Question

Home Internet Gaming Problem

  • 21 September 2022
  • 91 replies
  • 17545 views
D
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I recently started test driving T-Mobile home internet at my house, and it's worked great for everything except games, where I'm having a weird issue with some of them. When I try to play Apex Legends on PC, the game will connect and play really smooth for anywhere from 1-3 minutes, and then all communication will be lost, which will take 20 seconds for the game to kick me out to the main menu. If I go back into the game from the main menu, it'll work fine untill the 1-3 minutes elapses.

 

During all of this my PC never loses connection, and this issue occurs over wifi and ethernet. This issue probably does not lie with the game as this issue does not occur with other ISPs, and it did not coincide with an update.

 

A similar issue is happening with Splatoon 3 on the Nintendo Switch, where the game will play superb for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before dropping the connection. 

 

Is this a known issue with the service or gateway, is there anyway I can debug my connection, and does anyone know anyway that could possibly remedy the situation? I'd love to keep the home internet, but one of the main things I use the internet for is games, meaning this service wouldn't work for me.

91 replies

T

I recently started test driving T-Mobile home internet at my house, and it's worked great for everything except games, where I'm having a weird issue with some of them. When I try to play Apex Legends on PC, the game will connect and play really smooth for anywhere from 1-3 minutes, and then all communication will be lost, which will take 20 seconds for the game to kick me out to the main menu. If I go back into the game from the main menu, it'll work fine untill the 1-3 minutes elapses.

 

During all of this my PC never loses connection, and this issue occurs over wifi and ethernet. This issue probably does not lie with the game as this issue does not occur with other ISPs, and it did not coincide with an update.

 

A similar issue is happening with Splatoon 3 on the Nintendo Switch, where the game will play superb for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before dropping the connection. 

 

Is this a known issue with the service or gateway, is there anyway I can debug my connection, and does anyone know anyway that could possibly remedy the situation? I'd love to keep the home internet, but one of the main things I use the internet for is games, meaning this service wouldn't work for me.

Same here, T-Mobile Home Internet is totally unreliable.

S

I’ve used PlayStation Remote Play for years with my PS4 and PS5, but having used T-Mobile internet since September, I’ve only even connected to the device a handful of times and those are short lived. The signal will either be too weak or unstable. I’m using iphone14Plus with all the updates, currently running iOS 17.4. This is on WiFi because I can’t get a LAN set up with either PlayStation. “Some of the required features are not supported.” I assume this is Port forwarding and UPNP. 
I haven’t phoned support because T-mobile always tries to bill for support help. I’ve kept T-Mobile (for WiFi) and Xfinity (LAN) this entire time deciding what to do. I also just got a new Backbone, which is awesome! So, not having remote play is a deal breaker for me.  The end of this billing cycle I’m returning the Sagemcom and dropping the service. 

T

I haven’t had much trouble with the games I’ve played.  I don’t play all that much but Diablo 2 Remaster, Forged Alliance and Redfall worked fine.    I did have some trouble with disconnects with Forged Alliance however.  That was remedied by disabling IPV6 in Windows on that PC (in the network connection settings). For some reason the game was happy with only IPV4 enabled.

 

I would also suggest setting a custom DNS server instead of using TMobile’s. I’ve seen it be unable to resolve some domain names.  Maybe try using Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS instead.

B

I have the gateway white tower..and every time I get on call of duty DMZ the game starts lagging after 3-5 minutes...total deal breaker..I do not want to go back to CenturyLink 😭

M

Actually I have to expand on my initial statement since this seems systemic with users and not anything rare. I am a network engineer by trade, held multiple CISCO certifications and was a global network lead for a fortune 100 company. I am working remotely from a Hotel so I took my 5G router with me, it is my second internet connection at home for my elderly parents who don’s use it much. In any case tried gaming, no joy. So I connected to the free hotel wifi with all the warnings about speed, limited downloads, and only two devices, plays WOT just fine. On T-Mobile 5G wifi router, cant even log in. They need to fix this or T-Mobile will not be a viable option for most people as customers will only be frustrated. It is not because 5G is not meant for gaming. I have another providers 5G router that works flawlessly even when kids are streaming and I am gaming. I guess this will have to go back. The only thing I might try is hooking up a wifi router behind it but since several reports have LAN connected drops as well I suspect this is a traffic shaping / packet consistency issue in the infrastructure.

I have the same issue. Unfortunately this will mean I cannot use T-Mobile internet.

 

M

I have the same issue. Unfortunately this will mean I cannot use T-Mobile internet.

D

Had the service for about a year no major issues other than some slight slow downs in the evening until the Past couple months random disconnects for 20- seconds and reconnects could be 5 min could be 30 hrs between instances. Happens while watching youtube or especially when playing COD, complain 2 weeks ago they supposedly updated my firmware and I had no issues for 11 days, problem returns, app show gateway losing all bars when disconnects happen, network stays connected to all devices but everything wired or wifi loses internet connectivity. Complain again they send me an Arcadyan to replace my Nokia now I'm at 1/10 of the speed and can't even connect to a match at all without timing out. About fed up!!

