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

[TallPaul_S]

There are much better deals that that to be had if you keep your eye open on the deals sites, I am paying less than £4 per month for the same Unlimited everything SIM, courtesy of Affordable Mobiles and Quidco, that's a 12 month contract, it was such a good deal I got two. Pretty sure I linked the deal some where back in this thread.

I'll be looking at doing this when my initial contract is up as the router will be mine then, will just need a sim. Also my phone EE contract ends around the same time and as EE are terrible for 5G here I'll look to get 2x Three sims at the same time.

 

[Journey]

I'll be looking at doing this when my initial contract is up as the router will be mine then, will just need a sim. Also my phone EE contract ends around the same time and as EE are terrible for 5G here I'll look to get 2x Three sims at the same time.

Most definitely worth it, I've not seen it as cheap since, but it was close to £7 after cashback not long ago.

 

[irrotational]

Hi everyone,

Although this is my first post, I'm actually a long time lurker. I used to have the account hancocaj, back when OCUK was running it's own Seti server. The only reference i could find was this thread where I was listed as crunching some units..The account seems to have got deleted along the way, probably because I was inactive for too long!

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/ocuk-news-2002-edition.30285/

Anyway - I digress. I have been ignoring 4g/5g solutions for ages because I assumed they would have low data caps and/or terms in the ToS that sim cards shouldn't be used as the main home broadband. I just saw that vodafone have an "official" 4g unlimited home broadband plan using their "Gigacube" a re-branded TCL router. I happened across this thread as some members have the same model number.

I live in a medium sized scottish village so my best bet for a decent 4g signal is vodafone (my work phone is Voda and so I can confirm coverage and speeds)

Does anyone know if the router can be set into bridge/modem mode? I have literally just bought some google wifi kit and it wants to act as the main router/dhcp and NAT etc.

TCL 5G CPE (HH500V)

If I did want to switch out to EE or someone else (Three don't do 4g at all in my village) can i just buy one of their sims and plug it in? Or will the router be like mobile phones and "locked" to a certain network?

 

[Firegod]

Does anyone know if the router can be set into bridge/modem mode? I have literally just bought some google wifi kit and it wants to act as the main router/dhcp and NAT etc.

Bridge mode isn't the be all and end all, but it is a nice feature to have. I run with two Routers, both are still in Router mode. You just have to do a bit of manual fiddling to make it work. Such as disable NAT on one of the chosen devices. Disable DHCP, WIFI, maybes assign some static IPs to each Router / WAN port, etc.

If I did want to switch out to EE or someone else (Three don't do 4g at all in my village) can i just buy one of their sims and plug it in? Or will the router be like mobile phones and "locked" to a certain network?

I'm not sure but my hunch would be if you went with kit from a provider it would be locked to them. If you wanted an unlocked option then you'd have to buy the Router independantly. You might find as well some options missing from the ones provider by suppliers.

 

[irrotational]

Bridge mode isn't the be all and end all, but it is a nice feature to have. I run with two Routers, both are still in Router mode. You just have to do a bit of manual fiddling to make it work. Such as disable NAT on one of the chosen devices. Disable DHCP, WIFI, maybes assign some static IPs to each Router / WAN port, etc.

I'm not sure but my hunch would be if you went with kit from a provider it would be locked to them. If you wanted an unlocked option then you'd have to buy the Router independantly. You might find as well some options missing from the ones provider by suppliers.

Yeah I think the router is locked to Vodafone, which is a bit annoying but that's ok.

The google wifi setup process and manual seems quite militant that it HAS to be the one in charge. So I would be looking to disable most things on the Vodafone router. My worry is that it's not flexible enough to turn off enough things. Looking at the manual, I can turn off WiFi and DHCP for the LAN on the vodafone router...but I can't see anything about NAT.

I *think* I therefore end up with a double NAT issue, as it can't be turned off.

EDIT - on looking at google help more closely - ONE google wifi unit can be put into bridge mode (to work as a wifi range extender). Using multiple units as a mesh requires that it be the main router/dhcp/NAT device.

