- T-Mobile @Home HiPort adapter
My 2-year contract with T-Mobile for mobile phone usage is up this February. I’m on the ‘Family Talk 1000′ plan, so my wife and I both have a phone with a shared pool of 1000 minutes (it cost me $49.95 total for both phones and has been great for us).
The one thing I never liked though is the Samsung phones we picked out. For one, we made the big mistake of each picking the same phone and same color. And my wife is too lazy to check her wallpaper before picking up a phone and leaving the house so invariably she takes my phone…
Anyways…so I was looking at T-Mobile’s website for phones and stumbled upon this thing:
Here is the link with the details:
I didn’t know this existed! I wish it existed when I had purchased the service, as I scrapped a fairly new D-Link Wireless N router for the T-Mobile@Home/LinkSys wireless G router. While the LinkSys router works great and gives a strong signal, I was bummed that I had to ‘downgrade’ to the G standard. Since my wife is the one using the wifi mostly, and she runs Ubuntu linux, and when I use the wireless it is with my G-card, work-supplied, Dell laptop, the N was a waste anyways.
I’m surprised T-Mobile is going this route, as it seems to me at this point it’s still pretty early in their foray into VOIP and they might want to stick with the tried-and-true before venturing into allowing other routers (and the settings/customizations/issues that may bring their Support folks). On the other hand, it tells me that the service is probably working great for 99% of people and T-Mobile figures they may as well offer this instead of forcing people to buy a wireless G router, knowing that a lot of folks will insist on ‘piggy-backing’ their existing router anyway.
But, my ramblings aside – has anyone reading this used the HiPort adapter instead of the LinkSys router? If so, have you had any service issues? Please share your experiences with it.
39 Comments
Hi Mark,
I recently bought the Linksys Router with @Home. I have it hooked up to 2 routers. I think I can provide a solution for you. Before I bought the @Home router, I had a D-Link wired router and a Netgear G router. So it looks like this.
Cable Modem -> Dlink-> NetGear.
Now it looks like this
Cable Modem -> Dlink-> NetGear->Linksys @Home.
I set the Netgear router to become a repeater with WiFi. The reason I did that was because I wanted machines on the Dlink router to be able to access the info on machine on my netgear router.
So you can do 2 things,
1) (Easy) Cable modem -> Dlink Wireless N-> Linksys @Home with wifi turned off.
2) (harder) Cable Modem -> Linksys @Home with Wifi Turned off -> Dlink Wireless N setup as a repeater.
In order to setup something as a repeater (may not work with every router, check their FAQs), insert the cat5 cable into Port 4 instead of the Internet port for the router.
Hope that helps.
Got this router yesterday, but there was no way in hell I was gonna follow the directions and hook this up to my modem, followed by my router. I already had my QOS setup to prioritize voip and wasn’t about to give up my setup for this. Turns out this has a bridge mode which worked perfectly. I had an issue at first where I couldn’t get it working right because IPSec passthrough wasn’t enabled (needs to pass through on both routers if there’s a gateway before this hooked up).
Frank and Thorin –
Just to confirm – you guys are both using the @Home HiPort Adaptor in place of the T-Mobile/LinkSys router, correct?
mark
Marks last blog post..T-Mobile@Home HiPort Adaptor – Anyone Have/Use It?
No, I’m using thelinksys router.
Is anyone using the adapter instead of the LinkSys router? Am I correct in assuming that if you used the adapter you could continue to use your existing wireless router and corresponding set up?
Suzette,
Good question (and it’s what I was asking in the blog post). Based on T-Mobile’s description of what the HiPort adapter is for, it seems that it is designed to be used with your existing wireless router.
The problem though is that it wasn’t available when most of us ‘early adopters’ bought the service and so we were stuck purchasing the LinkSys router T-Mobile was selling. The router is fine, don’t get me wrong, but I did have to ‘downgrade’ from a wireless n router.
Hopefully someone with experience with the HiPort adapter will chime in.
mark
Marks last blog post..T-Mobile@Home HiPort Adaptor – Anyone Have/Use It?
I would agree, when I picked up my 2 linksys routers last saturday, I didn’t even know about the hi port adapter. But I did walk away not paying activation nor any fees for the routers anyways so I’m very happy.
Even if you get the Linksys router, you can just go in an turn off the wifi anyways. So it acts just like the hi port adapter.
Possible related hardware question (only tangentially) that I’m looking for help with.
I have the WRTU54G-TM router/adapter for my T-Mobile@Home VoIP. Can I use a PAP2T adapter with the Linksys Wireless bridge (WBP54G) to connect a phone and make calls with the T-Mobile router?
Home Phone -> PAP2T adapter -> Wireless bridge (WBP54G) -> WRTU54G-TM -> Internets.
