Three UK - 4G Home Broadband - any users here?
Discussion
With my 3 mobile 5G router - i've just looked at the stats available.
Given that it's 90% business use (also have Sky broadband for rest of household) - i've been using a consistent 130-150GB a month over 5G. Rarely used at weekends. Not sure if this seems a lot or not these days ?
I've had one half day of downtime where local maintenance was involved and it needed a router restart to reconnect post 3 engineers fixing one of the masts in Reading. Other than that, it's been solid.
Given that it's 90% business use (also have Sky broadband for rest of household) - i've been using a consistent 130-150GB a month over 5G. Rarely used at weekends. Not sure if this seems a lot or not these days ?
I've had one half day of downtime where local maintenance was involved and it needed a router restart to reconnect post 3 engineers fixing one of the masts in Reading. Other than that, it's been solid.
My sim card adapters came today. I'd popped them away on the desk ready for a session another day.
9.20 tonight it's raining out of the landing ceiling, a fitting to one of the header tanks in the loft worked loose and flooded the top of the ceilings.
Call to the lettings agent had a chap dispatched pronto, and I apologised to next door before firing up a very loud wet vac at 10.30pm to vacuum the top of the plasterboard, remove sodden insulation etc.
Got that as far as itd go tonight, plumber went and I thought sod it and fitted my Ee sim to my b311. No speed difference. Played with the positions, went through the motions and it matched the 3 speeds. I then went downstairs and made my TV play a 4k YouTube video, and it did buffer way less... But it's not night and day.
I had my email from 3 yealsterday, I've got until the 22nd. Price stays the same and it just moves to a rolling monthly. That's option 1.
Option 2 involves option 1 and the new Huawei router everyone recommends, seems the next logical step to me... This has the benefit that I can be rolling monthly when playing with this, and if EE suddenly perks up then I can decide
Option 3 is speak to them and bargain the price somehow. They offered me 2 distinct packages, both with a hard 100gb limit so no thanks...
Option 4 is go with EE but a price increase for the same speed doesn't seem ace to me...
But, I tried and yes, I can see how the Internet coming out of it is more robust with Ee, but it's not night and day different.
(all the testing was done by just fitting the sim, rebooting the router and adjusting the position. No settings tweaked. It peaked in a different spot to 3, which makes sense as the mast is somewhere else but I wasn't about to do loft acrobatics tonight and try it the other side etc.
9.20 tonight it's raining out of the landing ceiling, a fitting to one of the header tanks in the loft worked loose and flooded the top of the ceilings.
Call to the lettings agent had a chap dispatched pronto, and I apologised to next door before firing up a very loud wet vac at 10.30pm to vacuum the top of the plasterboard, remove sodden insulation etc.
Got that as far as itd go tonight, plumber went and I thought sod it and fitted my Ee sim to my b311. No speed difference. Played with the positions, went through the motions and it matched the 3 speeds. I then went downstairs and made my TV play a 4k YouTube video, and it did buffer way less... But it's not night and day.
I had my email from 3 yealsterday, I've got until the 22nd. Price stays the same and it just moves to a rolling monthly. That's option 1.
Option 2 involves option 1 and the new Huawei router everyone recommends, seems the next logical step to me... This has the benefit that I can be rolling monthly when playing with this, and if EE suddenly perks up then I can decide
Option 3 is speak to them and bargain the price somehow. They offered me 2 distinct packages, both with a hard 100gb limit so no thanks...
Option 4 is go with EE but a price increase for the same speed doesn't seem ace to me...
But, I tried and yes, I can see how the Internet coming out of it is more robust with Ee, but it's not night and day different.
(all the testing was done by just fitting the sim, rebooting the router and adjusting the position. No settings tweaked. It peaked in a different spot to 3, which makes sense as the mast is somewhere else but I wasn't about to do loft acrobatics tonight and try it the other side etc.
As you say, you tried 
Every location will have differences.
Once you have your flood under control (I feel your pain - we had our mains pipe let go the other week)...from the interface on the Huawei, can you see "how" it's connecting? e.g. from the home page on my B818 I can see "4G+ EE"....under 3 it was only ever "4G 3"...when I had "4G EE" the speed was much less.
Would be worth checking the APN it connects to too - EE's tech support are very good and worth calling when you have chance. May also amount to nothing, but at least you'll know.
Next step, router
Every location will have differences.
Once you have your flood under control (I feel your pain - we had our mains pipe let go the other week)...from the interface on the Huawei, can you see "how" it's connecting? e.g. from the home page on my B818 I can see "4G+ EE"....under 3 it was only ever "4G 3"...when I had "4G EE" the speed was much less.
Would be worth checking the APN it connects to too - EE's tech support are very good and worth calling when you have chance. May also amount to nothing, but at least you'll know.
Next step, router
Murph7355 said:
As you say, you tried
Every location will have differences.
