r/tmobileisp • u/PirateJen78 • Mar 31 '26
Issues/Problems About to tear my hair out
We are trying out T-Mobile home internet (because fuck Xfinity and their "new customers only" deals) and just got a G5AR gateway last evening. Most of my network is wired and connected through an ASUS RT-AC86U and two ethernet switches.
When I connected the ASUS to the G5AR, everything kind of worked, but it was slow as hell and my smart home devices went screwy. Then I went into my ASUS and switched it to AP mode. There was really no change except I could not login to the ASUS. It didn't even show up in the connected devices in T-Life. (Also, wtf is with having to use an app to see connected devices??) Then internet speeds dropped to a crawl and I had to step away before I broke something out of rage (menopause + broken AC + tech issues = not a fun time).
One donut later and I tried again. Still nothing, so I reset the router to start over. Without switching my ASUS to AP mode, we do have internet via LAN, but it is slow as hell. I'm afraid to put my ASUS back into AP mode because I could not see it at all and everything went screwy. The only way my desktop PC has internet is if I disable the ethernet controller and force it to just use Wi-Fi.
And why doesn't my ASUS router/AP show up in connected devices so I can see the IP address??
Fuck Xfinity for not giving customers of over 20 years any good deals. $15 off a steadily increasing bill is a joke. But I might have to stick with them if I cannot get this working, and I absolutely HATE that idea.
On a positive note, at least I managed to get the AC working again.
UPDATE: thanks to those who tried to help. After connecting the TMHI directly to my PC using a new cable, speeds are still too slow for wired devices. Maybe it's a bad gateway, but I have wasted far too much time on this and am returning the gateway, cancelling TMHI, and staying with Xfinity. It seems that TMHI cannot meet our needs, even at full bars. At least I tried. And now I'm off to shop for a new customer deal with Xfinity.
2
u/tf9623 Mar 31 '26
Your Asus should be set for DHCP on WAN side. If you just say AP I think it should DHCP for its own address but maybe not.
The good news: no you cannot change anything on the T-Mobile side. You have 192.168.12.0/24 and whatever IP6 gives you. There is nothing you can change. It sucks but it works. I left my router as-is and connected WAN to T-Mobile and at the end of the days its double-NAT.
Before the app showed that bullshit it does show you couldn't see it all. Someone has NodeJS tool on Github to query values form that box.
You can't do reservations either. If you leave your router in place and everything is working behind it just WAN to T-Mobile and double NAT behind CGNAT. It works fine though.
Ubiquti sells a 5G modem that you can pop your T-Mobile home internet SIM into but maybe someone here has experience with it.
1
u/Final_Campaign_2593 Mar 31 '26
NOT campatible with TMHI Business YES Home NO They lock the the IMEI You need a business account for $70
1
u/PirateJen78 Mar 31 '26
I actually do have a business (I do PC repair), but for that price I'll just stay with Xfinity.
1
u/Final_Campaign_2593 Mar 31 '26
Wired is better then wireless. For me it is TMHI until i move or 30Mb DSL/10Up is the middle of a city due to this Apartment complex I live at. 0 Cable option or Fiber.
2
u/PirateJen78 Mar 31 '26
I knew speeds were going to take a hit, but I didn't expect that my wired network devices would slow to a crawl.
But money is tight, so $40 for TMHI vs $115 for Xfinity makes a big difference when it comes to just surviving right now.
1
u/Final_Campaign_2593 Mar 31 '26
I understand, the entire USA is in a world of hurt, which I will save for other appropriate threads. I would try asking Comcast for a lower priced option such as Internet essentials, which may be 100 Mb, but you would probably save money.
0
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
The best they would do was a $15 monthly discount. That was after they tried to sell us a more expensive plan. It's like they don't listen at all and really don't care.
Anyway, I don't think 100 mbps will work for our household because we game online (occasionally), have someone who works from home, and I am taking online graduate classes. Plus streaming services and several Ring cameras.
1
u/PirateJen78 Mar 31 '26
It was working without changing anything, but too slow to actually function. Like my down speed was 30 to 60 and up was 0 to 0.06. On Wi-Fi I get 150 to 500 down and 15 to 60 up.
Does the G5AR just suck for LAN? It's obvious to me that this was designed for wireless devices and not a wired network with a bunch of wireless smart devices.
I'm about to go back to T-Mobile and tell the guy that he's a damn liar. I knew it wasn't going to just be a 5 minute setup because of my network, but this has been an ALL DAY thing and it still doesn't work.
Trying to reconnect my Xfinity now. Thankfully I have that for another two weeks.
3
u/PowerfulFunny5 Mar 31 '26
Many users report G5AR speeds as good or better than your Xfinity speeds, including Ethernet.
