Help me choose a 5G router (indoors)
Discussion
Well, the broadband is down again, and considering it caps at around 24Mb, its a bit of an insult when it doesn't work. Currently tethering off my 4g phone.
I've just grabbed an EE sim (only 5g coverage for me) on a 30 day rolling contract to test it and got 120Mb(!) in the loft 3 stories up (I'm ground floor). I actually got way more than outside as the roof surrounds you and the signal has to go througfh lots more material. So brilliant, can use a cheaper internal CPE.
A quick search suggested a few that carriers use and the ZYXEL NR5103E unlocked with bridge mode enabled, can be had for £150 used. (in fact I can get a V2 unlocked for £120) Is that a good choice? don't mind spending more if it will makea big difference. It'll live in a nice dry loft . It HAS to run in bridged mode as I'll be dropping a lan cable 3 floors into my flat, to my existing network which terminates on a nice Asus router/firewall/VPN.
Any others to consider? (network will be EE)
I've just grabbed an EE sim (only 5g coverage for me) on a 30 day rolling contract to test it and got 120Mb(!) in the loft 3 stories up (I'm ground floor). I actually got way more than outside as the roof surrounds you and the signal has to go througfh lots more material. So brilliant, can use a cheaper internal CPE.
A quick search suggested a few that carriers use and the ZYXEL NR5103E unlocked with bridge mode enabled, can be had for £150 used. (in fact I can get a V2 unlocked for £120) Is that a good choice? don't mind spending more if it will makea big difference. It'll live in a nice dry loft . It HAS to run in bridged mode as I'll be dropping a lan cable 3 floors into my flat, to my existing network which terminates on a nice Asus router/firewall/VPN.
Any others to consider? (network will be EE)
Edited by Griffith4ever on Sunday 14th July 12:23
I bought one of these last year and while it is mostly used for 4g (used in a locations without much of a 5g signal at all as yet), it was pretty good value and has been reliable when hooked up to TP Link deco units in a mesh, and also via powerline adaptors.
https://tribz.co.uk/products/nokia-fastmile-5g-rou...
Only downside to me was the lack of aerial input.
I also have a ZTE Wireless Router MU5001 which has worked well and does have aerial inputs - it does have an internal battery, but I have just left it plugged in and used for a week or so when working away from home without any issues, and plugged into an external aerial. Again, 5g is fast when there is a decent signal, but not a great 5g signal most of the time where I need to use it where 3 is the only gig in town and they throttle it to 3g speeds after a couple of days
AIUI the Nokia unit is "old tech" but it is a heck of lot cheaper than other 5g routers - the one I got was lightly used but absolutely fine when I received it. it was a Lebara sim I used it with on a 30day contract.
https://tribz.co.uk/products/nokia-fastmile-5g-rou...
Only downside to me was the lack of aerial input.
I also have a ZTE Wireless Router MU5001 which has worked well and does have aerial inputs - it does have an internal battery, but I have just left it plugged in and used for a week or so when working away from home without any issues, and plugged into an external aerial. Again, 5g is fast when there is a decent signal, but not a great 5g signal most of the time where I need to use it where 3 is the only gig in town and they throttle it to 3g speeds after a couple of days
AIUI the Nokia unit is "old tech" but it is a heck of lot cheaper than other 5g routers - the one I got was lightly used but absolutely fine when I received it. it was a Lebara sim I used it with on a 30day contract.
On a whim, I grabbed a NR5103EV2 (Three 5G hub) from Cex for £105. Got it running easily and currently have gone from 24/3 to 36/8, and that's before moving it up to the attic!
Will see how it goes - not massively plussed about having a box I can't readily access in a hard to reach place (I've enable IP passthrough) so now can't access it on my lan - its wired - wan to wan to avoid double NAT etc.. Currently soak testing it on my windowsil. I think If I go down this route long term I'll buy something more "pro", but for now, it was an instant and cheap test opportinity.
edit - just did a tracert and I CAN access it on the lan, somehow. It's on a 10.192.197 address. My lan is 192.168.1.x and yet I can access it. Must be clever routing stuff!
