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

Psy-Blade said:
Thanks - I had assumed outside would be better but I'll try again inside.

There's only one mast pointed our way according to cellmapper which makes things easier. I've tried a few spots inside but couldn't find a good spot. What's the relevance of knowing where the mast is - should I be trying that side of the house, near (but not in) those windows? I also found lining the router up so the longest side faces the mast provides a better signal.

I think I'll try putting the sim inside a phone to make it easier to move around.
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5G signal doesn't penetrate buildings/walls/solid objects very well, so yeah you really need to know where your mast is, and the router needs to be on the correct side of the house, with as little solid objects between it and the mast. So, a single wall, or a window - no obstruction is obviously best but the more direct line of sight you have, the better.

In the window is fine, but on a window sill right next to the frame you might have issues, I found lifting it up 12 inches so it's away from the frame was fine.

Plus, height is generally a good thing.

I'd stick with using the router, the 5G antennas in it will be much bigger than your phone antenna.

In simple terms, once you know which direction your mast is, put the router in the room facing that way to start, and then plug it into an extension reel and start putting it in various places in that room.
 
bigpantz said:
Kam89
you dont say what router you have . Why don't you go into the routers settings page and find out what signal you are getting.n my router log-in / advanced / system ( signal information ).. I found the place where i get best signal by using my 5g mobile phone
strongest signal in my loft and on the window sill outside. This has worked out the best 2 places for my 5g Modem.
I have had my router for about 4 weeks now. I am so stupid i did not notice that the Home page of the router was where you find out how strong your signal is
mine always had such a good signal i thought it was a picture. It changed one day in front of my eyes then i realised it was a live page.
Click to expand...


I have the 5g CPE PRO 2.

I've used an EE sim card and i got constant drops in WiFi and connection only fixed by a restart. Speeds were 160/30 max which suggested 4G speeds in my house no matter where i put it. I put it next to the window with the strongest signal using information from LTE-Monitor (this is better than HUAWEI own interface). Still i got disconnected every day. EE have noted there is disruption in my area but this has been 7 weeks now still no fix.

I swapped sim card to Three unlimited data sim and initially left router downstairs whilst on holiday for a week and ZERO disconnections even though 4g signal only. Since then i have moved it upstairs and 5g signal is stronger and better and more stable. Again ZERO disconnections with THREE with speeds in excess of 500mbps (upload is rubbish though 10mbps which i need to sort). I still need to move the router in to the loft but have never been up there since i moved up to the house so will try that when i get time. For now I'm happy with zero disconnections lol.

I thought the disconnections was an issue with the router itself however my exp has shown it is the network provider and so I will get on to the phone to EE to sort there act out as I'm still tied in to a contract with them for another 12 months.
 
My Three ZTE MC801A arrived this week - promising...

rj7l0sR.png

2x 1Gb RJ45, 1x RJ11 (3 state this is disabled in current firmware), 2x TS9 antenna connections (antenna only works at 3300-3800Mhz, so 5G only)

APN addition/selection is not locked, Bridge mode setting is disabled (at least in the UI, unknown if hacking the UI will allow it to be enabled or it's hard disabled in firmware)


rj7l0sR.png
 
Cenuij
I Signed up to Three 5g Home-broad band about 4 weeks ago..And i was supplied a HPE -PRO 2. I wonder why they changed devices ?.
possibly something to do with the Huawei ban ?
 
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bigpantz said:
Cenuij
I Signed up to Three 5g Home-broad band about 4 weeks ago..And i was supplied a HPE -PRO 2. I wonder why they changed devices ?.
possibly something to do with the Huawei ban ?
Click to expand...

I've read there was supply issues, but also there's a newer version of the ZTE - the MCE802 or something, so Three might have just got a good deal on this model.

The Huawei ban is on infrastructure equipment mast/tower base stations and backhaul networking gear that sort of thing... *maybe* that impacted on decision for consumer side procurement, idk
 
Cenuij said:
Bridge mode setting is disabled (at least in the UI, unknown if hacking the UI will allow it to be enabled or it's hard disabled in firmware)
rj7l0sR.png
Click to expand...

