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

Thu Oct 5 22:08:15 EDT 2023

>
> † except by doing really ugly hacks... I found this:

Oops, I left off the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgQAGbSn0Y8

On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 9:08 PM David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:

> After 30 minutes on the phone with T-Mobile Customer Care they told me
> that T-Mobile home internet does not support configuring either
> port-forwarding or pass-through / bridge mode, so it is not possible† to
> run a home web server using T-Mobile home internet. So I returned the
> Sagemcom 5688W gateway to the T-Mobile store this evening, and cancelled
> their home internet service.
>
> The folks there are looking into selling me T-Mobile Business Internet
> (not to be confused with "Small Business Internet"!), with a better
> gateway, for $50 + $3 for a static IP + taxes & fees (probably about $5 for
> the taxes & fees, they said). So it's a total of about $58, which is more
> than Home Internet but still better than Spectrum. They're supposed to call
> me back tomorrow.
>
> I asked them to confirm that the static IP is IPv4, but they were unsure.
> Brian, do you know?
>
> Dave
>
>
> † except by doing really ugly hacks... I found this:
>
> On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 1:18 PM David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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>
>>>>> > 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/raubvogel%40gmail.com
>>>>> > 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
>>>>
>>>>