It creates 2. Read more: The best mesh routers for The T-Mobile Home Internet app guides you through the setup process, which includes scanning a QR code on the bottom of the gateway, choosing a network name aka SSID and password and even changing the administrator password if you're so inclined -- all pretty standard router-setup stuff, all pretty simple and straightforward. Previously I used my own cable modem connected to Comcast and an Eero mesh router.
For the first days of testing I left the latter out of the equation, as I wanted to see how the gateway performed on its own. After the initial setup, everything seemed to be working. Having successfully connected my phone, my next stop was my Asus laptop. Curiously, the T-Mobile gateway didn't appear in the list of available networks. Suspecting a Windows hiccup, I rebooted; same result. Then I pulled out an Amazon Fire tablet; it found the network just fine. So did an upstairs Roku TV and an old basement laptop running Windows 7.
A link to the T-Mobile Community Forum stonewalled me as well, because I didn't have a working T-Mobile sign-in which didn't arrive via email until two days after I received and set up the gateway.
Read more: T-Mobile announces widespread launch of consumer Home Internet service. Then I tried restarting the gateway, which proved a huge mistake: It seemed to lose all my previous setup settings, as though I'd done a hard reset.
This despite it having a battery backup; more on that later. The app forced me to repeat the entire setup process, including choosing passwords. When I tried using the same ones as the first time, it wouldn't accept them. When I tweaked them slightly, I got a cryptic "installation failed" message. Eventually everything seemed to sort itself out, and once I plugged my Eero base station into the gateway, my laptop had no trouble connecting.
For the record, the issue was an outdated Wi-Fi driver. Once I tracked down and installed a newer one, the laptop found the gateway. Now I was ready for full-bore, whole-house testing. Here's the good news: After six weeks of business as usual -- working online during the day, streaming video at night, FaceTime calls to parents and so on -- I've encountered scarcely a blip in connectivity. Because in the end, what matters is, can I reliably access the internet?
But there are definitely some caveats to consider, starting with this: Although T-Mobile's marketing campaign trumpets this as a 5G service, there's actually no mention of 5G anywhere on the T-Mobile Home Internet signup page. I mention that because, six weeks in, I still have no idea if I'm getting 5G or not. According to T-Mobile's coverage map, I should have 5G at my house. However, nowhere -- not on the web admin page, not in the T-Mobile Home Internet page, not on the gateway's status screen -- is there anything indicating "5G.
Does it matter? Not really, as long as I'm getting good performance. Which I am. I just wish there was some at-a-glance way to know if I'm getting the 5G I was promised. Certainly the test numbers don't tell the whole story:. The good news is it didn't really affect my day-to-day online experiences. These come from Speedtest, the service I've long used to gauge internet performance. As you can see, my upload and download numbers are all over the place.
I've seen speeds as low as 6. This despite the gateway's little touchscreen display consistently showing 4 to 5 bars much like on a phone and the app reporting "very good" or "excellent" connection quality. Let me pause to note that there are so many variables involved here -- local congestion, proximity to towers, signal interference within the house and so on -- that my experiences can't be considered typical.
They're simply my experiences. Your mileage absolutely may vary. I can say that after some pretty concerning slowdowns during week one, I experimented with moving the gateway to different areas of the house. To my surprise, relocating it to a second-story window yielded a huge performance bump. Those are the numbers you're mostly seeing in the chart above. Needless to say, gateway placement can make a big difference. I also did a quick bit of side-testing at my mother-in-law's farmhouse about seven miles due west of where I live , where cable internet isn't available.
In fact, her only option until now has been a slow, expensive, data-capped satellite service. After plugging in the gateway, I was chagrined to discover it showed only two bars -- "weak" connectivity, according to the Home Internet app. But then I ran Speedtest: Download performance was hitting Mbps, which seemed amazing, while uploads were only about 9Mbps.
Why the disparities? See above regarding variables. I'll simply say that she went ahead and subscribed to the service, and for the most part it's been working well. And that's really the key: The only way to know if T-Mobile Home Internet will be a good fit at your house is to try it. Although I've had good results overall with performance -- I've streamed hours of 4K video, participated in countless Zoom meetings, downloaded big games to install and so on -- not everything about the service is perfect.
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