Once you have your flood under control (I feel your pain - we had our mains pipe let go the other week)...from the interface on the Huawei, can you see "how" it's connecting? e.g. from the home page on my B818 I can see "4G+ EE"....under 3 it was only ever "4G 3"...when I had "4G EE" the speed was much less.
Would be worth checking the APN it connects to too - EE's tech support are very good and worth calling when you have chance. May also amount to nothing, but at least you'll know.
Next step, router
I might try again though... Last night whilst fiddling I got HuaCTRL working and messed about with it. B3 1800 and B20 800 seem the best for 3, but I now want to have a play wit hthe EE settings just in case. I also want to check where the EE tower is, as I don't think its in the same location as the 3 one.Every location will have differences.
Once you have your flood under control (I feel your pain - we had our mains pipe let go the other week)...from the interface on the Huawei, can you see "how" it's connecting? e.g. from the home page on my B818 I can see "4G+ EE"....under 3 it was only ever "4G 3"...when I had "4G EE" the speed was much less.
Would be worth checking the APN it connects to too - EE's tech support are very good and worth calling when you have chance. May also amount to nothing, but at least you'll know.
Next step, router
I'm due back up into the loft to see how things are drying (the input connector to a header tank was loose and just started leaking, he was only here 5 minutes after driving through horrific rain to get here and home!) and because my unraid server isn't being seen on the network, despite me being sure I hit the On button before I left last. Might have another play since I'm too skint to buy another router this month.
The whole thing is fascinating though, I get a decent 20mb download speed, for less than I paid for admittidly 36 but 36 max. Somewhere is the ideal position I have not found yet, something I have not done to improve it for free/cheap.
Will get up and have another go this weekend I think, don't like messing with it during working hours
Looking for some advice on my EE 4G router with EE sim. We have had it working well for the first 3 months with no issues, but are now finding that amazon prime & netflix will only stream on the smart tv for aroung 15/30 mins before failing (and then not re-loading). No issues with streaming either through phone, and no issue streaming youtube at any time through tv. I've tried changing data connection from IPV6 or IPV4/6 to IPV4 Only based on other advice I'd seen, but still no joy.
Any other settings I need to be looking at or is this a common issue with EE routers that they don't like streaming through smart tv?
Any other settings I need to be looking at or is this a common issue with EE routers that they don't like streaming through smart tv?
MagicHat said:
We have had it working well for the first 3 months with no issues, but are now finding that amazon prime & netflix will only stream on the smart tv for aroung 15/30 mins before failing (and then not re-loading). ?
Have you checked your tv has latest software (or indeed has it recently had update!)? Also try rebooting the TV. It may not be down to EE.Our 'smart' TV's drive me nuts this stuff. I was trying to watch the F1 via nowTV yesterday on our lounge TV. Quality was so bad that it was a bit like watching an Amiga F1 game. Couldn't read any text I had the kids stop streaming stuff for a bit thinking they were hogging my bandwidth. Eventually I tried it on the laptop and it was absolutely fine so I stuck an HDMI into and watched the rest like that. This is by no means an isolated incident! I don't know what it is about TV's, they just don't seem as good as other devices at using the signal that's there. We have two samsungs and two LG but they all behave the same. Sooner I get them hard wired the better.
FunkyGibbon said:
MagicHat said:
We have had it working well for the first 3 months with no issues, but are now finding that amazon prime & netflix will only stream on the smart tv for aroung 15/30 mins before failing (and then not re-loading). ?
Have you checked your tv has latest software (or indeed has it recently had update!)? Also try rebooting the TV. It may not be down to EE.We're moving house shortly. Currently have a 'passable' Virgin media 200Mb fibre connection which works 'most' of the time and we have a 'lot' of devices in the house. Where we're moving to there is currently no fibre of any sort, standard BT broadband 4-12Mb. So I'm looking at the option of the title of this thread. I currently have 3 x '3' phone contracts (in my name for discounts), so will be looking at a 3 4G unlimited SIM, but what is currently the best bit of kit to plug that into ?
(I'll probably use a directional external antenna and powerline adaptors/wifi extenders as needed)
(I'll probably use a directional external antenna and powerline adaptors/wifi extenders as needed)
chopper602 said:
We're moving house shortly. Currently have a 'passable' Virgin media 200Mb fibre connection which works 'most' of the time and we have a 'lot' of devices in the house. Where we're moving to there is currently no fibre of any sort, standard BT broadband 4-12Mb. So I'm looking at the option of the title of this thread. I currently have 3 x '3' phone contracts (in my name for discounts), so will be looking at a 3 4G unlimited SIM, but what is currently the best bit of kit to plug that into ?
(I'll probably use a directional external antenna and powerline adaptors/wifi extenders as needed)
As Funky Gibbon says, Huwei B818, peerless.(I'll probably use a directional external antenna and powerline adaptors/wifi extenders as needed)
You'll probably not need an antenna.
