Sponsored Links

Underwhelmed after trying external antenna with Huawei B535

I'm not sure I'd recommend the weather balloon approach. You have to be aware of any licence / height restrictions on this before floating them and they're an excellent way of attracting lightning strikes, which aren't so good for mobile connectivity :LOL:
 
Hi

I’m having issues getting a good connection with three, B535, and a Poynting external antenna.

can I ask, how are people forcing the band? Someone even mentioned forcing it to only connect to a specific cell id - is that possible?

thanks
Andy
 
HuaCtrl app on Android. Windows app as well but forget the name - works well though.
 
I don't believe any Huawei router allows fixing to a specific cell. A directional antenna is probably the best bet to point at the mast you want.
 
One solution that does not appear to have been mentioned is that if you can get power in the loft then rather than cable down from an antenna to the 535, try the 535 in a loft on paddles and if it successfully improves signal then ethernet cable down to pick up your home network (external grade if necessary).
If using paddles or antenna disable internal in config.
There is not one solution for all unfortunately.
 
My B525 is as close to the antenna as possible in the eaves, then I use Cat6 Ethernet cable to run to the main router which acts as the hub for the house. That reduces the signal loss from the coaxial from the B525 to the antenna to a minimum and the Cat6 is well within the longest length before that becomes an issue. Just means a long walk if I need to do a full reset on the B525, normal reboots can be done remotely.

I use Huawei Monitor on a PC to force band selection, for me Band 3 only gives the best download, CA 3 + 20 gives no real benefit but depends on the mast and your relative location.
 
Sponsored Links
I have bought a MACAB 1100 pro omnidirectional antenna and connected it to the B535 with SMA connectors.
No matter what I do it will give me 5 in signal on the router, without the antenna it's mostly 2-3.
It gives me a lover ping with the external antenna.
The download drops to less the 4 Mbps with the antenna from 20-40 without (though unstable, loses signal completely sometimes)
My upload speed increases, however, increases from 1-2 to 20+ Mbps from 1-3.

Even if I lay the antenna down flat on the table I get 5 connection indicators on the router while the speed drops to less the 0,3 in download and upload.

If I only connect the antenna with one SMA port and it's the right one, I get better download speed, like 50-60 Mbps but the upload drops to less then 2 often less then.
As I understand it you should always connect both ports. I contacted the seller of the antenna and they said there probably ware a fault on the antenna and send me a new one, but there is no difference. I even tried connecting one cable from each antenna and it does not make any difference from connecting both to one.
 
Have experimented a lot an when I get a good download I get a bad upload and the other way around. The only other option is to get bad of both.
 
Hi all, thanks for a very interesting thread.
I've been through MISSIONS to get a constant and decent speed on my 4g router through Three.
Firstly, where all the cat6 cables in my house terminate is in the loft conversion, so that's where my router resides and I get a pretty good signal....5 bars constantly (Although, as we know, this isn't necessarily a good indication)
I started out with a B525 - great router but rarely got 4G+. It occasionally hit speeds of 50+ Mbps - but it was very sporadic.
Thinking I would get better speeds by obtaining 4G+ constantly, I bought a B535 and sure enough, I was getting 4G+ permanently, but speeds bimbled between 5 and 20Mbps.
I discovered HuaCtrl and Huawei Manager and was able to monitor all the variables.
I was getting pretty good levels
RSRP around -80db
RSRQ around -4 to -10
SNIR around 4 to 10 - which has always been the chink in the armour.
So, wanting to get a better speed I decided an external antenna was the way to go.
I bought some of those cheap ones on eBay (that look like a white book) and it made things worse.
I binned them and decided to take the plunge with a Poynting XPOL01 - I excitedly got it out the box, but again it made things worse (looking at the levels in HuaCrtl) and yes, I did switch to external antennae in the router settings. I was very disappointed - I thought this would be the holy grail.
In my search for another external antenna, I found this thread and it's been a revelation.
I locked my router to band 3 and although I wasn't in 4G+, I'm now constantly getting 50Mbps!
How mad is that?
That connecting just to one band on 4G is better than connecting to 3 bands and getting 4G+??!!
I don't think it's going to get any better than 50+ Mbps, but I'll carry on my search - will an external antenna give me higher than 50Mbps?
What do you think?
Thanks again lovely people.
Guy
 