Or maybe just bypass the PAP2T adapter?
Maybe this is another thread, but I have Verizon DSL service using the Westell 327w wireless router and Vonage using the Lynksys router. The Vonage router is not wireless. I am satisfied with the Vonage service but I am also a T-Mobile customer. The savings would be nice. I am concerned about faxing and would like to cut down the number of routers I have. Preferably, I would like to use the @Home wireless router to get DSL and phone service. Is anyone doing this? Will Verizon allow for this? Thanks for the advice.
Mike,
I started using Verizon DSL about 7 years ago and was a satisfied customer. I cancelled the service this past summer to move to Comcast broadband due to the switch to using T-Mobile@Home.
For me, I could have had ‘dry loop dsl’ (ie, kept the dsl service but no landline) as Verizon automatically reverted it to that level of service once the phone service was cancelled, however the monthly price went up to $45 per month for dry loop dsl. Comcast is about the same per month, but with much higher speeds. I have not had any downtime since I started using it, so I can recommend it.
That said….to answer your question:
You can use any router you want with Verizon DSL. You don’t need to use anything Verizon gives you (especially the crap software that all these ISP’s give out). You just need to hook up your chosen router (in this case, the LinkSys/T-Mobile one), plug the DSL modem output into it, then go into the Admin portal for the router and set up the PPoe connection, specifically your user id/password for Verizon DSL.
You don’t need to use more than one router and in fact I recommend you don’t, unless you are willing to spend time troubleshooting the setup as invariably people who insist on doing out-of-the-ordinary stuff are the ones who have problems with the service. The Linksys/TM router is a very good one, though it is wireless G and not N protocol.
mark
I do have the adaptor and yes it works with my apple wireless N airport router. so there is no need to by the router from t-mobile only the adaptor, if you already have a router in your home
Hey Mark,
First a caveat: I’m not /yet/ an @Home subscriber, but since the @Home Linksys router is in essence a standard router I expect that Thorin78 is correct and you could have kept your wireless N router. You would just turn off the radio on the @Home router. Alternately, you could set up the wireless networks differently (i.e., channel, SSID, etc.) and operate both. But, from this thread I understand that you’re a proponent of keeping the network as simple as possible.
As for the HiPort adapter versus the router, the differences appear to be:
1. The router is made by Linksys (a Cisco company). Don’t know who makes the adapter, but it’s likely not as reliable as a Linksys product.
2. The adapter supplies only one telephone “line” and the Linksys can provide two. If you want a second line and you have the adapter I assume that you would have to add another adapter to the network or replace it with the @Home router.
3. The adapter doesn’t provide a wireless network. No big deal if you don’t need one or already have one.
4. Not sure about this one as I haven’t seen the adapter, but I wonder if it’s a router. If not, it won’t provide any ports to connect additional gear to the network.
Again, take this input with my caveat in mind, but I suspect I’m right.
HTH,
Marty
Help me out, folks. I’m most interested in Carlos’ note. I have a dell desktop and a macbook. I’m using the Apple Time Capsule backup/n-router. My ISP is Comcast. I am trying to install the HiPort adaptor I got from t-mobile to replace my landline phone. I plugged it into the system per their directions [between modem and router] and this resulted in nothing working. eto get my isp address, gateway etc. and then set router to dhcp mode. Comcast said to look up ipconfig/all on my pc and my pc tells me it doesn’t exist. Any advice? I’m a technical rookie.
I just got one of these Cisco HiPort units. The instructions insist that you need to hook it up in this order: cable modem>HiPort>Existing router. I found that while this did work, it was not possible to use apps the required port forwarding that was already set up in my existing DLink wireless router. You can go into the HiPort via a wired computer, and the configurable settings are similar to what you would find in any router. Not wanting to fool with all that again, I instead set it up like this: cable modem>DLink>HiPort. The phone works, at least in preliminary tests, and everything else has returned to normal. I don’t like the idea of installing the HiPort before the DLink, because you can’t access the DLink (or presumably other brands of routers) via the usual IP login for admin. Conversely, with the DLink first in line you can’t access the admin in the HiPort, but aside from intial setting of the time zone, there is probably no need to do anything else.
I pick up the HiPort Adapter this past weekend as well. I would love to hook it up Modem>D-link>HiPort. Patrick or anyone could you please explain the settings you make to the D-link to make this work? Or is it just a mater of plugging the HiPort into the D-link into the HiPorts “Internet” jack. The HiPort works just like a router it has a log-in and comes by default a DHCP server enabled. I spent a good 3-4 hours trying to figure out how to get this to work.
All I did was plug the HiPort into one of the open D-Link LAN jacks. It worked without further adjustments to the D-Link and apparently did not need me to modify firewall settings.
