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Three sends notifications via SMS, typically billing but I'd also guess warnings of network maintenance/disruption.
****The Official 5G Home Broadband Thread**** (Three/EE/Vodafone/etc)
- Thread starter TallPaul_S
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What's becoming increasingly annoying is the varying levels of performance.
With normal internet say the FTTP I had at my previous address, it was a consistent speed throughout the day.
Now though with the Vodafone Gigacube I only get decent speeds during the night.
Is this likely to be mobile broadband in general or specific to Vodafone not being good?
With normal internet say the FTTP I had at my previous address, it was a consistent speed throughout the day.
Now though with the Vodafone Gigacube I only get decent speeds during the night.
Is this likely to be mobile broadband in general or specific to Vodafone not being good?
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My Three 5G connection has given a very consistent 350Mb down/90Mb up over the few months I've had it(can hit 500Mb down sometimes). If your download speed varies significantly during the day, but upload speeds stay roughly the same I'd guess it may be congestion. I live in a small town where fibre has been deployed, so I'd guess the market for 5G broadband is not going to ever be that large.
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Ah so is the key to knowing if it's congestion that the upload remains consistent?
Could upload speed ever vary due to congestion or does it not tend to?
It's quite frustrating as when I moved I got pay as you go sim cards from all the big networks and only Vodafone provided me with anything useful in terms of speeds, so it's not like I could even consider changing networks.
I know you mention the market for 5g not ever being that large, and that's likely true as a main home internet but what about people and their phones. I'm sure I read that with vodafone in particular mobile networks get priority during certain times. Which is a joke as their gigacube isn't cheap.
edit: just ran a speedtest and even my upload speed has tanked. I've checked the network checker and it doesn't show any issues.
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Obviously my 5G connection has good speeds, but my 4G router experience is that download speeds appear to vary a lot depending on the time of day while upload never varied that much. That's all I can say really.
Soldato
Ooh! Three UK now have 5G in my area! I wonder if it would be worth a test to compare against EE. Looking at Three's bands I'm good for B1, B3, B20 and n77, n78. But no B32 (1,400Mhz) on the NR7101. Wonder if that would be an issue. Might try their Unlimited PAYG SIM for 20 quid.
Soldato
Or just grab a Smarty SIM, £16 in that link for 30 days, same network, same bands. Your download would be primarily n78 on Three UK and you'll be on NSA still so the upload will be limited by the 4G band.
Soldato
Aye I tried Smarty if you remember.
It was dire! However that was when I was using the NR5101 and not the NR7101 outside. Perhaps the Three SIM will yield some better results. I went ahead with the Three SIM. 
Soldato
Aye I tried Smarty if you remember.
Weird, I have both and the are identical for me. Lets hope it works better this time for you.
Soldato
Weird, I have both and the are identical for me. Lets hope it works better this time for you.
I think if I was to re-try the Smarty SIM (which I still have) it may be as you say, the same. I think moving from the NR5101 to NR7101 will be the biggest factor here - now that I can lock in 4G towers of my choosing all whilst utilising a proper external antenna (whereas NR5101 was limited to internal antenna only for the 4G connectivity).
I just wish I didn't have to go up the ladder to the roof to do a SIM swap lol.
Soldato
@Journey waste of time. Went up today and popped the Three UK SIM in - got the same results as the Smarty SIM in the NR5101. Only LTE speeds (no 5G) even though Three UK say it is in my area and the map would agree. But yep, nothing. Back to EE. Hey ho, got to try these things I guess!
Went up today and popped the Three UK SIM in - got the same results as the Smarty SIM in the NR5101. Only LTE speeds (no 5G) even though Three UK say it is in my area and the map would agree. But yep, nothing. Back to EE. Hey ho, got to try these things I guess!
Soldato
chaps, what the go to 5G Router these days?
Il have a 3 data sim ready. needs to the option for bridge mode and external antenna (for future proofing)
From my Search the ones I have found are:
ZTE MC801A
Huawei 5G CPE Pro (not the 2nd Gen)
bonus find (will need modding for external antenna ports):
Unicom VN007+
Il have a 3 data sim ready. needs to the option for bridge mode and external antenna (for future proofing)
From my Search the ones I have found are:
ZTE MC801A
Huawei 5G CPE Pro (not the 2nd Gen)
bonus find (will need modding for external antenna ports):
Unicom VN007+
Soldato
Quite a bit of choice nowadays in 5G Routers, but not so much if you want external antenna - which I think is a shame - manufacturers should let consumers have a choice if they want to use this or not. Don't force it on consumers that you can't have it.
You can also add to your list the Zyxel NR5101 (NB. Even when set to External, the Internal antenna are used for 4G connections. Might be fixed in newer firmware at some point). And the TCL Linkhub. Oh and the D-Link DWR978 (I'm sure the antenna are removable). Just make sure to check the bands the 5G Router supports with whatever choice you go with as they all differ. Don't buy one and then realise it doesn't work on the 3 network.
Soldato
@Journey waste of time.