Hi all, thanks for a very interesting thread.
I've been through MISSIONS to get a constant and decent speed on my 4g router through Three.
Firstly, where all the cat6 cables in my house terminate is in the loft conversion, so that's where my router resides and I get a pretty good signal....5 bars constantly (Although, as we know, this isn't necessarily a good indication)
I started out with a B525 - great router but rarely got 4G+. It occasionally hit speeds of 50+ Mbps - but it was very sporadic.
Thinking I would get better speeds by obtaining 4G+ constantly, I bought a B535 and sure enough, I was getting 4G+ permanently, but speeds bimbled between 5 and 20Mbps.
I discovered HuaCtrl and Huawei Manager and was able to monitor all the variables.
I was getting pretty good levels
RSRP around -80db
RSRQ around -4 to -10
SNIR around 4 to 10 - which has always been the chink in the armour.
So, wanting to get a better speed I decided an external antenna was the way to go.
I bought some of those cheap ones on eBay (that look like a white book) and it made things worse.
I binned them and decided to take the plunge with a Poynting XPOL01 - I excitedly got it out the box, but again it made things worse (looking at the levels in HuaCrtl) and yes, I did switch to external antennae in the router settings. I was very disappointed - I thought this would be the holy grail.
In my search for another external antenna, I found this thread and it's been a revelation.
I locked my router to band 3 and although I wasn't in 4G+, I'm now constantly getting 50Mbps!
How mad is that?
That connecting just to one band on 4G is better than connecting to 3 bands and getting 4G+??!!
I don't think it's going to get any better than 50+ Mbps, but I'll carry on my search - will an external antenna give me higher than 50Mbps?
What do you think?
Thanks again lovely people.
Guy
50+ is amazing on Three. You should be satisfied with this. I feel like the only way you'll get better performance is on another network.

Signal levels don't seem to matter so much on Three to get their maximum speeds.
 
I locked my router to band 3 and although I wasn't in 4G+, I'm now constantly getting 50Mbps!

Same here Guy, I can get 50Mbps bursting up to 70Mbps for most of the day (currently) on band 3 alone. If I switch it to Bands 1 and 3 and I struggle to get 30mb tops.

I can't think why that'd be the case as its on completely different frequencies so interference shouldn't be an issue. It appears band 1 has a weaker SNR for me, but 15 compared to my band 3's 20, but I can't see that being the cause either. Band 1 on its own provides me with only 20Mbps.

So I'd expect if I can get 50-70 on band 3, surely with band 1 too I would get 70-90Mbps generally.

But, heres the kicker, I actually got 100-120Mbps on band 3 alone last September time. (With no rabbit ears at this time and internal antenna only.)

I presume, its because three limits bandwidth per customer depending on contention at any given time.
 
Sponsored Links
Thought I'd add my mainly positive experiences with external Poynting antennas.

Network is 3, test period about 12 months (Sept 2019-August 2020).The mast is 1500m (almost line of sight) to Cell ID 320153. This cell only supports 15mhz B3.

4G-XPOL-A0001 - Small omnidirectional antenna. 3dBi
4G-XPOL-A0002 - Medium MIMO directional antenna 9dBi
A-LPDA-92-KIT - Pair 3G/4G Yagi Directional antennas 11dBi / 45 deg Polarisation

The aerials were tested in my roof space, pole mounted and positioned using the CLI output from huawei_band_tools (except zyxel :))

4G Routers tested.
Huawei B525-23a, Zyxel LTE 3302 and Huawei B535.

