Hi All,

Complete noob to the 4g mobile broadband setup so go easy on me

Basically myself and my OH have moved to rural Mayo (near Cong) from Galway city and unfortunately have no fibre access. I have setup a Huawei 535 router with an Eir PAYG sim and for the most part it is working quite well. I currently am connected to a mast which gives me 3 bars of signal on the router, throughout the day we get speeds of 20+MB download and 3-4MB upload but between about 8:30 and 10pm most nights the speed drops considerably to around 5MB download, I'm guessing this is contention or some kind of throttling on the mast?

I seem to be between 2 masts here, the 2nd of which gives me 5 bars of signal on the router but with a lower download speed of 6-8 MB and 20MB upload, I am thinking this mast must be oversubscribed based on the high upload compared to download?

I have downloaded the HUACTRL app today thanks to all the info/recommendations for it in the forum, see below details for my connection to the mast with 3 bars signal. I was just wondering are there any tips I could try, locking to different bands etc to see if I can get a more stable connection especially later in the evening.

I have also been given the loan of an external omnidirectional antenna but haven't got round to trying it out yet, might it be worth a shot? When I have briefly tried switching the router to use the external bunny ear antennas that shipped with the router my speeds seemed to drop a bit so I went back to the internal antenna until after work hours.

Thanks a million for any pointers from here!

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Hi Sean and others, 
Thanks for all of the useful info you've shared on the site.  
I've been reading your posts for a few years now and based on that,  I bought a Huawei B593s-22 router which I have been using successfully for about two or three years now.
Speeds in the middle of the night are around 15Mbps but painfully slow at peak times (0.2Mbps sometimes).  Upload speeds tend to be better than download speeds.  I live out in the coutryside in County Cavan and I've been using it with an outdoor directional antenna, pointed towards what I think is the nearest good signal from maybe 5 or 6 miles away or maybe more, not sure.  Unfortunately I don't have line of site as I'm down in a valley and the antenna is pointing into a hill.
Here is the antenna I'm using... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EE8RRFK/r...TE_3p_dp_1


Anyhow, I've bought a B818-263 because it seems to have more settings on it..... I've played around with the LTE bands settings in the router and taken some notes (just using the internal antenna for now, as I'm waiting for an adapter to connect it to my external one).  Straight away at 7pm I'm getting 5Mbps with the B818 internal antenna on Band 1, compared to 0.85Mbps juat a few minutes before on the B593 with external antenna.

Do you have any advice on how to proceed?  Is there a way to find out where the masts are, using the cell id listed in the Huawei?
I'm finding band 1 (2100) to be the best speed and it lists cell id 800286, but I can't find it on the comreg siteviewer.
I'm guessing I was picking up band 20 on the old B593.  With the B818 set at auto, it picks up band 20 too but the speed is very slow.

Here are the results on the B818 just sitting on a window sill with the internal antenna.

David

Hi I am looking for help setting up this with my tp-link router usb modem to connect a landline phone to use to make & receive calls on my 3mobile credit.
Here is a setup guide I found for this d
https://youtu.be/CsytpBkTKII

After using a Tenda Nova MW6 mesh kit for a few months, it is like a night vs day improvement over using my former ISP router.  Unlike my terrible experience with Wi-Fi repeaters, the Tenda nodes have been very stable using wireless backhaul.  This means if there's a Wi-Fi blackspot without Ethernet connectivity, an extra node will solve that.  

The Tenda Nova nodes support wired Ethernet backhaul, which allows the secondary nodes to extend the Wi-Fi without consuming wireless bandwidth back to the primary mode.  This is particularly useful where the nodes are separated by thick walls or down a long corridor where the Wi-Fi of the primary node does not reach. 

Preparing for wired backhaul

1. To start with, connect the main node's blue Internet socket to the Internet (e.g. LAN port on the router).  Leave the other nodes unplugged for the moment.
   
2. Set up the main node, e.g. provide the Internet settings (if not using an existing router) and give it a Wi-Fi name and password. 
   
3. Place all the secondary nodes in the same room as the primary node and connect their power cables.  Don't attach anything to their network sockets.
   
4. If the secondary nodes were included in the same kit as the primary node (part of a 2 or 3 pack), leave them switched on for a few minutes to automatically pair with the primary node.
   
5. For any nodes bought separately, go into the Tenda App -> Settings -> Add nova, then follow the steps to add the separate nodes to the mesh.
   
6. Ensure all the secondary nodes have a solid green LED before continuing. 
   
7. Unplug the secondary nodes, then place them in the desired locations and follow either method below.
   

1. Run an Ethernet cable from the 'LAN' socket of the primary node to a separate network switch, e.g. port #1. 
   
2. Run Ethernet cables from ports #2, #3, etc. to the blue Internet sockets of the secondary nodes. 
   
3. The LAN sockets of each secondary node can be left empty or to provide wired Internet connectivity to a desktop PC, TV set top box, etc.
   

Hi Sean,

I noticed that Eir have switched from the B818 to the B628 just very recently for mobile broadband.  