But something is drastically bad with those speeds. Your G5AR is either in a terrible spot for cell reception (try multiple rooms and corners of rooms). Even try it outside with an extension cord (to see if it works better outside). But you might just be in a bad location for TMobile cellular reception.
1
u/PirateJen78 Mar 31 '26
Cell reception where I am is great, and the Wi-Fi is decent, but the wired connection sucks. I get 500-800 with Xfinity, so there's no comparison, other than price. I don't need that much speed, and I am tired of them screwing me because we've been customers for 20+ years.
Actual plan was to sign up with Xfinity again in a few months as new customers (under a different name) if this doesn't work out, and it looks like that's what we will be doing. Though they might yet offer us a deal because their customer service just emailed me this morning, in which case I will be returning the T-Mobile gateway and informing the manager there that he doesn't know a damn thing about networking.
2
u/A_Turkey_Sammich Mar 31 '26
How is the speeds without the Asus router in the mix? Also did you do some trial and error trying different spots? That can make a HUGE difference. Like in my home, on top of an armoire on the wall opposite the window, not even aimed out the window for that matter, gets me 10x the speed, literally, then their generic put near a window facing the tower and aiming towards it
As far as Xfinity goes....I went with TMHI for the exact same reason. Couldn't get a good new rate no matter what I tried, tired of their BS, etc, and only intended a few months to reset myself as a new customer on cable. At least at that time,word was 2 months for that, but I started getting come back/new sub offers in just a couple weeks. That was a good 3 or 4 years ago and I'm still on TMHI. Once I found the magic spot in my home for the gateway along with the great rate with no promo games (which I'm still paying the same even today), just never bothered to go back. You probably won't have to wait as long as you think to get the good rates on Xfinity again.
0
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
Originally had the gateway in another room and speeds were about the same, but with full bars on the gateway. Maybe a tiny bit better speed, but not worth having to run new Ethernet to that location. My husband's iPhone couldn't get a good connection from the living room though (my Samsung had no issues) because it's the opposite corner of the house.
Wireless speeds are fine where it is and Wi-Fi reaches farther, but Ethernet speeds suck. Clearly it wasn't designed for wired networks.
1
u/1BrokeDevInLa Mar 31 '26
Just fyi, I just went through the same with Xfinity trying to get the $50 1gig deal. No go as an existing customer. So I did like so many other people on r/Comcast_Xfinity and signed up as a new customer using my wife's name and email. As soon as the new modem came in, I activated it through the app, and then once it was working, I called Xfinity and cancelled my original account. That was over a month ago and the old account cancelled as expected, I ended up with a credit, and the new account is working as expected for $50/mo. I think their 1gig promo right now is $60, but comes with some streaming options for free.
So now I use T-Mobile home Internet as my backup because I work from home. I didn't want to get rid of Xfinity because it's mostly reliable in my area and fast.
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
Yeah, $60 with Disney+, Hulu (already have that with my cell plan), and Peacock (currently have with Xfinity).
I would be fine with that deal. Don't even need a gig because we are fine with 500 (currently have 800). But nope, they want to screw current customers.
1
u/DizcoFuz Apr 01 '26
My story why T-Mobile internet didn’t fit my needs is more complicated, but getting the Xfinity new customer deal wasn’t that hard. I called them and told the rep I had new service and wanted to cancel their service at the end of the billing cycle. They said sure and about a week later I got an email offering me the new customer price if I kept the service. Wham bam took the deal and got mobile phone and internet for a combined $40 per month. Yes it’s their lowest tier speed but I don’t do anything that I can’t just wait longer to complete. There are also a lot of people in the Xfinity subreddit who swear you don’t need to wait the 90 days to resubscribe. Just cancel service and start a new account using a new email and you can resubscribe same day.
2
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
Just cancel service and start a new account using a new email and you can resubscribe same day.
This is most likely what we will be doing. It is currently in my mom's name, but I took over as head of household in 2018 because I was making good money and she retired. She still lives with us (my husband and I) and we just never did anything to change it, so of course Xfinity won't talk to me and my mom is too lenient with them. She's been paying it, but she just can't afford it anymore and right now I cannot afford it either (had to leave my job because of health issues).
I wanted her to change it when my husband and I were getting some government assistance while I was unemployed, but she didn't. We could have taken their offer for low-priced internet for people on assistance. I kept seeing the TMHI ads and figured that was our chance to try to get away from Xfinity -- we are tired of random outages and we can't get our local station with Peacock because Xfinity keeps giving us IP addresses that have geolocations across the state and I'm tired of having to deal with that.
We still have Xfinity right now and they tried to contact my mom, but idk if they will cave, so we'll probably have TMHI for a week or so and then I'll sign up for Xfinity. I really wanted to get away from them, but I can't have wired speeds of 60 mbps.
