NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
T-Mobile TMHI gateway + R6700 router
New TMO-G4SE internet gateway installed 6 days ago (1/3), everything worked out of the box. I disconnected the ethernet cable from my Cox modem (to my Netgear R6700 router), and connected it to the LAN port on the T-Mobile gateway. All my existing APs and SSIDs stayed the same - that's were most of the smart home devices are connected. It was seamless. Can't remember if I rebooted the router or not.
Yesterday morning (1/9) I woke up to find all the old Wi-Fi SSIDs were still on, but nothing connected to them was getting internet (waiting for an IP address...). Every night the Netgear gets power cycled using a timer switch so that it will reboot, so I presume the reboot on night 6 is when they lost internet.
Interestingly, ethernet connections to the Netgear kept working.
T-Mobile tech support were no help. "your third-party equipment might be incompatible, we can sell you a new mesh wi-fi, call Netgear...)
2 x hard resets on the TMO gateway , plus untold number of reboots of the router, brought everything back.
I can't find a solution in the usual places, reddit, youtube, etc., I'm guessing I need to change something in the Netgear router? Change the router to AP or bridge mode? There's nothing to change in the TMO gateway, all you can do is disable the wifi.
What can I look for in the router the next time this happens to the wifi?
Thanks in advance.
00derek wrote:
p.s. for this particular problem, other sources suggest turning off wifi on the gateway? Is that just to avoid interference? Since most times people would place routers very close to gateways?
Turning off the wifi will reduce/eliminate interference but it will not prevent the two routers from getting in the way of each other.
what about wifi extenders that were linked to the router before? they seem to be unavailable now.
That is probably a NAT issue. Nothing to do with interference.
AP up and running, but I'm not convinced the problem is fixed yet, still having some devices lose internet.
You'll have to provide details of what is actually happening. Sadly "not convinced" doesn't give us much to go on.
When experimenting with your setup remember to restart things as required.
Be sure to restart your network in this sequence:
- Turn off and unplug modem.
- Turn off router and computers.
- Plug in and turn on modem. Wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
- Turn on the router and wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
- Turn on computers and rest of network.
Just another user with time on their hands.
8 Replies
00derek wrote:New TMO-G4SE internet gateway installed 6 days ago (1/3), everything worked out of the box. I disconnected the ethernet cable from my Cox modem (to my Netgear R6700 router), and connected it to the LAN port on the T-Mobile gateway. All my existing APs and SSIDs stayed the same - that's were most of the smart home devices are connected. It was seamless. Can't remember if I rebooted the router or not.
Yesterday morning (1/9) I woke up to find all the old Wi-Fi SSIDs were still on, but nothing connected to them was getting internet (waiting for an IP address...). Every night the Netgear gets power cycled using a timer switch so that it will reboot, so I presume the reboot on night 6 is when they lost internet.
Interestingly, ethernet connections to the Netgear kept working.
T-Mobile tech support were no help. "your third-party equipment might be incompatible, we can sell you a new mesh wi-fi, call Netgear...)
2 x hard resets on the TMO gateway , plus untold number of reboots of the router, brought everything back.
I can't find a solution in the usual places, reddit, youtube, etc., I'm guessing I need to change something in the Netgear router? Change the router to AP or bridge mode? There's nothing to change in the TMO gateway, all you can do is disable the wifi.
What can I look for in the router the next time this happens to the wifi?
Thanks in advance.
Is your gateway and R6700 router located in close proximity (under a few feet) to each other? If yes, you could be experiencing some RF interference.
Your gateway is attempting to perform router functions on your local network and at the same time your R6700 in router mode is attempting the same thing. It is called double NAT and is not recommended for your reasons above. Also explained here: https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-double-NAT-and-why-is-it-bad.
Yes, it would be good to configure your R6700 to access point mode and that should help. Access point mode disables the router mode and some other features. Here is the list:
Router and gateway are 30-50 feet apart, in different rooms.
I saw other posts warning about double-NAT-ing but no one explained it as clearly as you just did - thank you. Sounds simple - why couldn't T-Mobile tech support tell me to try that.
I'll try AP mode for the Netgear.
Thank you!
p.s. for this particular problem, other sources suggest turning off wifi on the gateway? Is that just to avoid interference? Since most times people would place routers very close to gateways?
what about wifi extenders that were linked to the router before? they seem to be unavailable now.
AP up and running, but I'm not convinced the problem is fixed yet, still having some devices lose internet.
00derek wrote:
p.s. for this particular problem, other sources suggest turning off wifi on the gateway? Is that just to avoid interference? Since most times people would place routers very close to gateways?
Turning off the wifi will reduce/eliminate interference but it will not prevent the two routers from getting in the way of each other.
what about wifi extenders that were linked to the router before? they seem to be unavailable now.
That is probably a NAT issue. Nothing to do with interference.
AP up and running, but I'm not convinced the problem is fixed yet, still having some devices lose internet.
You'll have to provide details of what is actually happening. Sadly "not convinced" doesn't give us much to go on.
When experimenting with your setup remember to restart things as required.
Be sure to restart your network in this sequence:
- Turn off and unplug modem.
- Turn off router and computers.
- Plug in and turn on modem. Wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
- Turn on the router and wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
- Turn on computers and rest of network.
Just another user with time on their hands.
