5g Dongles for home use - Kids, streaming, etc.

[sbk1972]

That's it, Ive had enough of my cr4ppy broadband.

I live on an old estate in sussex, Im getting 16Mbps and the more devices Im adding the more complete crashes in my network equipment. I cant take my kids constantly moaning.

So, ignoring BT cables / broadband, whats the best 5G dongles ? Has anyone here replaced thier cable solution for a 5g dongle ? Can these handle 35+ devices ?

I realise I will need to buy an unlimited 5g sim, perhaps EE, then slip it into a 5g Wifi api / device. Just not sure on demands. do these devices provide DHCP ?

Im half tempted to use my broadband 4g thing for myself / work. a 5g setup for kids crap.

Any help, pointers, suggestions would be good. I have tried to upgrade my cable broadband but Im limited to the cable in the ground and thats 16mbps for the next 2 years when BTR plan to then upgrade.

Simon

[geeks]

Find the best 4G or 5G provider in your home, buy a couple of sims to test, buy 4G or 5G router (The Huawei B818 is a fine 4G router I have one as do several other PH'ers on 4G I get between 100-200mb down and a solid 50 up) find best unlimited deal you can on 4 of 5G sim and that about it.

5G will be better if you are gaming it is worth noting as the latency will be lower. However I game just fine on 4G

[Mr-B]

Have you checked three.co.uk? They have a wireless home broadband offer for £20 with 3 months free, Can't vouch for it as I don't have it but would consider if I were switching.

[boxst]

I use Three as it is the cheapest and I get decent speeds (with 4G) for Netflix etc (greater than 50mbps). If you really think you need 5G check here : https://5g.co.uk/coverage/

[sbk1972]

Cheers guys. Do the 4g 5g routers provide dhcp? I'm tempted to run a 192.168.2.x address on the dongle devices and 192. 168.1.x on my original stuff.

How many devices do you guys have connected to these routers.

[sbk1972]

Also. When buying a 4g 5g sim am I just buying another phone sim with it's, own number or do they do broadband only sims?

[page3]

I ran a Huawei 818 on EE 4G for over two years. Totally reliable and far better than the broken FTTC here.

You just connect it to your own infrastructure like any other modem. I disabled its own routing features and Wi-Fi. Connected 100 devices no issues.

Just use a phone SIM, provides the same and cheaper than a data only one. FYI EE don’t do unlimited data as they have an (un)fair use policy which is quite low at 600Gb/month.

[geeks]

page3 said:

I ran a Huawei 818 on EE 4G for over two years. Totally reliable and far better than the broken FTTC here.

You just connect it to your own infrastructure like any other modem. I disabled its own routing features and Wi-Fi. Connected 100 devices no issues.

Just use a phone SIM, provides the same and cheaper than a data only one. FYI EE don’t do unlimited data as they have an (un)fair use policy which is quite low at 600Gb/month.

EE here. Use well and above 600GB a month. Not noticed a single bit of traffic management or anything like that

[geeks]

boxst said:

I use Three as it is the cheapest and I get decent speeds (with 4G) for Netflix etc (greater than 50mbps). If you really think you need 5G check here : https://5g.co.uk/coverage/

Quite possibly the worst coverage checker I have come across. There is no 5G where I live but it insists there is

[sbk1972]

Cheers all

Ive just orderd the EE 5G router / sim. £60 upfront, £45 a month unliimted.

Looking forward to good internet

[page3]

geeks said:

page3 said:

I ran a Huawei 818 on EE 4G for over two years. Totally reliable and far better than the broken FTTC here.

You just connect it to your own infrastructure like any other modem. I disabled its own routing features and Wi-Fi. Connected 100 devices no issues.

Just use a phone SIM, provides the same and cheaper than a data only one. FYI EE don’t do unlimited data as they have an (un)fair use policy which is quite low at 600Gb/month.

EE here. Use well and above 600GB a month. Not noticed a single bit of traffic management or anything like that

You are lucky, they did to me when I used around 900Gb.