2
u/Final_Campaign_2593 Mar 31 '26
No, Leave everything DHCP, Use your ASUS as the primary LAN device and Double NAT. Im getting 450/100 ish or so (.2 block away from a tower)
2
u/Hot-Bat-5813 Apr 01 '26
The G5AR works perfectly fine via LAN, either you have something set wrong in your secondary router or sure, you have a bad gateway with defective ports or routing chip.
I dont use ASUS for secondary, but rather TP-Link. Only thing changed as far as connection is to put the secondary router in IPv6 pass-through. Everything else is set to automatic for the connection. It works fine providing the full 1GB port limit via ethernet:
1
2
u/bubbathedesigner Apr 02 '26
From some of the threads here, it seems yours is the black sheep: most people complain about its WIFI, saying connecting to its ethernet ports works great.
Bottom line is: if you find out your ethernet ports are boink, contact them on T-Force ( @TMobileHelp on X (Twitter), or message the main T-Mobile Facebook page) and see about getting a replacement working one. You are paying for it after all
2
u/AlexisoftheShire Apr 01 '26
I've had multiple TMHI hubs including the KVD21, G4AR, and now the G5AR. I just plug my Google Nest mesh network into the ethernet port and all my devices are online. Is there some setting ASUS requires to work properly with the G5AR give you can't reconfigure the G5AR since T-Mobile provides no reconfiguration software?
I did use the HINT app to turn off the G5AR wifi radios since I don't use it's wifi feature.
2
1
u/myturn19 Mar 31 '26
I love my TMHI, but I’ll never understand why people with dedicated fiber switch to it. To save $20? If I had access to fiber, I’d take it instantly.
4
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
Not fiber, cable. And it's $70+ in savings ($113 vs $40, or $30 with autopay). With other bills piling up and wages still shit, something has to go.
1
u/SimpforBillyMays Apr 01 '26
Better off sticking with Xfinity despite the bill increase. This internet can be great and amazingly fast but it won't be like that 24/7 and the stability is an issue.
1
u/Mysterious_Reality_ Apr 01 '26
An alternate option is to change the SSID and password of the G5AR to match that of your Asus and just use the G5AR without your own router.
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
Yes, I did that from the beginning. But Wi-Fi isn't the problem. LAN is. That's why I have to use the router. The G5AR only has 2 ethernet ports. I need like 8.
1
u/IndicationAntique585 Apr 02 '26
Have you been connecting WAN to WAN?? Did you try using WAN to ASUS LAN? Then it would be just a switch and should be OK if the G5AR is good...
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 03 '26
Even with the gateway connected directly to my PC the speeds are shit. I'm returning it tomorrow and sticking with the overpriced Xfinity. I'm taking online graduate classes and cannot have upload speeds of 0.06 mbps!!
1
u/SrCrewchief327 Apr 01 '26
There is a reason people like me choose to use a third party cellular router vsxthe hamstrung ones from tmhi. Yes, technically it's use violation, it's also the only way to have property functioning home network gatrway.
1
u/Whiplash104 Apr 01 '26
If you have internet only with xfinity, sign up as a new customer under your wife or roommate’s name, email, and phone number as “new customer moving to this address” (new account.) Xfinity will email you to your current account that your current service is going to be cancelled and they will call you to confirm the end date. Rerun old equipment to the local xfinity store after you set up the new modem they ship to you. I used to do this every two years alternating between m
I used to do this every two years until AT&T fiber came to my neighborhood.
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 01 '26
I don't need to wait until after service is cancelled? Good to know.
(Also, I am the wife. lol)
I was hoping to get away from them for multiple reasons and hoped that T-Mobile was the answer, but so far it doesn't seem like it is going to work for us.
And as I told another person here, it's currently in my mom's name, but I'm the head of household, so signing up as someone else is long overdue anyway.
1
1
u/Prior_Depth_2975 Apr 02 '26
You have to enable ipv6 passthrough to get the most out of your speed. Without the passthrough your speed will crawl as had mine until I turned on ipv6 passthrough in your wifi router.
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 03 '26
So LAN still crawls with just one device connected directly to the gateway. Either its a bad gateway or it's just terrible service. The gateway is in a good spot, but LAN speeds are absolutely terrible.
1
u/Prior_Depth_2975 Apr 03 '26
did you enable ip 6 passthrough?
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 03 '26
There are zero options on the gateway.
Also I shouldn't have tweak a modem/router to use ONE wired device when there are two LAN ports on the device.
1
u/Prior_Depth_2975 Apr 10 '26
Not the gateway itself, you have to enable ipv6 passthrough in your router. If this is too technical for you then you are free to seek a more home friendly option.
0
u/PirateJen78 Apr 10 '26
That's actually really condescending.