I think I will just try the Vodafone box standalone and hope it's a decent enough bit of kit to get me good speeds and also decent wifi. If the wifi is lacking then i will break out one of my 3 google wifi units and use that as an extender.

 

[Firegod]

Yeah I think the router is locked to Vodafone, which is a bit annoying but that's ok.

The google wifi setup process and manual seems quite militant that it HAS to be the one in charge. So I would be looking to disable most things on the Vodafone router. My worry is that it's not flexible enough to turn off enough things. Looking at the manual, I can turn off WiFi and DHCP for the LAN on the vodafone router...but I can't see anything about NAT.

I *think* I therefore end up with a double NAT issue, as it can't be turned off.

EDIT - on looking at google help more closely - ONE google wifi unit can be put into bridge mode (to work as a wifi range extender). Using multiple units as a mesh requires that it be the main router/dhcp/NAT device.

I think I will just try the Vodafone box standalone and hope it's a decent enough bit of kit to get me good speeds and also decent wifi. If the wifi is lacking then i will break out one of my 3 google wifi units and use that as an extender.

Sounds like a good plan. Good luck!

 

[Cosmos]

DWR-978 finally in stock and available to order from places.

 

[Efour]

DWR-978 finally in stock and available to order from places.

looks like a 1950s scifi guy designed it.

 

[Firegod]

New v3 firmware out for the NR5101 from Zyxel. On first glance it appears to have added more selectable bands into the band management section (haven't checked other things yet). But now you get LTE_B1, LTE_B3, and so on. Then there are NR_N1, NR_N3 up to NR_N79. So I'm guessing now if you can get full fat 5G you can then also choose the bands (albeit as far as I know with EE there is only one band for fully fledged 5G - n78 I believe). Still - nice to have more options. I'm wondering if this might stop an annoying bug where the router decides after a few weeks to put me onto UMTS lol.

 

[kenny_st]

just found this thread being on a old copper line and getting a max of 8 up and 0.75 down i took a gamble on the three 5g hub and wow fallen back in love with gaming, 25 mins for a 40 to 50gb game to download instead of 12 hours, i now need a bigger hard drive for my games, had it for a week now and super impressed

 

[THX1138]

just found this thread being on a old copper line and getting a max of 8 up and 0.75 down i took a gamble on the three 5g hub and wow fallen back in love with gaming, 25 mins for a 40 to 50gb game to download instead of 12 hours, i now need a bigger hard drive for my games, had it for a week now and super impressed

With the way the fibre roll out is going 5 G is going to be the only option for some people.

 

[gpuerrilla]

With the way the fibre roll out is going 5 G is going to be the only option for some people.

This. Some are still on 4G as they wont put 5G masts everywhere. Thought I was getting fibre in only to be told they have applied for more funding. Joke.

 

[Cosmos]

Well, the DWR-978 5G Router has been a disaster. I was on the edge of a 5G area so didn't expect much but had the latest XPOL external 5G antenna +11DB pointed in the right direction so it would have been nice to have 5G but it got 4G+ in the end which I don't fault. 4G+ isn't too bad in this rural area. The WebUI on this thing is slow, even a simple change requires a couple of minutes. Also, it drops my 4G connection due to inactivity, there is this keep alive setting but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I set the router to reboot daily so configured it during sleep time, I have no idea what happened but when I woke up none of my Wi-Fi devices were connected, it required a hard reboot. I should add, my sim card got stuck in this router, I believe it was inserted correctly because I had connection. The push/release mechanism appeared to be faulty. I noticed suppliers suddenly dropping available stock from 60 to 5 suddenly, so maybe some sort of recall has happened as well. I will be returning it as a result.