Patrick Tices last blog post..Wallace & Gromit Extravaganza on Hulu
Thanks for suggestions. It appears my problem was that I have a battery in my cable modem and when I turned it off it wasn;t really off so couldn’t reset properly. Once I pulled battery , it was really OFF and the setup was fine after that. That’s the good news. The bad news is my line into the house has too much “jitter” to support reliable VOIP. Comcast had 6 guys here and they couldn’t improve it much so I’m back to landline phone.
Marty: Regarding the manufacturer of the adapter, it is also a Linksys product: https://support.t-mobile.com/devices.html?formFlow=manufacturerForm&manufacturer=Linksys
samuraiCat – you’re right. It’s a recent addition that they’ve identified the router as a Linksys product. Since both devices are priced the same I don’t see any reason to go with the adapter over the router except, maybe, ease of installation.
I installed the HiPort router about a month ago and I’m really happy with the service. Just canceled one of my landlines. Wired it into my network in this order: modem->Wireless N/Gbit router->HiPort and turned off the HiPort wireless radio (it’s only G). It took some time to get the IP set-up right so devices connected to the HiPort’s router could “talk” to other devices on the network, but eventually I got it. I also run the phone output into a wall jack and now all of the jacks in the house are “hot” with the service (be sure to disconnect the landlines coming into the house!).
Marty: The major physical difference, as far as I can tell, is that the HiPort adapter only takes one SIM card, while the router version takes two. I have to admit, I don’t know why you’d need two SIM cards.
I don’t have the @HOME service yet, but I plan to sign up in the next week or two. I’ll actually be saving a couple grand a year with it! Very cool.
The only downside is that I just figured out how to overclock my old WRT54G with the dd-wrt open-source router firmware, and I don’t know if the open source firmware will work for the HiPort adapter or router. If I can’t tweak the HiPort, I’ll miss being able to use router with the cell phone from a block away! lol
I found the blue light off one morning and (of course) the phone line dead. I’m wondering if my D-Link router aged dynamically assigned ip addresses off the system and dished out new ones – but the problem was easily fixed by disconnecting the HiPort’s power for a half minute and then reconnecting it and letting it reboot and handshake with the D-Link. I’ll have to check the D-Link’s settings.
samuraiCat: Someone (like me) needs two SIM cards if you need/want two telephone “lines”. For me, that means one line is personal and the other is for business.
As for your precious WRT54G, there’s no reason to cast it aside. You can connect the HiPort router to your existing network. I did. But, you’ll want to either disable the radio in the HiPort or make sure that it’s logically a different wireless network from the WRT54G.
If you stand to save “a couple grand a year” you’re paying more to your telco than I can imagine. Maybe you’re still renting your phone from them?
I stand to save about $375 a year. I was paying my telco about $43/month and @Home is running $12/month with taxes and fees.
samuraiCat,
I too have tweaked my existing WRT54G with the dd-wrt router firmware but am not getting very good range on the wireless signal to my cell phones. Do you know which settings may have increased your range?
Thanks
I had problems following the instructions (shocking) for the HiPort w/ router… After frying my router config (Airport Extreme) and throwing away the instructions (and ignoring there tech support) I found that if I connected the HiPort to one of the Airport’s ethernet jacks and waited for 10 minutes then everything worked just fine.
I just recently got the hi port adapter and have attempted to connect it to my router at home, but no luck so far. I will give it another shot today and see what happens. I thought it was going to be so simple. Yeah right! I wish it was as simple as PnP. Wish me luck.
Update: After spending 3 weekends on the phone with support people, each phone call lasting at least 2 hrs each on my cell phone, I returned my device to the store. After my first call with one support tech and it not working, my second tech support person was GREAT. He went above and beyond what I would have thought and was the only reason I hung on for hope to get mine working. They kept thinking it was my 911 address and it wasn’t saving in their system. He called me once every couple of days to check in with new info to try and help. Finally, after I hadn’t heard from him, I called in and got the RUDEST tech support person I have EVER delt with. After that I was just done and called back to report him and return my unit. I sure hope they get the kinks out and I may try it again in the future.
My Blue light NEVER came on during the whole interaction.
Update: Well after getiing my hi port adaptor it is finally set up. I was having a problem connecting it and did have to go through 3 tech support people. One of them was just missing some info from one of the devices. So thank goodness I was atleast hooking it up right. I have it hooked up to my router which is hooked up to my cable provider through the coaxial cable from the wall. No modem at all! Don’t need any more devices, please! Now it is working great. Although tech support at T-mobile was suprised there was no modem. They all were friendly and helpful. Always a good thing when you are upset at dealing with the devices. LOL!