Just saw this, what a shame! Map says I don't have 5G, but I do get it, Three UK are weird.
Soldato
I recently went from fixed line internet to 5G using a Zyxel NR5101. That model is getting a fair few mentions on this thread.
Even in the day time, fast.com is regularly giving me 280Mbit. In the night time, 800Mbit to 1.1Gbit. It can rip through a 3.7GB benchmark download in 90 seconds. Upload speed is around 40Mb and my ping is around 40ms, so the ping isn't that great. Zoom / Skype calls work great though with desktop sharing at 2560x1440. Online poker works great as well, with no lag.
So it seems that the router works great when there is a steady stream of data.
The bit where it struggles though is when I'm looking at web pages. Sometimes I have to press F5 a couple of times for the page to load fully, otherwise it will only partial-load, or load but without images. So it's like it's struggling when there isn't a steady stream of data and it has to be "woken up" / prompted by a few F5 presses. It's not my browser as I have tried other browsers and 2 other computers as well on the same network. I'm pretty sure that it's a very minor setting on the router that is causing it. Any idea what it could be?
Provider btw is Three on £16/month unlimited data, and I live on the outskirts of Stafford.
Even in the day time, fast.com is regularly giving me 280Mbit. In the night time, 800Mbit to 1.1Gbit. It can rip through a 3.7GB benchmark download in 90 seconds. Upload speed is around 40Mb and my ping is around 40ms, so the ping isn't that great. Zoom / Skype calls work great though with desktop sharing at 2560x1440. Online poker works great as well, with no lag.
So it seems that the router works great when there is a steady stream of data.
The bit where it struggles though is when I'm looking at web pages. Sometimes I have to press F5 a couple of times for the page to load fully, otherwise it will only partial-load, or load but without images. So it's like it's struggling when there isn't a steady stream of data and it has to be "woken up" / prompted by a few F5 presses. It's not my browser as I have tried other browsers and 2 other computers as well on the same network. I'm pretty sure that it's a very minor setting on the router that is causing it. Any idea what it could be?
Provider btw is Three on £16/month unlimited data, and I live on the outskirts of Stafford.
Soldato
Having to refresh the web pages to get them to load fully could hopefully just be a DNS issue. Have you tried changing to perhaps cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) and seeing if that helps? Are both the firmware and modem up-to-date?
Soldato
Updated my Orbi RBK752 kit to latest firmware this evening. Rebooted them along with the NR7101 outside on the roof. Updated my WiFi NIC drivers as well. Ran a quick speedtest and EE must have refreshed their hamsters at the same time, as this is the quickest I've seen.
Soldato
Updated my Orbi RBK752 kit to latest firmware this evening. Rebooted them along with the NR7101 outside on the roof. Updated my WiFi NIC drivers as well. Ran a quick speedtest and EE must have refreshed their hamsters at the same time, as this is the quickest I've seen.
They are now using rabbits, they ran out of hamsters a while ago.
Soldato
I already had a firmware update from that link about a week ago, to no avail, but I never thought to try a DNS server. I have tried Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1 for a few hours now and it looks like it has done the trick.
Thanks!
A note for Zyxel users - the DNS setting isn't in the obvious place. You'd normally expect it under 'Internet' or 'WAN' section for most router makes. So on my screenshot below, I was thinking 'Broadband' or more obviously, 'DNS'. I tried it under DNS and it said invalid host name when I typed in Cloudflare. Instead, you need to go to 'Home Networking'...! So it's a heads up if you're a Zyxel user and want to set up a DNS server.
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Hi,
Hoping someone might be able to help me
Ive had a ZTE MC801A from Three for a month or so. Not in an area they say is supported but my friend bought his around mine to test before I ordered one and I got great speeds 400-600 in multiple window sills in my house and its been great since i've had it.
Since Sunday ive had terrible connection and speeds. It changes from 5G to 4G+ to 4G constantly (every few seconds), flicking between all 3.
CA Status keeps changing from CA Active to NO CA to CA Inactive. Not sure if this is relevant?
Only thing I can see which has changed since Sunday is an automatic firmware update at 02:30 in the morning, and ive had issues since.
Ive tried the device in every window now and its the same throughout.
Any suggestions of things to try? Ive tried factory reset.
Thanks in advance.
Hoping someone might be able to help me
Ive had a ZTE MC801A from Three for a month or so. Not in an area they say is supported but my friend bought his around mine to test before I ordered one and I got great speeds 400-600 in multiple window sills in my house and its been great since i've had it.
Since Sunday ive had terrible connection and speeds. It changes from 5G to 4G+ to 4G constantly (every few seconds), flicking between all 3.
CA Status keeps changing from CA Active to NO CA to CA Inactive. Not sure if this is relevant?
Only thing I can see which has changed since Sunday is an automatic firmware update at 02:30 in the morning, and ive had issues since.
Ive tried the device in every window now and its the same throughout.
Any suggestions of things to try? Ive tried factory reset.
Thanks in advance.