T-Mobile Home Internet via ethernet connection tip

Thu Aug 18 23:42:55 MST 2022

I have exactly two Mac Minis and a switch — all of which have 1 gig ethernet ports, and CAT6 cables.

I also plugged my Mac Book Pro directly into the gateway with a USB3 —> 1GB ethernet adapter on a 12” CAT6 cable and it maxed-out at 92 Mbps.

They ALL hit OVER 150 Mbps with the same ethernet cable plugged into the RE550 rather than the T-Mo gateway. If anything on that wire were limited to 100 megs, then there’s no way I’d get 150+ or 750+ Mbps through the RE550.

FWIW, I made the mistake of ordering another device that had AC1200 WiFi but the description SAID “high-speed ethernet” but never said it was 1GB. When I got it and set it up, guess what I found? Same hardware on my end only got 92 Mbps through that device! I did some digging and found out the manufacturer makes it really hard to find out that their “high-speed ethernet” port is in fact a 100 Mbps port, NOT 1GB. (Plenty of others call their “N300” WiFi “high-speed WiFi as well”. Go figure.) I sent it back and got the RE550 because it clearly states it DOES have a 1GB ethernet port. 

Again, the fact that I can get OVER 150 Mbps from the ethernet wire plugged into the RE550 but only 92 Mbps with the same ethernet wire plugged into the T-Mo gateway is pretty telling.

It’s NOT my hardware.

-David Schwartz

> On Aug 18, 2022, at 11:08 PM, Bob Elzer via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
> 
> I don't know the path you're taking to test the speed, but if one of the devices on that path is 100. Meg and the modem is one gig. Then you only going to get 100 Meg when you test the speed. Try doing the trace route when you do the test so you know which cards are being used.
> 
> On Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 9:49 PM David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org <mailto:plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
> I wouldn’t be getting 700 Mbps with the WAP/Range Extender then (insted of 92), would I?
> 
> -David Schwartz
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Aug 18, 2022, at 9:40 PM, Bob Elzer via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org <mailto:plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Are you sure it's not your nic or a switch on your network that's 100mb ?
>> 
>> On Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 8:57 PM David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org <mailto:plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>> I dunno if anybody here has T-Mobile Home Internet, but I do and I really like it. I only have one beef: the spec sheet for their modem/gateway says it has 2x 1 gigabit ethernet ports, but they’re only 100 Megs. In case anybody else might want to consider them as an ISP and has a 1GB LAN to connect, I’ve solved the speed dilemma.
>> 
>> First off, I’ve been round and round with their tech support folks lying about it for two years, and was recently told that they were going to be releasing a new device soon and it def. WOULD have 1 Gb ports.
>> 
>> Well, they announced a new one (two, actually), and I got one and … once again the spec sheet SAYS 1 gigabit ethernet but the performance says nope — it’s still only 100 megs. WTF? I guess this lets them shave a couple of bucks off of the hardware cost. Actually, I’m not even sure why they bother to include the slow ethernet ports at all.
>> 
>> (In a way this is really quite amusing, because prior to this, most modem/gateways have crappy WiFi and speedy ethernet — especially those from Cox and CenturyLink.)
>> 
>> I don’t know how a big company like T-Mo gets away misrepresenting a product like this for so long. Why can’t they just SAY they’re 100 meg ethernet ports?
>> 
>> Anyway, I finally got fed-up and bought a TP-Link RE550 AC1900 WAP/Range Extender and configured it so I can plug my local 1 GB ethernet LAN wire into it and connect to the T-Mo gateway via WiFi.
>> 
>> To be sure, the T-Mo gateway’s WiFi is FAST! I’ve seen speeds up to 870 Mbps. The ethernet, OTOH, never exceeds 93 Mbps. 
>> 
>> With the RE550 plugged in, my Mac minis connected to the LAN now get 750 Mbps DL and 78 Mbps UL. WHOA! That’s 5x DL and 2x UL faster than I got via the wired connection. (Actually, the newer 2018 Mac Mini gets that; the older one from 2014 only gets 180 Mbps DL and 65 Mbps UL.)
>> 
>> And in case anybody is wondering why I use a wired LAN, it’s so the two Mac Minis can talk. I have the new one configured so I can access the old one via Screen Sharing on a dedicated Space (virtual desktop). When I do that over WiFi, the connection is intolerably slow for me; but with the wired connection, it’s quite reasonable.
>> 
>> BTW, I dropped Cox a couple of years back and cut my monthly TV + Internet bill by quite a bit by switching to T-Mo’s Home Internet ($50/mo) and a couple of internet channels (Discovery+ and Philo).
>> 
>> T-Mo’s Home Internet has been far more stable, consistently faster, and has fewer dropouts than any other ISP I’ve ever used. I highly recommend it. Just … if you need to connect a wired LAN, get something like a fast WAP/Range Extender to act as a LAN-to-WiFi bridge.
>> 
>> -David Schwartz
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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