If you do not hook up the HiPort router directly to your cable or DSL modem and instead connect to your existing router, you should go into your original router settings and change to a static IP address, at least the address that the HiPort router will use. This should prevent your original router from dynamically assigning a different address after a period of time. Most routers are set up for this kind of dynamic IP addressing and the addresses that are dished out have a finite term limit after which new ones will be assigned. The problem is that the HiPort will not know this and of the blue light will go off until you reboot the HiPort and it finds the new IP address your original router has assigned.
Patrick Tices last blog post..Test Story
Patrick,
I just installed the HiPort Adapter as well, following the previously posted setup: Modem-DLink-HiPort-Telephone. It worked fine for a couple of days then the blue light went off. As other people have done, I turned the adapter and modem off and turn them on and everything was fine again. I am just wondering if you were able to keep the connection on all time in the static IP mode.
I did some google searches, only to found out that everybody seemed to have this occasional loss of connection once in a while that can be fixed by rebooting the adapter and modem. Thanks.
I was told that the HiPort would increase my cell phone reception inside my home but I can’t find any evidence that this is true? Any idea if this is true or what setting I may need to adjust to make it happen?
celia,
I’ve not heard of that and, quite frankly, I’d be pretty shocked if a wireless internet device like the HiPort was able to increase cell phone reception inside a home. If that was the case then I’d imagine there would be a big market for that type of device among non-@Home or T-Mobile subscribers as lots of people have poor reception inside their house. Perhaps someone else can chime in who is more familiar with the HiPort.
Mark / Celia….
The HiPort adapter will not have any impact on cellular performance within the house. If you installed the HiPort WiFi router and have a WiFi enabled cellular phone (like the Blackberry Curve) you can make calls from your cell phone using the UMA protocol. The icons will change on your phone and your calls may be clearer. I have been using this service now for a few weeks and have seen considerable improvement with my reception. Another bonus is if you add the @Home service to your cell phone you will not get billed minutes using UMA.
It’s Linksys so it is going to die sooner rather than later. Mine did today after about 3 months of use. I used the HiPort because I refused to have another Linksys router in the house.
The HiPort drops phone service periodically and has to be reset. The last Linksys router I had needed to be reset about 10 times a day so this is an improvement for that brand. (My Belkin Router has to be reset only when the HiPort takes the system down.)
The death mode was dropping phone service and then internet. There was no way I could get it to pass the internet signal through. T-Mobile handed me off to a Linksys phone center where someone who could almost speak English had me trying the same routines over and over.
A replacement is in route – for which I have to pay the shipping charges.
I’ve never been a fan of Linksys routers. I’ve had a few fail on me often. When I had Verion FIOS installed I got a D-link router and it has been trouble free for the past 3 years. I friend of mine got this unit and it seems to be working fine for him so far.
I recently tried to use this adaptor, but had a hard time setting it up. I tried tech support for help, but they were unable to resolve my issues. So I kinda gave up after attempting several times. When I have some more time I will see if I can make it work for me.
Tim@Outdoor Storage Cabinet
I too had problems with the hiport changeover including a friend who dialed my home number and got someone else many calls to ATT and to t-mobile the problem was resolved. I am not sure what happened on their end but after escalating the call to a tier 1 support ( at t-mobile) person it was resolved within the hour. I hope this helps. T-mobile said i needed A dry loop i tried switching the connections outside the house and finally after over 3 hours of phone calls the problem was resolved. I hope this helps anyone having problems. I was also told to unplug both my (power)DSL connection from att mobile and t-mobile then connect the att power then the t-mobile modem/router and reboot then FINALLY it worked. if you have any problems Escalate to a tier 1 support tech and they can help. As of now it works fine , we will see in the days to come.
Hope this helps
John
Okay, please help! You all sound like you know what you are talking about and I feel really dumb. I got a hiport from TMobile today, but my service won’t kick in for a couple of days. I was assured this would work without a router in my home. We have free wi-fi in my condo. Is this true? I feel really dumb, please help! I’m anxious, because I really don’t want to have to return it…Thanks
Corrine,
My initial reaction to your situation is: return that thing immediately! I can’t imagine that you will be able to rely on condo wifi for the @Home service. Do a search on my blog for QoS (Quality of Service) test and run it on your connection. If it doesn’t hit 85% or higher consistently, then you will most likely have problems with your service.
Hopefully someone else that has actually used the HiPort router will chime in. I have not used it, but I wouldn’t expect it to work well.
Perhaps a more important question though:
Did you just buy the service today? I was told a while back that T-Mobile would no longer be selling new subscriptions to the @Home service. That was at least 2 months ago. You do realize that eventually, even though they are not saying it publicly, eventually T-Mobile is going to pull the plug on this service…
mark
My experience with Linksys routers has been pretty good. I have had one for while now with no issues. Though I have not used the T-Mo type I think these are well made units.