[TriLUG] Wanted to share my experience with TMobile 5G Home Internet

Thu Oct 5 12:51:21 EDT 2023

Typo correction: "192.168.22.1" should be "192.168.12.1".

The 3rd Party app
<https://tmo.report/2023/05/new-app-gives-easy-access-to-t-mobile-home-internet-gateway-stats/>
doesn't
allow access to features like port forwarding or passthrough.

I've not yet called T-Mobile Support.

Dave

On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 6:56 AM David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:

> The same happens for me, Mauricio. There are no towers shown on the
> coverage map, even when zoomed all the way in.
>
> But when I picked up my T-Mobile FAST 5688W Gateway
> <https://manuals.plus/t-mobile/fast-5688w-5g-gateway-manual#setting_up_the_t-mobile_5g_gateway>
> this afternoon, the tower locations were shown on the coverage map screen
> which the salesman had open on his tablet. I asked him why he could see
> them, but when I'd looked for them at home I couldn't see them. He said
> that he thought it was because he was logged into the site with a company
> ID, and the public view has less information.
>
> It looked to me like the towers on his screen were consistent with what
> CellMapper showed
> <https://community.t-mobile.com/troubleshooting-38/finding-tmobile-cell-tower-locations-42433>
> .
>
> I connected up the gateway without much difficulty, and I was able to
> access the Internet using my computer and phone. SpeedTest.net shows
> somewhat variable speeds, but generally faster than my "60 mbps" Spectrum.
> Unlike fiber, it's not symmetrical, though.
>
> I'm very annoyed with the gateway's firmware. Although there's an admin
> password shown on a sticker on the device, neither the UI (at the admin IP
> address, 192.168.22.1), nor the T-Mobile app, provide any way to get admin
> access. There's no login prompt at http://192.168.22.1/, and the phone
> app seems to have no means for accessing configuration settings, like port
> forwarding or pass-through to another router.
>
> The gateway also has a USB-C port for connecting an external HDD or flash
> drive, probably to make it usable as a poor man's NAS... but there's no way
> to configure or use it.
>
> Brian mentioned a 3rd Party app
> <https://tmo.report/2023/05/new-app-gives-easy-access-to-t-mobile-home-internet-gateway-stats/>
> which might solve these problems. I've not tried it yet. If it doesn't
> solve the problems then I'll call T-Mobile support during business hours.
> If I can't find a solution then I'll have to return the gateway and cancel
> my service, because I run a web server in my home.
>
> It appears that the gateway probably originally had reasonable
> configurability, but T-Mobile customized the firmware and deleted the good
> stuff. My guess is that doing that sort of crap probably simplifies their
> customer support scripts, so that the people who "support" their customers
> don't need much training. From my point of view, the only good thing about
> it is that it might mean the Chinese manufacturer couldn't have slipped in
> any spyware.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 4, 2023 at 3:31 PM Mauricio Tavares via TriLUG <
> trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
>
>> I have hit zoom until it can zoom no more and see not a single tower
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 26, 2023 at 3:53 PM brian mullan via TriLUG
>> <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > Yeah, to see the Towers I had to click the + button to scope deeper into
>> > that Map.   Keep
>> > clicking the + button until they show up.
>> >
>> > On Tue, Sep 26, 2023 at 3:34 PM David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > > On Tue, Sep 26, 2023 at 12:37 PM brian mullan <bmullan.mail at gmail.com
>> >
>> > > wrote:
>> > >
>> > >> *#1*
>> > >> Regarding Distance from a TMobile 5G tower.
>> > >> My house is perhaps 3-4 miles away from the nearest TMO 5G Tower
>> shown on
>> > >> their coverage map.
>> > >> You can look up TMobile's 5G Coverage Map: *
>> https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map
>> > >> <https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map>*
>> > >> Just enter  your Zip code and the map will show all TMobile Towers
>> > >> nearby  (5G Ultra, 5G extended range & 4G)
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > > Thanks, Brian.
>> > >
>> > > When I do that it doesn't show me the tower locations. Here's a
>> screenshot:
>> > >
>> > > <https://sealevel.info/TMO_coverage_map_2023-09-26.png>
>> > >
>> > >            *  (click image to enlarge)*
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Do I need to select an option of some sort, to get it to display the
>> tower
>> > > locations?
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > On Tue, Sep 26, 2023 at 1:41 PM Peter Soper via TriLUG <
>> trilug at trilug.org>
>> > > wrote:
>> > >
>> > >> I hope you have a better experience than I've had. With my setup
>> after
>> > >> roughly a year it is my opinion that Tmobile has no concept of QOS
>> or the
>> > >> word "availability". I've kept my pitiful DSL so I can fall back
>> during
>> > >> frequent outages. Vaguely 2-3 a month requiring fallback and a half
>> dozen
>> > >> outages lasting just a few minutes. Also, my service makes me appear
>> to be
>> > >> in Charlotte or Atlanta and that's a separate PITA.
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > > Thanks for that info, Pete.
>> > >
>> > > Do you know how far you are from the nearest TMO antenna tower?
>> > >
>> > > Dave
>> > >
>> > >
>> > --
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>> --
>> This message was sent to: Dave Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com>
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>
>