 

[Firegod]

Well, the DWR-978 5G Router has been a disaster. I was on the edge of a 5G area so didn't expect much but had the latest XPOL external 5G antenna +11DB pointed in the right direction so it would have been nice to have 5G but it got 4G+ in the end which I don't fault. 4G+ isn't too bad in this rural area. The WebUI on this thing is slow, even a simple change requires a couple of minutes. Also, it drops my 4G connection due to inactivity, there is this keep alive setting but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I set the router to reboot daily so configured it during sleep time, I have no idea what happened but when I woke up none of my Wi-Fi devices were connected, it required a hard reboot. I should add, my sim card got stuck in this router, I believe it was inserted correctly because I had connection. The push/release mechanism appeared to be faulty. I noticed suppliers suddenly dropping available stock from 60 to 5 suddenly, so maybe some sort of recall has happened as well. I will be returning it as a result.

What a shame! Did you check the bands the Router supports and your current mobile provider match up? Is your SIM 5G ready? And does the XPOL antenna cover the right frequency ranges as well (I think it will). Sounds like the Router itself though isn't the best, with a slow interface and dropping connectivity randomly. That sucks! Could ask for a replacement just to be sure? What Router would you try in its place instead if you return it?

 

[Cosmos]

What a shame! Did you check the bands the Router supports and your current mobile provider match up? Is your SIM 5G ready? And does the XPOL antenna cover the right frequency ranges as well (I think it will). Sounds like the Router itself though isn't the best, with a slow interface and dropping connectivity randomly. That sucks! Could ask for a replacement just to be sure? What Router would you try in its place instead if you return it?

Mobile bands match what the router and 5G antenna can support, SIM is 5G ready.
Just going back to my previous 4G router, get reasonable speeds, bit it's reliable as long as the router has a daily reboot that is and remains connected all day then. Might revisit 5G in the near future if/when the coverage is a lot better.

 

[« VK »]

Been lurking this particular thread for quite a while.
Finally purchased Three's 5G data plan.

Literally just plugged it in:



Looking forward to the optimisations I can make to get the most out of 5G!

 

[gpuerrilla]

Man would love that speed!

Here I get 4G and only 40 down 20 up.

 

[TallPaul_S]

just found this thread being on a old copper line and getting a max of 8 up and 0.75 down i took a gamble on the three 5g hub and wow fallen back in love with gaming, 25 mins for a 40 to 50gb game to download instead of 12 hours, i now need a bigger hard drive for my games, had it for a week now and super impressed

What speeds are you seeing? I'm still seeing 7-800mbps down and 30+ up pretty much all the time.

However PSN downloads on new games seem to 'only' hit around 5-600mbps down, with patches/updates much slower at 300mbps max roughly.

 

[olliej82]

Hi everyone, I've just got the huawei 5g cpe pro 2 on three but for some reason my upload speed is only 12mpbs while using my phone in exactly the same location I get 74.8mbps upload. Is there any settings I need to change on the modem? This was tested with the modem connected via Ethernet to my laptop and also wireless to my phone.

 

[Hunterlit]

So my setup is now done. Took a bit longer than planned. But for a first stab with no antenna adjustment, just rough guess towards where I think nearest cell tower is. And this is what we get...

Router in the loft.

And these are my before speeds with the internal antenna.

And now with the antenna. Ran 3 quick random tests.

All on EE 4G. Pretty pleased! My values for the connection seem better too.

• RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) -7.0dB = Excellent
• RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) -82dBm = Good
• RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) -55dBm = Excellent
• SINR (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) 3dB = Fair

https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/Mobile_Signal_Strength_Recommendations#4G_.28LTE.29

I've done a similar setup (although its an old cottage). There is much better signal around the front of the house, putting the external antenna in the front bedroom and we get a good speed( not great, but far from terrible), however in the loft space directly above I got signal boarding on terrible and this is the highest part of the house. Now resituating it in the loft space in the extension which is much lower down and around the back where signal isn't the strongest the signal is actually better than it was in the main loft space above said bedroom. The only thing I can put it down to is the roof membrane in the main loft ( the extension has none). Ideally it would be best put on the front of the house, however access is an issue due to a lower front extension that was added on at a later date.