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

[Lemming Train]

DuckSauce said:

Lord Marylebone said:

A quick Google suggests that the RUT240 is 4G.

Yeah, which was fine with Vodafone, but need 4g+ with Three

If you got 4G okay with Voda then it's not a problem with the router then, is it ?

It's Three, as per usual. st oversubscribed network = cheap prices and vv. You've been on this thread since the start so should be well aware from the bulk of people's experiences that Three is dog st and to be avoided if you want a stable connection with good speeds.

[oilslick]

Lemming Train said:

If you got 4G okay with Voda then it's not a problem with the router then, is it ?

It's Three, as per usual. st oversubscribed network = cheap prices and vv. You've been on this thread since the start so should be well aware from the bulk of people's experiences that Three is dog st and to be avoided if you want a stable connection with good speeds.

I think Three is very area dependent. My own experience of Three was two years of a solid connection with a ~30mb download speed. Sadly it does seem to be luck of the draw.

[IanA2]

oilslick said:

Lemming Train said:

If you got 4G okay with Voda then it's not a problem with the router then, is it ?

It's Three, as per usual. st oversubscribed network = cheap prices and vv. You've been on this thread since the start so should be well aware from the bulk of people's experiences that Three is dog st and to be avoided if you want a stable connection with good speeds.

I think Three is very area dependent. My own experience of Three was two years of a solid connection with a ~30mb download speed. Sadly it does seem to be luck of the draw.

Agreed, two years plus now with good speeds.

[tapandunwrap]

This thread is very useful thanks all.

I’m going to take a router and sim back to the family who are in the middle of the countryside at Xmas. As a result I can’t test different networks until I’m there - am I best to try using pay as you go to test them out ahead of a sim only contract? Any that don’t need contracts?

The b535 that is referenced a lot looks not to have bridge mode - I need to plug it into an existing google wifi setup - any recommendations on a router that definitely works in that configuration for poor signal areas?

Has anyone tried a load balancing router to allow the original adsl line to be a fallback? Looks like a 30 quid tp link device is available but wondering if anyone has one in their setup?

[S6PNJ]

tapandunwrap said:

This thread is very useful thanks all.

I’m going to take a router and sim back to the family who are in the middle of the countryside at Xmas. As a result I can’t test different networks until I’m there - am I best to try using pay as you go to test them out ahead of a sim only contract? Any that don’t need contracts?

The b535 that is referenced a lot looks not to have bridge mode - I need to plug it into an existing google wifi setup - any recommendations on a router that definitely works in that configuration for poor signal areas?

Has anyone tried a load balancing router to allow the original adsl line to be a fallback? Looks like a 30 quid tp link device is available but wondering if anyone has one in their setup?

Chap 4 posts above yours has.

[S6PNJ]

My new Huawei B818 arrived toady - just need my Smarty SIM to arrive now and I'll have a new play (have previously tried 4G internet with an older Huawei router earlier last year. The 'tool' of choice to help set up was the Huawei Monitor Tool, now at version 4.50. I've had a few issues getting it to start, but now I an get it loaded, does anyone have any tips as to which signals I need to be looking for, to get max download etc.
LTE H-Monitor downloadable from here: https://www.ltehmonitor.com/en/

Still waiting for my external aerial to arrive but I should be able to get something from the internal (device aerial) setup.

[WyrleyD]

Got my B818 last week to replace an older B525. I'm on 3 so it was a bit of a risk upgrading, when I first installed the B525 I got quite a good speed considering I was only using the internal antenna in the unit but over the last 12 months the speed gradually got worse and was down to between 0.8 and 5 mb depending on the time of day. My idea was to upgrade to the B818 and then install an external antenna but after installing the B818 the speed is consistently between 25 mb and 30 mb just using the internal antenna so I'm going to wait and see if it deteriorates over the coming weeks before going with an external antenna, it's not an easy job as I can't drill the wall to put the cables through and don't want to drill through a corner of the newly installed windows so the cables will have to go up through the soffit into the loft then down through the ceiling to a corner of the small bedroom (office).

