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

[TallPaul_S]

Yeah I've read the mesh systems without dedicated backhaul (like the Deco M4) can do 500mbps with ethernet backhaul but without it, once on the 3rd unit the speed will have dropped to 120mbps.

Not a problem on the Tenda Nova MW3 as it only has 10/100 ports so 90ish mbps is the upper limit, with much faster wireless protocol between the units, so should be able to get 90mbps on all units. Which is fine for my use. Good value at £60 too.

OK, the wifi is shockingly bad, fair enough as I imagine most of the internal space is being used for the 5G antennas.

25ft away through 2 walls, I get this:

Move to within 10ft in the same room as the router and:

 

[tsinc80697]

I'm about 20ft away from my Asus router and I get 90-95% same speed as if I was stood next to it or conencted via ethernet to the Huawei router. I'm tempted to just get another Asus router instead of a proper mesh setup as it's much cheaper and my current Asus wifi out performed the Eero by quite some distance.

 

[ash_scotland88]

I'm about 20ft away from my Asus router and I get 90-95% same speed as if I was stood next to it or conencted via ethernet to the Huawei router. I'm tempted to just get another Asus router instead of a proper mesh setup as it's much cheaper and my current Asus wifi out performed the Eero by quite some distance.

In breif, if possible. What is the difference between a mesh network and two routers with the same SSID and password?

 

[TallPaul_S]

In breif, if possible. What is the difference between a mesh network and two routers with the same SSID and password?

It's mainly the switching between access points. With two normal access points with the same SSID, the device will connect to the one with the strongest signal, and will normally try and hold onto that connection even though the other AP might have a stronger signal, meaning you see a weak signal until it drops and then connects to the other AP.

With a mesh network you should be able to walk around all the AP's and the device will seamlessly switch from one to the other. And you only need one network point to supply the main unit, with two AP's you'd need a second ethernet point.

 

[ash_scotland88]

It's mainly the switching between access points. With two normal access points with the same SSID, the device will connect to the one with the strongest signal, and will normally try and hold onto that connection even though the other AP might have a stronger signal, meaning you see a weak signal until it drops and then connects to the other AP.

With a mesh network you should be able to walk around all the AP's and the device will seamlessly switch from one to the other. And you only need one network point to supply the main unit, with two AP's you'd need a second ethernet point.

Thanks, tried googling but wasn't the clearest for me.
Networking is the sort of thing I learn what I need to do them forget about it.

 

[tsinc80697]

If you have a fairly recent Asus router you can use their aimesh which I think, happy to be corrected, creates a mesh from your routers so you have the benefit of a mesh and a decent network config/setup as you can still utilise all of your usual router settings.

 

[Duke]

Thats not a bad result so far. I would give an external antenna a try as it will remove another load of obstacles and give you a bit more height too.

 

[Efour]

Im looking at buying the Huawei 5G CPE Pro2 Router H122-373
version of the router but im a bit worried about connectivity to my AX6000 TPLINK home router as it says that it doesn't have a bridge mode in the options? According to the official store page at least.

Does the other version 1 have Bridgemode?

No where in Sweden has these for sale for a decent price so ill have to get it from Germany so i dont want to make any mistakes as returning it will be a real PITA

Any advice will be super welcomed.

 

[TallPaul_S]

Had a very strange issue this morning - my setup is (was) 5G CPE Pro doing DHCP with a TP Link Deco Mesh in AP mode. Had been working with zero issues for a few days, but after some troubleshooting I noticed the Huawei router had assigned it's WAN IP address from the internal DHCP range (192.168.8.x) and so wasn't able to connect to the internet. It seemed to do this at 3am this morning as my Deco gave a notification saying it had connected as a new device.

I'd done a reset of the Huawei router with no luck, but a reboot of the mesh somehow allowed the Huawei to get a proper public WAN IP address.

