SOLVED: I'm stuck. Mobile Citizen T-Mobile SIM video throttling on RM502Q-AE, but not on hotspot

[token]

Hello,

I have tried everything I can think of. The new T-Mobile SIM with an RM502Q-AE is hard throttled to 2.5mbps. This is on pretty much every video stream, including but not limited to Youtube, Netflix, Prime, a remote Emby server, etc. This *only* applies on the RM502Q-AE. The T9 does not exhibit this behavior. I can put in the old Sprint SIM and it doesn't do this as well.

Calyx has posted that changing to the B2B.tmobile.com APN and forcing IPv4 solves the issue for M2000 users, but alas, no dice with my RM502Q-AE.

Changing the APN in MBIM mode doesn't appear to be sticking correctly. I've noticed that others are saying by switching to the B2B.tmobile.com APN, they're being routed through Chicago, St Louis, Denver, or Minneapolis.. In MBIM mode, this doesn't happen. In QMI mode, it is sending me through these nodes, but the throttle still exists.

I've tried changing the TTL as well to no avail. Speedtest.net gives me 20+mbps, fast.com always hard capped to 2.5mbps. The Wehe app shows discrepancies on every service. It is definitely a throttle.

I have tried the different MBN profiles. Commercial-TMO ROW-Commercial, Commercial-Sprint.. I have deactivated, allowed autoselect, disabled autoselect.. I really don't have any idea what to try next.

Has anyone else run into this and found a solution? Or can someone help point me in a direction I'm clearly missing on what to try next?

Thanks.

[Kingsolo31]

Suffering from the same problem. It appears that tmobile seems to throttle based on the type of active device. When running youtube on PC or Console browser, I get full speed. When running in an app, i am throttled down to 2.5mbps.

I haven't found a solution, but the browser. It just suffers when running an app like on a tv.

[JimHelms]

May try disabling IPV6 and use IPV4 only.

If you are using WiFiX/ROOter/GoldenOrb firmware, go to MODEM>CONNECTION PROFILE DEFAULT PROFILE > PROTOCOL TYPE > IPV4

SAVE & APPLY, and reboot the router.

[token]

May try disabling IPV6 and use IPV4 only.

If you are using WiFiX/ROOter/GoldenOrb firmware, go to MODEM>CONNECTION PROFILE DEFAULT PROFILE > PROTOCOL TYPE > IPV4

SAVE & APPLY, and reboot the router.

This initially helped a month or two ago with the old Sprint sim, but the new one doesn't seem to make a difference, unfortunately.

[radec]

@token
have you tried doing anything with the modem identity?

[Kingsolo31]

This is what worked for me. To stop video throttle.
1) Make sure you have no ttl set in connection profile or in firewall.
2) In Default profile set protocol to ipv6 only
3) spoof identity to match original
4) reboot router

[token]

@token
have you tried doing anything with the modem identity?

Magic? Indeed, first thing I do when I put the new card in. I've also tried both the commercial-tmo, row-commercial mbns.

[token]

This is what worked for me. To stop video throttle.
1) Make sure you have no ttl set in connection profile or in firewall.
2) In Default profile set protocol to ipv6 only
3) spoof identity to match original
4) reboot router

Some of this is the complete opposite of what I've tried, and I haven't actually tried doing this exactly.. so this at least gives me a new option. I'm trying it right now and will report back.

[token]

This is what worked for me. To stop video throttle.
1) Make sure you have no ttl set in connection profile or in firewall.
2) In Default profile set protocol to ipv6 only
3) spoof identity to match original
4) reboot router

Good news is this removed the throttle.. bad news is a chunk of sites stopped working (including wirelessjoint, dslreports.. which I have a hard time believing are ipv4-only, and even so why isn't 464xlat doing its job? Definitely will need to diagnose further).. but the issue mentioned above has been solved and I have something unrelated to throttling to go figure out, and a certain I can take things from here now that I'm unstuck. Much obliged!

I shower you with praise and appreciation. Thank you very much!

Edit: For those desperately googling and finding this, for anyone running into the "some sites don't work when switching to ipv6 only" issue, ensure your DNS server has nat64. In modem->connection profile->advanced you can use cloudflares nat64 enabled DNS, just add these to your DNS settings:
2606:4700:4700::64
2606:4700:4700::6400
Then reconnect and you should have everything working correctly.

