Need Help - T-Mobile Modem/Router and OpenWrt Router

[Oliumen]

Maybe borrow one from a friend/neighbor, etc. But yes, you should always have a spare ethernet cable on hand anyway.

I ran to the store and picked up some cables.

Here are the updated results.

[Oliumen]

I am starting to think that I am just going to drop the T-Mobile service, get rid of the equipment, and just get Starlink. Hahahaha.

It blows my mind T-Mobile offers this service but doesn't give you any proper control over the gateway, doesn't allow you to port forward, doesn't allow you to deal with NAT, doesn't allow you to configure the firewall, etc.

This service is just not good what so ever, regardless of the bandwidth they provide.

[psherman]

It looks like you actually get the fastest speeds when running double-NAT through OpenWrt with all ethernet connections... I'm not sue why that is -- likely just the margin of error in the tests and/or moment-to-moment variability of the cellular service performance (signal quality, other traffic on the connected cell site, etc.).

Although I'm not a QoS expert, I do believe that the fundamental problem is that you've got a massive imbalance in the upload vs download speeds. This will often cause significant issues with buffer bloat and the like. Beyond that, if you've got high latency (which is certainly possible, but you didn't run/show us those tests), that would also have a marked impact on the QoS settings necessary to achieve high scores for buffer bloat.

In the end, I don't believe that there is anything wrong with your OpenWrt config (aside from some optimizations like increasing the channel width of your AP), but rather just severely asymmetric bandwidth from the ISP.

[Oliumen]

@psherman

likely just the margin of error in the tests and/or moment-to-moment variability of the cellular service performance (signal quality, other traffic on the connected cell site, etc.).

Probably.

@psherman

Although I'm not a QoS expert, I do believe that the fundamental problem is that you've got a massive imbalance in the upload vs download speeds. This will often cause significant issues with buffer bloat and the like. Beyond that, if you've got high latency (which is certainly possible, but you didn't run/show us those tests), that would also have a marked impact on the QoS settings necessary to achieve high scores for buffer bloat.

Earlier my latency was fine but right now it's all over the place. Probably because the towers are getting loaded. Still I would never have reliable a connection to the outside world regardless so this service is just not for me and honestly not for anyeone. People using T-Mobile really need to swap to some other service. It is Garbage.

https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat?test-id=0c37bf80-e4d1-4e9d-ae7e-a0fdd8d15372

@psherman

In the end, I don't believe that there is anything wrong with your OpenWrt config (aside from some optimizations like increasing the channel width of your AP), but rather just severely asymmetric bandwidth from the ISP.

Alright. I give up on this. Lol. Thanks for helping me out. I will order that Starlink service asap.

Thanks again.