Will see how it goes - not massively plussed about having a box I can't readily access in a hard to reach place (I've enable IP passthrough) so now can't access it on my lan - its wired - wan to wan to avoid double NAT etc.. Currently soak testing it on my windowsil. I think If I go down this route long term I'll buy something more "pro", but for now, it was an instant and cheap test opportinity.
edit - just did a tracert and I CAN access it on the lan, somehow. It's on a 10.192.197 address. My lan is 192.168.1.x and yet I can access it. Must be clever routing stuff!
Edited by Griffith4ever on Sunday 14th July 18:29
Its actually done some pretty weird stuff to my NAT.
My new 5G modem can be accessd on 10.192.197.232, which seems odd as my LAn is 192.168.0.x
Plus... the "cellular info" of my 5G router gives 10.192.197.231 as it's address
If I enter the 231 address in my browser I get my Home Asistant server!
And unsurprisingly, my incoming VPN doesn't work and my Alexa can't revers access my home assistant.
Looks like i have some investigation into double NATTing to look into!
My new 5G modem can be accessd on 10.192.197.232, which seems odd as my LAn is 192.168.0.x
Plus... the "cellular info" of my 5G router gives 10.192.197.231 as it's address
If I enter the 231 address in my browser I get my Home Asistant server!
And unsurprisingly, my incoming VPN doesn't work and my Alexa can't revers access my home assistant.
Looks like i have some investigation into double NATTing to look into!
Griffith4ever said:
Its actually done some pretty weird stuff to my NAT.
My new 5G modem can be accessd on 10.192.197.232, which seems odd as my LAn is 192.168.0.x
Plus... the "cellular info" of my 5G router gives 10.192.197.231 as it's address
If I enter the 231 address in my browser I get my Home Asistant server!
And unsurprisingly, my incoming VPN doesn't work and my Alexa can't revers access my home assistant.
Looks like i have some investigation into double NATTing to look into!
Mobile carriers use internal addressing on their networks, hence the 10. Network, this isn’t routable on internet. All traffic goes through proxies to the internet - you’ll see this address if you go to whatsmyip My new 5G modem can be accessd on 10.192.197.232, which seems odd as my LAn is 192.168.0.x
Plus... the "cellular info" of my 5G router gives 10.192.197.231 as it's address
If I enter the 231 address in my browser I get my Home Asistant server!
And unsurprisingly, my incoming VPN doesn't work and my Alexa can't revers access my home assistant.
Looks like i have some investigation into double NATTing to look into!
Eughh. The more I read.... Its the real achilies heal of 5G broadband. I've lost the ability to:
Access my IP Cams
VPN in (and print remotely - important for me)
Alexa HA voice control is dead (needs to reach out to AWS and then AWS replies to my HA server)
I'm looking at possibly putting my VDSL (fixed IP, though matters not, DDNS is fine too) at WAN1 and then the 5G at WAN2 (actually an assigned LAN port) and then setting load balancing up (Asus RT-AX86U) and hoping for the most part the incoming traffic goes to WAN1 and I can program my outgoing (and it's return) to the secondary WAN. Will wait till me VDSL is fixed first...
Starting to now take Starlink more seriously as the £75 a month will not be far off the cost of running VDSL plus 5G, and you get a fixed IP with starlink. EE want £100 a month for a fixed IP on mobile...... but then starlink is considerably slower than 5G.
Conundrum.
Access my IP Cams
VPN in (and print remotely - important for me)
Alexa HA voice control is dead (needs to reach out to AWS and then AWS replies to my HA server)
I'm looking at possibly putting my VDSL (fixed IP, though matters not, DDNS is fine too) at WAN1 and then the 5G at WAN2 (actually an assigned LAN port) and then setting load balancing up (Asus RT-AX86U) and hoping for the most part the incoming traffic goes to WAN1 and I can program my outgoing (and it's return) to the secondary WAN. Will wait till me VDSL is fixed first...
Starting to now take Starlink more seriously as the £75 a month will not be far off the cost of running VDSL plus 5G, and you get a fixed IP with starlink. EE want £100 a month for a fixed IP on mobile...... but then starlink is considerably slower than 5G.
Conundrum.
Griffith4ever said:
Eughh. The more I read.... Its the real achilies heal of 5G broadband. I've lost the ability to:
Access my IP Cams
VPN in (and print remotely - important for me)
Alexa HA voice control is dead (needs to reach out to AWS and then AWS replies to my HA server)
I
Have a look at tailscale. I run it on a pi behind CGNAT, then have the client on my phone.laptop to give me remote access to my internal LAN. Works a treat.Access my IP Cams
VPN in (and print remotely - important for me)
Alexa HA voice control is dead (needs to reach out to AWS and then AWS replies to my HA server)
I
rednotdead said:
Have a look at tailscale. I run it on a pi behind CGNAT, then have the client on my phone.laptop to give me remote access to my internal LAN. Works a treat.
Cheers - I've decided I don't want to "work around" accessing my LAN from outside - I run a business and I just don't need the complexity of another "layer" on my network.I'm going to try Three UK tomorrow - I've read if you change the APN to their broadband one, you get a real IP, dynamic (no prob). Even if I only get 4G from them, 70Mb is still 45 more than I'm used to, and the upload bandwidth..... anything over 2.5Mb is a joy...
We'll see. Still waiting since Friday for Voda/BT to get in tough regarding my line fault. Had no VDSL since then.
geeks said:
Can you disable IPV6 external IP address on your router? We have to do this in EE with the Huawei 4G routers to get Alexa and Ring to work etc. not sure if this resolves the inbound issue though. I am also changing over to Starlink in the next couple of days.
I’ve had to do that on my Three router to access my Heatmiser heating hub. Not had any issues with other kit.Griffith4ever said:
rednotdead said:
Have a look at tailscale. I run it on a pi behind CGNAT, then have the client on my phone.laptop to give me remote access to my internal LAN. Works a treat.
Cheers - I've decided I don't want to "work around" accessing my LAN from outside - I run a business and I just don't need the complexity of another "layer" on my network.I'm going to try Three UK tomorrow - I've read if you change the APN to their broadband one, you get a real IP, dynamic (no prob). Even if I only get 4G from them, 70Mb is still 45 more than I'm used to, and the upload bandwidth..... anything over 2.5Mb is a joy...
We'll see. Still waiting since Friday for Voda/BT to get in tough regarding my line fault. Had no VDSL since then.
Holy schmoly!
Three did me a deal - unlim 5g data sim £12 a month, plus a bonus voice and data sim capped at 3.5gb / month £4, so £16 + vat a month, which is £2 cheaper than their standard business broadband tarrif, so, why not. Relevance incoming....
Thought I'd test the 5G around my site as I have the 3.5gb sim card. Went to the loft - 1Mb download.... went to the 3rd floor window, no better. Walking back accross the car park, ran Oopla again and.....300Mb!! WFT!?! - ran it a few times to be sure, and I got a warning that I'd used 80% of my 3.5Gb allowance... oops! 3Gb with just a few speed tests.
So..... bought a pair of polarised Yagi antannas:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CXR6XTXX?psc=1&r...
Mounted them on the chimney 2 floors up:
Hooked them up with TS9 adapters (what a horrible connector format!)
Then ran a speed test (bear in mind less than a week ago I was on 22/3)
Most I've seen so far is 450 down. Sometimes hovers around 220, but mostly in the high 300s
Three did me a deal - unlim 5g data sim £12 a month, plus a bonus voice and data sim capped at 3.5gb / month £4, so £16 + vat a month, which is £2 cheaper than their standard business broadband tarrif, so, why not. Relevance incoming....
Thought I'd test the 5G around my site as I have the 3.5gb sim card. Went to the loft - 1Mb download.... went to the 3rd floor window, no better. Walking back accross the car park, ran Oopla again and.....300Mb!! WFT!?! - ran it a few times to be sure, and I got a warning that I'd used 80% of my 3.5Gb allowance... oops! 3Gb with just a few speed tests.
So..... bought a pair of polarised Yagi antannas:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CXR6XTXX?psc=1&r...
Mounted them on the chimney 2 floors up:
Hooked them up with TS9 adapters (what a horrible connector format!)
Then ran a speed test (bear in mind less than a week ago I was on 22/3)
Most I've seen so far is 450 down. Sometimes hovers around 220, but mostly in the high 300s
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