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

Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
17,087
Looking at your stats you are connected to the mast and cell below, do any of the other masts fall in you local vicinity?
No I don't think so. That mast is a bigass MOFO sticking out like a sore thumb that I can see from my back garden and it's about 1km from me lol
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,366
Location
West Midlands
oh sorry what i meant was, yes that is my cell tower. and no, i don't think there's any other masts around :cry:

Well they are doing a huge amount of upgrades on the network and repurposing some of the bands presently, also still stripping out old Huawei hardware, so keep some records when you see the slow downs/disconnections and see what has changed.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
The main differentiator is that the V1 has 2.5GB ethernet, whereas the V2 only has 1GB
Also the V1 allows external antennas (4 ports) whereas there's no such provision for the V2
The internal antenna of the V1 is more omnidirectional than the V2...so location and positioning for the V2 is more crucial than the V1
The only benefit of the V2 is that it's smaller (lol :cry: )
Rest of the specs are shrouded in secrecy

Someone who has compared both, but as always, YMMV

From what I can see online it actually does still have 2 instead of 4 external antenna ports, but you're right about the ethernet port being slower... honestly though if I get 100mbit out of this thing with a decent ping and a stable connection I'm happy, so I guess I'll see how it really is soon enough. I don't like the bit in your quote where it says it's switching to 4g all the time though, I think that'd be a deal breaker for me if it affects ping.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
17,087
I don't like the bit in your quote where it says it's switching to 4g all the time though, I think that'd be a deal breaker for me if it affects ping.
haha yeah, i cant verify that as i have the v1 and it rarely drops to 4g, if it does, a restart normally solves it (or it's a weather issue in which case tough luck for me lol)
but i guess all these things have lots of variables as well so may not be your experience
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2003
Posts
10,198
Location
Newcastle, UK
Just had to mess with cell lock as well today! There are two masts for EE in my area, just a 20 minute walk between them. My connection flicks between the two and the lower of the two masts is just 500m away from a big school / college. Today I noticed bad latency and return times and sub 100Mbps speeds. Cell locked to the other mast slightly higher up the road and speeds are back to being good again (200Mbps+). It'll be all those damn kids! :cry:
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,366
Location
West Midlands
If cell lock is so beneficial, why have you guys not all set that up from the get go? Does the setting not stick or something?

Well it wasn't needed for a good amount of time as there weren't a huge amount of masts, but as more of them have been built and upgraded then it becomes somewhat beneficial if you have a a competing signal locally.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
Well it wasn't needed for a good amount of time as there weren't a huge amount of masts, but as more of them have been built and upgraded then it becomes somewhat beneficial if you have a a competing signal locally.

Any idea if I map my area with cellmapper, will it show all the networks and all the bands, or will it only show up details for the network my sim is associated with?
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2003
Posts
10,198
Location
Newcastle, UK
Aye for me it was more a recent need, as there wasn't originally a scheduled reboot available on the fwa710 router through nebula. Now there is. So by rebooting weekly I'm keeping a healthy router but now it is pot luck on which mast and cell I get once back. I'll keep it locked for now, and monitor. :)
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
Aye for me it was more a recent need, as there wasn't originally a scheduled reboot available on the fwa710 router through nebula. Now there is. So by rebooting weekly I'm keeping a healthy router but now it is pot luck on which mast and cell I get once back. I'll keep it locked for now, and monitor. :)

Sorry... now I have another question :D ... why does it need rebooted weekly? Just to clear RAM, etc?
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,366
Location
West Midlands
Any idea if I map my area with cellmapper, will it show all the networks and all the bands, or will it only show up details for the network my sim is associated with?

