anyone using 3 4g router? all the reviews said it was fast and stable but god dam this thing is slow

Caporegime
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Something to keep in mind a lot of routers have moved to fixed antennas :( even some that have SMA connections on the first revision which makes it a pain for adding in an external one.



Despite a quoted range of around 30-35 down and 5-7 up for FTTC for where I'm living at the moment the line only does around 24 down and 1.1 up :( due to "bridge taps" and probably line conditions in general - 4G has been a god send for me since moving. Need to get an engineer out still to sort the line but having some account issues as BT as usual is a mess when something actually goes wrong. So could be something similar in this case as well.

So OFCOM regulations state that a provider must make every and all effort to get the speeds you have been quoted and if not they have to let you leave if the speeds can't be improved in 30 days.
 
Man of Honour
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So OFCOM regulations state that a provider must make every and all effort to get the speeds you have been quoted and if not they have to let you leave if the speeds can't be improved in 30 days.

Leaving isn't an issue - but some account details have got mangled and BT is confused as to who the account holder actually is and until that is sorted they won't send out an engineer.
 
Man of Honour
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Are you in contract?

Long story short awhile back someone in another town with the same last name but all other details different were cancelling their line and BT instead cancelled ours! when it was all sorted they claimed everything was updated correctly details wise, etc. but we just moved house, started a new contract with a better plan, and the new place has some line issues (no master socket amongst them) at which point it transpires that infact there are still mangled account details and the new GDPR, etc. stuff has further complicated it and they won't send out an engineer without talking to the account holder - but they don't actually have valid details for who the account holder actually is. I've got someone on the case though but might have to escalate it yet again to executive level :(

Anyhow a bit aside from my earlier point that it could be stuff like bridge taps means the speeds the OP is getting are well below the average for the neighbourhood.
 
Associate
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I grabbed a 4G wifi router with unlimited plan a while ago, but I put the SIM in my iPad, I did a bit of research before I went for it, everything sounded it and it seemed like I was going to get decent speeds from it.

I do get decent speeds but not always, it varies depending on where I put my iPad, usually I get around 5mb/s down and <1mb/s up but when I put the iPad right next to the window and run speed test again, I get up to 40mb/s down and 5mb/s up.

It's a lot more reliable and faster when I'm at town/city centres.
 
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Man of Honour
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I grabbed a 4G wifi router with unlimited plan a while ago, I did a bit of research before I went for it, everything sounded it and it seemed like I was going to get decent speeds from it.

I do get decent speeds but only if I'm not at home

At home it's slow and awful, I rarely get more than 8mb/s down and 1mb/s up, occasionally it drops to 0.5mb/s for both down and up, but when I'm in town/city centres, speeds are so much better, I get about 15mb/s down and 5mb/s up, occasionally getting up to 25mb/s down and 10mb/s up.

As well as a bit of luck location wise I think the key is understanding where the relevant masts are and optimising the position of the 4G device/antenna:

After I moved in where I am currently I went from:

8200336592.png


to mostly getting:

8311435687.png


By finding out the mast locations and figuring out where I could place the router high up in the house on the closest side - when I get a chance I'm gonna rig up an external antenna.

Sadly the FTTC connection runs more like:

8351366672.png


and drops out quite a lot :( which is quite painful after moving away from having multiple full speed fibre connections and solid 6ms latency hah
 
Associate
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I edited my post but you quoted me before I finished haha.

I did a bit more testing, when I put my iPad next to north facing window, I get really good speeds, 40mb/s down and 10mb/s up.
 
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Associate
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Darlington - UK
It’s all about placement of the router and which mast it connects to. The strongest signal (which the router will try to use) is not necessarily going to give the quickest speeds.

I use a program called “LTE Inspecteur” which shows the statistics about the mast that the router is using and also allows you to play around with 3G/4G settings and positioning of the router to get the best speeds (it may not be where you would expect).
 
Associate
OP
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24 Aug 2015
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so you have a FTTC connection already ? what does the router say the sync rate is ?
how do I find that out? and yea I do, basically im with sky and the minimum they guarantee is 4mbps when I asked bt they said minimum they could guarantee is 3mbps, I live so far from the cabinet so a usual broadband line is just impossible for me, the last engineer I had (yesterday) said upgrades to my area are extremely slim and unless I move this was the best speed I could get, this is why Im trying every other avenue but looks like 4g might suck just as hard :(
 
Associate
OP
Joined
24 Aug 2015
Posts
268
It’s all about placement of the router and which mast it connects to. The strongest signal (which the router will try to use) is not necessarily going to give the quickest speeds.

I use a program called “LTE Inspecteur” which shows the statistics about the mast that the router is using and also allows you to play around with 3G/4G settings and positioning of the router to get the best speeds (it may not be where you would expect).
thanks that program looks handy ill definitely give it a shot tonight :)
 
Soldato
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Norfolk, South Scotland
I use a Siretta Sniper 4G, but the same location algorithm is used in the OpenSignal app.

If you think the 4G is marginal you need to break out something 'proper' like the Mikrotik SXT-LTE or the Mikrotik LHG LTE. The LHG LTE is massive though - it's slightly bigger than a Sky dish. We have customers with the LHG LTE as a backup WAN in central Manchester and we're seeing over 110Mbps down and 30Mbps upload speed with an EE SIM.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
24 Aug 2015
Posts
268
It’s all about placement of the router and which mast it connects to. The strongest signal (which the router will try to use) is not necessarily going to give the quickest speeds.

I use a program called “LTE Inspecteur” which shows the statistics about the mast that the router is using and also allows you to play around with 3G/4G settings and positioning of the router to get the best speeds (it may not be where you would expect).
how did you download lte inspecteur whenever i go to download it, it goes to google drive and says "google drive was unable to load you requested view. Redirecting to default view" but nothing happens
 
Man of Honour
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Went to the trouble of removing one of the (fixed) antenna on my 4G router today, soldered in an RP SMA socket in its place (didn't even use U.FL/IPEX internally :( ) and tried a variety of antennas and basically negligible difference :( the SNR improves 2-3db with an external outdoor antenna in a good position but zero difference to performance and even disconnecting it and just having the one fixed one remaining still gets the same speeds just little worse SNR. Ah well.

External antenna seems to be good for around 2Mbit increase in upstream - don't think it is hitting any artificial limit on the downstream as if I stick the sim in a phone and am somewhere nearer one of the masts it will go above 30Mbit.

8354134481.png
 
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