I've now turned off DHCP on the Huawei, with everything getting an IP from the mesh (192.168.68.100-250), and the mesh has set itself to dynamic IP with an internal IP from the router (192.168.8.103).

Fingers crossed that's the end of that, erm... issue. Feature?

 

[Firegod]

Im looking at buying the Huawei 5G CPE Pro2 Router H122-373
version of the router but im a bit worried about connectivity to my AX6000 TPLINK home router as it says that it doesn't have a bridge mode in the options? According to the official store page at least.

Does the other version 1 have Bridgemode?

No where in Sweden has these for sale for a decent price so ill have to get it from Germany so i dont want to make any mistakes as returning it will be a real PITA

Any advice will be super welcomed.

I use the Huawei B818-263 into a TP-Link AX50. So a slightly similar setup. I have the AX50 in AP Mode. So the 4G+ comes into the B818-263 in the loft, and that hooks into the AX50 downstairs via home plug. The AX50 is then the focal point (central house location) for devices to connect to / acquire DHCP leases / use WiFi 6 etc. Just a shame putting the AX50 into Bridge Mode turns off some of the features (I didn't realise that happened). Only config I had to do was note the MAC address, set the Ethernet to "Lan Only" on the B818-263, disable WiFi, disable DHCP. I assigned the AX50 with a static IP ( and the default gateway of the Huawei). Then also on the AX50 I reserved an IP for the Huawei B818-263 (and used the MAC address noted earlier).

All devices get IPs from the AX50, but any devices that use home plugs show in the B818-263 interface. The B818-263 itself and all WiFi devices show in the AX50 interface.

I see the AX6000 lists "Bridge" in the specifications, same as my AX50 does. So unless the Huawei CPE Pro2 is drastically different to the B818-263... then it should work OK.

I think I've done it the right way around. I don't know if I should set the B818-263 to Bridge and set the AX50 back to Router. I don't know if that would work. Answers on a post card if I've done it right.

 

[Efour]

I use the Huawei B818-263 into a TP-Link AX50. So a slightly similar setup. I have the AX50 in AP Mode. So the 4G+ comes into the B818-263 in the loft, and that hooks into the AX50 downstairs via home plug. The AX50 is then the focal point (central house location) for devices to connect to / acquire DHCP leases / use WiFi 6 etc. Just a shame putting the AX50 into Bridge Mode turns off some of the features (I didn't realise that happened). Only config I had to do was note the MAC address, set the Ethernet to "Lan Only" on the B818-263, disable WiFi, disable DHCP. I assigned the AX50 with a static IP ( and the default gateway of the Huawei). Then also on the AX50 I reserved an IP for the Huawei B818-263 (and used the MAC address noted earlier).

All devices get IPs from the AX50, but any devices that use home plugs show in the B818-263 interface. The B818-263 itself and all WiFi devices show in the AX50 interface.

I see the AX6000 lists "Bridge" in the specifications, same as my AX50 does. So unless the Huawei CPE Pro2 is drastically different to the B818-263... then it should work OK.

I think I've done it the right way around. I don't know if I should set the B818-263 to Bridge and set the AX50 back to Router. I don't know if that would work. Answers on a post card if I've done it right.

Yikes you gone around that a long way lol

my AX6000 is as normal DCHP and my current 4G B535-232 is in the bridge mode to disable everything on it basically and use it as a modem.
Its good to know theres other ways around this but im very used to the simplicity of this. It really just works super well.

i just bought the router now anyway so... ill be back in a few days begging for help

 

[Firegod]

Yikes you gone around that a long way lol

my AX6000 is as normal DCHP and my current 4G B535-232 is in the bridge mode to disable everything on it basically and use it as a modem.
Its good to know theres other ways around this but im very used to the simplicity of this. It really just works super well.

i just bought the router now anyway so... ill be back in a few days begging for help

Can I ask how you managed it with Huawei in bridge and AX6000 as full fat router mode. I tried switching mine last night and the whole thing was a mess. Couldn't see the Huawei at all. Do you go LAN > WAN port?

