Home Network advice

[Padraic]

Hi all, I've recently set up a small home network and looking for advice about it.
The network configuration is as follows.

Huawei B818 Router. Currently on Vodafone. But will be on Three once I get it unlocked.
Router has static IP Address 192.168.8.1
DHCP server turned on, DHCP lease range 192.168.8.100-200

tp-link TL-SG108 unmanaged switch.

Printer with static IP Address 192.168.8.8

TV with static IP Address 192.168.8.10

UNIFI U6-LR Access Point on DHCP, set up as a standalone access point.

All the hard wired devices (printer & TV) work fine. 
However my iPhone 13 and wife's Galaxy phone are very slow to connect at first. 
Speed tests (Okla.) on my phone often fail to start but when they do the speed is good. 
Google Speed tests on my laptop often fail to start but when they do the speed is good. I'm thinking it may be something DNS related but I'm not sure.

The  UNIFI U6-LR Access Point was connected directly to my old B525 router and I didn't have this type of issue, I did try connecting the UNIFI U6-LR Access Point to the second LAN port on the B818 but this didn't resolve the issue.
There was a firmware update installed on the UNIFI U6-LR Access Point, so this may also be the culprit.

Any tips on ways to problem solve this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards Padraic.

[Seán]

Try a continuous ping from the command line (e.g. ping -t 8.8.8.8) on your laptop to see whether there are multiple timeouts such as when the speed tests fail. If the pings are working fine when the speed test fails, this is a good indication of a DNS issue, in which case you can try changing the DNS to Google's, i.e. 8.8.8.8 Primary and 8.8.4.4 Secondary.

If the ping latency figures increase such as many over 100ms or any over 1000ms, it could be either switching between masts or taking a long time to establish CA (4G+). You can try monitoring the connection with LTE H-Monitor to see if the cell ID and signal readings change between when the speed test fails and runs. It is also worth try locking individual bands, e.g. 20+1+3 or 28+1+3.

Check also the APN is the same as what was set in your work mobile dongle. It's usually hs.vodafone.ie for a mobile broadband SIM or live.vodafone.com for a phone SIM. Don't use hs APN with a prepay phone SIM as this will eat credit even with unlimited data.

[Padraic]

Thanks for the advice. I will try it tomorrow evening when I get home. One question, do I need to do anything with the LTE H-monitor as it was set up originally on a different router? Or just it just work away on whatever router is on the network?
Regards Padraic

[Seán]

If the B818 is configured with a different password, you'll need to update it in LTE H-Monitor for it to connect. If you bought a licence, the paid features will only work with the router it was connected to at the time of purchase.

[Padraic]

Hi Sean, I spent a while looking in to this and tried the steps you suggested.
From the continuous ping, majority of times are around 30ms. some requests timed out and a small few times are over 100ms.

I mad a change to the antenna settings and this seemed to resolve the issue. I changed the antenna mode to mix and this seems to work better.

Regards Padraic.