Three UK - 4G Home Broadband - any users here?

[essayer]

I have the ZTE MF286D on Three and until recently it's been really reliable

However, lately the connection becomes quite laggy, once per day. I reboot it, and all is fine after restart until the next day. So it's presumably not network congestion or similar, but something going on with the router.

Anyone noticed similar ?

[megaphone]

Heads-up. 3 have a sale on at the moment. I picked up unlimited 4G home broadband for £14/m, including a router, (24m contract) plus there is £50 cash back available.

http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadb...

I got mine in a 3 shop, was up and running when I got home. Getting about 40 down 20 up. They gave me a Huawei B535 router , it can take external antennas so will do some testing.

Only issue I have is no 'modem' mode available in 3 routers, so won't work well with my Edgerouter. Anyone managed to 'unlock' one?

[FunkyGibbon]

megaphone said:

Only issue I have is no 'modem' mode available in 3 routers, so won't work well with my Edgerouter. Anyone managed to 'unlock' one?

My Three router (same model as yours) called modem mode "bridge mode" under the advanced settings.

[megaphone]

FunkyGibbon said:

megaphone said:

Only issue I have is no 'modem' mode available in 3 routers, so won't work well with my Edgerouter. Anyone managed to 'unlock' one?

My Three router (same model as yours) called modem mode "bridge mode" under the advanced settings.

I'll check again, couldn't see that available. Mine is a B535-333.

[megaphone]

megaphone said:

FunkyGibbon said:

megaphone said:

Only issue I have is no 'modem' mode available in 3 routers, so won't work well with my Edgerouter. Anyone managed to 'unlock' one?

My Three router (same model as yours) called modem mode "bridge mode" under the advanced settings.

I'll check again, couldn't see that available. Mine is a B535-333.

Cant see 'Bridge Mode'. Mine is running version 11.0.2.51.

[FunkyGibbon]

I'm not using the b535-333 as I now had FTTP.

But in my previous property I did and used it as modem only. Maybe firmware updates have locked it down?

[megaphone]

FunkyGibbon said:

I'm not using the b535-333 as I now had FTTP.

But in my previous property I did and used it as modem only. Maybe firmware updates have locked it down?

Yes that's what I reckon. Will do some more research. Might be able to change the fw or 'unlock' it. I have another D-link 4G router so will try that as well.

[IanA2]

megaphone said:

Heads-up. 3 have a sale on at the moment. I picked up unlimited 4G home broadband for £14/m, including a router, (24m contract) plus there is £50 cash back available.

http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadb...

I got mine in a 3 shop, was up and running when I got home. Getting about 40 down 20 up. They gave me a Huawei B535 router , it can take external antennas so will do some testing.

Only issue I have is no 'modem' mode available in 3 routers, so won't work well with my Edgerouter. Anyone managed to 'unlock' one?

I started late 2018 with a B315, good not great. Tried several different antennas, no real difference. Couple of months later bought a B618, massive difference, and without antennas. Still going strong.

Edited by IanA2 on Sunday 16th January 14:48

[Murph7355]

megaphone said:

Heads-up. 3 have a sale on at the moment. I picked up unlimited 4G home broadband for £14/m, including a router, (24m contract) plus there is £50 cash back available.

http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadb...

I got mine in a 3 shop, was up and running when I got home. Getting about 40 down 20 up. They gave me a Huawei B535 router , it can take external antennas so will do some testing.

Only issue I have is no 'modem' mode available in 3 routers, so won't work well with my Edgerouter. Anyone managed to 'unlock' one?

You could just plug a LAN cable between the B535 and the Edgerouter with noting else attached to the B535.

[megaphone]

FunkyGibbon said:

I'm not using the b535-333 as I now had FTTP.

But in my previous property I did and used it as modem only. Maybe firmware updates have locked it down?

Yes that's what I reckon. Will do some more research. Might be able to change the fw or 'unlock' it. I have another D-link 4G router so will try that as well.

[droopsnoot]

I've had a letter telling me that my £10/month 20Gb 4G mobile broadband is about to become either £16 for the same, or £18 for 40Gb, starting in about five weeks.

Interesting that there's a separate deal (linked above) for unlimited for £14/month which they didn't mention in the letter. I think I'm going to go for a fixed connection instead though - I get around 9Mb download speed, and that's if I balance the mi-fi box in an open window, if I bring it inside (because it's freezing outside, or the windows are being cleaned) it struggles to do anything at all. A fixed connection is going to cost me more, but at least brings better performance and the main reason I was on mobile doesn't apply to me any more.

