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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