Home Internet Goes Out Every Couple of Hours

Same issue here. It also kicks device off the network randomly

I’m having this issue as well. For some turning and back on fixed it, but now I’m getting 8 Mbps. I did have DSL and got 12 Mbps. This is completely unacceptable. Don’t advertise 50 Mbps if you can’t deliver. 

You may be in/near my market (also get "homed" to Charlotte here in Florence, SC).

Might want to watch your signal stats in the Home Internet phone app as you move/rotate the modem around.  The tower options/levels may have changed a bit.  May be able to lock a different band/tower with less congestion issues now.  Remember, stronger signal is what "looks" like lower number at first glance:  -89 is MUCH stronger than -92.

Been a LOT of changes recently.  Sprint  towers have been coming online, but signal levels have been a bit screwy.  Used to be able to easily swap to move between bands 2, 4, 66 amongst 4 towers by just shifting it a foot or so and turning a different angle.  Bands 71 and 10 just started showing up randomly, but 71 is the only alternate in that direction that seems to come up regularly.

Lately it is getting harder and harder to grab 66... it is a about 1/4 mile further then one of the band 2 towers that seems to have ramped up it's power a little.  Just under a mile from me, reorienting the modem has gotten me to where I can keep that band 2 around -88db, sometimes as high as -86db... but have yet to see it hit -92 or worse like the others tend to do.  When throughput goes south, it tends to plop me on band 4 for a while, then it flips back to that band 2 without me having to nudge it anymore. CQI has also been staying mostly 8 or better with it in this one spot (as was explained to me, that is basically an indicator of your prioritization level).

Also may want to select a different location to test against.  Routes to Charlotte tends to be considerably congested.  Probly why Spectrum uses Raleigh more often than Charlotte in their pathing from here.

Can type in a city and see a list of carriers to test against.  I like to use a Century Link in Seattle alot, as that is also Level3, a BIG peering partner for the southeast in general--lots of transport bandwidth in play, which helps to narrow down if erratic latency is more localized or not.  Alternatively, I'll hit some sites in Montreal as that tends to lean towards Cogent and TATA for the peering (other big names in the US).  If you go elsewhere along the Canadian border, you may get some Verizon in the mix (ALTER.NET), which can be very touch and go.  If you go the central/southern Cali or southern midwest spots, that tends to be Level3 and Zayo alot--not consistent which one will be in play, so it is kinda hit and miss.

I’m having big-time issues with my home Internet. It goes in and out moment to moment. Trying to do anything becomes an ordeal. Watching videos is a struggle with constant buffering. I am getting sometimes incredibly high speeds of up to 180 megs, but this doesn’t translate into smooth operation at all. I wonder if they are gaming the speed test system.

I’ve also been having same issue for the last month. 5G gateway was working fantastic for months…then the tower “modernization” took place…all my problems started after that. Probably called the home internet tech support over 20 times on the last month. Nobody knows what the problem is, how to fix it or when, if ever, the problem will be resolved. All they can say is they are “sorry” I have no internet. We tried every resolution in the book. They even replaced my gateway. Nothing has fixed the constant internet drop offs. All my T-Mobile cell phones work great…it’s only the home internet that has problems. The gateway shows 4 bars signal strength at all times, just no internet. Reboot usually gets me online again for about 5-10 minutes, then looses internet connection again. Very frustrating…I should have never left my old ISP.

Update…Possible Fix.

I had noticed my 5G Gateway was very warm to the touch at the top of the unit. I always thought this was a normal behavior of the unit. After reading various other blogs about possible unit overheating, I decided to buy a small computer fan to place under the Gateway to see if this made a difference. I purchase the small fan and USB adapter on Amazon (see below).  You’ll need the adapter if you want to plug and power the fan directly into the gateway’s USB C input. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07R659J8Z?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

&

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07XYTHCXV?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

After having the Gateway turned off for a couple hours, I powered on the Gateway and plugged the fan into the gateway and placed the gateway on top of the fan. The gateway has maintained a noticeable cooler temperature and my Wi-Fi has been more stable in the last 24 hours. Speeds have also been somewhat back to normal.  Not sure if this is all just coincidental, but I wanted to share it anyway. 

I also wanted to add that T-Mobile offshore customer support has not been helpful at all. They are very friendly, but lack any real tech knowledge. All they are trained to do is apologize, tells us how much they value us as customers, send a signal refresh and say the engineers are working on it.  They may even credit your account.  I’ve been “promised” countless times that my Gateway connection issue will be corrected “very soon.”  That was six weeks ago.  Correcting the issue is usually not something they are able to do. Speaking to an actual engineer is not possible.  This is very frustrating because they are the people who can actually provide corrective remedies.  We are left to troubleshoot on our own and find solutions through these community forums.  I live in a rural area with limited ISP options.  My Gateway cooling fan is only a bandaid, I’m really hoping Starlink will be my long term solution when it becomes available.  I also wish T-Mobile would monitor theses forums and assist with customer concerns.  I’m only one single customer, so my concerns and issues are not going to generate any movement from T-Mobile.  That’s just the unfortunate reality. 

Adding myself to the list of people impacted by this issue.

