Huawei B535-232 4g/LTE Router Issue

[Pwablo]

I feel for you (as I'm sure do most of the regulars here).

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything we can suggest that is really going to improve the situation for you. You've obviously tried a quality alternative to the B535 and found little or no improvement. Perhaps an external antenna (commercial or DIY) might improve your signal quality a little & improve the performance you can get, but I suspect it'll make no difference whatsoever.

Certainly changing your DNS providers is good, but it's not going to improve your download performance. You could also try the dnscrypt thing or VPNs, but these too (although good in themselves) are unlikely to have the kind of impact you would hope for.

As regards your performance being initially good & dropping off: I have read that same observation from many forum posters, so it's definitely happening. But I doubt very much that it's Three deliberately doing this in order to squeeze in more customers - that would require a 'pre-meditated' plan and I'm sure would be in breach of OfCom regulations and perhaps even illegal.

Attached is a graph of my Thinkbroadband speed test results. You can see around Aug-2018 is where I switched from VirginMedia to Three mobile broadband. Over the following 6months or so to Jan-2019, the performance degraded. Around Dec-2019 I renewed my contract for 24months (a big mistake) & started using the B535 and started monitoring my download/upload performance in earnest. As you can see, the 4G+ speeds I had been hoping for on the B535 never materialised.

I think, all you can do is a) complain to Three b) when they fail to address your complaint to your satisfaction, then refer it to the Ombudsman at https://www.ombudsman-services.org/

Do keep posting back to let us know how you progress.

Hi Bill, thanks for your reply and suggestions. The RUT240 has no internal antenna. It is connected to a external penta band cross polorized MIMO omni which is mounted on the house eaves. I also have a Tri band 7.5dBi gain omni which covers 900Mhz to 1800Mhz, for 3G and Band 3 4G which I used to use with a Netgear Aircard 785S, which worked very well on 4G.
I have tried all of these antennas on both the RUT240 and the B535, and to be fair the internal antenna in the B535 when its in the attic is as good as the external antennas when using the Three sim, but not as good as the externals when using my EE sim. This is likely down to the cell and power output from each provider more than anything else, as Im sure the EE cell has more power output and a more favourable radiation pattern than the Three cell does, despite these being on the same mast.

I have also read that others have experienced dramatic speed drop offs shortly after their cooling off period has lapsed. We would never know if was perhaps coincidence or if some kind of policy is being exercised, however its likely in their T & Cs that they can do whatever they wish with the absence of any EUA or minimal service obligation, so even complaining would be a fruitless exercise?

I was aware that the B535 cannot support OpenVPN, and now only supports PPTP and L2PT. The RUT240 however supports OpenVPN and I have this set up already for NordVPN. There is a draw back though, as the CPU in the RUT240 can only handle about 8mbps up/down of VPN encryption workload, so decent download speeds are not achievable on 4G with the VPN tunneling all the traffic. The more expensive RUT950, RUT955 CAT4 and RUTX09 & RUTX11 Cat 6 models handle much faster rates as these all have far stronger CPUs and more Memory, but the low end ones are limited by their hardware. They are actually designed for vehicle installations, like buses, train carriages, so they are very small and compact. However they are top notch bits of kit. For residential purposes there are better options for high end 4G/LTE routers for less money.
I have no problem using the RUT240 on Three or EE with all traffic thru the VPN tunnel, its just the rates are a bit limited with the VPN service running on the RUT240. Using the NordVPN client on the PC has no such speed issues on EE, but on Three it seems their 4G speeds where I am are very unpredictable.

FYI, so far no Web Page stalling on the clients since I changed the primary DNS on the B535. I will give it a week and see how it goes.

Thanks and ATB

 

[kommando828]

This is likely down to the cell and power output from each provider more than anything else, as Im sure the EE cell has more power output and a more favourable radiation pattern than the Three cell does, despite these being on the same mast.

Agreed, the typically three 120 degree spread antenna for each provider can be aligned differently, then depending on where you are you can be disadvantaged, if you are in the exact middle of two of the antenna your router could be swapping between the two constantly. Your only option is to move to the other provider on the hope the other set of antenna are more favourably aligned.

