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

David Burton via TriLUG trilug at trilug.org
Thu Oct 5 13:18:42 EDT 2023


T-Mobile Customer Care is not inspiring confidence.


On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 12:51 PM David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>> > >
>>> > >
>>> > --
>>> > This message was sent to: raubvogel at gmail.com <raubvogel at gmail.com>
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>>> > Welcome to TriLUG: https://trilug.org/welcome
>>> --
>>> This message was sent to: Dave Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com>
>>> To unsubscribe, send a blank message to trilug-leave at trilug.org from
>>> that address.
>>> TriLUG mailing list : https://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
>>> Unsubscribe or edit options on the web  :
>>> https://www.trilug.org/mailman/options/trilug/ncdave4life%40gmail.com
>>> Welcome to TriLUG: https://trilug.org/welcome
>>
>>


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