Just bought a new, unlocked 5G phone, Getting it on the 5G band has been living hell!

[Lyle Romer]

The system will be 5G primarily, and 4G will be 5G's backup.

With the exception of the T-Mobile standalone band 71 5G network (which I barely ever am connected to), all current 5G networks are anchored to the 4G network. Your phone is connected to the 4G network for all control functions and then gets assigned a 5G data channel for the actual transfer. Voice calls still take place using the voice over LTE system on the 4G network.

Eventually, they will assign more and more of the available bandwidth to 5G and at some point will transition to standalone 5G networks where 4G will just be a separate, fall back network.

On a Samsung phone, if you go into settings and look at the SIM status it will show the data network type as "NR NSA" which stands for "New Radio Non-standalone." If you are on a network that doesn't anchor to 4G it will say "NR SA."

Motorola phones (at least the ones I've seen) will say "5G" for the non-standalone and "NR SA" for the standalone.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

With the exception of the T-Mobile standalone band 71 5G network (which I barely ever am connected to), all current 5G networks are anchored to the 4G network. Your phone is connected to the 4G network for all control functions and then gets assigned a 5G data channel for the actual transfer. Voice calls still take place using the voice over LTE system on the 4G network.

Eventually, they will assign more and more of the available bandwidth to 5G and at some point will transition to standalone 5G networks where 4G will just be a separate, fall back network.

On a Samsung phone, if you go into settings and look at the SIM status it will show the data network type as "NR NSA" which stands for "New Radio Non-standalone." If you are on a network that doesn't anchor to 4G it will say "NR SA."

Motorola phones (at least the ones I've seen) will say "5G" for the non-standalone and "NR SA" for the standalone.

I honestly know nothing about T-Mobile other then everyone tells me to stay away becdause of very poor coverage. The only other carrier that I have ever had was Sprint. And I had to stick it out 2 years with them even though the coverage was also really bad. Other wise I have been with AT&T all my mobile phoning life. Cricket uses the exact same AT&T equipment in the same locations. Both Cricket and AT&T have identical coverage.

[Lyle Romer]

I honestly know nothing about T-Mobile other then everyone tells me to stay away becdause of very poor coverage. The only other carrier that I have ever had was Sprint. And I had to stick it out 2 years with them even though the coverage was also really bad. Other wise I have been with AT&T all my mobile phoning life. Cricket uses the exact same AT&T equipment in the same locations. Both Cricket and AT&T have identical coverage.

I used to have AT&T but there were a few places I frequent where I can't get reliable indoor coverage from them so I needed wifi calling. I like to buy unlocked phones so I don't get the carrier installed bloatware and AT&T refuses to allow non-branded phones to use the wifi calling feature. T-Mobile does so I switched to them (I believe Verizon is the same as AT&T). In the places I've been since switching a little over a year ago the T-Mobile coverage is about the same as AT&T was. I've been in urban, suburban and rural areas of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Nevada since and don't have any complaints about coverage.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I have AT&T fiber here and I was hacked through that. It was after the hacking that I bought the Untangle device and software. My GF works from home and it happened to her first. It was the usual " Your computer has been a virus.. Please call this number and we can fix it for you. On my computer they knew I had a certain credit card. I had just paid the entire card off, had the email that said my account was paid up, yet I get another notice that I still owe 146.00. So I used my phone to log into my account. And of course it showed all paid up. So I changed both my log in name and password just to be safe. Nothing has happened since I put Untangle in. I used their software when I lived in Utah and no one ever hacked me there.

Thanks for the explanation. I wonder how the "virus warning" got in there. A lot of stuff seems to come in through email extensions or web downloads. There have been corrupt PDF files that people have downloaded. A NAT router keeps stuff from being directly exposed to the Internet, but still allows downloading dangerous stuff.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Thanks for the explanation. I wonder how the "virus warning" got in there. A lot of stuff seems to come in through email extensions or web downloads. There have been corrupt PDF files that people have downloaded. A NAT router keeps stuff from being directly exposed to the Internet, but still allows downloading dangerous stuff.

