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New to 3G, pointers please.

Due to my remote location I am unable to receive Broadband, the exchange is just over 9k away, I have now been informed by Tesco that they are discontinuing their dial up service so have been giving 3G a lot of thought.
Sitting where I am now I can get 2G on Vodafone and 3, if I move upstairs I can get 2G on all carriers and 3G on 3 and T Mobile, this has lead me to think the best way to go will be with 3 and their E367 dongle plugged into a suitable router then use an ethernet cable to my PC in the room below, if required I will get an external antenna as well.
Has anybody else done this with any real success? if so which is the best router and antenna to go for?
 
Remember that dongles can usually get a much stronger and quicker than phones can for some reason.

Three would seem to have the best 3G network, certainly up here in the north east anyway. O2 won't even go near here, barely any 3G masts from them.
 
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3 is probably your best bet, especially for coverage they do a 3g wireless modem, the Mii which is far better than the dongle, can be used with a wifi card, which I use myself when away from hope with the laptop, hope that helps
 
Have you looked at this thread - we're not far from the exchange, but can't get any useful connectivity with ADSL and found a solution, it goes into some detail:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php/30736-3G-router-and-antenna-recommendations

Downstream here is a pretty solid 6Mbps with upstream ranging from 1Mbps to 2Mbps, though take that with the proverbial pinch of salt since it varies everywhere from practically useless, to comparing favourably with a fast ADSL2+ connection but for the latency being a little to a fair bit higher and the upstream sometimes a bit faster.

It would be 11Mbps downstream but my router isn't HSPA+ capable, sadly - still waiting for one to come on the market, because I went the "modem/router that you put the SIM card into to get rid of the dongle" option rather than the "router you plug the dongle into that shares the connection round the house" option.

If few are using the cell (whichever network you go for) and signal is good, you may well find 3G quite an experience compared with dial-up. Data is more expensive (than other forms of broadband), but then, dialup can't manage much in the way of data transfer anyway, and the saving we make from not having to pay for a phone line goes towards the 3G connection (we got rid of it altogether).

Perhaps: don't go down the antenna route until you've decided on the network, you may need to try a couple and if you have a directional antenna you'll need to know which way to point it; experiment with the dongle positioning first to establish whether it will work where you are and how that performs. The E367 dongle is especially sensitive to precise positioning - doesn't seem to alter the signal a whole lot, but makes a huge difference to the speeds.

Do post back if you have any questions as we've used it as our primary/only broadband connection for years and have some experience with it.
 
I am in same situation.
Bought Draytek 2910G (cable) router quite cheaply from ebay, stuck 3G dongle on a window facing the transmitter and connected to the router by short USB cable. The G in the router designation means it's a WiFi one, so I can connect anywhere in the house.
Works reliably, though download speed isn't that great.
Regards,
Martin
 
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Some good suggestions above and you should also check out the articles that ISPr has written about Mobile Broadband as it might give you some extra insight.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/09_how_to_use_mobile_broadband/

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/09_Improve_Mobile_Broadband_Performance_Tips/

Also, if you have the cash, then consider getting a WiBE:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/11_WiBE_Mobile_Broadband_Booster_Review/

They cost just over £200 but through some miracle they seem able to pickup a strong 3G/HSPA signal in locations where it was previously impossible via a normal dongle/modem/mifi device. They also act a bit like MiFi by sharing the signal out via WiFi, although they're mains powered and not battery operated. I got one for my Mum at Christmas so she doesn't have to worry about fixed line broadband contracts and related hassles anymore.
 
Thank you all for your input, spent the last hour reading and have come to the conclusion that the way to go is the WiBE is the way to go using the signal from 3, off now to look at the state of the bank account.
 
The only downside is that WiBE's can be quite expensive and if your SIM is locked to a specific dongle then it can be a bit of hassle, although you can usually call the mobile operator to fix this and or get a sim-free Mobile Broadband deal.
 
Follow Up.

I received a nice new WiBE on the 26th of January, had it set up in minutes and away it went.
On my land line I was getting speeds varying from 8kbs to 42kbs so something had to be done, the WiBE settled in after about 10 minutes, it managed to drag in signal that according to my phone scans was minimal to say the least, images below to show what sort of speeds I was getting this morning, first two are wireless, second two wired with quality ethernet cable.

1768147806.png
1768210514.png


1768144681.png
1768149975.png


All in all quite chuffed with the results even though I think things could be improved, how i don't know but there must be a way.
 
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Well that's a darn sight better than your land-line :) .

By "first two are wireless" did you mean the two at the top or on the left side? I suppose in either case a lot more performance is being lost over WiFi than I'd expect, interesting.
 
Top two are wireless, cottage was built in 1836, walls are 18" thick, will be wiring in permanently this week so should be a lot better.
Saying that, signal is rubbish this morning.

1769860162.png
 
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When it comes to 3G / HSPA, the signal quality is a big factor but speed is more dramatically affected by load (congestion) at the local node, which is usually quite variable. 4G / LTE should improve the situation when it eventually surfaces and even the newest HSPA+ tech (not sure if the WiBE supports HSPA+ yet, think it's vanilla HSPA) doesn't do a bad job.
 
Top two are wireless, cottage was built in 1836, walls are 18" thick, will be wiring in permanently this week so should be a lot better.
Saying that, signal is rubbish this morning.

1769860162.png

Our cottage is very similar age + walls. The Wi-Fi wanders in and out in some areas downstairs, even though it's not a very big house.

We do get better speeds than you, just testing now, normally 6Mbps down 1.5Mbps up (router is only a 7.2Mbps capable one) and it's just a fraction shy of that at the moment..

1788416926.png


.. but the stability of the speed indicates our cell isn't congested. That, and, our ping times are around the 40 to 80 mark with 60 normal.

During high congestion times (not often e.g. the tennis is on TV during the day, there's a crash on the dual carriageway the cell is next to) that congestion is obvious because you see packet loss and very high ping times (e.g. 500ms+) and the upstream basically drops to nothing.

If your ping times are solid at that sort of level (140) it makes me think it's just the physical distance involved that's responsible which again points to signal strength.

But unlike our fixed antenna, you can pick up your piece of kit and try it elsewhere - have you located where your nearest cell(s) is/are so as to try on "that side" of the house? Might be worth doing. Even if you only scrape a few extra 100kbps out of it, it might just get you that extra bit of performance for streaming video.

What you can't know - and MarkJ's point - is whether your better results just happened to come about thanks to being the only user at the cell at that moment or whether they're more typically achievable, but you'll probably get a feel for that after experimenting with your local connection set up and positioning.

Glad you got a bit of a performance upgrade, that must feel quick compared with before!
 
I have the WiBE in the window facing the mast which on a clear day you can see the top of, average Ping is now 155 and yet again last night I had to reset the WiBE as connection had degraded, how much difference does weather make I wonder?
 
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Re: weather - I've wondered that. Here, it doesn't seem to make any obvious difference that I've noticed. But then, I can't help but feel that it must/should make some difference. The thing that does make a big difference with the dongles is which way up you put it - performs better upright than lying down. Does the WiBE thing only go one way up e.g. it can't go on its side?

Also, transmission "path" - would you happen to live near the bottom of a hill and the cell is "above" you? Ours is the opposite.

I never have to "reset" the connection if the performance drops. Indeed the performance is a bit variable anyway. But I'm less likely to notice a speed drop from say 6Mbps to 4Mbps whereas you may do if you divide both speeds by 3.

Is there only one cell near you? (e.g. if you reset, and it speeds up, could it be latching to another one...) this happens on O2 round here as the signal from both cells is marginal, and one doesn't have HSPA so if you get that one, it's really slow, then the modem tries to negotiate to the other one at some point - speeds up - then back again - seems to drop and then crawls again...

So perhaps worth verifying with 3 (they're quite good on this) to see where your two nearest cells are in case the Sitefinder site is wrong or out of date. It could very well be that the variable speeds are down to congestion and what you are seeing isn't far off what I see when I try 3G in built up areas when everyone else is using it. Here, everyone, or most, can get ADSL which is quick enough for some e.g. half meg, one meg, two meg, 3G is so much faster it's a no brainer for me, but if it's the only option then others might have had the same idea.

Given we can't know whether the variability is congestion I'd pursue optimising it as far as you can, run regular speed tests (does it always slow down at certain times?) and over time you'll discover if the parameters of it (e.g. about 1 to 2Mbps each way) are "normal".
 
Oh, one more thought...

If using Speedtest.net for the speeds - my experience of 3G is that the variable ping times mean that if you allow it to auto select the server location, it can go mad and opt for one in Germany - and, the actual performance of the test servers themselves seems variable e.g. all report 6meg and one reports half a meg, as if the tester is itself congested (which might very well be the case)

So: pick a local server (hover over the map) to use as a baseline, and always compare with that one unless results look very odd, in which case get a second opinion from a different one.
 
Get a Zoom 3G HSPA+ dongle (not blocked by 3) + PAYG with £15 All-You-Can-Eat addon, stick it on a pole or on roof with one of those outdoor plug enclosures if you can't find a decent spot in your house. Then plug it into a Zoom 3G wirless-N router.

Upfront cost: £120
Monthly: £15

On HSDPA I get 0.5-1Mbps via a Zoom 3G HSDPA dongle, switch SIM to phone, I get 6Mbps, HSPA+ devices make a massive difference.
 
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