I'd put off changing because the chap in the Three shop told me their current rates were much higher, so if I wanted mobile I should stick with what I've got,. Now that's not the case, it's an easier choice.

[Stussy]

Further investigation following on from the above…
He’s now got a B818, it made a very impressive difference at my house!
I swapped my EE sim into it and jumped instantly from 60mb to 280, that was a surprise.
Unfortunately at his house it’s not made a huge difference, but has taken EE from 1mb to around 5-10.
We’ve found there’s a Vodafone mast only a mile away, so a test with a vodafone sim showed around 20-30, which was usable, but it does fluctuate a lot down to 5 at times.
I’m wondering if an omni directional external aerial would help, as there is no direct line of sight on the mast. Surely mounting one a couple of metre up on a pole should give some improvement?

[Jenny Tailor]

Stussy said:

Further investigation following on from the above…
He’s now got a B818, it made a very impressive difference at my house!
I swapped my EE sim into it and jumped instantly from 60mb to 280, that was a surprise.
Unfortunately at his house it’s not made a huge difference, but has taken EE from 1mb to around 5-10.
We’ve found there’s a Vodafone mast only a mile away, so a test with a vodafone sim showed around 20-30, which was usable, but it does fluctuate a lot down to 5 at times.
I’m wondering if an omni directional external aerial would help, as there is no direct line of sight on the mast. Surely mounting one a couple of metre up on a pole should give some improvement?

When I installed my Pointyng directional antenna it was in the spare bedroom on a pole.
Signal strength went from 1 bar up to 4 bars - and download speed went from 4mb to 24mb. YMMV

[Stussy]

That sounds promising, we’re going to picK up the 3 metre pole from screwfix and try that tomorrow.
If that doesn’t help then will swap to a omni directional aerial. I know a directional one is better, but with no decent line of sight to the mast it could be making it worse

[anxious_ant]

Looking for a cost effective short term broadband solution. Very low data usage, probably 5-10GB / month.
Is there a feasible solution that costs around £100?

[Zoon]

anxious_ant said:

Looking for a cost effective short term broadband solution. Very low data usage, probably 5-10GB / month.
Is there a feasible solution that costs around £100?

Three do 4G on £29 upfront and £27 a month on a 30 day contract.

[ArsE82]

Zoon said:

anxious_ant said:

Looking for a cost effective short term broadband solution. Very low data usage, probably 5-10GB / month.
Is there a feasible solution that costs around £100?

Three do 4G on £29 upfront and £27 a month on a 30 day contract.

I've just had to cancel my 3 monthly SIM after 1 month. I'm sure it's just the area I'm in, but best case I was getting 3/4Mbps downstream and frequent disconnects.

I'm now tethered to my phone on Vodafone, on a Teams call, and browsing PH without issue. So I've ordered a Vodafone SIM for my router!

The frustrating thing is that the providers coverage maps show that I should have decent 4G inside this property, but I don't.

[anxious_ant]

Zoon said:

Three do 4G on £29 upfront and £27 a month on a 30 day contract.

Wow, that’s bargain! Only issue is that I need a modem with Ethernet ports …

[anxious_ant]

ArsE82 said:

I've just had to cancel my 3 monthly SIM after 1 month. I'm sure it's just the area I'm in, but best case I was getting 3/4Mbps downstream and frequent disconnects.

I'm now tethered to my phone on Vodafone, on a Teams call, and browsing PH without issue. So I've ordered a Vodafone SIM for my router!

The frustrating thing is that the providers coverage maps show that I should have decent 4G inside this property, but I don't.

Good point about coverage. My mobile is with O2 and I get decent 4G signal in the house. The internet is not mission critical, just powering some smart devices and CCTV.

The big ask is that I need a 4G modem that has Ethernet ports and most I’ve seen are pretty costly.

[ArsE82]

anxious_ant said:

ArsE82 said:

I've just had to cancel my 3 monthly SIM after 1 month. I'm sure it's just the area I'm in, but best case I was getting 3/4Mbps downstream and frequent disconnects.

I'm now tethered to my phone on Vodafone, on a Teams call, and browsing PH without issue. So I've ordered a Vodafone SIM for my router!

The frustrating thing is that the providers coverage maps show that I should have decent 4G inside this property, but I don't.

Good point about coverage. My mobile is with O2 and I get decent 4G signal in the house. The internet is not mission critical, just powering some smart devices and CCTV.

The big ask is that I need a 4G modem that has Ethernet ports and most I’ve seen are pretty costly.

I use a TP-Link MR400 - £86 from Amazon

I may have a spare one at mate's rates if I can find it! We've just moved house and everything is all boxed up somewhere