Sometimes the problem clears up itself. It could be minutes or it could be hours before things start working again.

The problem is bad enough that I have order a watchdog outlet to power cycle the Nokia modem if the Internet connectivity is down for a few minutes.

I hope this issue gets resolved soon so i can resume the relatively stable service I had before.

I don’t know if this helps or not, but I’ve had the white box (4G/LTE ?) for several years and this also has been happening to me for the past several months. I used to get 35-50 speed all the time and now it will be 3-8 until I reboot the box. Then it goes back to 35-50 for awhile. So it’s not just the new towers. 

Jumping on this bandwagon.  Couple of points:  iPhone7 disconnected from WiFi SpeedTest gets 150+Mbps when on gateway only gets <2Mbps.  Rebooting 5G gateway restores bandwidth to 200Mbps but only temporarily (2 hours best).  Awaiting delivery of my third gateway.  Dismal tech support:  611 IVR doesn’t grok “Home Internet Support”.  Must use different phone number for home internet.  Clearly offshore staff that is trying to be helpful, but is hobbled by policy and technology.  Most tech support calls are unintelligible due not to language barrier, but woefully inadequate technology… sounds like they are using a wired phone plugged into similar T-Mobile gateway in need of rebooting ;-)

I’ll go ahead and add my experience. I signed up last month in hopes that I could replace Xfinity with T-Mobile. I’ve got great handset signal and performance so I figured the home Internet would as well. I had great speeds up and down. However I did notice some sort of bottlenecking to begin with. I elected to use my TP Link mesh router‘s and turned off Wi-Fi on the gateway. This helped my situation greatly However I was able to work with Xfinity on a guaranteed 200 down 10 up plan for $50. It just didn’t make sense to pay $50 for sometimes great speed but also a lot of buffering especially when Hulu plus live did not work.

Yes unfortunately like many others I had to return my equipment. I stayed on the waiting list for over a year before I was finally approved. Oddly enough, a week after I return the equipment I got an email telling me that T-Mobile had got it it’s wires crossed and I was not actually approved for the equipment. Either way I’ll try it again in another year.

Try rotating inch by inch and/or elevating the gateway in your window, even repositioning it side to side a few inches, and and after each position change turning it off and on by the button on the side, each time trying for the highest speed you can get on a speed test. It should take two minutes to reconnect automatically after each restart. The trick is to find a position where you consistently get your highest speeds and avoid a position where you get the unusable speed.

If you have an attic or 2nd floor, that is also worth trying as a gateway location also, but it is very good that you have a window that faces the tower. 

It is normal for speeds to fluctuate on T mobile home internet. I get downloads between 90 and 350, and I’m 5 miles from the tower, but I’m also lucky to have the more desirable n41 instead of n71 signal on the tower. The max speed (if you’re less than a block from the tower) is 225 on the n71 whereas the n41 can carry a speed up to 800.

Before I got this, given that my 4G connection here is quite slow, I thought I would be very happy with anything over 30 on 5G. So I know how lucky I am because, obviously, that my lowest speed would be a dream for the people who are getting much less, and sometimes the really low speeds don’t even work for people. If you fluctuate down to 1, that means you are very likely to get zero some of the time and have no connection. 

If you want to get the details of what signals you are receiving, whether you are even on 5G, you can see this at the GUI by typing in the following number in your browser’s address box: 192.168.12.1

I bookmark that page, so I can return to it easily.

Select “Status” in the left column, and click on the dropdown arrow to the right of Primary and Secondary, noting the “Band” you are on for each one. 

If you are getting 5G, you  should see a B band in the Primary and a n band in the Secondary signal, because 5G is a non-standalone signal pair, 4G/5G.

If you are getting 4G alone, then you won’t have a signal on the Secondary at all, just blanks. That can account for your speed being in the lower range of 50 to 60. 

Selecting in the left-hand column, “Overview,” that will show your signal strength on both Primary and Secondary, assuming you’re getting both signals, and the drop down arrows near the signals will show data. But just in the basic view of that, you’re looking for a gateway placement that shows the most bars on both Primary and Secondary.

You may wonder, if this is a 5G gateway, how is it possible that some people get only the older, slower 4G LTE. Well, some do, because there is something about their house or location that is quirky, and they’re not getting the 5G signal.

A minority may actually get a better 4G signal at their house, and that’s their faster speed. That’s why looking at the GUI is good to know.

Like a cell phone, the gateway switches to towers and band combinations on those towers dynamically. There is no way to lock on to your fastest speed range, other than trying to encourage it by finding the best placement of your gateway.

Don’t be discouraged if you find you are on the n71 instead of the n41, because chances are good that in the next year or two, your tower may get the faster n41, or maybe something even newer and faster that T mobile comes up with. 5G is just in its infancy and improving rapidly.

They should be coming out with a new firmware (software) update that will be pushed out automatically (installs by itself) to your gateway, and that might help some people’s speed and/or connection stability. It was due last month but I suspect may be delayed for several weeks. You can see what version you have in the GUI, with “Overview” selected on the left, and by looking at the number near the gateway “Software” the last four digits which will probably be 0178, but the new version is 1609 or higher. I haven’t gotten it yet.