Sorry - long post.
I live a bit remote in the UK and the best speed I can get on normal broadband (Copper) is around 8 meg download and 1 meg up. (No chance of Fibre until 2026 according Openreach. Hence looking for better solutions.
We also have bad mobile signal, (too far away from the mast.)
I purchased a GL-X3000 and a ID-Mobile (Three network) to see if it could provide a solution.
I set up GL-X3000 on a window ledge, at the top of the house, and aimed the device at the nearest Cell tower. As the crow flies it’s about 1 1/2 miles away, but there are many trees in the way.
Too my surprise I was able to reach about 30meg down and 4 up, which was unbelievable. System was stable for a few hours, then overnight the signal dropped to 1.2 meg down and 2 up.
I went forum searching for settings to see if I could set the device better. 5G is not available, so removed that, and also tried setting LTE Bands to B!, B3 and B20 which I read are the Three Network bands on the mast.
On the signal record I have 4G LTE with RSRP = -101 , RSSI = -65 , RSRQ = -15 , SINR = 8
What should I be looking for to get back to the 30+ meg download and keep the system stable there.
I have even tried an external Poynting XPOL-1-5G to two ports, but that didn’t seem to make any difference.
BTW my wife connected to it during initial setup, and got 60meg on a Speedtest.
Any advise please? My postcode is CW7 2PZ and I believe my nearest tower is “eNB ID 6200 (Macro) - LTE”
The problem isn’t you or your equipment. It’s the provider and their network.
I basically had the same setup as you for a while and found the connection to be reliably on all the time but unreliable on the speed. After doing A LOT of research there’s a lot that can affect the mobile network on the side we don’t see. For example, if the next town over has an outage or congestion then they will reroute to the nearest like the next town. That obviously has an impact on the connections because you can only fit so much water down a pipe X in diameter… So in effect, if it’s just you on the mast you’ll get FULL speed but as soon as someone else hops on then you halve in speed. Do that a few hundred times and you soon end up with nothing to give.
Objects, trees, buildings, hills, street furniture, anything that sticks up out of the ground can have an impact which is why the signal is better the higher up you go. I doubt this is your most prominent issue.
You will also need to try other networks as each one will be different in each area. Most importantly, you were on stock settings when you had the best signal so stock settings are all that is required. Humidity is a massive factor as water takes the energy out of the signal by trying to convert it to heat.
I went out this morning and bought an EE data sim, and that gave no real difference, so have put the 3 sim back in, as I know we have had good speed with that. I no Vodafone and O2, signal is bad in my area,
I have also tried various positions in the loft, with no better results. Again, probably too many trees.
60mm of rain over the last few days, also probably haven’t helped.
I am going to reset back to defaults, and see how I get on.
Very frustrating, as when you are on 8meg, and then see 30, your heart beats a little faster. I no it’s not fast compared to many, but it’s all relative.
Been there done that. In the end, because others wanted TV channels to watch, I ended up paying through the nose for vermin media and because you can’t get TV seperately from any other service I had to fork out for fibre too. Otherwise I’d be in the same boat as you now. Instead I just use a mobile as a fail over incase the fibre goes off as the house has IOT.
I found the best place to put the phone is on a window sill but sunlight might make the phone overheat so I attached a fan to keep it cool.
As for mobile providers don’t forget about mvno. Operators that use other networks are mvno. There’s only 4 main networks. O2. 3. EE and vodaphone. The rest are mvno and can sometimes offer better speeds than the actual network “owner”. I had best results with Smarty but obviously that might not be the same for everyone.
MVNOs in the UK are often restricted and do not have the use of all the bands that the parent carriers have available to them. I would avoid without doing some research into the which bands they are allowed to use first.
If this happens at night, for example from 0.00 to 7 a.m., it is not at all strange that your provider turns off bands that are not used at those hours of the night to save money on her electricity bill.
This is done by many companies in many different countries.
If this is the case focus on daily performance and find a way for the router to re-add the fast bands in the mornings.
You have improved your speed a lot, if you used an external antenna it would improve even more
I hadn’t noticed speed at night, only during 8am and midnight when I was testing.
I have locked the GL-X3000 to just bands 1,3 and 20, also tried all bands open.
I can’t get anything above 3 meg now. I wonder if IDMobile, (my SIM provider) has locked my sim download. During the testng I was doing, I added my XBOX to the unit via Wifi, and it proceeded to do some game updates, of about 100gig. in 2 days.1 game on it’s own had a 65gig update. I may have upset their “Fair Use” rules. I will have to contact them.
Absolutely it’s a fair use warning from the isp. They claim unlimited but it’s not unlimited speed forever. Smarty has a 1tb rule before they stab you in the back. Higher than the parent carrier.
Switch to another mvno on the same network and you should be good for another ban try a smarty sim if you haven’t already. It’s £1 just to see if the signal is good and if yes you won’t look back.
I put in the EE sim I had, and speedtest giving my 48meg down and almost 3 meg up. So am ok for now. I have raised a ticket with IDMobile asking why my speed has been hamstrung. It’s off to the Tech Support team, as the person I dealt with today, didn’t know what a router was. They said they would have Support contact me on either my IDmobile Sim, which is in the GL-X3000 or text me on it. The “Fair Use” wording is for Roaming.
Should be an interesting discussion with them.
So, I spoke with the IDMobile team today. They say as they partner onto the 3 network, they have no access to change speeds, and that they only sell their sims for Mobile phones and not routers, so if my speed has dropped, they can’t do anything about it.
I’ve cancelled my contract with them, and will continue with EE. I am still stable at 30meg + with EE.
try a smarty sim if you haven’t already. It’s £1 just to see if the signal is good and if yes you won’t look back.