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wildrover77
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Hi, I also have 3 home broadband. I am in a rural area with a poor reception. I upgraded the router to a Huawei B525 and bought a Poynting directional antenna at just over £100.

Money well spent as the kids can do homework which is online and I get to watch Netflix and the likes.

The antenna needs to point in the direction of where the cell tower is which living out in the sticks was easily done. 

The router that came as part of the package was not very good due to reception problems.The hub upgrade gives a much better wifi throughout the house and has an excellent app for managing things. The antenna comes with twin cable fitted with the connections which screw into the rear of the router.  

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Ok I am getting the 535 router. Just need clear advice on the antenna to purchase. Directional or all ways. How long can the cable be from antenna to router? Some say max 5m. That won’t reach from the router to ideal mounting spot

I know where my cell tower is. How accurate does the positioning/pointing need to be?

What is the hub upgrade? You mean your upgrade to 525?

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20 minutes ago, wildrover77 said:

Ok I am getting the 535 router. Just need clear advice on the antenna to purchase. Directional or all ways. How long can the cable be from antenna to router? Some say max 5m. That won’t reach from the router to ideal mounting spot

I know where my cell tower is. How accurate does the positioning/pointing need to be?

What is the hub upgrade? You mean your upgrade to 525?

Hi,

I purchased the Poynting XPOL-2 directional as I knew where in the distance behind a hill, where the  3 cell tower was. It does not need to be looking exactly where the tower is. It has something like a 60 degree field of reception. I researched it and the directional antenna was more suited to my rural location as in a built up area they are not as effective due to signals being bounced about with buildings  around you.

The websites do recommend the 5m max of cable but Poynting actually sell an extension cable which is another 5m . They are expensive and available much cheaper on the auction site but you need to ensure it is good quality cable to minimise loss. Mines certainly works well using a 5m extension.

I increased my download speed by "tilting " the antenna off the square when mounting it. The bracket that comes with it allows for numerous mounting positions. I sat upon my roof and using a speed checker on my mobile, I tried umpteen positions to get the best signal. The antenna actually faces the direction of the cell tower and you can rotate it about a lot before losing the signal. I mounted mine on a pole on a low part of my house but there are trees and hills between house and cell tower which is about 5 miles away.

The hub upgrade was the B525. It is much better than the B311 which came with the deal. The B311 has only one antenna connection on the rear. The B525 has 2. I got mine second hand and have taken away from the house and used it with the internal antenna where there was a 3 signal. Well pleased with it.

Its a lot of money to lay out but Im glad i bit the bullet as I binned BT after years of appalling service from Openreach and paying for a service that was a max of 2mbps and really inconsistent. 

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I would be interested to hear how people find the mobile broadband. It seems cheaper than our local suppliers but we have to have a robust line as the better half works from home via the broadband and if it’s down she can’t work. HMRC allegedly won’t let her employer reimburse broadband anymore so we are looking for a cheaper supplier.

When it has gone down in the past they send an engineer almost immediately and she can tether her work phone as backup but unless the network is rock solid ditching the wire connection seems too optimistic. 

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6 hours ago, Wb123 said:

I would be interested to hear how people find the mobile broadband. It seems cheaper than our local suppliers but we have to have a robust line as the better half works from home via the broadband and if it’s down she can’t work. HMRC allegedly won’t let her employer reimburse broadband anymore so we are looking for a cheaper supplier.

When it has gone down in the past they send an engineer almost immediately and she can tether her work phone as backup but unless the network is rock solid ditching the wire connection seems too optimistic. 

As far as reliability goes, my mobile supplier which is 3 has proved very reliable. I am about 6 months into my contract and there has only been one time, recently when the entire UK network went down for about 12 hours throughout the night.

I can only compare it to BT, who I was with for years who were shockingly unreliable, max of 2 mbps download and if I had to use the phone or someone phoned me, it was thee dreaded flashing orange light for god knows how long before it turned blue and came back on.

More and more mobile suppliers are providing an affordable alternative to using BT who, for rural customers are woeful in my experience. 3 for example are doing £22 per month for unlimited.

For the first time in years I can stream movies and the kids can do online homework without any issues.

 

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3 hours ago, bobthedug said:

As far as reliability goes, my mobile supplier which is 3 has proved very reliable. I am about 6 months into my contract and there has only been one time, recently when the entire UK network went down for about 12 hours throughout the night.

I can only compare it to BT, who I was with for years who were shockingly unreliable, max of 2 mbps download and if I had to use the phone or someone phoned me, it was thee dreaded flashing orange light for god knows how long before it turned blue and came back on.

More and more mobile suppliers are providing an affordable alternative to using BT who, for rural customers are woeful in my experience. 3 for example are doing £22 per month for unlimited.

For the first time in years I can stream movies and the kids can do online homework without any issues.

 

I have been with 3 for my mobile for the last eight years and found them to be very area dependent. Some parts of the country seem to have excellent cover and reliable masts. Others have had occasional loss of network or patchy signal. 

 

We we have never had huge issues with broadband despite being fairly rural, but have been on expensive business packages courtesy of the better half’s employer. A few times we have lost connection but as soon as the call centres are told it’s a business line and work stops until the line comes back an engineer has been out immediately (not before they try to say two week wait for an engineer though).

 

I get no signal at work in my current job and need to be contactable at all times so will be changing mobile provider, but the broadband presumably works on some new transmission system which might be more reliable. 

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