[Alberteezy21]

Hello I'm having the same issue. What I'm generally seeing is people running into a 2.5Mbps cap. Oddly enough my cap is at 8Mbps.

I'm going to try to do the same you did and report back once figure it out.

One question. What APN did you end up sticking with?

[token]

What APN did you end up sticking with?

I'm using Fast.t-mobile.com

[Alberteezy21]

What APN did you end up sticking with?

I'm using Fast.t-mobile.com

Ok that's the one I used. I ended up trying what fixed for you. Set to ipv6 only with the cloudflare dns, but to no avail. For reference I'm using a Mikrotik LHG+Quectel EM160R. I will say there been a few instances where it bypasses the throttle but if a run the test again the throttle is back or it peaks at about 16mbps. 90% of the time though it's 8mbps. Its not a bad throttle, i can stream in 4K but I'm having issue with one website, so i wanted to know if it was the throttle causing issues. I do find interesting that no one else has a reported a video throttle of 8mbps that I'm aware of.

[token]

I wouldn't think that's throttling, that seems like bad peering or a bad hop along the route to me.

Try running a test with Wehe and see if it shows any discrepancies

[MrEdLu]

Thanks to @Kingsolo31. I enabled IPv6 and it resolved the buffering issue from streaming services like Disney+

In a related question; Are there any concerns with the number of devices that are no longer masked behind IPv4? The sim I used came out of a Franklin T10 and it support a maximum of 15 devices. Wouldn't IPV6 review to T-Mobile the actual number of devices using this service? With all the IOT devices, I am probably using 50+ IPv6 addresses. Is this a red flag for T-Mobile?

[token]

Well, yes and no. While the device limit is 15 for the hotspot itself, that's not a limitation on the plan. The T9/T10 allows for USB tethering out of the box, which effectively would allow the T9/T10 to have as many connections as you want anyways... Officially.

Unofficially, though.. my RM502Q is aggregating bands not officially on the T9, connecting to 5G, establishing 256QAM and 4x4 mimo.. those would probably be much bigger red flags, to be honest.. but alas, so far so good. Ipv6 delegation likely wouldn't be on their list of things to look at since there are legit ways to go about it.

[LTEFix0404]

May try disabling IPV6 and use IPV4 only.

If you are using WiFiX/ROOter/GoldenOrb firmware, go to MODEM>CONNECTION PROFILE DEFAULT PROFILE > PROTOCOL TYPE > IPV4

SAVE & APPLY, and reboot the router.

This initially helped a month or two ago with the old Sprint sim, but the new one doesn't seem to make a difference, unfortunately.

I couldn’t even connect with IPv6 only. I was able to connect with IPv4+IPv6, but that only reduced my speeds (~50%). I also tried adding custom DNS servers, and that seemed to only slow things down as well.

What did help my video speeds, however, was the combination of using fast.t-mobile.com for APN and “Use current TTL” for TTL. If I used B2B.tmobile.com OR a TTL of 64 or 65 (only ones I tried), that resulted in throttling of Netflix speeds, but my non-video download speeds were unaffected.

This was on the 311 490 network, which I believe is simply the combination of T-Mobile’s main network, 310 260, and Sprint’s main network, 310 120. BUT, I’m pretty sure I tried your settings while connected to the 310 260 network as well and had the same experience. And that was a different tower as well.

I was going to say maybe optimal settings depend on which PLMN you’re connected to, but I would have expected a result similar to yours if that were the case, so IDK

[MrEdLu]

Well, yes and no. While the device limit is 15 for the hotspot itself, that's not a limitation on the plan. The T9/T10 allows for USB tethering out of the box, which effectively would allow the T9/T10 to have as many connections as you want anyways... Officially.

Unofficially, though.. my RM502Q is aggregating bands not officially on the T9, connecting to 5G, establishing 256QAM and 4x4 mimo.. those would probably be much bigger red flags, to be honest.. but alas, so far so good. Ipv6 delegation likely wouldn't be on their list of things to look at since there are legit ways to go about it.

I didn't think of USB tethering. Good point. Thanks!

