Forum Discussion
Home internet service IPv6 traffic is all filtered even when using a Netgear LTE router. No port forwarding. Plz fix!
My background is in IT / networking and I started using Tmo Home Internet for the past 2 weeks. The router being shipped today to customers is missing very important features for power users - it actually broke my ability to remotely access my home via direct-connection using public IPv6 and IPv4 that I used on comcast.
Contacting support for help is pretty much useless, although I have raised a few tickets regarding the major issues affecting me since switching ISPs, namely:
- Unable to ping my IPv6 WAN address given by T-mobile (to remotely monitor my internet connection)
- Unable to remotely access my home via my VPN server which listens to connections on the WAN IPv6 address (again, T-mobile is filtering ALL my incoming traffic - comcast, att fiber, other major players in the market don’t do this filtering to endpoints except for spam port 25)
- Connecting to a VPN server hosted on the internet is unreliable and unstable.
- T-mobile does not offer IPv6 Prefix Delegation (comcast has it, att fiber does too)
I’ve spent the majority of my time trying to figure out ways to make this work. Most folks out there are blaming the Nokia router firmware which is really locked down by T-mobile, so being the IT engineer I pretend to be I purchased a Netgear LAX20 which is T-mobile and AT&T certified - I swapped SIMs for my Home internet service and tested both.
Even with a router that I fully control, with firewall disabled and allowing WAN icmp/ping responses T-mobile seems to continue to filter traffic (even pings!) incoming towards my service equipment… to make a fair comparison I got an AT&T SIM card and repeated the tests. On AT&T I can ping and access my device remotely when it is on the AT&T LTE network on the same Netgear LAX20.
Decided to post here to vent and share some findings, as this is somewhat frustrating that other LTE carriers that do not offer ‘home internet’ service do allow you to control and manage your network as you see fit while the new “home internet” service does not give you any control at all. Those users who wish to be able to remotely manage their smart home should perhaps stay away for now until T-mobile decides to do the right thing which is for “home internet” service subscribers to have different security network rules than cellphones on the network.
T-mobile please fix your business model for this new service, starting with adding the ability to request zero network filtering for home internet subscribers and the ability to get IPv6 prefix delegated.
mobileman82 wrote:
Locutus wrote:
n8rbzu wrote:
This post I found seems related and comments have been disabled. (link below) I have had my gateway for three days now and just attempting the gateway settings and noticed port forwarding is missing. It looks like this has been an issue for some time and there are no plans to address it. So we were sold home internet, but got a wifi hotspot. I am sad that my only option now is to return the unit to T-Mobile and pay triple what T-Mobile was offering to get the same speeds with Cox. :-(
T-Mobile is an IPv6 network. Port forwarding is for ipv4 networks. So, its unlikely you will ever have port forwarding. For ipv6, right now T-Mobile blocks all unsolicited inbound traffic. This may be a global network configuration or it may be on the gateway. At any rate, there is no inbound traffic allowed at this time. If you need a work around, you can connect up your own router to the gateway and use a VPN service for about $5.00 a month.
What a dumpster fire. No Ipv6 or Ipv4. Might as well call this one way internet. This breaks multiple internet standards and expectations for an internet provider. Ipv4 is still crucial in 2021. Borking Ipv6 is not acceptable.
Well, I don’t know about internet standards and expectations for iPv4 since we have been out of ipv4 address for years now. Due to this fact, T-Mobile made the smart decision to switch to IPv6 several years ago. After all, with no more ipv4 addresses available, what choice did they have? At any rate, the lack of ipv4 isn’t really the problem. The problem is not being able to manage inbound traffic under IPv6. If that is a problem for you, there are work arounds until T-Mobile allows this functionality on TMHI. Another option is to use Calyx. Calyx uses the T-Mobile network and the T-Mobile MiFi M2000 and it allows inbound IPv6 traffic.
Locutus wrote:
n8rbzu wrote:
This post I found seems related and comments have been disabled. (link below) I have had my gateway for three days now and just attempting the gateway settings and noticed port forwarding is missing. It looks like this has been an issue for some time and there are no plans to address it. So we were sold home internet, but got a wifi hotspot. I am sad that my only option now is to return the unit to T-Mobile and pay triple what T-Mobile was offering to get the same speeds with Cox. :-(
T-Mobile is an IPv6 network. Port forwarding is for ipv4 networks. So, its unlikely you will ever have port forwarding. For ipv6, right now T-Mobile blocks all unsolicited inbound traffic. This may be a global network configuration or it may be on the gateway. At any rate, there is no inbound traffic allowed at this time. If you need a work around, you can connect up your own router to the gateway and use a VPN service for about $5.00 a month.
