****The Official 5G Home Broadband Thread**** (Three/EE/Vodafone/etc)

I keep thinking about a backup 5G connection, but I'm close to an airfield and seem to be in a 5G dead spot.. however, about 100M away is where all the official 5g 'ultra' coverage ends according to Vodafone, so wondered if an outdoor 5G CPE would maybe get some form of connection.

Any recommendations for an outdoor 5g modem?
 
A directional antenna might help, all radio stuff is theoretical though and the only way to know is to try it. If the reason you're in a 5G dead spot is because of terrain then a directional antenna won't do anything.

The Teltonika OTD500 is a good outdoor unit, there will also be much cheaper options that usually involve buying something originally supplied by Three second hand.
 
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tamzzy said:
@Journey how easy/hard was it to get a 3 business broadband sim?

my contract is ending with 3 5G...and FTTH, although the cab has been upgraded last year, doesn't seem immediately fortcoming to my home :(
looks to be able to get business unlimited 5g for £10/mth and if i get a router from CEX i'd break even within 9 months - or even less if i sell back the router in the future
just wanted to know what the procedure is to get the business sim
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An almost zero effort, you just setup as a sole trader, trading as yourself. Don't forget advertised pries are +VAT. If they want to know what you are doing, you can give any answer like "My new business is teaching 'this language' to students" or some other rubbish, but they'll usually not ask.
 
Yaayuh! said:
Right, can't really work at home anymore on my FTTC, it's too slow. So i'm going to run a 30day rolling unlimited 5G with Three.

What's the go-to router for 5G? I don't need Wi-Fi, In fact, don't really need the router side as I use a Ubiquiti setup. Just want to hook in a SIM to a modem/router and patch through to my UCKG2+
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**** it, just went with Three. Turning up tomorrow.
 
Journey said:
IIRC I did it via e-mail after an initial chat session.
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nice.

just calculated the costs. i'm currently paying £22/mth for the same 5g broadband

if i were to buy the router from CEX it's £115 (£95 with vouchers) and a resale value of £78 back to CEX, making a total outlay for the router of £17 for the lifetime of ownership
sim cost at £10 + vat (£12) i'd save £10/mth

so actually i'd break even and will be cheaper after month 2...LOL
 
Virgin contract is ending next week, has anyone used an old mobile as a 5G router?

Have a S20FE 5G and it supports Ethernet and PD, hoping I can use a data sim, JSAUX Steam Deck dock and plug it into my current router.

Any downsides to doing this over buying a dedicated 5G router?
 
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hyperseven said:
Virgin contract is ending next week, has anyone used an old mobile as a 5G router?

Have a S20FE 5G and it supports Ethernet and PD, hoping I can use a data sim, JSAUX Steam Deck dock and plug it into my current router.

Any downsides to doing this over buying a dedicated 5G router?
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Perhaps instead of a phone a small portable 5g travel router might be a better compromise.
 
Yaayuh! said:
**** it, just went with Three. Turning up tomorrow.
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Got the 5G in bridge mode and all is well. Speeds all over the place as expected but averaging around 300mb.

However, currently useless as my wife’s work VPN doesn’t work on it. I’ve switched the router pdp to IPV4 only as suggested but to no avail.

Anybody else had vpn issues on Three 5G broadband?

Interestingly, works okay over hotspotting on mobile, also on three.
 
Yaayuh! said:
Got the 5G in bridge mode and all is well. Speeds all over the place as expected but averaging around 300mb.

However, currently useless as my wife’s work VPN doesn’t work on it. I’ve switched the router pdp to IPV4 only as suggested but to no avail.

Anybody else had vpn issues on Three 5G broadband?

Interestingly, works okay over hotspotting on mobile, also on three.
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APN? Selection on the router?
 
Yaayuh! said:
Got the 5G in bridge mode and all is well. Speeds all over the place as expected but averaging around 300mb.

However, currently useless as my wife’s work VPN doesn’t work on it. I’ve switched the router pdp to IPV4 only as suggested but to no avail.

Anybody else had vpn issues on Three 5G broadband?

Interestingly, works okay over hotspotting on mobile, also on three.
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Yeah three doesn't play well with VPN. I had same issue and went back and forth with them on it. Have you tried a different APN just in case? So as well as IPv4 try 3internet instead of three.co.uk.
 
Journey said:
APN? Selection on the router?
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Firegod said:
Yeah three doesn't play well with VPN. I had same issue and went back and forth with them on it. Have you tried a different APN just in case? So as well as IPv4 try 3internet instead of three.co.uk.
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Yep. 3internet was the default. I’ve tried three.co.uk but to no avail.

I suspect it’s something with the zte router that’s doing it. Might see if I can try a different router.
 
Yaayuh! said:
Yep. 3internet was the default. I’ve tried three.co.uk but to no avail.

I suspect it’s something with the zte router that’s doing it. Might see if I can try a different router.
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Is it the upload that's impacted? I doubt it's the router. I left smarty (three) because they don't support VPN usage
 
Firegod said:
Is it the upload that's impacted? I doubt it's the router. I left smarty (three) because they don't support VPN usage
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Connects fine, can ping around the network fine, but actually doing anything else like accessing file shares and web applications just hangs.

Journey said:
Can you connect to any VPN provider at all? What type of connection is it? SSL/Wireguard other?
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Yep. My work one (Netskope) works fine.

The wife’s is SSL (Draytek).
 
Yaayuh! said:
Connects fine, can ping around the network fine, but actually doing anything else like accessing file shares and web applications just hangs.
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Yeah Draytek doesn't like the SSL for some reason, if they had it configured as the horrid/old L2TP/IPSec it would be OK. Wireguard works as well with Three. You might want to tell your Wife's work that Draytek SSL is a poo show as well, and isn't what you'd call secure/uncompromised recently.
 
Firegod said:
Is it the upload that's impacted? I doubt it's the router. I left smarty (three) because they don't support VPN usage
Click to expand...

Journey said:
Can you connect to any VPN provider at all? What type of connection is it? SSL/Wireguard other?
Click to expand...


Okay, I have gotten further with this.

The VPN works fine on our current Ubiquiti setup, with FTTC --> Draytek Vigor 130 bridged --> Ubiquiti USG --> Unifi Wi-Fi
The VPN works fine through 5G --> ZTE router in standard router mode --> Wi-Fi.
The VPN does has a problem with 5G --> ZTE Bridged mode --> Ubiquiti USG --> Unifi Wi-Fi

The ZTE router in bridge mode is the weak link.

Might just buy the TP-Link Archer NX210 and give that a go.
 
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