Gad-Westy said:
Our 'smart' TV's drive me nuts this stuff. I was trying to watch the F1 via nowTV yesterday on our lounge TV. Quality was so bad that it was a bit like watching an Amiga F1 game. Couldn't read any text I had the kids stop streaming stuff for a bit thinking they were hogging my bandwidth. Eventually I tried it on the laptop and it was absolutely fine so I stuck an HDMI into and watched the rest like that. This is by no means an isolated incident! I don't know what it is about TV's, they just don't seem as good as other devices at using the signal that's there. We have two samsungs and two LG but they all behave the same. Sooner I get them hard wired the better.
My cheap CHEAP TCL via its copy of Android TV and the play store youtube app does this, it'll dither for ages then settle on 240p, I'll manually knock the settings back up and it'll buffer for about 2 minutes and be fine all night... Windows 10+Firefox is way better and does buffer nicely, although not as fast as a 1080 video buffers. I'm not a fan of watching evening tv on the PC though, Im usually sick of sitting at my desk by that pointI must say my 20mb download speed isn't fab for 4k... My TV plays 4k YT videos OK but there's not alot of headroom, IE I'll pick up my phone and scroll about and it'll buffer a short while later. All hard wired with cheap ebay cat5e and second hand gigabit netgear hubs.
I have a B818 on my shopping list for payday (if I can find one...), regardless of what carrier I use the allure of it just being a step up and better is too good to ignore. 3's offer of "carry on paying us the same and we'll leave you alone" does have a positive vibe
Does your TV have a gigabit network port?
I wired mine up (old habits) and was having trouble with 4k UHD local streaming (much more bandwidth intensive than the YouTube variety). Buffered and stuttered like a bugger.
A bit of research showed Sony, in their wisdom, only put 10/100 ethernet ports on their top line TVs.
So I connected it up to 5GHz wifi and no more buffering...
May not be at the root of your issue here with a 20mbps download speed...but worth considering
I wired mine up (old habits) and was having trouble with 4k UHD local streaming (much more bandwidth intensive than the YouTube variety). Buffered and stuttered like a bugger.
A bit of research showed Sony, in their wisdom, only put 10/100 ethernet ports on their top line TVs.
So I connected it up to 5GHz wifi and no more buffering...
May not be at the root of your issue here with a 20mbps download speed...but worth considering
My Plusnet broadband was out of contract and I noticed they were billing me 40 quid a month, the little tinkers. I have FTTC. Unfortunately the C is connected to the P by 2km of copper.
Connecting via 3 with 4G on my phone gets me this
So I thought it was worth trying mobile broadband.
Not getting what my phone gets, but with line of sight to the mast I get this
30 is about as bad as it gets, often mid forties.
Plusnet have been given the push.
Only issue now appears to be that landlines are silly money. I think I shall simply not have one. I don’t use it.
Connecting via 3 with 4G on my phone gets me this
So I thought it was worth trying mobile broadband.
Not getting what my phone gets, but with line of sight to the mast I get this
30 is about as bad as it gets, often mid forties.
Plusnet have been given the push.
Only issue now appears to be that landlines are silly money. I think I shall simply not have one. I don’t use it.
I seem to recall reading about someone on here using two 4g modems paired via a unifi gizmo. Have a few questions regarding the set up if it is someone here.
Basically we have EE 4g via a B818 and fired around the house using Unifi AP's.
Three main issues:
1) It works well maybe 80% of the time but that is not enough for WFH. Having far too many embarrassing calls.
2) Uploads speeds are often unusable. Sub 1mbps
3) I don't know whether we have been throttled at any point but EE's FUP concerns me.
I'm thinking that I could run a second 'backup' 3/smartie Sim just to try to smooth things out a bit and provide some redundancy.
I'm not particularly techie so I really don't want something that is going to require too much in the way of set up if I can avoid it.
Basically we have EE 4g via a B818 and fired around the house using Unifi AP's.
Three main issues:
1) It works well maybe 80% of the time but that is not enough for WFH. Having far too many embarrassing calls.
2) Uploads speeds are often unusable. Sub 1mbps
3) I don't know whether we have been throttled at any point but EE's FUP concerns me.
I'm thinking that I could run a second 'backup' 3/smartie Sim just to try to smooth things out a bit and provide some redundancy.
I'm not particularly techie so I really don't want something that is going to require too much in the way of set up if I can avoid it.
Gad-Westy said:
I'm thinking that I could run a second 'backup' 3/smartie Sim just to try to smooth things out a bit and provide some redundancy.
I'm not particularly techie so I really don't want something that is going to require too much in the way of set up if I can avoid it.
I've not done this with unifi (I have TP-Link Omada) - but if the unifi router has multiple WAN ports then it should simply be a matter of plugging a second modem in (I had 2 B818s, one on Virgin and one on Three).I'm not particularly techie so I really don't want something that is going to require too much in the way of set up if I can avoid it.
You should also be able to setup load-balancing or failover rules (again, not done this on unifi, but would be amazed if you cannot)
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