Sponsored Links

Three 4G + TP Archer MR600

eddo_

Casual Member
Hello,

For the last year we've had Three 4G Home Wifi using a Huawei B535-212 router and attached an external aerial which has helped stabilise the wifi, but it's still unstable at best. Sometimes it's
fast-ish (17mbps), sometimes barely registers at all with zero correlation between times of day or use. We aren't super users, don't tend to stream more than one feed at time, nor play online games or download huge files. Basically just day to day use.

I'm not blaming the router, but through huge frustration, does getting a better router tend to help at all? I thought I might try getting the TP Archer MR600 (to see if it made any difference) but have now read that it's not compatible with Three 4G Wifi.

Does anyone have any experience of this?
Can anyone recommend some solutions as to how we could improve our home 4G WIFI?

Three basically aren't interested in helping us, won't let us cancel and we have another year on the contract.

Thanks in advance

Ed
 
This has been extensively discussed and I have two Three 4G broadband lines in families homes. It’s often exactly as you describe.

Three’s network gets hammered for data - and the way that the traffic gets managed causes all of these weird issues. Basically every fix that’s been suggested ends up not working after a while. The only thing that does seem to help is use a VPN service on the router. This essentially bypasses all of the poor traffic management as VPN traffic is routed with high priority and the VPN services generally don’t have issues with traffic routing. The Huawei router is good but it’s not really designed for high performance VPNs so you’re stuck to older protocols such as PPTP. PrivateInternetAccess is one such VPN service which still supports these older protocols and seems to be regarded fairly highly. Perhaps you can give that a try.

The VPN service will help with some issues but it definitely won’t help if the service speed at your particular location is just generally bad. Even though you’re in a contract - if you’re having continual service issues they’ll happily end the contract early and get the router returned to them. I’ve had this option given to me on multiple occasions. Once you’ve been through the process of being on the phone with them - the issue not being resolved by the 2nd level technical support they’re the ones who will let you leave.
 
If you are able to answer the questions I posed in your other post, in the other section, it would give a clearer picture of your existing situation and setup to allow us to give suggestions
 
Sponsored Links
If you are able to answer the questions I posed in your other post, in the other section, it would give a clearer picture of your existing situation and setup to allow us to give suggestions
Hey Gavin, replies below. Thanks in advance.

Why you think the MR600 isn't compatible with Three?

From watching some YouTube reviews of the router where the reviewer stated that it was not compatible. Happy to hear this doesn’t seem to be the case.

When you say the speed fluctuates is that when you're connected to WiFi, or hardwired Ethernet to the router? I'd always recommend using Ethernet when testing/debugging to eliminate any potential WiFi issues.

When connected via WiFi – Thanks for the tip about ethernet I will try that.

Do the speeds fluctuate regularly at a specific time of day, e.g. peak times?
No, incredibly hit and miss. There doesn’t seem to be any correlation in regards to how stable the WiFi is.

What external antenna do you have? Does it have a clear line of sight to the mast? If it's directional model is it aligned to point at your local mast? If there another mast in the area that it could be pointed at which may provide a more stable connection?

We have the Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 and it is directed to our nearest mast. It has the clearest line of sight from where we have positioned it. There is another mast about the same distance away from the back of my house but lots of buildings in the way.

Do you know what frequency bands it connects with? You say it's super fast at times (what speeds?) but that could suggest it's aggregating the fast bands (band 3+1) - does it show 4G+ in the router UI? When it goes slow it may be dropping to band 20, which doesn't provide much throughput at all (it's more for coverage and deeper indoors)

Frequency, I have no idea I’m afraid. It doesn’t show 4G+ in the router UI, just 4G. In terms of speed, when it’s good (which is rare) we can get about 17mbps download and 30+ upload.

-
 
This has been extensively discussed and I have two Three 4G broadband lines in families homes. It’s often exactly as you describe.

