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Got a NR510E and a smarty SIM - Seems like I've got a good signal but low download speeds!

So a VPN might speed things up? Do you run that on your router?
It does on my tablet, mobile and fire tv cube etc Scrawf, but it's not installable on the router.

It probably just makes a difference on low speeds I would think though.

Usually only get around 15 megs on three without Proton.

I might add that it only ever speeds up three, the other 3 networks it makes no difference.
 
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I`m not an expert but have recently been in a very similar situation to you as in I`m semi rural with a mast on my doorstep and also have a NR5103E from eBay and a Smarty Unlimited SIM. Also Three say there is no 5G in my area.

After getting all the kit setup, it didn`t take long to find out that the mast I can see from the bedroom window wasn`t going to give me the throughput I wanted and I was getting similar speeds as yourself, including the faster upload than down. If anything the local mast is a hinderance preventing me connecting to masts behind it.

The internal antenna in that router is better than you might think, I found (surprisingly) that by sitting the router in the middle of the loft floor (elevation didn`t help in my case) and rotating it while monitoring the GUI (192.168.1.1) I could get reasonable connections 4 or 5 other masts up to 8 or 9 miles away, some that did offer 5g (n78). I spent some time in auto band mode, rotating the router with payg sim cards from all the big 4 and compiling a grid containing ISP, cell ID connected to, bands connected, RSRP and download/upload speeds. I settled on a mast around 6 miles to the west at around -105 with download between 300-400 and upload a stable 20. This mast is over the other side of a hill covered in large trees. However when driving past it, it is clearly a more substantial mast in comparison to the one on my door step.

I may have your location wrong but looks like there is a cluster of masts to the south in Matlock and maybe even looking East is worth a try if you can get past the local mast.
 
I`m not an expert but have recently been in a very similar situation to you as in I`m semi rural with a mast on my doorstep and also have a NR5103E from eBay and a Smarty Unlimited SIM. Also Three say there is no 5G in my area.

After getting all the kit setup, it didn`t take long to find out that the mast I can see from the bedroom window wasn`t going to give me the throughput I wanted and I was getting similar speeds as yourself, including the faster upload than down. If anything the local mast is a hinderance preventing me connecting to masts behind it.

The internal antenna in that router is better than you might think, I found (surprisingly) that by sitting the router in the middle of the loft floor (elevation didn`t help in my case) and rotating it while monitoring the GUI (192.168.1.1) I could get reasonable connections 4 or 5 other masts up to 8 or 9 miles away, some that did offer 5g (n78). I spent some time in auto band mode, rotating the router with payg sim cards from all the big 4 and compiling a grid containing ISP, cell ID connected to, bands connected, RSRP and download/upload speeds. I settled on a mast around 6 miles to the west at around -105 with download between 300-400 and upload a stable 20. This mast is over the other side of a hill covered in large trees. However when driving past it, it is clearly a more substantial mast in comparison to the one on my door step.

I may have your location wrong but looks like there is a cluster of masts to the south in Matlock and maybe even looking East is worth a try if you can get past the local mast.
Ok thanks. I’ll give that a try. You are right about the other masts so maybe that might help. I give it a try.
 
Can I jut check. For 5g do you need band n78? I seem to be picking up n28 from somewhere. When I set the router to 4g/5g but when using it speeds are worse than 4g only.
 
Can I jut check. For 5g do you need band n78? I seem to be picking up n28 from somewhere. When I set the router to 4g/5g but when using it speeds are worse than 4g only.
N28 is also 5G - in fact anything precursored with 'N' is a 5G band.

However, B28/N28 only has 10Mhz bandwidth on Three so it's not going to break any speed records.
 
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Can I jut check. For 5g do you need band n78? I seem to be picking up n28 from somewhere. When I set the router to 4g/5g but when using it speeds are worse than 4g only.
Never connected to a n28 myself but believe all the "nxx" bands are the NSA 5G. Make a note if the cell ID and keep the router where it is. Switch to 4G auto band. Then look at which "B" bands have connected, make sure you're still on the same mast/cell ,write the band's down. Then stay on 4G but specify the band's and exclude all the ones you auto connected to earlier. If you reconnect to that mast again write down any new bands. You now have a list of all available B bands from that mast. Switch to 5g and try all the combinations of n28 and the B bands. Hope that makes sense, it worked for me and I found that B3, B28 and n78 gave me the best speed and stability.
 
I have no Three 5G coverage (on any maps) where I am here but can get a sniff of N28 from a mast elsewhere beaming North into town which is away from me which gives me better service than my local 4G mast during the summer - which is oversubscribed due to a large caravan park hoovering up all the data! Best I've seen is 100Mbps out the back of the router. Normally about 70, reducing to about 60 by the time it gets to the PC via powerlines. It works. Router has be "hidden" from the best signal mast.
4G alone from that mast is poor.
4G data from my local and strongest signal mast during the summer can be nil, unable to do anything. Three know and it was supposed to be updated/sorted by the end of 2022 they told me. It has not.
 
Hi - sorry for dragging up an old thread but I'm in the same boat (nr5103e, Smarty sim, mast about 200m away) but low speeds of about 40mbps DL yet 50/60mbps UL; read the advice about aggregating bands - this does little to improve things, but seen some people talk about making sure the router pulls its signal from masts further away than the nearest one - how do I go about this?
 
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