GavinAshford
ULTIMATE Member
I think if you are going down the route of getting a directional antenna then I'd go with something from Amazon, knowing that you can return it easily if it doesn't work out (assuming it's sold by Amazon themselves).
Hello all.
After years of lousy wired broadband due to an EO line, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the Three HomeFi unlimited bundle inc. a Huawei 535 router. I'm currently getting between 10 and 30mbs download - which is dreamy compared to my old 6.7!!
However, in reading so many of the posts here I'm now not so sure that I made the right decision.
The mast that I connect to (CELL-ID 780290) is only 304m from my house and shows download speeds of up to 40mbs. According to Cellmapper, the same mast used by EE (Cell-ID 3425792 offers a mind blowing 405mbs download - the difference seems to be LTE as opposed to LTE-A.
If I bought a data sim from EE and presumably a suitable router, do you think that I could achieve anything like these speeds?
I hope that this isn't a really daft question and any advice would be gladly appreciated.
Its not just Three though, I am on Vodafone Max plan and those issues exist with these routers. The latest update has certainly helped with stability.Not a daft question - the problem is THREE, not your equipment.
Huawei B535 is an excellent piece of kit but since we are all being conditioned to have a racial hatred against the Chinese manufacturers it is an easy target.
I advise anyone NOT to use Three.
I'm locked into a 2 year contract, was brilliant in November when I joined - I live in a rural area, maybe a mile from mast - getting speeds in excess of 80mbps, Huawei B535 indoors in middle of the house.
Now, since their 5G roll out the whole Three Network has went up in smoke. It is unacceptable.
In February with the roll out Three deliberately blocked all Xbox downloads and denied it was even a thing - when a number of us proved the block, they blamed Microsoft. When forums across the internet with Xbox owners and Three became vocal, Three were forced to recognise the problem was them and only issued a response, a quiet response on Twitter due to what I firmly believe ISPreviews involvement.
Since CoVid-19 Three has deliberately slowed countless peoples speed down now I don't expect high speeds when everyone is online but I'm hitting 500kbps most days, I've checked at 2 in the morning to get 25mbps - now I'm not an extreme user. Netflix is the height of it and between constant buffering at the lowest quality, I might as well change my sleeping habits.
So I can only reiterate Three are incapable of providing anything.
I never thought any ISP could be as dishonest as BT but Three are certainly giving them a good run for their money.
Its not just Three though, I am on Vodafone Max plan and those issues exist with these routers. The latest update has certainly helped with stability.
Also, Three dont use CGNAT where Vodafone and EE do.
Liveswired, thank you for your frank response. It's a sentiment I've seen many times here and one that I generally agree with.
There is however, one tiny fly in the ointment; the cost. At £20 a month it's nearly half that of any alternative, which is why, after lots of headaches I have no option but to stick with it.
Just one thing; Worse than BT?? (As dishonest) No. I'm not having that! As the illegitimate spawn of Satan, even BT would probably be quite upset that anyone might be considered as bad as they are.
Also, are you pointing the router towards the tower, the front of the router should be facing it directly. That made a huge difference to my signal quality. I eventually bought 2 rabbit ear antenna off eBay and surprisingly they increased the quality of my connection by quite a margin.
I bought These feedback is mixed but I suspect its the same for all these types of antenna. It worked for me, took my SINR from around 6 to +10 to +13which ones did you get mate? I brought 2 off of amazon and they decreased the signal by as much as they said it would increase by!
And this is the crux - either go with more expensive providers and get CGNAT which needs a VPN to alleviate the issue, or go with cheaper Three (assuming their speeds are good in your location) and still need a VPN to avoid their DNS/TLS handshake/DPI/MTU/whatever-it-is-causing-page-stalling issue.You can use CGNAT providers if you use a (privacy) VPN over the top of it to avoid gaming issues.
I was semi thinking about the DIY aerial, in the absence of an unused Sky dish but it had me wondering.. At the back of my loft is an old tv aerial long since disconnected. Would that work?
I bought These feedback is mixed but I suspect its the same for all these types of antenna. It worked for me, took my SINR from around 6 to +10 to +13
Mine is only connected to band 20, but like I say the quality of the connection increased.Feedback is mixed because it only works well if your router is connected to multiple bands.
Mine is only connected to band 20, but like I say the quality of the connection increased.
My local masts are all Band 20 only, apart from 1 which is band 20 and band 1 but I have never been able to connect to that. The closest one is about a mile away maybe. Here are my local mastsBand 20 can be like 15 miles away so I can understand further distances it could help. I'd be very surprised there isn't another mast closer to you than that.
Here's how unscientific the antenna thing is. If I leave my Antenna off and go with the internal ones I can get 20db on band 3 all day, but if I put my antenna in it'll get band 1 as well (around 12db), but it swaps between 1 and 3 as primary all day long. (I can tell because my router goes from a solid 5 lights to 4 lights) so when band 1 is primary my connection seems far slower.
So much for the + improving things eh!
Yes, but it doesn't pick anything up. Not sure if a directional antenna would help then I could bond band 1 and band 20? Or the tower just isn't in my line of sight. Dont want to spend £100+ to find it doesnt help, and 20Mbps is ok for nowCan you force it onto band 1 with LTEHMonitor440?