 

[psaffrey]

Well, thank to the person who suggested dnscrypt-proxy. I tried this by installing it on my media server (not a RPi, but something like it) and pointing just my work laptop at it. It was easy to install and seems like a cool piece of software, as well as being written in Go

Unfortunately, it still stalls I'll keep using it for a bit longer to see if I can figure out anything else that might help understand it.

I also have a Huawei B311 on order to see if that fixes the problem. I seem to be doing an unusual amount of home tech-support just to get my basic broadband working properly

 

[smithbill17]

Three Chief Network Officer arrives to chaos

Three UK has appointed Carlo Melis as Chief Network Officer

telecoms.com

"ensuring the 4G network remains stable during this period of dramatically increased traffic" !? laughable!

 

[teleman6868]

I also have a Huawei B311 on order to see if that fixes the problem. I seem to be doing an unusual amount of home tech-support just to get my basic broadband working properly

Interesting that you're going 'back' to a Huawei B311. Hopefully you get good results. I am currently running a Huawei B593s-22 (purchased five years ago) because it outperforms every replacement I have tried with my Three SIM. Annoyingly, it doesn't support any of the inspection tools that would allow me to see which band it's picking up; there's only basic signal strength info.

I had a B535-232 for a couple of weeks and it performed terribly, but I didn't know about the tools to interrogate it and fix bands back then. Might try one again some time.

Anyway, let us know how you go with the B311.

 

[Buggerlugz]

Three Chief Network Officer arrives to chaos

Three UK has appointed Carlo Melis as Chief Network Officer

telecoms.com

"ensuring the 4G network remains stable during this period of dramatically increased traffic" !? laughable!

Lets hope he has the gusto to deliver the capabilities required to actually deliver on their promises. Personally I think three should bench their 5g completely and sort out their existing network problems before tackling a future 5g without Huawei kit.

 

[smithbill17]

Another question for knowledgeable persons:

This thread began with a query by @kev4022 in which he quoted part of his B535 log which said:

WAN connection INTERNET_R_UMTS1:IPv4 connected
WAN connection INTERNET_R_UMTS1:IPv6 connected

This ISPReview article from Nov-2019 talks about Threes roll-out of a new Nokia 'core' supporting IPv6:

Some Three UK Customers Get Working IPv6 Internet Addresses UPDATE

A number of data (mobile broadband) connected users on Three UK's 4G mobile network have now reported that their connection has been assigned an IPv6 internet a

www.ispreview.co.uk

My B535 logs make no mention of IPv6. Therefore, I assume my local mast/infrastructure is not yet on the new Nokia 'core'. Is there likely to be anything in this information that could be contributing to the 'page-load-stall' issue & the dropping-off-speed issue? Do others here have support for IPv6 on the new Nokia 'core' & still experience both of these issues?

 

[psaffrey]

I had a B535-232 for a couple of weeks and it performed terribly, but I didn't know about the tools to interrogate it and fix bands back then. Might try one again some time.

I would be tempted to tinker with the bands but there doesn't seem much conclusive evidence on here that it helps too much.

I liked the `dnscrypt-proxy` solution because it seemed quite cheap to try, and indeed the main irritation with the B535/Three combination is the page-stall problem. However, the secondary problem is that the download speeds are pretty intermittent. I can tell you that both my kids and my wife rage when their YouTube videos stall a dozen times over a half hour video and you only have to have your Friday Netflix viewing stop a few times before you start thinking about changing provider. I was testing with Speedtest yesterday and sometimes getting speeds of 1Mb/s

Peter

 

[daleski]

Changed the DNS in my b535 (now using nextdns) to try and fix this page stall issue, it's bugging the hell out of me and it's the only thing stopping me from ditching VM (cost saving exercise as cannot justify spending £47 just on BB anymore)

 

[psaffrey]

Changed the DNS in my b535 (now using nextdns) to try and fix this page stall issue, it's bugging the hell out of me and it's the only thing stopping me from ditching VM (cost saving exercise as cannot justify spending £47 just on BB anymore)

I'm exactly the same. If they can just iron out these niggles and make their 4G broadband offering seem like a REAL PRODUCT, rather than just a half-arsed bolt-on to their mobile phone offering, I think there will be a lot of people interested. Not only is it cheaper, more flexible and easier to install, it gets rid of the annoying bits you don't need from existing packages (like a landline) *and* the upload speeds are often faster than fibre anyway.

