Rural Broadband Advice

Farrelk · 09-06-2020 10:21am #1

Just looking for some opinions on our home broadband set up. Currently we have two different broadband systems going, land-line and mobile broadband. The land-line isn't great so we got the mobile broadband in to see if it works any better.

Option 1 - Vodafone Land-line

Not in a fiber optic zone, so this is the same as it was 10 years ago. Never really moves from 5 mbps down and 0.5 mbps up. It is usually good enough for streaming stuff, but sending files / video calls are too slow. Struggles when 3 or more people stream, but it doesn't happen that often so it's usable 90% of the time.

Option 2 - 3 Mobile Broadband

We installed an external antenna to the roof, and plugged it into our 3 supplied modem. It gets speeds of about 10mbps up and 10mbps down at off peak times, so around 1am - 9am which is brilliant. Slows during the day to about 4mbps down and 6 mbps up, but usually goes to around 1mbps down or lower after 8pm or so. One Sunday was the same peak time speeds, less than 1mbps down.

Is there anything we can do differently, or is the 3 Mobile Broadband speeds just what it is? We'd like to keep it, especially after spending money on the antenna, but getting less than 1 mbps down in the evening isn't usable.

Victor McDade · 10-06-2020 7:36am

If you're able to access settings on the 3 modem, try switching from 4G to 3G. It might improve speeds during evenings

cregmon · 10-06-2020 9:35am

I have a similar setup with a load balanced dual connection set-up. The vDSL connection works at 7Mbps down / 1 Mbps up while the 3 LTE+ connection sometimes reaches 60Mbps down and 40 Mbps up, typically at 2am! During the evening it can drop to around 5/5 so I try to schedule any large file transfers during off-peak.

Like you I had to get an external antenna (Poynting) and I replaced the 3 supplied modem for a Huawei B535. The average speeds more than doubled but the biggest improvement was the LTE connection stability.

Have you been able to check the 3 modem's connection stats (RSRP, SINR, RSRQ, etc)? I'm using a 3rd party android app called HuaCTRL to monitor status. For example, I was able to get the RSRP (received signal power at the antenna) from -110dBi to around -85dBi - the equivalent of going from 0/1 bar to 4/5 bars.

There are numerous sites that give some guidance such as this interview:
https://www.solwise.co.uk/node/2491

but I got the most help from reading the posts on this forum:
https://editorsean.com/

It took me about 12 months to learn enough before I started investing in new equipment, so let me know if you need to know anything else to help.

listermint · 10-06-2020 6:48pm

cregmon wrote: »

I have a similar setup with a load balanced dual connection set-up. The vDSL connection works at 7Mbps down / 1 Mbps up while the 3 LTE+ connection sometimes reaches 60Mbps down and 40 Mbps up, typically at 2am! During the evening it can drop to around 5/5 so I try to schedule any large file transfers during off-peak.

Like you I had to get an external antenna (Poynting) and I replaced the 3 supplied modem for a Huawei B535. The average speeds more than doubled but the biggest improvement was the LTE connection stability.

Have you been able to check the 3 modem's connection stats (RSRP, SINR, RSRQ, etc)? I'm using a 3rd party android app called HuaCTRL to monitor status. For example, I was able to get the RSRP (received signal power at the antenna) from -110dBi to around -85dBi - the equivalent of going from 0/1 bar to 4/5 bars.

There are numerous sites that give some guidance such as this interview:
https://www.solwise.co.uk/node/2491

but I got the most help from reading the posts on this forum:
https://editorsean.com/

It took me about 12 months to learn enough before I started investing in new equipment, so let me know if you need to know anything else to help.

Which poynthing did you get and do you think it made a huge difference.

I've a B535 with no external antenna getting decent speeds most of the time . But wondering is it worth it to upgrade.

Actually just ran the rsrp using that app mines 110 DBI also. Not ideal .

Must lookup the antenna. Any recommendations on cable suppliers for it.

cregmon · 10-06-2020 8:59pm

I've read several sources say that you need to look at RSRQ, RSRP and SINR to understand how throughput rates and connection reliability can be improved. I used to have values of around -18dB/-108dBm/-8dB and its now usually -10dB/-84dBm/8dB when I changed to an external antenna.
I tried various indoor locations, window sills, upstairs/downstairs etc. Found that having one antenna horizontal and the other vertical worked better. Also found that placing the router directly behind the centre pillar of the window was better than in front of the glass. LTE radio can be a strange beast at times!

I ended up going with an XPOL-2-V3-5G from https://signalsolution.novatel.ie/. Had looked around at various solutions but with covid delivery delays and other possible holdups I wanted to get it from a relatively local supplier that had it in stock. Not the cheapest option but I also thought that this model had some future-proof possibilities built in and some performance improvements over earlier versions.

You can also search various EU sites; https://www.eurodk.com/en/products/antennas has several types - directional, log, panel, etc. Just watch for the supported lte bands.

Key thing I learnt was cable length - shorter is better. This XPOL comes with 5m pre-attached. So finding an optimal site for the router was essential. Eventually put it the kitchen cupboard above the extractor fan. I was able to route the cables through the existing wall cavity to where I mount the sat dish and terrestrial aerial. I might relocate if I can find a better location. The antenna site needs a tidy up after all the rework too.

