4G Routers

benparker

benparker

benparker

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25 Jul 2015
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So after moving properties and having to pay a heft cancellation fee to Hyperoptic (landlord issues) I've decided against to try a 4G sim and router combo. Just over a year ago I bought an unlimited data Smarty SIM and the TP-Link Archer MR200 router. Not sure why chose it over a Huawei. For the duration up until yesterday I would get 10mb down but if I switch to 3G its about 20mb but upload speeds drops.

So apparently some spots in the house give better speeds. It turns out another room was giving just about 40mb but not that consistent but definitely seeing more than 20mb. So after checking the whole house I found the best spot and the router is hanging high up on the wall lol. So now I'm looking at options, I don't really want another contact and I'm not a heavy downloader as I was before but thinking of getting Netflix or maybe IPTV (are we allowed to discuss about that here?)

1. Can I buy an external antenna, will that give me better speeds?
2. If so does it have to be stuck outside as I don't want to drill at a property that isn't mine.
3. If a buy a Huawei B535, will that give me better speeds than my current setup?
4. Does anyone else offer unlimited 4G at about £20 per month? Currently paying £18.75.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. That hap ac3, never heard of the brand. Are they really good? Can't see anyone selling it in the UK.

I ordered this yesterday Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 with suction cups and a B535 router just out of curiosity.

Do you own a MR200? There's no settings to change the band frequency. I've read that different frequencies give different speeds.
 
So right now the mr200 is nearly touching the ceiling and the antennas after playing around all positions facing half on the left giving best signal. 4:30 am saw it reach 55Mbps but obviously there's barely any users at this time.

What are the specs of that hap ac3? How does it compare with the B535? Where can I buy one? Is the older version just as good?
 
@Janesy B if not mistaken, the Huawei allows you to pick a band.

@WJA96 I think I got the mr200 for £80 and the hap ac3 appears to be £180. I'm sure it's got lots of features but not a network savvy to appreciate it. Also doesn't seem to have no antennas should it need it.
 
@WJA96 I should get them Wednesday hopefully. Do you know how good an Asus 4g router is? When an N66u I think it was to replace sky router, it was amazing.

@alexakasloth

Website doesn't seem to work, will try on pc in the morning. I know there is a 4g mast about 100 meters from the property, actually found by an Android app.

After being on 20Mbps I'm seeing double speed now. It also just spiked to 60Mbps but obviously there's barely any traffic now.
 
WJA96 said:
I don't know. You can get a 9dBi and a 14dBi directional version of that antenna. I don't have one to hand to check the weight but a lot of spec sheets will list the weight, so maybe you could check that?
Click to expand...

0.6kg so not really sure as that includes the wire.

So fired up the b535 set to internal and external antenna and speed is lower than mr200. I can't find settings to change frequency
 
WJA96 said:
Well, on the upside, you should be able to send the B535 and the antenna back.

And it re-enforces what a great device the MR200 is.
Click to expand...

Mr200 so sensitive, I placed in same position and the antenna and speeds dramatically dropped. Guess I have to fiddle around again with the antenna position.

Yes they will be going back, I'm so disappointed! Before I do that, I will try Voxi sim and see how that pans out.

@kully1972 thanks for chiming in but that's way over budget.
 
alexakasloth said:
Did you check which network is on the mast nearest to you?
Smarty operate on Three's network and voxi on Vodafone. They will likely use different masts and you mentioned that there is a mast around 100 meters away, it would be worth checking who operates on that using the website I linked to and trying a sim which uses that network.
Click to expand...

I'm on that site right now and the middle is grey, not showing anything. I've selected provider details on the left.
 
alexakasloth said:
When you go on the website the portion to the right is a map, for some reason it defaults to the middle on an ocean of the coast of Africa. Scroll out and zoom into your area, then you can go through the different networks seeing where their masts are located and what band they area operating on. Clicking on a mast will also show a rough guide of where each cell (there are multiple on a mast) should cover.

I found this helpful for understanding where to place a 4G router when I had that package, as i'm in between two masts but only one was good for providing 4G. I presume it was because of a hill being in the way and a clearer line of sight to the other mast, I could confirm which cell it was communicating with through the B535 settings (Cell ID), which matched up with the Cell ID on that website.

It also showed that there was a Vodafone mast a lot closer to my home, so if I were to get a 4G connection again that would be my first port of call. It doesn't neccesarily mean it will work better, but it's something to start with.
Click to expand...

Very strange, it doesn't show the mast which is about 100 meters or less than from where I live.

@WJA96 does changing DNS improve speeds or is that YouTube clickbait?
 
WJA96 said:
It might make a small difference is they were coiled up, but not a massive difference. If you're sending it back, I wouldn't uncoil them.
Click to expand...

Ok some good news. Got Vodafone sim and straight away it shot upto 50-60Mbps.

Now removed the black caps next to the male wire connector on the XPol an was able to screw it in firmly. Using the B535 and stuck outside with my hand it went to 115Mbps! Indoors it's a little less when right next to window.

Now using it on mr200 with wires a little stretched and it's about 70+Mbps and 80+ when hanging outside window. So I curled up the wires reasonably with antenna stuck on inside windows with suction pads and the speeds are 30Mbps :/ I'm wondering is this because of coiling the wires?

One thing to note is that the B535 can show 4G+ wheras I don't think the mr200 supports 4G+

I'm gonna try stretching the wires again later in the day and see how that goes. Although I paid £130 for the B535 from Amazon, clearly it's not new as it has scratches on it so it will go back.
 
WJA96 said:
The wires are 100% not part of the antenna. They should make no difference to the signal being received unless you’re waving a magnet around next to them when they’re coiled up.

But I’m very happy that you’ve seen an improvement.
Click to expand...

So after 12am upto 5am it was 25Mbps then went up. Now just had a look and it's gone back down to 25Mbps even though it shows 4+ :(

Is this some next kind of throttling?
 
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