To briefly summarise; Like others have found, around Sept 2019, 3 started to throttle their network. I saw peaks using the A0001 antenna in excess of 95Mbs, early in 2020 with the same equipment this fell to peaks of 30-40Mbs.
In my testing, using non standard ports and using SSL bypasses 3's edge proxies for a more reliable speedtest.

Start point performance was:
(Internal B525 antennas - Sept 2019)
CELL_ID: 3201538
RSRQ: -11dB
RSRP: -100dBm
SINR: 8dB

Latency (ping times) and throughput performance is very variable, and very noticeable when browsing, using Amazon Fire TV etc.

Final Test:
(B525 conneted to External 45 degree directional antennas - August 2020)
CELL_ID: 3201538
RSRQ: -4dB
RSRP: -67dBm
SINR: 25dB

Now my Ping times are consistent at 42-50ms, download throughput is 50Mbs (peaking at 70Mbs), upload throughput is consistently between 30-32Mbs.

I found changing the routers made no difference to performance in my location.

I'd recommend the Poynting Yagi's, however, the price has increased 50% in the last 12 months! My experience with the A0001 and A0002 has been less stellar :)
 
Thought I'd add my mainly positive experiences with external Poynting antennas.

Network is 3, test period about 12 months (Sept 2019-August 2020).The mast is 1500m (almost line of sight) to Cell ID 320153. This cell only supports 15mhz B3.

4G-XPOL-A0001 - Small omnidirectional antenna. 3dBi
4G-XPOL-A0002 - Medium MIMO directional antenna 9dBi
A-LPDA-92-KIT - Pair 3G/4G Yagi Directional antennas 11dBi / 45 deg Polarisation

The aerials were tested in my roof space, pole mounted and positioned using the CLI output from huawei_band_tools (except zyxel :))

4G Routers tested.
Huawei B525-23a, Zyxel LTE 3302 and Huawei B535.

To briefly summarise; Like others have found, around Sept 2019, 3 started to throttle their network. I saw peaks using the A0001 antenna in excess of 95Mbs, early in 2020 with the same equipment this fell to peaks of 30-40Mbs.
In my testing, using non standard ports and using SSL bypasses 3's edge proxies for a more reliable speedtest.

Start point performance was:
(Internal B525 antennas - Sept 2019)
CELL_ID: 3201538
RSRQ: -11dB
RSRP: -100dBm
SINR: 8dB

Latency (ping times) and throughput performance is very variable, and very noticeable when browsing, using Amazon Fire TV etc.

Final Test:
(B525 conneted to External 45 degree directional antennas - August 2020)
CELL_ID: 3201538
RSRQ: -4dB
RSRP: -67dBm
SINR: 25dB

Now my Ping times are consistent at 42-50ms, download throughput is 50Mbs (peaking at 70Mbs), upload throughput is consistently between 30-32Mbs.

I found changing the routers made no difference to performance in my location.

I'd recommend the Poynting Yagi's, however, the price has increased 50% in the last 12 months! My experience with the A0001 and A0002 has been less stellar :)
Some nice figures with the twin yagi's. I just built a yagi for 800Mhz and I am impressed how stable the connection is compared with the internal omni's.

Will build another one and set at 45 degress to try and get MIMO working as your stats have convinced me its worth trying to squeeze as much out of these as possible.
 
Same here Guy, I can get 50Mbps bursting up to 70Mbps for most of the day (currently) on band 3 alone. If I switch it to Bands 1 and 3 and I struggle to get 30mb tops.

I can't think why that'd be the case as its on completely different frequencies so interference shouldn't be an issue. It appears band 1 has a weaker SNR for me, but 15 compared to my band 3's 20, but I can't see that being the cause either. Band 1 on its own provides me with only 20Mbps.

So I'd expect if I can get 50-70 on band 3, surely with band 1 too I would get 70-90Mbps generally.