Bridge mode works fine, found a thread on ISPReview and a link to an Italian YouTube channel where the dude tears down the device, he's also written some JS to enable a few things hidden from the UI in Three's firmware (including enabling the option for bridge mode)

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/zte-mc801a-review.37993/post-269806
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kanq1w2DA0

The UI seems to be jQuery based, and his code is here: https://www.xchris.net/miononno/801/801-zte-v3.0b.min.php

It's minified, so just copy and paste the whole line into e.g. the developer console in Chrome (Ctrl + shift + i)
 
Cenuij said:
Bridge mode works fine, found a thread on ISPReview and a link to an Italian YouTube channel where the dude tears down the device, he's also written some JS to enable a few things hidden from the UI in Three's firmware (including enabling the option for bridge mode)

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/zte-mc801a-review.37993/post-269806
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kanq1w2DA0

The UI seems to be jQuery based, and his code is here: https://www.xchris.net/miononno/801/801-zte-v3.0b.min.php

It's minified, so just copy and paste the whole line into e.g. the developer console in Chrome (Ctrl + shift + i)
Click to expand...

Actually forget all that, see my follow up post on the ISPReview thread, you can toggle bridge mode once you deactivate the modem in the UI https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/zte-mc801a-review.37993/post-270831
 
So no luck moving the router around inside the house. Signal actually seems better downstairs than upstairs, I wonder if it is these foil lined insulation blocks causing an issue... anyway the router is back outside the house and working great.

https://imgur.com/a/hWCxP9r

Cenuij said:
Actually forget all that, see my follow up post on the ISPReview thread, you can toggle bridge mode once you deactivate the modem in the UI https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/zte-mc801a-review.37993/post-270831
Click to expand...

When using bridge mode are you getting a proper external IP for your router, or is the 5g router still NATing? Mine is still showing the internal IP for the gateway:

https://imgur.com/a/Yyan6n1
 
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Just done a speedtest on 3 5G and the results are impressive. When I tested the Huawei hub a year ago speeds were less than 30/5 so something has improved or they have upgraded the masts. Only issue I see is the ping, something to consider now over BT 900!

Screenshot-20220306-131830-Speedtest.jpg
 
Steven Rimmington said:
Just done a speedtest on 3 5G and the results are impressive. When I tested the Huawei hub a year ago speeds were less than 30/5 so something has improved or they have upgraded the masts. Only issue I see is the ping, something to consider now over BT 900!
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Ping and jitter are a huge issue on my connection. I get 600-750mbps but teams calls were unworkable. I ended up keeping the landline and routing traffic between the two using pfSense.
 
Journey said:
Yet I have the exact opposite, with low(ish) pings and perfect calls. So don't take a single persons experience to make or break a decision. Was your speed test done inside a property on a phone?
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Yep the speedtest was done inside, I remember testing this last year and the speeds were awful on 3 with the Huawei hub. Just got an unlimited data plan albeit on a sim only using a Note 10+ so I'm not sure how much worse / better the device 3 give you will be.

I may have to test it out using a 5G router. I take it the sim I have will not work in a 5G router? I more than likely will give it a try and use the 14 day cooling off period if the pings are an issue.
 
Psy-Blade said:
So no luck moving the router around inside the house. Signal actually seems better downstairs than upstairs, I wonder if it is these foil lined insulation blocks causing an issue... anyway the router is back outside the house and working great.

https://imgur.com/a/hWCxP9r



When using bridge mode are you getting a proper external IP for your router, or is the 5g router still NATing? Mine is still showing the internal IP for the gateway:

https://imgur.com/a/Yyan6n1
Click to expand...

No CGNat, public IPv4 assigned to my WAN interface - I've maxed my USG-3 throughput at quiet times:

RUcWqMP.jpg
 
For those that are using the router outdoors. How are you weather proofing? That's if you're using an indoor based model router like the CPE PRO 2?

Also can someone tell me how they are using cell mapper to identify where the mast is. Would be great.

Thanks
 
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Kam89 said:
For those that are using the router outdoors. How are you weather proofing? That's if you're using an indoor based model router like the CPE PRO 2?

Also can someone tell me how they are using cell mapper to identify where the mast is. Would be great.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I don’t think anyone is using a 5G router outdoors. External antennae certainly (that’s all that needs to be outside) and mobile phone handsets are generally what people are using for ‘outdoors’ speed testing.
 
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