What a dumpster fire. No Ipv6 or Ipv4. Might as well call this one way internet. This breaks multiple internet standards and expectations for an internet provider. Ipv4 is still crucial in 2021. Borking Ipv6 is not acceptable.
n8rbzu wrote:
This post I found seems related and comments have been disabled. (link below) I have had my gateway for three days now and just attempting the gateway settings and noticed port forwarding is missing. It looks like this has been an issue for some time and there are no plans to address it. So we were sold home internet, but got a wifi hotspot. I am sad that my only option now is to return the unit to T-Mobile and pay triple what T-Mobile was offering to get the same speeds with Cox. :-(
T-Mobile is an IPv6 network. Port forwarding is for ipv4 networks. So, its unlikely you will ever have port forwarding. For ipv6, right now T-Mobile blocks all unsolicited inbound traffic. This may be a global network configuration or it may be on the gateway. At any rate, there is no inbound traffic allowed at this time. If you need a work around, you can connect up your own router to the gateway and use a VPN service for about $5.00 a month.
This post I found seems related and comments have been disabled. (link below) I have had my gateway for three days now and just attempting the gateway settings and noticed port forwarding is missing. It looks like this has been an issue for some time and there are no plans to address it. So we were sold home internet, but got a wifi hotspot. I am sad that my only option now is to return the unit to T-Mobile and pay triple what T-Mobile was offering to get the same speeds with Cox. :-(
https://community.t-mobile.com/tv-home-internet-7/gray-tmobile-5g-gateway-port-forwarding-34235?postid=124809#post124809uzun wrote:
T-Mobile does not work with most set top boxes or streaming internet devices, it does not work for most gaming sites via pc or console most of the time. It’s fast for uploads and downloads on sites that are compatible with it. I wish they would fix it to be a general purpose internet but I have no idea who to contact to get anything done.
I have spoken to the advanced tech support people and they say limitations of the network mean it won’t really work as general purpose home internet unless major changes are made to the T-Mobile network itself on their end, and that they have no plans to do it in the near future.
What set top boxes or streaming devices are you using? It works fine with my Roku, Apple TV, Fire Stick, Sony and Samsung TV’s.
The lack of port forwarding was an issue for me. But it was easily solvable with a $5 month VPN subscription. I don’t mind paying that since I am saving $60 a month over Comcast with much better speed and no data caps.
I am having these same issues and I dont think the service is well developed enough yet to cut the cord. They need to resolve these 464xlat issues and provide people with a real internet service not a watered down version. VPN stability and incoming ports are a necessity with work from home these days..
I’ve had nothing but problems with T-Mobile and the new cylindrical router since I got it. It works on most websites but for gaming services its really hit or miss. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not. I think it’s due to lack of port forwarding. I keep T-Mobile because it is so fast in my area, 200-400mbps typical. But I just use it for uploads and downloads really. I have Verizon for any real internet use even though its limited to 50 Mbps.
T-Mobile does not work with most set top boxes or streaming internet devices, it does not work for most gaming sites via pc or console most of the time. It’s fast for uploads and downloads on sites that are compatible with it. I wish they would fix it to be a general purpose internet but I have no idea who to contact to get anything done.
I have spoken to the advanced tech support people and they say limitations of the network mean it won’t really work as general purpose home internet unless major changes are made to the T-Mobile network itself on their end, and that they have no plans to do it in the near future.
Jumping on this bandwagon too. As the OP, I made my living for over 40 years in IT and most lately HFC carrier ISP network monitoring. The Nokia gateway needs to act as an Ethernet bridge (just like cable modems do) so the public IP is handed to my router instead of the gateway and my router can handle VPN, port forwarding and other public facing services. Port forwarding at the Nokia gateway would be nice, but only after it can reliably provide WiFi and NAT services without overheating and thus affecting ability to connect to the 5G network with more than 1Mbps.
Jayke wrote:
T-Mobile come on its been months now. Why do we still not have basic things like prefix delegation and inbound ipv6. This would let us use a real router with things like a guest network, and fix a lot of online gaming and vpn issues.
IKR... QoS has been slowly improving in our market, which has kept me subscribing. Even when signal dips as bad as -96db, been able to still get around 60 down, 10 up--sometimes even better (easily breaks 100/30 when signal is strong and not a lot of congestion).
It is proving itself to be a viable alternative to $pectrum here for smaller households that don't need a lot of bandwidth. Some neighborhoods here still get capped at 100 mbps instead of their "national" standard of 200--but the base price is still $75/ month. Yes, you may qualify for a $25 promo discount for 12 months your FiRST year, but after that you have to haggle annually, and each time the discount gets smaller.
But when it comes to things like remote access to media servers, cameras, or even something as basic/common as multiplayer gaming... the "filtering" or whatever is at play IS going to be a problem for many households.
Fortunately for TMO, I have gotten back into online RPG again which consumes most of my gaming time these days, so I am sticking with TMO a bit longer since I am not reliant on P2P and such to play.
But when the day comes that I go back to console games that will require port forwarding for party forming... this WILL push me off their network if they don't find a way to fix it.
T-Mobile come on its been months now. Why do we still not have basic things like prefix delegation and inbound ipv6. This would let us use a real router with things like a guest network, and fix a lot of online gaming and vpn issues.