I'm relatively lucky that the nearest 3 site is only ~2km away - just on the edge of LTE coverage. That's why after testing with just indoor antennae on the router I decided to get the ext antenna.

Also invested in a Draytek 2926 to load balance with the slower vdsl connection - I got it on discount on amazon warehouse as it was slightly used. Seems to work ok and it does have lots of features I may never get around to using.
I also have an old SamKnows box I use to monitor the ISP quality and that's shown a reasonable improvement over the past couple of months. As you can see the best performance is early morning but it keeps going for most of the day so I'm able to work remotely. The biggest benefit of LTE I find now is the upload - usually synchronous and much better than the 1 Mbps I have on dsl.

Any more info needed, just let me know. I'm certain there's more I could eke out of my setup so if anyone else has experience, I'm willing to learn.

ED E · 11-06-2020 10:12pm

When planning your setup you need to anticipate the Three connection (Or VF or Meteor) getting slower over time while the DSL line will likely be slow but consistently so.

Scolly · 12-06-2020 11:43am

I am using a similar setup in terms of the Huawei 525 and the external antenna using 3 as we are close to the mast.

Good speeds can be 10-15 mb download but often times it can be unreliable and have to reset the router

I would estimate the average speeds in the line of 5-8 mb download over a month

I see EIR are now offering a 29.99 4g 12 Month 750gb package on a 12 month contract
There is no mention of speeds via this but I did test an EIR sim and the speeds were high over the course of a week on a pay as you go sim ( 30-50 mb )

I am tempted to trial the EIR offer but would be interested to see if anyone has tried the EIR 4g broadband

Farrelk · 12-06-2020 12:03pm

cregmon wrote: »

I have a similar setup with a load balanced dual connection set-up. The vDSL connection works at 7Mbps down / 1 Mbps up while the 3 LTE+ connection sometimes reaches 60Mbps down and 40 Mbps up, typically at 2am! During the evening it can drop to around 5/5 so I try to schedule any large file transfers during off-peak.

Like you I had to get an external antenna (Poynting) and I replaced the 3 supplied modem for a Huawei B535. The average speeds more than doubled but the biggest improvement was the LTE connection stability.

Have you been able to check the 3 modem's connection stats (RSRP, SINR, RSRQ, etc)? I'm using a 3rd party android app called HuaCTRL to monitor status. For example, I was able to get the RSRP (received signal power at the antenna) from -110dBi to around -85dBi - the equivalent of going from 0/1 bar to 4/5 bars.

There are numerous sites that give some guidance such as this interview:

but I got the most help from reading the posts on this forum:

It took me about 12 months to learn enough before I started investing in new equipment, so let me know if you need to know anything else to help.

Wow that's a really thorough and detailed response. Thanks a million for taking the time to write that. I am new enough to the game so I will have to take the time to study what you've listed there. I'll have access to the router / modem alright, I'll let you know how I get on

Update:

Using the HuaCRTL app I get the following results;
RSSI -67 dBm
RSRQ -9 dB
RSRP -97 dBm
SINR 0 dB.

Clear that the SINR is the main issue here

Farrelk · 12-06-2020 12:06pm

ED E wrote: »

When planning your setup you need to anticipate the Three connection (Or VF or Meteor) getting slower over time while the DSL line will likely be slow but consistently so.

Yeah that's the overall impression I'm getting. I would be open to spending a bit more money / spending more time on making the mobile option work better though, we have people working from home and as zoom calls become more important a good connection is vital

listermint · 30-06-2020 11:35am

coming back on this, as stated previously have a backup Three connection to my Imagine BB for uses like CCTV and Work from home. So bought the Poynthing 4G aerial (not the 5G) and extended 5m cable too as my runs a bit longer.

Got from -4 SINR -107 RSRP down to 0SINR and -97 RSRP

Which translated to 1.8Mbps Down to 15Mbps down instantly.

Morning is generally very poor on it, not usually a problem still handles WFH (leave imagine for the rest of my household) But it can hold up video conference often.

Happy with that gain, quite sizeable.

gazzer · 30-06-2020 12:56pm

Scolly wrote: »

I am using a similar setup in terms of the Huawei 525 and the external antenna using 3 as we are close to the mast.

Good speeds can be 10-15 mb download but often times it can be unreliable and have to reset the router

I would estimate the average speeds in the line of 5-8 mb download over a month

I see EIR are now offering a 29.99 4g 12 Month 750gb package on a 12 month contract
There is no mention of speeds via this but I did test an EIR sim and the speeds were high over the course of a week on a pay as you go sim ( 30-50 mb )

I am tempted to trial the EIR offer but would be interested to see if anyone has tried the EIR 4g broadband

I have the 4G broadband from Eir. Speeds are fairly consistant during the day (40 - 50mbs) and during the evening it is around 25 mbs. Has been a godsend over the last few months as two of us are working from home. I got rid of the VDSL as I was only getting 2mbs at most

Rural Broadband Advice

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