[littleboss]

Got my Tmobile sim yesterday. Stuck it in my LT18 and had video throttling. Disabled TTL settings and fast.com shows 90Mbps. Re-enabled IPV6 and still good. Also changed APN back to fast.t-mobile.com as changing to b2b.tmobile.com didn't help

So my settings are:
identity crisis
fast.t-mobile.com
IPV4 and IPV6 enabled
no TTL rules

[2muchfuncankillya]

Was in the exact same boat, and getting more and more frustrated. On GoldenOrb I tried all the usual tricks, including all the ones mentioned here, and had no luck. Throttled. THEN, I returned all the settings back to the way I had them before, and ONLY unchecked the "Enable the use of custom TTL value". Boom! No more throttling. Hope it remains that way.

Edited to add: I also have an old MOFI 4500 I keep on the shelf as a backup, and I was tinkering with it too, just to see if it was something unique to the GoldenOrb setup. I had the same throttling problems.... until I changed "ISP TTL" from Linux 64 to Default. After rebooting, no throttling either.

Hope this might help someone.

[Steve2277]

Which plan was this?

Got my Tmobile sim yesterday. Stuck it in my LT18 and had video throttling. Disabled TTL settings and fast.com shows 90Mbps. Re-enabled IPV6 and still good. Also changed APN back to fast.t-mobile.com as changing to b2b.tmobile.com didn't help

So my settings are:
identity crisis
fast.t-mobile.com
IPV4 and IPV6 enabled
no TTL rules

[mfitzy]

I just recently upgraded to a RM502Q-AE and a NEXS2GO router from my M2000. I have matched the IMEI of the M2000 and I'm using fast.t-mobile.com, no TTL, and IPv6 only and still get throttling on fast.com. Any suggestions or ideas of what I can look at?

[Didneywhorl]

Have you tried a VPN to see if it's detecting the traffic type?

[vigilant]

If it helps,
In my Goldenorb router when I would connect the dynamic interface (464xlat) it would create would not have the TTL Settings applied.
I had to manually go to create a IPV4 and IPV6 iptables rule to apply to that 464xlat interface.
Once I did that, I was completely unthrottled.

[macuseri686]

I had the same issue with tmobile throttling only video sites and constant buffering about a year ago, but speed test showed full speed - only sites like youtube with video were getting throttled. i found this setting in the tmobile app and turned it on (it was off by default). fixed the problem for me and both video sites and speed test show the same speed now.

[Dubbzy]

If it helps,
In my Goldenorb router when I would connect the dynamic interface (464xlat) it would create would not have the TTL Settings applied.
I had to manually go to create a IPV4 and IPV6 iptables rule to apply to that 464xlat interface.
Once I did that, I was completely unthrottled.

Sorry to Necro this, but could you share how you did this?

[token]

I'm also curious..

I'm trying again, this time with an m.2 to RJ45 adapter. It's ridiculously fast and stable, yet I can't seem to consistently recreate the magic that got the video throttling to stop.

@vigilant, any chance you could share your settings?

[Orlimar1]

This is what worked for me. To stop video throttle.
1) Make sure you have no ttl set in connection profile or in firewall.
2) In Default profile set protocol to ipv6 only
3) spoof identity to match original
4) reboot router

This worked for me on a Cudy P5 for my mom. Thanks!!

[Ltsmba]

This is what worked for me. To stop video throttle.
1) Make sure you have no ttl set in connection profile or in firewall.
2) In Default profile set protocol to ipv6 only
3) spoof identity to match original
4) reboot router

This worked for me on a Cudy P5 for my mom. Thanks!!

Can you share some specifics on your set up for your mom's Cudy P5? When you turned on ipv6 on your cudy p5, did you set it to 464XLAT or some other setting? Also, are you using blank/nothing for the TTL in the APN page AND on the TTL page under Network settings?

Thank you!

[Orlimar1]

This is what worked for me. To stop video throttle.
1) Make sure you have no ttl set in connection profile or in firewall.
2) In Default profile set protocol to ipv6 only
3) spoof identity to match original
4) reboot router

This worked for me on a Cudy P5 for my mom. Thanks!!

Can you share some specifics on your set up for your mom's Cudy P5? When you turned on ipv6 on your cudy p5, did you set it to 464XLAT or some other setting? Also, are you using blank/nothing for the TTL in the APN page AND on the TTL page under Network settings?

Thank you!

IPV6 is on and set to 464XLAT. TTL Override is disabled.