[Funk]

sbk1972 said:

Also. When buying a 4g 5g sim am I just buying another phone sim with it's, own number or do they do broadband only sims?

Check out Smarty: https://smarty.co.uk/ (they piggyback on Three) and are excellent value. £20/mo for unlimited everything including data (and I tested that..!).

I have 900/900 fibre (sorry, don't hate me!) but in the early days it was up and down like a we's drawers. It got so bad to the point I found out, after some investigating, that the Fritz!Box router supplied to me by my ISP would actually support 4/5G failover to a dongle. There's no 5G where I am but a 4G USB dongle and a Smarty account later I'm all set whenever the fibre goes down. Thankfully that's happened less and less (I was an early adopter on CityFibre locally) and I can get 80-100Mb on 4G.

To answer your question yes, it works like a mobile in that you have a login page for the dongle which shows signal strength, up/down speeds etc. It's also where you can read text messages etc if required.

Smarty also do a refer a friend scheme where referrer and referred get £10 gift card each etc.

Edited by Funk on Wednesday 9th August 15:46

[geeks]

page3 said:

geeks said:

page3 said:

I ran a Huawei 818 on EE 4G for over two years. Totally reliable and far better than the broken FTTC here.

You just connect it to your own infrastructure like any other modem. I disabled its own routing features and Wi-Fi. Connected 100 devices no issues.

Just use a phone SIM, provides the same and cheaper than a data only one. FYI EE don’t do unlimited data as they have an (un)fair use policy which is quite low at 600Gb/month.

EE here. Use well and above 600GB a month. Not noticed a single bit of traffic management or anything like that

You are lucky, they did to me when I used around 900Gb.

According to the router stats we average 750GB or so a month (10.8TB over 436 days)

[Actual]

Are you in a 5G area?

Try this Better Internet Dashboard
https://bidb.uk/

[gus607]

Three mobile broadband here for the last couple of years. Brilliant speed & reasonable cost too.

[sbk1972]

Update.

Recieved my new EE 5G router. A bit of testing to location / 5g or 4g, currently have 80mpbs on 4g. My landline system gets 12mbps. Well pleased.

Easy peasy to set up. Some chat on forums about aerials for it but currently all is good.

When in 5G mode its a little slower, 25mbps,


Glad I moved. Will cancel my vodafone line next month.

Thanks for al your help guys.

Simon

[page3]

Glad it’s worked for you.

My 4G connection was a revelation. Excellent download speeds and more importantly upload speeds. Nice and consistent and reliable too.

I added a L2TP VPN service from AAISP to bypass the EE CGNAT routing and to give me a fixed IP endpoint. That got things like Plex working remotely. If this means nothing to you, then you don’t need it!

After two and a half years Openreach still haven’t fixed the cable issue on our street, but we do now have a new Altnet full fibre connection so finally moving on from 4G.

[Otispunkmeyer]

I'm contemplating this route. Not because the wired cable internet is poor (we have virgin 350mbit) but because virgin are the only game in town. They whacked my bill right up and there is little incentive for them to do much about it. They offer the best speeds by an order of magnitude and they know it. I'm sure I could play the leaving game but quite honestly I haven't got time for that st and I'll only have to do it all over again in 12 months when the price goes up X 3 again.

Neighbor seems to get by fine on a 4G router by Three so I may try it. We are heavy users though. Working from home, lots of teams and lots of steaming. I'd say we're getting on for a TB a month. Are "unlimited" plans going to actually let you get away with that?

4G signal is strong here. 5G seems to be creeping in as well I bet 5G upstairs but not down

[Funk]

I can't speak for other networks but the Smarty Unlimited plan is genuinely that; unlimited and no restrictions for tethering etc either. I'd imagine Three are probably the same.

[Brother D]

Some good info here. My London office is moving and there could be some issues with wayleaves, so may need a 4/5G router as a temp fix (non-media average 20mbps).