But, heres the kicker, I actually got 100-120Mbps on band 3 alone last September time. (With no rabbit ears at this time and internal antenna only.)

I presume, its because three limits bandwidth per customer depending on contention at any given time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Guys - I'm in need of help please !

I've been fighting with my B535 & a range of Poynting antennas for two weeks now starting with XPOL-A0001 & now XPOL-A0002-5G. My ISP is 3 c/o Smarty and is uncapped & unlimited & the B535 is fresh out of the box from Amazon.

Originally I ran with the bunny ears (poor UL/DL) so spent an afternoon on the roof with both my dinner plate size onmi-directional Poynting & its smaller multi-direction cousin. The antennas are pole mounted and 7.2 km by line of sight to my local 3 tower which Cellmapper tells me has 8 LTE sectors.

Having swung through a 15 degree arc in ever decreasing steps I have hit a 'good' signal using the omni 5G kit with the following results.

RSRQ is -12
RSRP is -89
RSSI is -63
SINR is 2

I'm located in a populated but coastal area in Suffolk and would not consider the area as rural as I can see the masts with my glasses on !

My Challenges:

I'm using LTE-H Monitor to set my bands to B3 / B20 but for the life of me cannot get anything above 5-8Mb/s DL & 1-10 UL - all expectations of 10-30 mbs DL have been dashed.

Try is I might to switch settings I can only get <10 rates (normally 1-5) when I connect to the 8th sector which only offers B20 while sectors 1-3 all have B3 and are facing directly towards me.

When I force changes to add B3 only the DL/UL tanks completely and B3 + B20 the LTE locks back onto B20 as the primary and delivers UL/DL 10Mbs matter what.

As I am out of options (beyond switching to copper wire ADSL) any advice or solutions would be welcome!

All the best

Will
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Guys - I'm in need of help please !

I've been fighting with my B535 & a range of Poynting antennas for two weeks now starting with XPOL-A0001 & now XPOL-A0002-5G. My ISP is 3 c/o Smarty and is uncapped & unlimited & the B535 is fresh out of the box from Amazon.

Originally I ran with the bunny ears (poor UL/DL) so spent an afternoon on the roof with both my dinner plate size onmi-directional Poynting & its smaller multi-direction cousin. The antennas are pole mounted and 7.2 km by line of sight to my local 3 tower which Cellmapper tells me has 8 LTE sectors.

Having swung through a 15 degree arc in ever decreasing steps I have hit a 'good' signal using the omni 5G kit with the following results.

RSRQ is -12
RSRP is -89
RSSI is -63
SINR is 2

I'm located in a populated but coastal area in Suffolk and would not consider the area as rural as I can see the masts with my glasses on !

My Challenges:

I'm using LTE-H Monitor to set my bands to B3 / B20 but for the life of me cannot get anything above 5-8Mb/s DL & 1-10 UL - all expectations of 10-30 mbs DL have been dashed.

Try is I might to switch settings I can only get <10 rates (normally 1-5) when I connect to the 8th sector which only offers B20 while sectors 1-3 all have B3 and are facing directly towards me.

When I force changes to add B3 only the DL/UL tanks completely and B3 + B20 the LTE locks back onto B20 as the primary and delivers UL/DL 10Mbs matter what.

As I am out of options (beyond switching to copper wire ADSL) any advice or solutions would be welcome!

All the best

Will
RSRQ & SINR are quite bad.
Looks like you are just too far away from the mast and not line of site..

Have you tried another network, get a few payg sims like vodafone and try that?

Do you use both antennas at once?
 
I agree your signal levels are very bad. The fact your router is connecting to band 20 tells me the level of signal from your masts bands 1 and 3 must be shockingly poor.

My router won't even automatically connect to band 20 (because its on a different mast 6 miles away), but when I force it to connect I only get 5-8Mbps too, which is too be expected from band 20.