The strange thing Harold is she is logged into her companies network which has multiple firewalls at different sites. I assume they came in over out AT&T fiber somehow and I did not have the firewall on the router then. But since I put that in there have been no hacks. I have a customer in Jackson, WY who's TMS was hacked. The hacker was merely copying trailers off the data raid, placing them in a desktop folder to transfer to himself. It later on turned out to be an ex- employee who was hacking in. Passwords were changed and problem.solved. All I can say is that the cheapo firewalls that come in internet routers are not wlorth a darn.

[Randy Stankey]

On my computer they knew I had a certain credit card.

I have two cards for my bank account. One that I only use for on-line transactions and one that I only use for in-person transactions. Never the twain shall meet.

I only keep about $20.00 on my "Internet Card" so that, if it gets hacked, they'll only get twenty bucks. If ever there is a problem, with a phone call, I can shut one card down and switch to the other until things get ironed out.

Yes, I know that banks and credit card companies all claim that they have "fraud protection" of one form or another. That's great but, if you ever do get hacked, your account could be out of commission for days or even weeks until the bank sorts things out.

I never use overdraft protection. My bank keeps calling me up and offering it. Every time they call, I channel Samuel Jackson... "HELL no, mutha' fucka'!"
It would defeat the purpose of having two cards.

I also have it set up so that I get an e-mail when either card gets used. The messages get sent to an e-mail account that I don't use for anything else.
I always get a receipt for any transaction that I make on those two cards. At the end of the day, I compare my receipts to my e-mail. If there is ever an e-mail from a transaction that I don't have a receipt for I double check my account. If I can't sort it out, myself, I call the bank.

One good thing is that my bank now has instant card replacement. You can walk into any branch and report a lost, stolen or hacked card and they will replace it with a new card with a completely different number in about fifteen minutes. But... What happens if your card gets hacked on a Saturday night when you can't go to the bank until Monday? You're up shit creek!

No, this is not foolproof but it adds another layer of security that helps me stay in control. With the fraud protections that banks offer, combined with my own little scheme, 99% of problems should be headed off before they even start.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The 5G speeds are somewhat dependent on distance to the tower but also highly dependent on the backhaul capacity of the tower. In South Florida on T-Mobile, if I use the ookla speedtest app I usually get over 200 mbps if I am connected to 5G. There have been times where I'm practically looking up at the tower and I'll get 500+ mbps. I think the fastest I've seen was 637.

In a small town where the backhaul appears to be microwave (based on the dish antennas on the tower), even across the street from the tower I max out below 300 mbps.

With T-Mobile, you will get different speeds depending on which 5G bands they use where you are. A lot of the rural coverage is "5G extended range" which is low frequency, lower bandwidth and therefore slower. The "5G ultra capacity" is mid-band (and mmWave in very few places) which is much higher speed. Based upon their coverage map, it looks like there is some of the "5G ultra capacity" coverage in Lawton. It looks like it might be a little spotty and it doesn't hold up well indoors if you aren't close to a tower.

At home I am getting in the 600's for speed. So no complaint. My 5G is a lot faster then the 4G LTE is. . I am line of sight about 4 miles east of the tower, But, there is a rather large forest in between me and that tower and I am slightly below ground because the building is built in the side of a hill. No complaints about the speed here. It does seem to vary with time of day, probably caused by how many are using it..

When I had Sprint I had the most issues with it in Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Aouthern Utah and Arizona. Then, I was going to try T-Mobile, but a mumber of friends said "Don't do that!" So it's no surprise to me that one iffy company bought up another iffy company. So that was when I decided to give Cricket a try. Zero problems with them anywhere I went except in slot canyons..But, the only thing that sometimes works in slot canyons are the satellite rescue radios.