This is partly why I don't understand why the WiFi on these routers is so poor. Yes, I know it's not the focus of a 4G router to be good at WiFi, but if they're targeting the consumer broadband market it needs to work well for the home use-case, and that includes long-range, reliable, fast WiFi.

 

[daleski]

I'm exactly the same. If they can just iron out these niggles and make their 4G broadband offering seem like a REAL PRODUCT, rather than just a half-arsed bolt-on to their mobile phone offering, I think there will be a lot of people interested. Not only is it cheaper, more flexible and easier to install, it gets rid of the annoying bits you don't need from existing packages (like a landline) *and* the upload speeds are often faster than fibre anyway.

This is partly why I don't understand why the WiFi on these routers is so poor. Yes, I know it's not the focus of a 4G router to be good at WiFi, but if they're targeting the consumer broadband market it needs to work well for the home use-case, and that includes long-range, reliable, fast WiFi.

Weirdly enough I sold by Bt whole home wifi because the wifi from the B535 was just as good as having 3 discs throughout my house!

I do agree with what you said it's much more flexible, take it away on holiday yup!, move it into a different room for better signal yup!, change provider, pop in a new sim yup!

I reckon in 2 or 3 days or sooner it will have this problem again, using safari though on my iMac does fare better so could be a combo of B535 + chrome.

 

[smithbill17]

I'm sorry to say that nothing you do will resolve the page-load-stall issue. You can change B535 DNS servers, lock it to 4G only, fiddle with the Bands, use dnscrypt-proxy, use 1.1.1.1 WARP, use a VPN etc etc. None of these will solve the issue (which is with Threes network), but they should all contribute to making it a more tolerable service. A VPN works best, but obviously a reputable one costs more money, and you'll probably suffer a speed hit using a VPN (and most reputable VPNs require OpenVPN which the B535 does not support).

The only solution, is bin Three.

 

[daleski]

I'm sorry to say that nothing you do will resolve the page-load-stall issue. You can change B535 DNS servers, lock it to 4G only, fiddle with the Bands, use dnscrypt-proxy, use 1.1.1.1 WARP, use a VPN etc etc. None of these will solve the issue (which is with Threes network), but they should all contribute to making it a more tolerable service. A VPN works best, but obviously a reputable one costs more money, and you'll probably suffer a speed hit using a VPN (and most reputable VPNs require OpenVPN which the B535 does not support).

The only solution, is bin Three.

2 months into a 24 month agreement can't see that happening! If I can make it better than that's at least a small bonus.

Or wait until 5g hits my town, complain like anything and see if I can an upgrade to a 5g router lol

 

[smithbill17]

it's the only thing stopping me from ditching VM (cost saving exercise as cannot justify spending £47 just on BB anymore)

I ditched VM in favour of Threes mobile broadband as £48/month for 100Mbps was simply excessive (especially when compared to Threes £17/month for 1-30Mbps). It all depends on how you use the internet - if you're a gamer or watch 4K videos & stream movies, have 10 kids in your household, then you'll need VM & have to cough up £40-50/month. If you plod along by yourself on email, web pages, social media & the occasional iPlayer show, then Threes shoestring mobile broadband will suffice.

Look at it as if you're saving yourself ~£30/month by putting up with Three's abominable service (and over 24months, that's £720 saved)

 

[daleski]

I ditched VM in favour of Threes mobile broadband as £48/month for 100Mbps was simply excessive (especially when compared to Threes £17/month for 1-30Mbps). It all depends on how you use the internet - if you're a gamer or watch 4K videos & stream movies, have 10 kids in your household, then you'll need VM & have to cough up £40-50/month. If you plod along by yourself on email, web pages, social media & the occasional iPlayer show, then Threes shoestring mobile broadband will suffice.