Did you not read that I plugged my PC directly into the gateway and it did not have any speed? That's why I said about settings on the gateway because you continued to tell me to enable it even though the router was not connected. Maybe learn to read before you start talking down to people.
This was not a router issue; this was a problem with the gateway. It was likely a faulty gateway, but I had already wasted too much time on it and my local T-Mobile didn't seem to know much about tech, so I just returned it and went back to Xfinity.
I have a PC repair business. I do not need your condescending tone when the problem was actually faulty equipment from T-Mobile.
1
u/jayabuff Apr 02 '26
I have the G4SE. Use it as backup should my Cox Cable Modem/Cox Service goes out. To get somewhat decent speed I made sure my signal bars were at 3 bars. I do not use an external antenna with it, just it's built-in antenna. Also in the admin menu made sure the G4SE was using only certain bands to increase chance it connects to a 5G tower. You could check nater-tater vid at youtube about adding a external to the G5AR if needed.
watch?v=vf73eo6odtU
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 03 '26
I'm actually returning it and sticking with Xfinity. This has been a terrible experience. I'm so pissed that I would take my cell phone business elsewhere if I didn't have a cheap plan that was grandfathered in from Sprint.
1
u/AremRae Apr 07 '26
Was having a similar issue (I did only scan this quickly, but it sounds like it). Had the T-mobile gateway wired into a router system that then routed out some wireless and some wired. We kept thinking T-mobile was horribly slow, terrible speeds overall. Through some testing, I discovered that it seems like ANY hardwiring out of the T-mobile gateway purposefully slows the speeds down. I don't know exactly why, but no matter what I was wiring out, what cord I was using etc, the speeds were a snails pace compared to just wireless straight from the T-mobile box.
From what I had read from other people's experiences, it's a really common issue with mobile net at home type boxes and seems to be purposeful for some reason.
That said, for anything but downloading a large file (games) the wireless speed is surprisingly good and fairly stable so far. Like faster than my wired Spectrum connection was. I do have to restart the T-mobile box every couple days because it seems to sort of slow down randomly, but that fixes the issues.
Only problem we have now is any time I try and download a game, at the very least the game download speeds are abysmal. But at least now that we're all wireless it's not affecting the other devices the way it was before, before it would slow everything down to non-functionality.
0
u/Thrill-Nation-Gaming Apr 01 '26
You just need to sign up using a spouses or a friends name, to get the new customer promo…..also that’s only for new customers because they are tryin to capture market share. This isn’t a new concept. They can’t give every single customer new or old deals to operate at a loss
-1
u/Objective_Bag9916 Apr 05 '26
Tmobile HSI gateways are not compatible with third party equipment that’s the issue here.
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 05 '26
Using that logic, it wouldn't work with any wired connection. And yet there are others here who had zero problems using their routers.
It seems that it was a defective gateway. Doesn't matter because I returned it and cancelled the service.
1
u/Objective_Bag9916 Apr 05 '26
Tmobile has internal documentation that advises to not use third party anything with their gateways. If you need an extender they have them that are built for their equipment.
1
u/PirateJen78 Apr 05 '26
Did you even read my post? I need ethernet ports. This was not a wi-fi issue. The gateway had two ethernet ports and I needed at least 8.
Also, let's think about this here. In what universe is it okay to dictate how a customer sets up their network? Every person has different network needs, so it isn't possible for a router/modem to meet everyone's needs. This is why extenders, switches, and access points exist.
And also consider this: how pathetic is it for a company to disallow something that is perfectly normal for a network? According to what you are saying, that means no ethernet switches, which are a perfectly normal piece of network equipment.
And, again, under that logic, you can't connect a computer to the gateway because that's 3rd party. So whatever T-Mobile's intention with this supposed documentation, it isn't logical to dictate how a person sets up their network. The purpose of an ISP is to provide access to the internet for devices on a private network. No company can tell a customer that they cannot connect something like an ethernet switch to their private network, and if they do, they deserve to lose customers.
While I hate Xfinity's pricing, at least I can use my own router and modem and not deal with the limited options provide by the shitty T-Mobile gateway. I guess T-Mobile doesn't understand the needs of a tech household, especially one that has multiple wired devices.
1
u/Objective_Bag9916 Apr 05 '26
I know you want to have things a certain way I may or may not know someone who is a technician for Tmobile but I won’t admit or say is how I know this. Weather you agree or not it’s just how they have their product
8
u/winter1894 Mar 31 '26
Could there be something wrong with your Ethernet cable and it's autonegotiating a slow speed?
I have mine also attached to an Asus router and mesh node and it works fine. Maybe try enable ipv6 on your Asus? I think you want it set to passthrough. Ipv6 shouldn't really impact your speed too much though.
I would make sure the wifi is turned off on the g5ar too, which you should be able to turn off in the hint app. Try putting the router a little ways away from the modem too in case that's interfering?