Depends what you mean, if you are just looking for masts on the site you select the network you are looking for and it will show you the towers, cells, and bands. If you want to record data and upload it then you'll automatically record data on your phone for all the networks you are connected to.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
Depends what you mean, if you are just looking for masts on the site you select the network you are looking for and it will show you the towers, cells, and bands. If you want to record data and upload it then you'll automatically record data on your phone for all the networks you are connected to.
On the site the local tower seems to have no 5g data for three for the mast on the hill opposite my house, so I'm assuming no one has mapped it yet (three's coverage mapper and other sites have data available for 5g), but I have no phone with a three sim, only EE, so I was hoping to map it myself but I guess that's not possible?
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,366
Location
West Midlands
On the site the local tower seems to have no 5g data for three for the mast on the hill opposite my house, so I'm assuming no one has mapped it yet (three's coverage mapper and other sites have data available for 5g), but I have no phone with a three sim, only EE, so I was hoping to map it myself but I guess that's not possible?

You can't see 5G cells on Cellmapper as most networks are still running mostly NSA, which means it uses a 4G carrier for negotiation and upload, so the mapping tool cannot work correctly.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
You can't see 5G cells on Cellmapper as most networks are still running mostly NSA, which means it uses a 4G carrier for negotiation and upload, so the mapping tool cannot work correctly.

Is there anything easy to read that would teach me about the bands, or should I basically just follow the bands you outlined a couple of posts ago? The list of bands on cellmapper appears to be "1, 3, 20, 28" for me. I guess I'll find out tomorrow how it all works when my equipment arrives. I think I'm reading that NSA can aggregate 4G and 5G for upload, doesn't 4G on the upload adversely affect ping?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,366
Location
West Midlands
Is there anything easy to read that would teach me about the bands, or should I basically just follow the bands you outlined a couple of posts ago? The list of bands on cellmapper appears to be "1, 3, 20, 28" for me. I guess I'll find out tomorrow how it all works when my equipment arrives. I think I'm reading that NSA can aggregate 4G and 5G for upload, doesn't 4G on the upload adversely affect ping?

For the ping comment I get around 13-17ms, sometimes a bit higher if the weather is very bad or the mast is really congested (very rare for me). Just wait until you have your equipment if it is due tomorrow, also make sure to spend a good mount of time understanding where you best position is, e.g. setting directly on a window sill isn't always best due to glazing reflections from the metal strips in the widows, sometimes having the device 2-3 feet or more inside can help, same with upstairs vs downstairs, and figuring out which side of the property your mast is strongest from, lots to work out!
 
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
For the ping comment I get around 13-17ms, sometimes a bit higher if the weather is very bad or the mast is really congested (very rare for me). Just wait until you have your equipment if it is due tomorrow, also make sure to spend a good mount of time understanding where you best position is, e.g. setting directly on a window sill isn't always best due to glazing reflections from the metal strips in the widows, sometimes having the device 2-3 feet or more inside can help, same with upstairs vs downstairs, and figuring out which side of the property your mast is strongest from, lots to work out!

Ok thanks, will do! Really appreciate all the tips and hand holding even though you've prolly done it 1000s of times by now in this thread, it's quite long to trawl through. I'm hoping to put my modem in the attic since I have my cabling & router up there, hopefully the signal is alright, but we'll see. It also gives me an easy option for a 2x2 mimo exterior antenna because I can take it out the soffit... didn't realise they were about 100 quid though!
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
1,372
Location
Scotland
OpenReach FTTC:


Frist run from front of the house (opposite end of where the mast is)


Second run from the attic at back of the house (where the mast is)


Not too bad at all given what I had, certainly the upload is excellent to have for my backups. Download is obviously not as good compared to what others are getting I must admit but the real issue for me is the ping, I really hoped that would be lower. (Ignoring the loaded pings, that's prolly bufferbloat and I haven't bothered to tune QoS yet).

Regardless, tried about 30mins of street fighter which is quite ping sensitive and it was absolutely fine as far as I could tell, jitter seems very minimal.

Definitely seems like a 4G ping though, but the modem reports 5G is working. Bands are B3, N78, N78. I can't find my cell on cell mapper though oddly... numerically the ID looks like it should be on the mast on the hill opposite my house but I don't see it in the list. Signal Strength is -83, seems alright?

I'll give it a run, see if there's anything I can tweak or move about. If any one has any tips on lowering the ping that would be good? Still reluctant to be on a contract with it for 2 years but I suppose that's why I'm giving it a trial run in the first place.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom