Hello all, just recently stumbled across the forum and must say it is a gold mine of information, most of which is straight over my head!
I have new build out in the sticks, Fibre is a few years away so wireless is my only option. Reception in the area has alays been quiet poor and really the ony option for internet has been one provider who have been shocking recently. I have my parents and 2 brothers living in house around me and all struggle to get more than 20Mbps even though all have clear LOS to the mast which is less than 5km away, congestion in the area is the main issue I'm guessing.
While standing in my parents yard this evening (a lot of trees and buildings around) I did a speed test off my iPhone to see what Vodafone was currently like in the area, to my surprise it connected to a 5G mast and I got a download speed of over 130Mgbs! I am presuming being up high and with an antenna this would be greatly increased?
As I only had my iPhone I tried to see what cell I was connecting to and where it was, found out through cellmapper it is a new-ish mast 3km away with vodafone LTE. Comreg site only shows it as a Meteor mast with UTMS & LTE. Both I'd imagine are out of date.
What should my next step be before investing in any hardware? I have a friend with a spare MR200 router, should I get this and stick in my bill pay sim card and see what kind of speeds I'm getting upstairs around my parents house? Or is there any apps I can use to get a better picture of whats avaliable, would an android phone be best for this?
Thanks for any help and apologies about all the questions LTE
15/04/2023, 10:33 AM (This post was last modified: 15/04/2023, 10:35 AM by Seán.
Edit Reason: Correction
)
With Vodafone, it's quite likely you were picking up 5G from a mast operating band 1 as 5G DSS. This is where the mast radio shares the bandwidth on band 1 between 4G and 5G. One test you can try is set your iPhone to 4G only temporarily to see how the speed compares with 5G. If you are still getting over 100Mbps in 4G mode, this will simplify getting a router and antenna as 4G routers and antennas are a lot cheaper.
If you are getting decent speed on 4G, I suggest going for this used Huawei B818 router on CeX. This is network locked to Vodafone, so will not work with Eir, 3, etc. SIMs, however it's considerably cheaper than buying an unlocked B818 or similar router (€100+). This is a much more capable router than the TP-Link MR200 particularly as that mast is very likely also operating bands 20 and 1 that the router can aggregate together. The MR200 can only connect to a single band, usually picking the stronger band 20 that is generally the most congested.
See how your SIM performs in the router first before considering an antenna. The only thing you need to configure with the router is the APN, i.e. set it to: live.vodafone.com
If the SIM performs well and you get good signal readings, you can get a Vodafone X 5G prepay SIM, which requires a €25 top-up every 28 days. This SIM will work fine in a 4G router and does not have a speed limit on 4G, which their non-5G Vodafone X plan has.
(15/04/2023, 10:33 AM)Seán Wrote: With Vodafone, it's quite likely you were picking up 5G from a mast operating band 1 as 5G DSS. This is where the mast radio shares the bandwidth on band 1 between 4G and 5G. One test you can try is set your iPhone to 4G only temporarily to see how the speed compares with 5G. If you are still getting over 100Mbps in 4G mode, this will simplify getting a router and antenna as 4G routers and antennas are a lot cheaper.
If you are getting decent speed on 4G, I suggest going for this used Huawei B818 router on CeX. This is network locked to Vodafone, so will not work with Eir, 3, etc. SIMs, however it's considerably cheaper than buying an unlocked B818 or similar router (€100+). This is a much more capable router than the TP-Link MR200 particularly as that mast is very likely also operating bands 20 and 1 that the router can aggregate together. The MR200 can only connect to a single band, usually picking the stronger band 20 that is generally the most congested.
See how your SIM performs in the router first before considering an antenna. The only thing you need to configure with the router is the APN, i.e. set it to: live.vodafone.com
If the SIM performs well and you get good signal readings, you can get a Vodafone X 5G prepay SIM, which requires a €25 top-up every 28 days. This SIM will work fine in a 4G router and does not have a speed limit on 4G, which their non-5G Vodafone X plan has.
Thanks Sean. That makes since, I did a few more quick tests today and confirmed your theory.
From the attic on I got the follow speeds
4G - 103 down, 12 up
5G - 103 down, 4.5 up
From outside at roof level (up on scaffold)
4G - 160 down, 7.7 up
5G - 117 down, 7.4 up
Going to order that B818 and see what I’m getting, thanks again for your help
Your SINR reading is very low, which means you appear to in range of two different masts where the mast you are not connected to is causing interference. If your router is still in the attic, you can try moving it about to see if the SINR improves. Try getting the SINR above 10dB if possible.
For example, if there is a chimney going through the attic or a water tank with easy access on each side, you can try positioning the router against each side to try blocking off some of the unwanted interference if it's coming from the opposite direction.
Otherwise the XPOL-2 or XPOL-2-5G is worth getting, which you can try in your attic if you want to avoid installing the antenna outside. For example, I have an XPOL-2-5G in our attic connected to a separate 4G router that I just use for our VoIP landline. It is also next to a water tank to attenuate the unwanted signals that it otherwise pick up from across Donegal bay.