Like Dave says, I think your best bet is trying sims from different carriers and trying to find one with a mast closer to you.
 
I agree your signal levels are very bad. The fact your router is connecting to band 20 tells me the level of signal from your masts bands 1 and 3 must be shockingly poor.

My router won't even automatically connect to band 20 (because its on a different mast 6 miles away), but when I force it to connect I only get 5-8Mbps too, which is too be expected from band 20.

Like Dave says, I think your best bet is trying sims from different carriers and trying to find one with a mast closer to you.

thanks both - I will flip over to my O2 SIM and report back !
 
Hi all

Stumbled across this thread after recently moving from BT fibre to Three for 4G broadband - instantly impressed, and the Huawei B535 shows 4 out of 5 bars on the LED lights. The Huawei app however shows me in the yellow bars for signal strength, rather than green or even blue.

I am less than 700m from the Three mast I connect to, and getting the below stats:

RSRQ-5.0dB
RSRP-101dBm
RSSI-75dBm
SINR6dB

Speeds are typically 25-35Mbps download and similar upload with a ping of around 30ms, so its far from poor (I was below 8Mbps download and 1Mbps upload with BT fibre).

Details for the cell:

System SubtypeLTE
PCI287 (95/2)
EARFCN1392
Maximum Signal (RSRP)-83 dBm
Bandwidth*15 MHz
Uplink Frequency1729.2 MHz
Downlink Frequency1824.2 MHz
Frequency BandDCS (B3 FDD)


I held the router out the window, and signal strength crept into green. I reckon I can get this up to 40-50Mpbs (seems to be about the maximum with Three?) with the right settings/antenna, but thought it an idea to check on here.

Poynting directional could be a good option given proximity to the mast. No buildings in the way, but its an area of woodland so may not be perfect. Do these need to be external, or is in the attic a viable option?

Thanks for any guidance / advice
 
Hi all

Stumbled across this thread after recently moving from BT fibre to Three for 4G broadband - instantly impressed, and the Huawei B535 shows 4 out of 5 bars on the LED lights. The Huawei app however shows me in the yellow bars for signal strength, rather than green or even blue.

I am less than 700m from the Three mast I connect to, and getting the below stats:

RSRQ-5.0dB
RSRP-101dBm
RSSI-75dBm
SINR6dB

Speeds are typically 25-35Mbps download and similar upload with a ping of around 30ms, so its far from poor (I was below 8Mbps download and 1Mbps upload with BT fibre).

Details for the cell:

System SubtypeLTE
PCI287 (95/2)
EARFCN1392
Maximum Signal (RSRP)-83 dBm
Bandwidth*15 MHz
Uplink Frequency1729.2 MHz
Downlink Frequency1824.2 MHz
Frequency BandDCS (B3 FDD)


I held the router out the window, and signal strength crept into green. I reckon I can get this up to 40-50Mpbs (seems to be about the maximum with Three?) with the right settings/antenna, but thought it an idea to check on here.

Poynting directional could be a good option given proximity to the mast. No buildings in the way, but its an area of woodland so may not be perfect. Do these need to be external, or is in the attic a viable option?

Thanks for any guidance / advice
Chuck it in the attic and report back, that close to the mast you might not need external antenna, but yes directional is better to get rid of other 'noise'.

And point the front of the router towards the mast (approx) as I think the internal antenna work better like that, well mine do.

Connect the HuaCtrl app as you move the router around in the attic, get that SINR as high as possible +20 would be ideal
 
Tried the attic (hot up there today!!) and it made no difference. Same as I can get playing with the location of the router downstairs - max I get the SINR up to is 8

Huactrl app not available for iPhone - Huawei Smart Home app seems to be the equivalent but can't see the stats in there, so just use the ip address to log in direct and refresh the page when I move it
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All

Helpful ISP Guides and Tips

Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5473)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2525)
  4. Openreach (2291)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1780)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

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