A

Having the same issue mentioned here. We had the gray/white trash can for about a year with nearly NO ISSUES. Save for a little spottiness on occasion, which is expected in our rural-ish area. No big deal.

I was trying for a WFH job that required 10mb upload speed minimum. We were hitting maybe 5.5-6 with that router. So obviously we went to our local store and asked for help. They recommended the next model with was the sagecom or something like that. The black trash can. This was roughly a month ago. It worked, but it was even slower internet. Download and upload speeds dropped. Didn't get that job, obviously. Streaming TV is how we roll, and up until the big black trash can, we'd dealt with very minimal buffering. Not only did it begin to buffer, we were losing connection completely several times a day. We dealt with it. Gaming hadn't been affected yet.

Then two weeks ago, the gaming connectivity started having issues. My main is Fortnite, and like others, I load up just fine then get into a match and start lagging/dropping connection. Mine is instant, whereas I've seen other get a couple minutes up to forty-five. Regardless, this is unacceptable. Two days ago I'd had enough, so upon contacting tech support, she said coverage in my area is great - I'm in the MAGENTA area so internet should be perfect. But it's not. So it's a router issue. We're gonna send you a new router and that'll fix your problem because on our end, everything looks great. 

Yesterday, we received the router, the Arcadyan (smaller black trash can) and last night it worked with minor lagging. I was at least able to play for a short-time without freezing every 20 seconds. Then last night before bed the internet shut off completely. Tried again today and now it's having the same issue. Freezing every 20 seconds then completely disconnecting me. Though every other device is running smoothly on the internet. As long as we're not gaming.

Here's the rundown from the two tech support calls today:

-Hard reset router and uninstall/reinstall TMHI app. Try adding a second network set to 2.4Ghz and run the gaming off that. Because gaming works best on 2.4Ghz. That didn't fix it, what do I do? Try it out for a couple days then give us another call.

*5 minutes later, frustrated as all get out, I call back*

-TMHI is not meant to handle gaming, but rather basic internet needs such as streaming and web surfing. Seriously? I'm just being upfront with you, I don't want to mislead you in any way. So what do we do? There are a lot of people in your area connecting to the towers, so speeds will be slow. Let's try some more troubleshooting. *instructs to reset everything, verifies SIM card is correct and working, suggest using an ethernet connection* Still no change. I hate that you're having this issue. Here are phone numbers for the manufacturers so you can contact them about your issues. Manufacturers for what? Your consoles. We've done everything on our end possible and connection looks perfect from here. It's probably a manufacturing issue with your Nintendo Switch and Playstation. So my Playstation and Switch both became faulty at exactly the same time after switching routers...and they're the problem? This is everything we did today. I'll give you a follow up call tomorrow to see how things are going.

*drives to McDonalds and connects to their free Wi-Fi and plays Fortnite with NO ISSUES*

I am disgusted and frustrated. T-Mobile, if you don't care about your gaming customers, JUST SAY THAT. Own up to it. You lowered your prices out of greed knowing everyone would flock to you and now you can't support the influx of usage. You put an update out on the routers and your customers are telling you it's broken....yet you do nothing. There is an issue here with YOUR service. I will be switching ISPs due to your negligence and unwillingness to provide for all your customers. 

FYI, Vicky, Richard, and Rachel...it's not you. It's your employer. You all were great and very helpful. As best you could be with what you've been taught. 




This is my exact situation! 

Stopped working about a week or so ago. And called 3 different times. 

They told me the speed looked perfect on their end, told me to reset the tower, check to see if the games I was trying to connect to were down, connect an Ethernet cable and pretty much every other option.
(we have 2 towers over here, tried both - both didn’t work and its the same situation)

I told them that I could use the hotspot on my phone with my PC and it worked better then the Home Internet System and they still weren't sure what was wrong. 

Strangely enough two days ago it worked for that 1 single day, and now its back to disconnecting after 20 -30 sec again. I really want to like T Mobile, we have add their home internet for ruffly a year and this was never a problem, but now we are being told their internet isn't meant for gaming when we have been gaming on it the whole time we been using it. xd

 

F

Having the same issue mentioned here. We had the gray/white trash can for about a year with nearly NO ISSUES. Save for a little spottiness on occasion, which is expected in our rural-ish area. No big deal.

I was trying for a WFH job that required 10mb upload speed minimum. We were hitting maybe 5.5-6 with that router. So obviously we went to our local store and asked for help. They recommended the next model with was the sagecom or something like that. The black trash can. This was roughly a month ago. It worked, but it was even slower internet. Download and upload speeds dropped. Didn't get that job, obviously. Streaming TV is how we roll, and up until the big black trash can, we'd dealt with very minimal buffering. Not only did it begin to buffer, we were losing connection completely several times a day. We dealt with it. Gaming hadn't been affected yet.

Then two weeks ago, the gaming connectivity started having issues. My main is Fortnite, and like others, I load up just fine then get into a match and start lagging/dropping connection. Mine is instant, whereas I've seen other get a couple minutes up to forty-five. Regardless, this is unacceptable. Two days ago I'd had enough, so upon contacting tech support, she said coverage in my area is great - I'm in the MAGENTA area so internet should be perfect. But it's not. So it's a router issue. We're gonna send you a new router and that'll fix your problem because on our end, everything looks great. 

Yesterday, we received the router, the Arcadyan (smaller black trash can) and last night it worked with minor lagging. I was at least able to play for a short-time without freezing every 20 seconds. Then last night before bed the internet shut off completely. Tried again today and now it's having the same issue. Freezing every 20 seconds then completely disconnecting me. Though every other device is running smoothly on the internet. As long as we're not gaming.

Here's the rundown from the two tech support calls today:

-Hard reset router and uninstall/reinstall TMHI app. Try adding a second network set to 2.4Ghz and run the gaming off that. Because gaming works best on 2.4Ghz. That didn't fix it, what do I do? Try it out for a couple days then give us another call.

*5 minutes later, frustrated as all get out, I call back*

-TMHI is not meant to handle gaming, but rather basic internet needs such as streaming and web surfing. Seriously? I'm just being upfront with you, I don't want to mislead you in any way. So what do we do? There are a lot of people in your area connecting to the towers, so speeds will be slow. Let's try some more troubleshooting. *instructs to reset everything, verifies SIM card is correct and working, suggest using an ethernet connection* Still no change. I hate that you're having this issue. Here are phone numbers for the manufacturers so you can contact them about your issues. Manufacturers for what? Your consoles. We've done everything on our end possible and connection looks perfect from here. It's probably a manufacturing issue with your Nintendo Switch and Playstation. So my Playstation and Switch both became faulty at exactly the same time after switching routers...and they're the problem? This is everything we did today. I'll give you a follow up call tomorrow to see how things are going.

*drives to McDonalds and connects to their free Wi-Fi and plays Fortnite with NO ISSUES*

I am disgusted and frustrated. T-Mobile, if you don't care about your gaming customers, JUST SAY THAT. Own up to it. You lowered your prices out of greed knowing everyone would flock to you and now you can't support the influx of usage. You put an update out on the routers and your customers are telling you it's broken....yet you do nothing. There is an issue here with YOUR service. I will be switching ISPs due to your negligence and unwillingness to provide for all your customers. 

FYI, Vicky, Richard, and Rachel...it's not you. It's your employer. You all were great and very helpful. As best you could be with what you've been taught. 

G

Last week, I complained online and suggested trying a newer router. I was able to exchange my Nokia gateway for the Arcadyan gateway. Unfortunately, there has been no improvement. It seems the downloads are slower and the upload slighty higher. I should have kept the Nokia gateway.

G

I’ve been using the TMobile home internet, with the grey Nokia device, for almost 2 years.

It use to be a great service, but not anymore.

For over a month now, I’ve been experiencing the same disconnect issues as other people in the forum. VPN for work and gaming on Oculus and PC has constantly disconnected after a minute or two. The issue is even happening at 4 am in the morning! I’ve been forced to use a Verizon hotspot instead.

TMobile has broken something, because until recently, gaming and VPN worked fine!

Unfortunately, TMobile is the only available unlimited whole house ISP in my location.

Hopefully, within a year, fiber will be installed so I can join the 21st century.

L
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Badge +1

Do a test on speedtest.net.  Observe not just the up/down speeds, but also the ping values during the test.  If in general, if you see ping values under load is higher than 1 second (either upload or download), your internet service may not be adequate for gaming, regardless of speeds.  The only way that I know of to improve latency is to install an external 4x4 MIMO antenna.

M

Sounds similar to mine. I watched my UDP in the game and it worked fine at first then dropped till my game crashed every time. I did talk to tech support and he told me UDP wasnt supported. I have been waiting until the problem is fixed to switch back to T-Mobile.

Idk what they're telling people now, but the service worked flawlessly up until December. Low ping, fast downloads, until they changed something.

I just talked to tech support. UDP port forwarding is not supported with their boxes. He could not tell me when if if its going to get fixed. He is forwarding my concerns to the engineering team. Is quite disappointing because T-Mobile internet has the best pricing for internet. Ill wait it out while my current internet keeps going up in price.

M

My disconnect issues have magically fixed themselves also.

X
Userlevel 2

Sounds similar to mine. I watched my UDP in the game and it worked fine at first then dropped till my game crashed every time. I did talk to tech support and he told me UDP wasnt supported. I have been waiting until the problem is fixed to switch back to T-Mobile.

Idk what they're telling people now, but the service worked flawlessly up until December. Low ping, fast downloads, until they changed something.

M

Sounds similar to mine. I watched my UDP in the game and it worked fine at first then dropped till my game crashed every time. I did talk to tech support and he told me UDP wasnt supported. I have been waiting until the problem is fixed to switch back to T-Mobile.

G
Userlevel 1

Sooooo….our multi-player gaming issues seems to have magically resolved. Are others still having problems?

Nope, my games have been working fine for about a week now, no issues at all.  MAGIC!!

What were your issues? Mine is UDP stopping crashing my game.

I’m not sure exactly what caused it, but I would connect to an online game and after 5 minutes to 30 minutes it would just disconnect.

M

Sooooo….our multi-player gaming issues seems to have magically resolved. Are others still having problems?

Nope, my games have been working fine for about a week now, no issues at all.  MAGIC!!

What were your issues? Mine is UDP stopping crashing my game.

X
Userlevel 2

Sooooo….our multi-player gaming issues seems to have magically resolved. Are others still having problems?

Was just home for a day, managed to get plenty of CSGO and Quake Champions games in without a single issue. Fingers crossed they undid whatever made gaming impossible.

S

Valleyr I agree. I  noticed randomly a couple days ago we just didnt have any problems any more either, no notice of service work or tower upgrades or anything we just didnt have lag on any of our devices anymore. Heres to hoping everyones problems are resolved!

G
Userlevel 1

Sooooo….our multi-player gaming issues seems to have magically resolved. Are others still having problems?

Nope, my games have been working fine for about a week now, no issues at all.  MAGIC!!

V
Userlevel 1

Sooooo….our multi-player gaming issues seems to have magically resolved. Are others still having problems?

X
Userlevel 2

I’ve also been having the same problem since mid-December. Doesn’t matter the server or the game, I’m kicked within five minutes. I’ve tried downgrading from 5G to LTE, I’ve taken my laptop with my mobile hotspot to different locations in order to connect to a different tower with better signal, nothing helps. I even went so far as to buy a new mobile hotspot. The responses I’m getting from customer service border on gaslighting.

I was able to play games just fine for six months on Tmobile’s 5G, even with a not-so-great signal, and for five years before that on Sprint with one iffy bar of LTE. Now they’re trying to tell me that my issue is simply because of a weak signal or network congestion. It’s gratifying to see so many others with the same issue.

It’s maddening. I would really love to be able to stay with Tmobile. Until this I’ve been overwhelmingly happy with the service, it’s been a game changer in my rural area, and recommended it to many others. But if this isn’t resolved soon, if they can’t even be upfront about the existence of an issue, I might have to jump ship.   

It annoying and I wish they could fix this cuz I’m kinda stuck with them for now

I found that UDP is not supported for video games. I had to switch providers. Whats the purpose for internet if it cannot be used for video games as well.

The problem is that it worked just fine for the six months I had the service. 

 

Whatever update they pushed was a conscious decision to remove your ability to use the service you paid for, without even so much as an email or text.

 

I haven't received any notification that their internet isn't intended for gaming, or that they've changed anything. They're perfectly fine letting me continue to pay for a service that they stopped functionality for.

M

I’ve also been having the same problem since mid-December. Doesn’t matter the server or the game, I’m kicked within five minutes. I’ve tried downgrading from 5G to LTE, I’ve taken my laptop with my mobile hotspot to different locations in order to connect to a different tower with better signal, nothing helps. I even went so far as to buy a new mobile hotspot. The responses I’m getting from customer service border on gaslighting.

I was able to play games just fine for six months on Tmobile’s 5G, even with a not-so-great signal, and for five years before that on Sprint with one iffy bar of LTE. Now they’re trying to tell me that my issue is simply because of a weak signal or network congestion. It’s gratifying to see so many others with the same issue.

It’s maddening. I would really love to be able to stay with Tmobile. Until this I’ve been overwhelmingly happy with the service, it’s been a game changer in my rural area, and recommended it to many others. But if this isn’t resolved soon, if they can’t even be upfront about the existence of an issue, I might have to jump ship.   

It annoying and I wish they could fix this cuz I’m kinda stuck with them for now

I found that UDP is not supported for video games. I had to switch providers. Whats the purpose for internet if it cannot be used for video games as well.

M

Try to remember that T-Mobile Home Internet uses the same cell towers that your phone connects to for service.  There will be times when it will switch towers to provide a better connection or to balance out a high amount of traffic on a tower.  When the modem decides to switch towers, you are going to lose your connection momentarily.  

That is not acceptable. Apparently you dont play video games. Loosing the connection crashes the game. Then we have to restart.

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