Just curious - sorry for taking thread off topic slightly!

Cheers.

 

[Efour]

Set bridgemode, LANport 4 on the B535 is Lan4/WAN > I just stuck that into the WAN on the AX6000 and rebooted everything :O

AX6000 Takes it and does its job.

oh Wifi is also off on the B535, so can only access it via ethernet http

I thought this was just the proper way to do it... Didnt think it was ground breaking.

 

[glenimp617]

Pleased I stumbled across this thread. Never even considered 5G for home broadband, but a quick google search tells me my city went 5G late last year, and that my house is on the border of dark/light pink.

So I grabbed a sim from three to test.....no 5g, only 4g lol

oh well. I'll have to put up with shocking FTTC for a while longer.

 

[Alpherah]

Yeah 5g doesn’t have very good range.
In my house I don’t get 5g but if I go literally 2 doors up (30m or so) I get full fast 5g

 

[TallPaul_S]

Pleased I stumbled across this thread. Never even considered 5G for home broadband, but a quick google search tells me my city went 5G late last year, and that my house is on the border of dark/light pink.

So I grabbed a sim from three to test.....no 5g, only 4g lol

oh well. I'll have to put up with shocking FTTC for a while longer.

Be aware you may need to be in just the right spot to get a 5g signal, and the antennas in the 5g routers are much bigger than a phone antenna.

Best thing to do is find where you 5g tower is, and so long as you're within 1km, and not blocked by a physical land mass, you should be able to get a signal.

Dark pink means you're very close to the tower, I'm on the border of light pink and zero coverage and still get 75% 5g signal, so you're probably not in the right room/looking the right way when testing 5g.

Interestingly, I can get 150-160mbps down fairly consistently in one spot, but it's not all that stable. Move the router 2ft and it's down to 100-110mbps BUT it's pretty much 100% stable. I tested the router outside the other day (like on the window sill outside, 1ft from the unstable location) and the speeds went up to well over 200mbps and upload over 20mbps too, so I may look at an external antenna at some point.

 

[glenimp617]

Be aware you may need to be in just the right spot to get a 5g signal, and the antennas in the 5g routers are much bigger than a phone antenna.

Best thing to do is find where you 5g tower is, and so long as you're within 1km, and not blocked by a physical land mass, you should be able to get a signal.

Dark pink means you're very close to the tower, I'm on the border of light pink and zero coverage and still get 75% 5g signal, so you're probably not in the right room/looking the right way when testing 5g.

Interestingly, I can get 150-160mbps down fairly consistently in one spot, but it's not all that stable. Move the router 2ft and it's down to 100-110mbps BUT it's pretty much 100% stable. I tested the router outside the other day (like on the window sill outside, 1ft from the unstable location) and the speeds went up to well over 200mbps and upload over 20mbps too, so I may look at an external antenna at some point.

Any ideas how I can find out where the tower is

 

[TallPaul_S]

Any ideas how I can find out where the tower is

With a few things - the coverage page should give in idea to the strongest signal and therefore the centre of that will be the mast, then a few websites giving mast info, then just seeing it in person.

 

[WJA96]

Opensignal app is what I used to use.

 

[Efour]

Sorry to hijack but its the only 5G thread going.

Got my New router and set it to bridge mode, thank god it had it, and 5 mins later everything is GTG.



Pretty damn happy. Yes ping still isn't uber but, my god i live in the Article circle and still get 50-60ms to most CEurope gaming servers... lol

i do live about ~400 meters from the only 5G tower in town... so that's some luck.. Considering i live about 50 meters from the 1Gbit fibre network at the end of the road.... Which they will never draw to me cos its not worth it for 1 bloody house......

I do expect this to get worse as more users adopt 5G but ill enjoy it for as long as possible
Its almost like living in civilization again.