a try and see if it helps with their issue as well.

 

A Fan!  I believe that my issue is that my gateway is overheating.  After placing a fan blowing directly on it this morning, I haven’t had a single issue with connectivity all day.  

 

If you’re having this same problem, please trying cooling off your gateway and report back whether your issues have gone away or stayed the same.

 

I hope this finds everyone with this problem and will lead to a proper fix.

HHaving same issue thought it might have been because we're in a mobile home so I took it outside and rebooted it it didn't matter so I brought it inside after reading some reports on this forum and set it down over top of my air conditioner vent after it cooled down I started it up and it was fine so I've had it in front of a fan until I shut off a couple of times in the last few days

C
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So we decided to get to T-Mobile phone lines instead of Metro well I was on the phone with the agent setting up the phones I found out that the gateway round Gray device made by Nokia is an old and cheaper model than the newer ones that is black and square he told me that they had issues with the gray one and I should contact technical support and get a different device again get the newer model

S

I also have had lots of issues with the gray gateway. I had to take it to a TMO store to have them help  get it to work. The employee finally put in a new sim card to get it working. I was there 2 hours. After many issues with this unit TMO sent another. I ended up taking sim card out of newer and putting it in my older gaterway to have wifi. Still having issues. I tried to return the 2nd gateway at a TMO store only to be told, “since you bought it online, you have to deal with online.” I just sent back the gateway so TMO can send me the newer black model and not charge me $350. I was told there are 2 black models. How do I know which is newest?

L

This is what I found:  (don’t know if it’s accurate or complete?)

Older:  Nokia 5G21 (gray)
Current:  Arcadyan KVD21 (black)
Newest:  Sagemcomm FAST 5688W (black)

My KVD21 is not overheating.  My devices rarely disconnect from the gateway.  A few weeks ago, I started frequently losing Internet access, even though they are still connected.  Sometimes it will repair on it’s own.  Often I have to reboot the gateway to restore Internet access. Sometimes several times a day.  It feels like a software problem on the gateway.  Maybe with DNS not working?

I almost always have 4 bars on the signal strength, occasionally 3 or 5, but 4 is pretty consistent.

S

Thanks for replying. My son is flying in to visit Thursday and I will have him make sure everything is set up right. My grandson is on the spectrum/Asperger’s and sports is his life. I put over $1000 into a new antenna and rotor for OTA. Also set up the newer coax. We live in the country, about 50 miles north of Detroit. Some OTA towers are closer. We are limited to wifi access. I went with TMO hoping it would work and price was good. I have been reading and watching you-tube videos. I find sites saying some units work better for some customers. I am hoping we can resolve the issues soon. My gateway always has 2 bars when working. Never more. Sometimes a yellow circle with X in center. If my son can’t get it to work good, I will try a diff. unit. Once again, I thank you for answering me. 😊

F
Userlevel 1

Same problem as many others says connected with no internet. Almost every other day recently. Believe T-mobile is throttling like every other provider. Only trying to make more money off us. 

T

new 5g user here. kvd21 modem. less than a week and it’s gone down requiring a power restart. signal is good normally. house was 55 degrees so i doubt it overheated. on power cycle it got good signal again. so i think this is likely a software issue on t-mobile’s part. absolutely amazing this problem has been happening for over a year and they haven’t done anything about it. i think i can guess who is going to win the 5g internet race… verizon. and it’s cheaper if you have a phone line.

 

but it does appear they have disabled all router settings from the router gui. checked on both wifi and ethernet with no ability to change a thing. just able to visualize connection status, quality, and gateway. also unable to connect to the router through the mobile app. so great of them to make changes that hinder customers while ignoring the ones that need to be done to provide the service promised. i’m glad i’m still within their 15 day return period. 

B
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I have spent countless hours over the last week calling Hulu to reset my zip to the rapidly changing ip addresses. Been having constantly dropping internet speeds, and no service at all. Constantly rebooting, and at least 15 x in the last 2 weeks we were down for 5 hours plus. Modem is not hot at all. It’s been moved all over the house, reset, again and again. No “fix” lasts. I got this service 9 months ago, had about a week worth of problems, then just a few outages. The last 5 weeks have HORRIBLE. Now we have the rapid changing ip addresses problems too. This also disrupts log ins on my iPhones & iPad, the websites, especially bill paying ones think that my connection is being high jacked.  Then I get kicked out, and in some I have had to change passwords just to access them again. This 100% untenable.  I have heard that Xfinity has far fewer problems, and sets you up with a static ip, so you don’t get constant error screens from streaming services. We’ll see. 

T

If you have any other choice besides xfinity I recommend trying them first. On the horrible isp ranking xfinity takes the top spot. I’ve spent days of my life on the phone with xfinity.

B
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Yikes! Is there any isp that actually lives up to the sale pitch? I had to call Hulu eight x yesterday to reset my location. The tech said everyone of them are very familiar with this problem, and have seen a huge jump in calls over the last 2 weeks. She said that they all write reports and escalate them to their engineers, who are supposed to be working with T-MOBILE engineers to get a lasting solution to this problem.  One of the reasons I was thinking about Xfinity is that they just did an outside plant fiber upgrade in my 45 year old neighborhood. The old Centurylink copper cable telephone lines, while they managed to provide okay DSL, absolutely could not handle streaming tv. It was horrible! That’s when I went with TM. Was very good for about 5 months, but a nightmare since. They really need to get this solved, because these constant outages & ip addresses rapidly changing is an untenable situation for me. Alarm systems go down, I get shut out of websites trying to pay my bills, etc, etc.  Would appreciate some communication from them at least acknowledging this problem!

M
Userlevel 1

Same problem. For the last approximately 3 weeks the connection drops several times a day. Sometimes it will come back in its own, sometimes we have to reboot. The first customer service rep said It was the gateway (Nokia Trashcan) and replaced it with the Sagecom. Still the same problem. My mother lives next to us and is having the same problem with hers so the problem shouldn’t be the gateways. Surely they know this is a problem as I see tons of complaints about this. The rep I spoke with on Friday had no clue what could be wrong and opened a ticket. BTW I have found the tech support is AWFUL. No one knows how to fix anything. They promise to call you back, but rarely do. We need to have reliable internet, not something that disconnects several times a day! Has anyone been able to find what is causing this?

 

V
Userlevel 1

Having same issues. Customer service on the phone are great when talking on the phone but seems like tear 2 dept, who supposed to know what they are doing are clueless. I  actually had to walk them through on trouble shooting techniques.

Currently I am on a 3rd T-Mobile router. Had the first garbage can (T-Mobile rep called it) Nokia one which worked awesomely for 2 months and starting the disconnection problem daily at the same time 11pm. When I called customer service in July they told me that its do to upgrade on towers and advised me to get a new Arcadian modem which they sent over.

That one worked up until mid October, then same thing started to happen. I was ok resetting it daily but about a week ago it started that once a day reset is not enough., 3-4-5 times did the trick.

This 11/27 morning it started at 6 am I got notified that internet was down since 5:55 am, I reset it nothing happened, did it 3-4 times then decided to call customer service. 27 min later got a answer that I need to go to my local corp store and get a replacement.

Did that this after noon., as soon as I plugged it in, it showed 4 bars of 5G. 15 min later and 4 bars of 5G, - no internet on new modem. So the problem continues,

Also with my iPhone 14 pro max when switching off wifi on 5G uc there is also no internet. Had to switch off 5g to LTE and finally at least have internet on the phone.

I am about throw a book on T-Mobile and go back to comcast. I will give it a week do to tech workers had the Thanksgiving off probably and had no time to fix the towers, if it does not get fixed by next Friday that will be my last day with T-Mobile home internet. 

M
Userlevel 1

The service rep called me back this morning and said, well the service is just not good in that area. You can cancel if you want, but we are doing some upgrades in 2023. What! I’ve had perfect service for almost 2 years AND they just upgraded my tower to 5g! What is wrong with these people?!

I would gladly move my account elsewhere, but live in a rural area where this is the only option. I’ll be contacting the FCC, the BBB and T-Mobile’s CEO. 

M
Userlevel 1

5G home gateway - worked fine for four months - now its multiple reboots a day.  Problem is also impacting an  appleand android phone (showing 4 bars 5G and 5GUC).  Its not the device!  When it works I have seen 400mbit/s downloads but it randomly dies (and phone data also dies).  Tier2 has been worthless.  Multiple tickets, promises of call backs, countless hours wasted.

Everyone should file a complaint with the FCC https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

M
Userlevel 1

I actually contacted Mike Siever, the CEO AND he actually responded back. He had a member of his team look into it and call me back. She said that the towers are overloaded. I told her when I signed up they were only letting a certain number of people on each tower so that didn’t happen. She said, well everything was working so well we let more people on and now we have problems. Ya think?!

I’m really unhappy with them right now. IF I can even believe what she told me. I’ve been told so many things by this company that I can’t even trust them right now. This is no way to run a company! Wow!

C

As I read through these replies, I think mrsmoose summed it up best. T-Mobile has vastly oversold their home internet plan. They simply don’t have the hardware in place to handle the number of customers. What I have noticed over the past 4 months is study slowing of speed during certain time periods. I started out with over 200Mbps most of the time. 4 bars always, never changes. If you run speed tests a lot, you’ll notice what is happening. Over the last 3 weeks I get between 3 & 6 Mbps on a bad day, but still have a 4 bar connection. Showing the problem is on their end, not mine. I still get great speeds, but not as often & it’s getting worse. I believe phones get network priority, which means they do not have the capacity to handle your internet requests. So, it’s like they put you on hold until they can handle your request.  I think most of the folks with this problem are not being disconnected, but simply waiting their turn for bandwidth. Until TMO beefs up their hardware, you will have to switch or live with it. BC they are not going to quite over selling the service.

 

D
Userlevel 1

I actually contacted Mike Siever, the CEO AND he actually responded back. He had a member of his team look into it and call me back. She said that the towers are overloaded. I told her when I signed up they were only letting a certain number of people on each tower so that didn’t happen. She said, well everything was working so well we let more people on and now we have problems. Ya think?!

I’m really unhappy with them right now. IF I can even believe what she told me. I’ve been told so many things by this company that I can’t even trust them right now. This is no way to run a company! Wow!

Wowwww!!!! So Mike Sievert spilled the beans ay! TOWERS OVERLOADED 

U

kvd21 gateway- usually 5 bars signal strength - excellent.  Gateway is only very slightly warm to touch on the top.  Reboots about 6 times per day, everyday.  It is an issue that is T-Mobile’s fault - I’m sure of that whether it is software or hardware. 

T

I am having the same issues, only worse.  Multiple disconnects hourly.  Numerous reboots do nothing.  Tech support ok but no fix.  4 bars all the time.  Great, flawless service for 11 months with absolutely no issues.  Then, BBOM!  I even sent a letter to corporate HQ and did receive an email response from a Sr. Specialist Team CEO, Baby Trindle.  Told her my saga, via email and telephone conversations.  They had me throttle down my devices to 2.4.  No luck.  They sent me a new Gateway, no luck.  I am at a loss as what to do.  I am reluctant to change service providers but just as reluctant to switch my cellular plan to T-Mobile now.  I sent this thread to Trindle and received a polite email requesting another telephone conversation.  Pretty much already been there, done that.  Tired of reconnecting my devices.  Not gamers, 1 TV, a couple cameras, phones and laptops, all never running at the same time.

At a loss.

We have Optimum in WV $29/month, no issues.  Wish we could get in here in FL.  

K

I just tried this hack and my connection problems stopped immediately. Great tip!

R

Greetings- I am new to the thread but thought I would share a tip that seems to be working for me.  No change in my plan were required.

I have tried many of the things listed in this thread but recently I was on a trouble shooting call with a tech support person who was very helpful.   #1.  I had 2 issues.  I could not access my work VPN with the system after 1 month of use. 2) frequent dropouts on streaming services using Amazon video and music. 

The tech found the TM router I had had documented issues with some VPN’s and no workaround or firmware was available yet.  First he wanted to test by creating another network SSID (you can do multiple) and dedicate it to 2.4G instead of 5g.   We did that and there was no change.   At that point he set it up where I could get a new router/series and I proceeded to a store and made the exchange.  After exchanging the router, I was able to access my work VPN on both 5 and 2.4G.  Problem #1 solved.

Problem #2:  Before trying the new router, I tested the 2.4 option for streaming and it was worse- and still dropped.   I think there was more to it than just the speed.   After swapping the new router and testing 5G streaming, it still dropped.   Then switching to 2.4G seemed to work much better with no compromise in speed or access.   It very well could have been the hardware/software of the old unit, but knowing I can have a dedicated 2.4 certainly helped and also help with other home devices that work better with 2.4 (switches/timers, etc)

So - the 2.4G is a nice troubleshooting option and it’s easy to do it through the T-Mobile app on your phone.

M

Internet is awful today.  Rebooted gateway and no improvement.

switched back to comcast and back to normal.

what’s up?

M

 

M

Called customer support.  Apparently T-Mobile is doing massive upgrades in my area to improve my service.  The unfortunate thing is that this massive update to improve service was customer impacting and done without any prior notice or expectation setting of outage duration.  Wonder if business customers get heads up.  Good thing I haven’t completed my switch from Comcast yet.

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