I believe the 818 was a cat 19 router according to the specs but I'm really struggling to find anything on the 628.  Even a Google search is scant. 

Do you have any references to the 628 and how it compares to the 818?

Thanks Sean

I am using the Huawei B818-263 router and using LTE H-Monitor it seems that my router is connecting to:

CellId: 131306260
eNB Id: 512915

From CellMapper it looks like this Vodafone eNB supports only band 20?

Cell Mapper Link

And looking at the surrounding cells, they all seem to be only band 20?

Does this mean that I cannot benefit from carrier aggregation to make use of multiple bands at the same time? 

By the way I get 50Mbit/s download and 12Mbit/s upload with the stats:

CELL_ID
131306260
RSRQ
-12.0dB
RSRP
-96dBm
RSSI
-67dBm
SINR
16dB
Wireless transmit power
PPusch:17dBm PPucch:2dBm PSrs:0dBm PPrach:4dBm
Uplink mod/demod of MCS
mcsUpCarrier1:25
Downlink mod/demod of MCS
mcsDownCarrier1Code0:24 mcsDownCarrier1Code1:20
PLMN
23415

I suppose that is plenty fast I am simply being greedy, but I am curious whether I can increase the speeds at all.

Also I am wondering about VoLTE. Whenever I make or receive a call using the RJ11 socket on my router and connected analogue phone, the router drops from 4G to 3G, and then when I have finished my call it goes back to 4G. I spoke with Huawei about this and they indicate that UK mobile operators whitelist devices for VoLTE (and that this whitelist does not include routers). Would spoofing the device reported to the eNB mean that I could get VoLTE to work with this router, if such a practice is technically possible, e.g. through a firmware modification or so?

An alternative solution would be to hook up a VOIP adapter and use VOIP, but ideally I would like to use the call plan with the SIM connected to the router. Is it possible to access VOIP / SIP settings for a mobile SIM to call as if from that SIM using VOIP? That would circumvent the drop to 3G whilst still allowing me use of the call plan associated with the SIM inside the router.

Hi Sean, as a newbie to 4g broadband this site has helped me achieve speeds i never thought possible from my rural location through my 4g broadband, so firstly thank you.

Some background, i have a Huawei b525s-23a i am from Northern Ireland and currently on a vodafone unlimited sim. I have had some trouble pinpointing my nearest mast there are two i have been testing with, i believe my nearest (and best hope) is 0.5km away (direct line of site, maybe 1 - 2 trees minimum obstructing), the other i am unsure of distance only that it is on the north facing side of my house, both band 20 (UL 847 MHhz & DL 806 MHhz) both seem to be giving same speed results, however mast 2 seemed to perfrom better in speed tests, however mast 1 has since perfromed the same (i believe this was down to usage/load etc one mast is in estate of local village, and other in general direction of only a main road). This morning my Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 arrived and i have been running tests in the roof space and such to find the best place before i begin drilling holes. Additionally i have been messing with my bands in LTE H-Monitor however i can only seem to connect to band 20. Below are the avaerage figures ive been achieving:

RSSI: -63 dBm +- 1
RSRP: -76 dBm +- 1
RSRQ: fluctuates between -6 and -13 (seems dependant on where Antenna is placed)
SINR: fluctuates between 4 - 12 (again as above)

This has gave me on average 2.5mb/s - 4mb/s download depending on time of day with a max of 5.5mb/s download (currently 4.6mb/s) these figures are great! Current BT line is max 1.3mb/s. My question is, have you any further advice on how i may if its possible to improve my SINR as it is consistently my weakest point? 

hi Sean, I have a huawei b525 on three network. I got a 4g directional antenna and faced it towards the nearest mast. My speeds improved greatly from 7mbps to 12mbps however in the evening i lose my speeds again to 0.20mbps. I was told if I re-direct my antenna to another mast which is west of the mast Im currently using my speeds would increase more as three have two masts at this location. My antenna is mounted on back of my house and to face it the other direction I would have to move to front of house but cable is only 10 meters and not long enough. My router is in the back of house and can’t move to front. will my antenna work in attic if i face towards that mast?. I mounted it on gable of house but it is now facing straight at house gable wall for me to point the direction I need it for new mast. Im getting speeds of up to between 22 and 32mbps upload. I can put it back of house again on higher pole but it still won’t be clear of roof for clear line of sight to mast. Would my roof block signal?

Saw this today, not in my area, but just curious as to what it is..

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/tech...-1.4412825

When I bought my Samsung A51 5G, it looked like it would support band 20+3+1 aggregation, but not 20+3+3 going by the cacombos website.

Today I walked up a hill behind our house which puts me in view of the distant cells. To my surprise, not only did my phone connect to another mast that I don't pick up at home, it also aggregated with two different band 3 cells, i.e. EARFCN 1700 (Three native) and 1275 (former O2):

   

Once the lockdown ends and I'm out and about, I'm curious to see whether it is capable of other less common band combinations, such as 20+3+3+1 that the flagship phones support.  My previous HTC U11 was not capable of aggregating 20+3+3, let alone 20+3+1 despite its Cat 16 LTE modem.