Three’s network gets hammered for data - and the way that the traffic gets managed causes all of these weird issues. Basically every fix that’s been suggested ends up not working after a while. The only thing that does seem to help is use a VPN service on the router. This essentially bypasses all of the poor traffic management as VPN traffic is routed with high priority and the VPN services generally don’t have issues with traffic routing. The Huawei router is good but it’s not really designed for high performance VPNs so you’re stuck to older protocols such as PPTP. PrivateInternetAccess is one such VPN service which still supports these older protocols and seems to be regarded fairly highly. Perhaps you can give that a try.

The VPN service will help with some issues but it definitely won’t help if the service speed at your particular location is just generally bad. Even though you’re in a contract - if you’re having continual service issues they’ll happily end the contract early and get the router returned to them. I’ve had this option given to me on multiple occasions. Once you’ve been through the process of being on the phone with them - the issue not being resolved by the 2nd level technical support they’re the ones who will let you leave.

Thank you so much for your reply.

I haven't investigated the VPN option so will give that a go, thank you. In a way it's reassuring to hear that the issues are the same across the board with the service.

If I don't see much change with the VPN I'll try and leave again. Last time they told me that we are receiving stable internet as they can see the data alongside constantly telling me that they're doing ongoing improvement work to the masts which will be why our service is fluctuating. It's incredibly frustrating.

Thank you.
 
For info, the MR600 works with Three. What it doesn’t do is carrier aggregation on bands 1+3, so I can understand people being frustrated. As the MR600 doesn’t report cell ID you are somewhat in the dark when it comes to problem determination. Apart from that, it’s a very good router.

But in your situation, there is nothing to gain by switching from a B535 to the MR600.

Also note that Three is the only provider not using CGNAT, so if you move elsewhere you’ve got that to contend with if you‘re a gamer or want to remotely access devices. VPNs can help here too.
 
We have the Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 and it is directed to our nearest mast. It has the clearest line of sight from where we have positioned it. There is another mast about the same distance away from the back of my house but lots of buildings in the way.

Do you know what frequency bands it connects with? You say it's super fast at times (what speeds?) but that could suggest it's aggregating the fast bands (band 3+1) - does it show 4G+ in the router UI? When it goes slow it may be dropping to band 20, which doesn't provide much throughput at all (it's more for coverage and deeper indoors)

Frequency, I have no idea I’m afraid. It doesn’t show 4G+ in the router UI, just 4G. In terms of speed, when it’s good (which is rare) we can get about 17mbps download and 30+ upload.
The antenna you have is omni-directional so 'pointing' it at a mast won't actually have any effect - there isn't a 'front-side' with it being omni-directional. The issue with being omni-directional is that the router may be connecting to any local mast - even the one you say is behind buildings (though admittedly those should negatively impact the signal and cause the router to prefer another one with a better signal)

As it doesn't show 4G+ but are seeing speeds in excess of the 10's of Mbps then that suggests you're just connecting to band 3 alone.
However as you're seeing lower download speed than upload that does suggest that your connected cell, and/or mast are potentially highly subscribed (lots of users connected). This would somewhat explain the random fluctuation in speeds you get, as those users use up the capacity at different times.
When you do experience slower download, does the upload speed remain somewhat the same (high 20's-30's)?

The next thing I would say would be to monitor your connected CellID over time - you can find this in your B535 router UI under [Advanced] > [System] > [Device Information] under CELL_ID. This is a unique number that identifies the cell and the mast that you are connected to at the time. It would be interesting to see if this changes when your speeds drop (which would mean you're connecting to a different cell/mast at that time).
You can also use the Cell ID on the cellmapper website to confirm the mast you're connected to (assuming that the mast has been previously discovered and is plotted accurately by the cellmapper users).

Also, while you're on the Device Information page, note the signal metrics for RSRQ, RSRP and SINR (and RSSI to a lesser extent). These tell you how good the signal is that you're currently receiving.
This table is a handy lookup of those:
LTE-RF-Conditions.png

While the 'signal bars' are a visual representation of these values that have been mushed through an algorithm, these values give more detail into what might be a potential issue with a signal.
 
Sponsored Links
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules