jgm0
Casual Member
Hey all, I'm somewhat of a beginner when it comes to networking and mobile broadband. I have had to learn more about it after moving into the countryside to a house that has no wired connection.
In my previous home I was successful in getting a decent 20mb/s download speed with a Smarty SIM card in a TP-Link archer MR400 without an antenna with the router on a windowsill with near enough line of sight with the local mast.
In my new home, I am struggling to get anything more than a consistent 5mb/s download speed with the same setup as we are in a small valley and surrounded by trees and I'm not sure where best to position the router as we are surrounded by different masts and I'm not sure which is best to try get a reliable connection with.
After some investigation on CellMapper I discovered that the Vodafone network has a tower closer to me, so I ordered an ASDA sim only plan (on the vodafone network) and after testing it in the router I was disappointed to learn it had even slower speeds than Three/Smarty. Is this because I cannot reliably select a specific tower to pair with?
Screenshots of cellmapper masts Three vs Vodafone: (images were too big to upload)
Another thing to note is that I seem to get faster speeds on Three using my mobile (Samsung S10E) over the TP-Link router, is this just because my mobile has better antenna?
I am considering an external antenna, but as I am renting the property I do not want a fixed solution and was considering a window mounted omni-directional antenna. Failing this, I would probably opt for Starlink but want to find cheaper options first.
In my previous home I was successful in getting a decent 20mb/s download speed with a Smarty SIM card in a TP-Link archer MR400 without an antenna with the router on a windowsill with near enough line of sight with the local mast.
In my new home, I am struggling to get anything more than a consistent 5mb/s download speed with the same setup as we are in a small valley and surrounded by trees and I'm not sure where best to position the router as we are surrounded by different masts and I'm not sure which is best to try get a reliable connection with.
After some investigation on CellMapper I discovered that the Vodafone network has a tower closer to me, so I ordered an ASDA sim only plan (on the vodafone network) and after testing it in the router I was disappointed to learn it had even slower speeds than Three/Smarty. Is this because I cannot reliably select a specific tower to pair with?
Screenshots of cellmapper masts Three vs Vodafone: (images were too big to upload)
Another thing to note is that I seem to get faster speeds on Three using my mobile (Samsung S10E) over the TP-Link router, is this just because my mobile has better antenna?
I am considering an external antenna, but as I am renting the property I do not want a fixed solution and was considering a window mounted omni-directional antenna. Failing this, I would probably opt for Starlink but want to find cheaper options first.
- How can I find out what SIM card/network provider would be the best option reliably?
- If I were to invest in an antenna, what would be the best setup and where should it be positioned?























