Three UK - 4G Home Broadband - any users here?
Discussion
bunchofkeys said:
Like you, i'm getting excellent speed and a stable connection through EE, but i'm on the Huawei B618.
Do you, or anyone else, feel the need to for an external antennae, if you're already hitting these speeds on 4G, would there be any extra speed gain?
I've not seen mine go beyond 125 Mbps so it seems like it could be the maximum. Personally that's adequate for my needs. Using external antennas often has the opposite effect as you're picking up a stronger signal but you're also picking up a lot more noise as well. If you get more noise than signal from doing that then your speed doesn't improve and can even reduce.Do you, or anyone else, feel the need to for an external antennae, if you're already hitting these speeds on 4G, would there be any extra speed gain?
Would you guys on EE 4G broadband mind doing me a favour and run https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest and then the speedtest.net app and post your download speeds. I'm having some strange issue where TB is showing less than a tenth of the ST speed (7 Mbps vs 100 Mbps) and from the glacial speed of some downloads I've been doing suggests to me that the TB speed is the true speed 
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Lemming Train said:
Would you guys on EE 4G broadband mind doing me a favour and run https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest and then the speedtest.net app and post your download speeds. I'm having some strange issue where TB is showing less than a tenth of the ST speed (7 Mbps vs 100 Mbps) and from the glacial speed of some downloads I've been doing suggests to me that the TB speed is the true speed .
Massive difference for me. 21.5 up on the App and 9.2 up on the website for think broadband .Router recommendation required. I currently have a Hauwei B525 and then run Google Mesh around the house, but I'm getting double Nat issues and slow downloads.
The B525 doesn't support bridge mode, so looking at alternatives and 2 have been suggested on other sites and I'm wandering if anyone had used them here?
1st is Netgear LB2120 (heard some reviews saying that it drops connections a lot and requires a reboot)
2nd teltonika rut240 (never heard of the brand before but seems to get good reviews and have good firmware updates)
Am I missing any others? It will run a Vodafone sim card and maybe an EE one if the signal strength improves
The B525 doesn't support bridge mode, so looking at alternatives and 2 have been suggested on other sites and I'm wandering if anyone had used them here?
1st is Netgear LB2120 (heard some reviews saying that it drops connections a lot and requires a reboot)
2nd teltonika rut240 (never heard of the brand before but seems to get good reviews and have good firmware updates)
Am I missing any others? It will run a Vodafone sim card and maybe an EE one if the signal strength improves
TB servers being overwhelmed? Do they just have one location, or many like Speedtest.net?
Must admit, never used the TB servers for checking my bandwidth.
Check with BT: https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
My download speeds are fine, the upload is a bit "off"
BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test
Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 101.69
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 13.48
Ping Latency (ms): 23
Must admit, never used the TB servers for checking my bandwidth.
Check with BT: https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
My download speeds are fine, the upload is a bit "off"
BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test
Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 101.69
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 13.48
Ping Latency (ms): 23
That's an odd one.
I've downloaded a few large files (few GBs in size), for work, and the download speed sits around 9MBps to 11MBps, which i believe is about 100mbps.
So that would show that Speedtest.net is constant for me.
No idea why your readings are off.
Just ran another test
Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 107.86
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 14.55
Ping Latency (ms): 26
Also noticed that the time is off by an hour too.
I've downloaded a few large files (few GBs in size), for work, and the download speed sits around 9MBps to 11MBps, which i believe is about 100mbps.
So that would show that Speedtest.net is constant for me.
No idea why your readings are off.
Just ran another test
Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 107.86
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 14.55
Ping Latency (ms): 26
Also noticed that the time is off by an hour too.
Edited by bunchofkeys on Sunday 29th March 13:52
Clocks went forward an hour overnight to BST.
I've tried the tests on another machine also over ethernet and same results so the problem seems to be beyond my control. I'll file a 'there are problems in my area' report on EE status and see what happens. Hopefully other locals are doing the same thing.
I've tried the tests on another machine also over ethernet and same results so the problem seems to be beyond my control. I'll file a 'there are problems in my area' report on EE status and see what happens. Hopefully other locals are doing the same thing.
The speed difference anomaly was sorted out. I've learned that speedtest.net is a waste of time for checking your true speed for internet browsing, downloads etc because the ISPs prioritise the website to give it maximum bandwidth in order to show you the highest speeds possible. This makes sense from a marketing viewpoint because if people with other providers are looking to switch, they are very likely to do so if speedtest.net shows them good speed numbers. However, this is NOT necessarily the speed you get for general browsing which is done through a different port (80 or 8080, or vv.)and you'll see evidence of any traffic shaping or management when using other speed test sites which are not prioritised by your ISP.