Look at it as if you're saving yourself ~£30/month by putting up with Three's abominable service

That's how I am looking at it, I do watch a lot of netflix in 4k, disney+ etc, just means waiting a bit longer for the best quality.

Just myself, wifey and daughter and none of us are gamers, no torrenting or anything like that.

 

[Buggerlugz]

Look at it as if you're saving yourself ~£30/month by putting up with Three's abominable service (and over 24months, that's £720 saved)

Bill, watch out! Three's marketing team might be giving you a call with great sales pitches like that one!

 

[Frediche]

I did have the exact same issue with Three and the 5G router Huawei CPE Pro, and setting up a VPN fixed the issue for me.

I was experiencing the same issue described in this thread: good bandwidth (200 Mbps download, 25Mbps upload), but web pages hanging randomly for 10-30 seconds when loading.

I set up a VPN server in Google Cloud Platform and connected the router to it, it fixed the issue. Bandwidth is slightly reduced (150 Mbps download, 25Mbps upload), but the ping is unaffected (20ms). I suspect on 4G the bandwidth won't be affected because lower. And more importantly: no more hanging pages.

--

Steps I followed to set up the VPN server:

1. In Google Cloud Platform, create a VM running Ubuntu 20.04. I choose the e2-micro machine type and located it in zone europe-west2-c (London). Also set up an external IP address for this VM, which will be the IP of the VPN.
2. Run the VPN setup script here: https://github.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn. It's a quite handy script that sets up a IPsec/L2TP VPN for you (the VPN protocol that the Huawei router supports, it doesn't support OpenVpn or IKEv2).
3. Slightly modify the iptables rules in /etc/iptables.rules. Replace all the INPUT lines with these three:
   

   -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate INVALID -j DROP
   -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
   -A INPUT -p udp -m multiport --dports 500,1701,4500 -j ACCEPT

4. In the Google Cloud Console, in the firewall rules, open the UDP ports 500, 1701 and 4500.

And now on the router in the VPN page:

• Connection type: L2TP VPN client
• LNS address: the external IP of your VPN server
• Hostname: a friendly name (e.g. "GCP VPN")
• Tunnel password: the "IPsec PSK" returned by the VPN server script
• Handshake interval: 60s
• PPP user name: the "Username" returned by the VPN server script
• PPP password: the "Password" returned by the VPN server script
• Authentication: auto

 

[smithbill17]

I did have the exact same issue with Three and the 5G router Huawei CPE Pro, and setting up a VPN fixed the issue for me.

Whoa! Are you saying that this same page-load-stall issue ALSO happens on Threes 5G network!? That's so depressing Any idea if it would still be happening if you were using a different 5G router rather than Huawei?

If I understood your instructions correctly (I'm no expert) you are basically setting up your own personal VPN server as a VM in Google's Cloud Platform? I can see that you get 12months free in Google's Cloud Platform, but after that you'll have to pay to continue with your own private VPN server, just so you can get the internet service that Three ought to be delivering but aren't!?

And the other bit I don't quite understand - don't you also need to pay for a VPN service (eg. NordVPN), otherwise how does your private VPN server connect to the rest of the internet and remain encrypted? (probably my lack of knowledge on how exactly VPNs work).

 

[GavinAshford]

Google cloud platform, and other providers like it (Linode, Digital Ocean, etc) offer VPS (virtual private servers) - effectively a computer in the cloud upon which you can do virtually anything, including setting up and hosting your own VPN server.

Connecting to your own VPN server is like connecting to NordVPN, but you 'own' it, rather than the VPN provider.
In reality you're renting a slice of a physical server somewhere - the cost to rent that slice varies between providers (a VPN doesn't need much CPU or ram) but usually there are limitations to the amount of network traffic depending how much you pay.

When connecting to your own VPN on a VPS you don't need to also pay for a VPN from a VPN provider. Your 'external' internet connection becomes the VPS external IP - similar to how that works with a VPN provider.

 

[smithbill17]

Okay, I understand up to the VPN server running on the VPS. But once the traffic leaves your VPS out onto the internet, doesn't it become unencrypted? I thought a VPN service required a network of VPN servers across the globe so that every 'hop' across the internet was encrypted (until perhaps the last hop to the final destination web server?)