[DuckSauce]

Lemming Train said:

If you got 4G okay with Voda then it's not a problem with the router then, is it ?

It's Three, as per usual. st oversubscribed network = cheap prices and vv. You've been on this thread since the start so should be well aware from the bulk of people's experiences that Three is dog st and to be avoided if you want a stable connection with good speeds.

I only got 4g with Vodafone, not 4g+ with the router and speeds of around 7Mb.

I bought a B818 router in the end and put my Three sim in, the difference is night and day. I'm now getting 40Mb down, which is way more than Vodafone gave me and no disconnection issues (don't even need the external antenna)

Happy so far with my choice. I get moderate Nat on my Xbox now, instead of strict, but I haven't forwarded any ports yet

[page3]

tapandunwrap said:

This thread is very useful thanks all.

The b535 that is referenced a lot looks not to have bridge mode - I need to plug it into an existing google wifi setup - any recommendations on a router that definitely works in that configuration for poor signal areas?

The 535 I bought from amazon does have a bridge mode, although I haven't used it myself as I need it to use a VPN to give me fixed IP etc bypassing CGNAT.

[MM]

tapandunwrap said:

This thread is very useful thanks all.

I’m going to take a router and sim back to the family who are in the middle of the countryside at Xmas. As a result I can’t test different networks until I’m there - am I best to try using pay as you go to test them out ahead of a sim only contract? Any that don’t need contracts?

The b535 that is referenced a lot looks not to have bridge mode - I need to plug it into an existing google wifi setup - any recommendations on a router that definitely works in that configuration for poor signal areas?

Has anyone tried a load balancing router to allow the original adsl line to be a fallback? Looks like a 30 quid tp link device is available but wondering if anyone has one in their setup?

If you buy a non branded B535 from the like of amazon, it will have bridge mode. Units supplied via Three don't have bridge mode.

From what I've seen, load balancing and fallback isn't all its cracked up to be. when a connection has "failed" it actually hasn't failed, it just suffers a major drop in speed. I don't think this triggers fallback/over. This is why I went down the OpenMPTCProuter route, though this has a cost to it. I tired Load balancing on a TP link TL-R470T+, Edge router x and a USG, and in all 3 if one line went bad, it played havoc with the other connections. The other issue is your connection is only as fast as your quickest connection. so if you 2 x 50mb connection your max speed will still only be 50mb, though if you have 2 people using the connection they will both see 50mb.

[threadlock]

MM said:

If you buy a non branded B535 from the like of amazon, it will have bridge mode. Units supplied via Three don't have bridge mode.

The unbranded B535 I bought from Amazon doesn't have bridge mode.

[MM]

threadlock said:

MM said:

If you buy a non branded B535 from the like of amazon, it will have bridge mode. Units supplied via Three don't have bridge mode.

The unbranded B535 I bought from Amazon doesn't have bridge mode.

It was added in a later firmware. People started seeing it around March. so it depends when you got it or how old the stock was, the one I got about a month ago had bridge mode. Plus there is the huawei effect. I found it to be st so it’s currently on eBay.

Another option is the Zyxel LTE3301-PLUS, it’s bit more expensive.

[S6PNJ]

Anyone know if the Huawei B818 can do Port Forwarding? I've just got one and am trying to sort my home network etc and I need to be able to Port Forward 2 separate ports to enable remote login to 2 devices (CCTV and my boiler and controls). I'm using the 3 network through a SMARTY SIM. If I can't Port Forward, it'll be a show stopper for me.

[threadlock]

MM said:

It was added in a later firmware. People started seeing it around March. so it depends when you got it or how old the stock was, the one I got about a month ago had bridge mode.

Bought this one about a month ago too, but couldn't find any updated firmware. Extensive Gooooooogling didn't help me either
Apparently it depends both on the firmware and on a config file stored within the machine too, which isn't updated when the firmware is updated, and is difficult to change.
Incidentally, I had hoped to get around the lack of bridge mode by putting our Vigor router in the B535's DMZ, which would have meant all inbound requests got forwarded to it automatically (as far as I can tell).
HOWEVER, Vodafone do their own NAT at their end, so we never managed to get incoming requests to work. This is a big disadvantage to using 4G for anybody hoping to run their own services from within their network. Other operators may be similar - I don't know, but it's worth checking before making a big commitment to use 4G

Edited by threadlock on Thursday 26th November 07:42

[S6PNJ]

My new router seems to have 'locked' onto a transmitter but I want to try and force it onto another one to see how my speeds change. At the moment, I can get between 1-1.5Mbps and around 20Mbps depending on time of day (faster in the morning, slower in the evening). It's locked onto a transmitter 7.3 miles away (Bands 3,20) - in the middle of Gloucester, hence me getting low speeds in the evening as a lot of Gloucester will be using that tower. According to the cell patterns, I shouldn't even be in the coverage for this tower and I should be able to get a closer tower (Bands 3,20), 2.9 miles away, which might be better speedwise, which I am just in cover for (or on the very edge). Any ideas if I can actually do this? I'm using LTE-H Monitor that allows different freqs to be selected, but as they are both on 3,20, I'm not sure if it can be done.

Unless I can sort the port forwarding issue as well, all this speed chasing might be in vain.

[tapandunwrap]

Thanks for the advice on here, I've jumped in, waiting for things to arrive.

Have ordered;

a b818
a stack of one of each network's sim cards to test out for the best signal/speed
a TP Link load balancing router - so that the old ADSL line can be used as a fallback - hoping it means that there's less to go wrong and for the folks to try to troubleshoot when I'm not about.

Mulling over an external antennae now, but may see how we get on without first. If we do go down that route, does anyone have experience with external vs internal, directional or otherwise with those B series routers?

[DuckSauce]

tapandunwrap said:

Thanks for the advice on here, I've jumped in, waiting for things to arrive.

Have ordered;

a b818
a stack of one of each network's sim cards to test out for the best signal/speed
a TP Link load balancing router - so that the old ADSL line can be used as a fallback - hoping it means that there's less to go wrong and for the folks to try to troubleshoot when I'm not about.

Mulling over an external antennae now, but may see how we get on without first. If we do go down that route, does anyone have experience with external vs internal, directional or otherwise with those B series routers?

I've got an omnidirectional antenna, as I don't have direct line of sight to the antenna. Improved my speeds by a lot, however I haven't connected it up to the B818 yet (different connections) and so far haven't needed it.

[JC06]

Has anyone had issues downloading Sky Q content over a 4G network? I've recently swapped from an Archer MR200 to a B535 and despite using the same SMARTY sim I now seem unable to download any content. Downloading to a Sky Go app over the same network works fine.

[page3]

threadlock said:

HOWEVER, Vodafone do their own NAT at their end, so we never managed to get incoming requests to work. This is a big disadvantage to using 4G for anybody hoping to run their own services from within their network. Other operators may be similar - I don't know, but it's worth checking before making a big commitment to use 4G

EE do this too. It’s called CGNAT (Carrier Grade NAT).

I set my modem up with DMZ like you mentioned and then run a L2TP VPN from AAISP. This gives me a fixed IP address and bypasses all the traffic management etc. Works great, far better than my wired FTTC ever did.

[damolong]

After many months of frustration with a 16mb but flakey broadband connection that an engineer has failed to get to the root cause of, I’ve just taken the plunge on the £15 a month unlimited 3 deal with a Huawei B535 router.

Early impressions are positive; it took a bit of playing around with router location but I’m now getting approximately 30mb both down and up which is a huge improvement. It also seemed pretty stable yesterday when on work Teams calls.

I have Ethernet cables in place for some rooms and I’m getting similar speeds via that, all good. And I can finally stream 4K! However, the problem I have is when I add in my TP Link mesh system to bolster the signal upstairs. Speed drops to about 10mbs.

I don’t think I can turn off the wireless on the 535 as the router is locked down with 3. Is there anything else I can do? Anyone know what is causing the slow mesh speed?

Thanks