That was why I was see a maximum of 10 Mbps using thinkboard, fast.com and others which all showed roughly the same speed and aligned with the actual download speeds I was seeing from downloading some large files from a known server. Speedtest.net was showing my speed to be 10x faster but it was completely fake because it only applies to that specific port and you don't use that port for browsing and downloading stuff.
Another way to check if there's a problem with your connection or you're being throttled is to use a VPN. Apparently VPN traffic gets prioritisation and I tried this out myself. When thinkbroadband and fast.com were showing me at 10 Mbps directly from EE, I connected to a UK VPN site and ran the test again, my speed instantly shot up to 80-90 Mbps - proof right there that EE are/were throttling the connection for normal web activity. It's been suggested elsewhere :
"It might be in the wake of the coronavirus that EE have altered their management policies to reduce the strain on their network and ensure voice calls/VOIP/VoLTE as the highest priority, and as a result you're seeing reduced speeds as everything else is much lower priority."
Interesting.
I filed another 'problems in my area' report to EE after they replied to the first one telling me the issue had been fixed when it had not, and today my speed through thinkbroadband and fast.com is back up to its usual level around 100 Mbps. There was never a problem with the network because the VPN wouldn't have shown me getting my usual quota, so clearly they had me (or everyone in the area) restricted to 10 Mbps which has since been lifted.
That was why I was see a maximum of 10 Mbps using thinkboard, fast.com and others which all showed roughly the same speed and aligned with the actual download speeds I was seeing from downloading some large files from a known server. Speedtest.net was showing my speed to be 10x faster but it was completely fake because it only applies to that specific port and you don't use that port for browsing and downloading stuff.
Another way to check if there's a problem with your connection or you're being throttled is to use a VPN. Apparently VPN traffic gets prioritisation and I tried this out myself. When thinkbroadband and fast.com were showing me at 10 Mbps directly from EE, I connected to a UK VPN site and ran the test again, my speed instantly shot up to 80-90 Mbps - proof right there that EE are/were throttling the connection for normal web activity. It's been suggested elsewhere :
"It might be in the wake of the coronavirus that EE have altered their management policies to reduce the strain on their network and ensure voice calls/VOIP/VoLTE as the highest priority, and as a result you're seeing reduced speeds as everything else is much lower priority."
Interesting.
I filed another 'problems in my area' report to EE after they replied to the first one telling me the issue had been fixed when it had not, and today my speed through thinkbroadband and fast.com is back up to its usual level around 100 Mbps. There was never a problem with the network because the VPN wouldn't have shown me getting my usual quota, so clearly they had me (or everyone in the area) restricted to 10 Mbps which has since been lifted.
Edited by Lemming Train on Thursday 2nd April 11:08
That's interesting, thanks for updating us on that.
Now how did you raise a complaint with EE, as i gave it a whirl today on TB and this is what i got.
You get 100mb, i now get 10mb.
Wonder if they just shift around the policy to the areas that don't make a fuss about it.
Speedtest
BT
Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 8.12
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 12.68
Ping Latency (ms): 23
Now how did you raise a complaint with EE, as i gave it a whirl today on TB and this is what i got.
You get 100mb, i now get 10mb.
Wonder if they just shift around the policy to the areas that don't make a fuss about it.
Speedtest
BT
Broadband Speed Test Results
Download Speed (Mbps): 8.12
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 12.68
Ping Latency (ms): 23
Edited by bunchofkeys on Thursday 2nd April 11:20
^ That's exactly what I was seeing! What does fast.com show for you? If it's roughly the same as TB then you're being throttled.
What postcode area are you in just out of interest?
ETA: https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/networkchecker/checkser.... Plug in your postcode and see what it says. If 'no known issues' file a report, attach your TB results link (don't attach the ST results for obvious reasons!), put your router SIM phone number in the report and tell them you usually get 80+ all day long. When I did it they came back to me saying they'd found an issue then the day after they said they'd fixed it. I rebooted my router but it was still the same speed so I filed another report including the report number from the first report (Yo Dawg.. ), telling them it wasn't fixed. Later the same day my speed was turned back up to normal.
What postcode area are you in just out of interest?
ETA: https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/networkchecker/checkser.... Plug in your postcode and see what it says. If 'no known issues' file a report, attach your TB results link (don't attach the ST results for obvious reasons!), put your router SIM phone number in the report and tell them you usually get 80+ all day long. When I did it they came back to me saying they'd found an issue then the day after they said they'd fixed it. I rebooted my router but it was still the same speed so I filed another report including the report number from the first report (Yo Dawg.. ), telling them it wasn't fixed. Later the same day my speed was turned back up to normal.
Edited by Lemming Train on Thursday 2nd April 11:53
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