Latest Gateway Firmware Discussion

bock57,

Sorry, I’m being confusing!  The 1000mbps refers to the hardware link speed (that is, 1 gig-Ethernet).  Earlier, I’d seen the link speed drop down to the 1980’s level: 10mbps (10baseT)  So that explains why I thought I was seeing throttling, but the throttling was in the connection from my PC to the trashcan.  Deep-reset and reboot of the PC brought the link speed back up to gig-E, and I’ve been seeing roughly the same speeds I saw prior to getting the .0338 firmware.

I’m getting 120Mbit/sec down and 40Mbit/sec up at the best (3am-ish), and 60/20 at worst during mid-day.

So, .0338 is working OK for me

Thx

just noticed my trashcan, which had been running 1609 for months, very happily, is now running 1.2103.00.0338.  I'm currently experiencing what looks like throttling of download speeds at 1 MByte/s.  

Edit 2:. My bad!  Noticed somehow my Ethernet connection between trashcan and desktop was running 10Mb/s.  Power cycled desktop and 30second deep factory reset trashcan, got 1000Mb/s link back, Internet performance back up to acceptable speeds.  The throttling was gone. 

Edit:. Misspoke.  Previous version was 1609, throttling is 1MB, not 1Mb.

My gateway was upgraded (without any notification, mind you) to 1.2103.00.0338 a few weeks ago. No major issues with the internet service per se, but now the Home Internet app fails to show the list of devices attached to the network. I know my way around computers and can find workarounds, but this can be a big annoyance for most average users.

Yup, that’s how you can do it, and probably worth a try if you are among the people who want a 4G connection, because the 5G in your area is bad. Or they have the VPN issues mentioned in the T-Mo Report.

I would like to hear from people who get the update, if they notice any difference, speed improvement, stability, or whatever. So get back to us if you notice anything. 

It’s now Sept 8 and I have not received the 5G gateway firmware (or “software” as it lists in the GUI) update from 1.2003.03.0178 to the new 1.2101.00.1609 which was supposed to roll out to users throughout August but has obviously been delayed because of some problems.

The T-Mo Report four weeks ago said: The update claims to fix two known VPN issues, one with Cisco AnyConnect and one with GlobalProtect. More importantly, the update claims to improve the poor 5G signal experience. Apparently, this fixes situations where a 5G signal is poor and the LTE signal would be a better connection.

One comment in a video of Tyrone’s “Tech Life Channel” on YouTube said something which for me means this is the problem they are trying to fix before they roll it out to more people. That is, one comment says he got the new 1609 update, and used to get 500Mbps download speeds on the B2/n41 signal combination but is now stuck on a much slower 4G-alone B4 band.

On the other hand, for the few people who get better 4G service in their area and their 5G is terrible, this may be a great update for those people. This will help those people get their fastest speed on the 4G rather than having to trade their gray can for the old 4G model, at least until the 5G service in their area improves.

This seems to have settled down for me still on 1.2101.00.1609 so maybe we just have to be patient while they get the kinks ironed out. My old service was so slow it’s hard to be worse than it was :|

Hopefully TMobile doesn’t selectively throttle certain network protocols. Supposedly they don’t. I’d expect a congested network to be reflected on T-Mobile phone speeds over 5G (not wifi) as well as the Internet Home service. Phone users going over 50 GB a month are “prioritized’ according to the web site but I don’t know (yet) if that affects Home Users.

Fast shows 8.9 so slow. All Wifi on can disabled with fan under can on full.

Can is ethernet to Google Wifi mesh. However do note connecting laptop to second ethernet port on can yields the same results so it has nothing to do with the Google Wifi.

Not much was on vac then got back gateway broke was offline for a week.

Kinda bummed speed was 500 now I’m getting 1-15 video buffering on all calls today.

Odd is the upload is great 25-50 just download is slow.

Just rebooted no change same speeds off to another call now.

I got 1.2101.00.1609 last nite. Today speeds seem much slower than yesterday as in very slow having issues with work video calls.

Since I am mostly new to the service and I was down for a week waiting for replacement gateway I am not sure on historical performance.

I have moved the can around. The best spot is a second fl window kinda between the 5G and an LTE tower. I can put it in line of site of the 5G tower but always seems slower there as it cannot lock on a secondary signal.

Why does it keep the LTE as primary when the 5G has the better stronger signal?

I do have the fan under the unit and all Wifi off.

For anyone that is interested in more details about the T-Mobile gateway waveform.com has an interesting and informative article that provides more understanding about the reporting and how to improve the operation. Of course they promote external antenna solutions but well if you want to improve the signal quality this can improve data rates and make the solution more enjoyable. In my case i know I have reporting for “Good” to “Excellent” signal strength on both LTE and 5G signals but the 5G signal could have improved “Signal Quality” but it is still in the Good range. So, it makes it difficult to know why the signals are dropping at random times repeatedly. It still could be a software issue that results in communication issues with the tower but this is a hard one to determine alone.

I have had the T-Mobile GW since early January 2021 and the GW has taken a few updates. Currently it is on 1.2003.03.0178 which appears to be the most recent. I opened a support call on Monday due to operation being flakey. I would not say 1.2003.03.0178 is the holy grail. The unit tends to drop the secondary channel on the  n71 band more often than it should in my opinion. It will hold the primary channel B2 fairly well most of the time but reporting can be deceiving. The LED panel on the top may report 3 or 4 bars but the login via the software interface does not provide significant clarity as the two views can differ. My Linux, Windows, and Apple clients can have a solid WIFI signal and burp… no internet service so sessions drop. At times a reboot of the GW can recover partial operation but it takes more time for it to establish a lock on the secondary n71 band. With just the primary B2 channel latency is higher, LTE, so performance drops pretty much in half what both bands deliver. The newer code does engage the RJ45 connections as I run CAT 6 from my MAC to avoid the WIFI but when the GW to tower channel drops take place it is still a problem. I think newer code is still necessary.