4G broadband router

Author
Discussion

Gooose

Original Poster:

1,469 posts

85 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all
Finally giving up on Three after a year of proper crap internet

I’ve bought a Vodafone sim but need a new router / hub as the sly barstewards at three have locked my hub down.

Any recommendations? I heard the Gigacube is good but there seem to be a few different types? I don’t have 5G I don’t think as I’m a bit rural.

anonymous-user

60 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all

Gooose

Original Poster:

1,469 posts

85 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
Could be perfect!

Anyone else used this router before?

w1bbles

1,039 posts

142 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all
Yes.

I've got 3 x TP-Link TL-MR6400 300 Mbps 4G Mobile Wi-Fi Routers on the go right now for various complicated reasons. One is on EE, one on O2 and one is on Three.

Currently £73 on Amazon (without the antenna). Truly plug and play.

Man-At-Arms

5,915 posts

185 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all
something simple and cheap
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenda-4G03-Unlocked-Confi...


or something with loads of features and will last about 10years
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DrayTek-Selective-Mulit-W...

Gooose

Original Poster:

1,469 posts

85 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all
Just ordered the TP-Link TL-MR6400 on its own, gonna see what it’s like. Thanks guys! Top advice oh here usual!

EmailAddress

13,241 posts

224 months

Thursday 19th October 2023
quotequote all
A bit horse bolted granted, but I gave up jumping around networks and bought a signal booster instead.

Went from a flaky X% to a solid XX% Mb/s for <£50.

It's probably blocking microwave ovens, and heart monitors for a square block but our network uptime and consistency has been top notch!

megaphone

10,880 posts

257 months

Friday 20th October 2023
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Those are LTE CAT4 routers, they're ok but there are CAT6 routers available that offer potential faster speeds.

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/42001-tp-l...

Obviously if your provider sets speed limits on the sim then it doesn't matter.

anonymous-user

60 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
Gooose said:
wormus said:
Could be perfect!

Anyone else used this router before?
Yes, I’ve got both router and antenna, works very well.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 20th October 08:27

Gooose

Original Poster:

1,469 posts

85 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
EmailAddress said:
A bit horse bolted granted, but I gave up jumping around networks and bought a signal booster instead.

Went from a flaky X% to a solid XX% Mb/s for <£50.

It's probably blocking microwave ovens, and heart monitors for a square block but our network uptime and consistency has been top notch!
Three used to be brilliant, but they did some work on the mast and it’s never been the same, I used to get 60/70mbps and sometimes 100, but now it’s down to 8/9 and intermittent, useless for 4k TV these days!

Gooose

Original Poster:

1,469 posts

85 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
Gooose said:
wormus said:
Could be perfect!

Anyone else used this router before?
Yes, I’ve got both router and antenna, works very well.

Edited by wormus on Friday 20th October 08:27
Have you bolted your antenna outside and drilled through? I see some picture have suctions cups on the antenna which suggests you could put it on a window indoors?

Ham_and_Jam

2,485 posts

103 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
Gooose said:
Could be perfect!

Anyone else used this router before?
I’ve got the MR600 AC1200

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/42001-tp-l...

Big brother to the one you’ve bought. Absolutely fantastic router. It’s in our holiday home which is in the middle of nowhere and we still get 20Mb download speeds when virtually none on our phones.

Watching all the streaming services on different TVs and generally laptop duties all done with no issues.

Setting up was painless with using a Talkmobile (100mb £10 / month) general sim card.

anonymous-user

60 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
Gooose said:
Have you bolted your antenna outside and drilled through? I see some picture have suctions cups on the antenna which suggests you could put it on a window indoors?
Yep, bolted to the side of the house for best performance. Suction cups do work but best to get it outside. Work out where your nearest phone mast is for your provider and if possible create a clear line of sight, which could mean sticking it on a pole. Like putting up a TV aerial, it all depends how out in the sticks you are.

Also, when choosing a SIM, work out who has the best coverage/strongest signal for your area.

My advice is wait until it arrives and make a decision then.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 20th October 10:40

EmailAddress

13,241 posts

224 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
wormus said:
Gooose said:
Have you bolted your antenna outside and drilled through? I see some picture have suctions cups on the antenna which suggests you could put it on a window indoors?
Yep, bolted to the side of the house for best performance. Suction cups do work but best to get it outside. Work out where your nearest phone mast is for your provider and if possible create a clear line of sight, which could mean sticking it on a pole. Like putting up a TV aerial, it all depends how out in the sticks you are.

Also, when choosing a SIM, work out who has the best coverage/strongest signal for your area.

My advice is wait until it arrives and make a decision then.

Edited by wormus on Friday 20th October 10:40
I mapped our house Estate to find the strongest area / zone, and then spent a few weeks gathering data on which band(s) were A: most prolific / consistent, and B: strongest.

It's surprising how much line-of-site, and building construction i e brick wall versus foil plaster, can make a difference.

Got away with locating the receiver inside the loft in the end which cut down on effort by a fair degree.

beko1987

1,666 posts

140 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
Gooose said:
Three used to be brilliant, but they did some work on the mast and it’s never been the same, I used to get 60/70mbps and sometimes 100, but now it’s down to 8/9 and intermittent, useless for 4k TV these days!
Agreed, when I first took it out 3/4 years ago I got 40/50mbps down and it was fine. Slowly it got slower and slower, no amount of fiddling the router position helped either. A speed test would show 30/40mb down but web pages would fail to load and the tv would buffer etc.That's before my hateful issues with the Huawei routers and trying to do anything vaguley technical with them (custom DNS for pihole etc)

Sacked it all off when the contract ended and went FTTP, and it's alot better! Sold the 2 4g routers I had on ebay for £30 each which was a decent bonus too.

Gooose

Original Poster:

1,469 posts

85 months

Friday 20th October 2023
quotequote all
beko1987 said:
Gooose said:
Three used to be brilliant, but they did some work on the mast and it’s never been the same, I used to get 60/70mbps and sometimes 100, but now it’s down to 8/9 and intermittent, useless for 4k TV these days!
Agreed, when I first took it out 3/4 years ago I got 40/50mbps down and it was fine. Slowly it got slower and slower, no amount of fiddling the router position helped either. A speed test would show 30/40mb down but web pages would fail to load and the tv would buffer etc.That's before my hateful issues with the Huawei routers and trying to do anything vaguley technical with them (custom DNS for pihole etc)

Sacked it all off when the contract ended and went FTTP, and it's alot better! Sold the 2 4g routers I had on ebay for £30 each which was a decent bonus too.
Exact same story! Just put the tp link and Vodafone sim in only getting 30mbps but streaming perfect, best performance I’ve had in months. Maybe I’ll get the antenna and see if it’s better with that as well??