Midband speedtest Megaathread

THE ALM

Scruff wrote: »

what aerial did ye get? do you get any 4g signal at all without it?

using this antenna and got a couple of sma to ts9 pigtails for the dongle. Don't get a 4g signal without it and had to rely on 3g.

Will probably spend a bit more time on the roof seeing if I can improve the signal although, as said, happy for now.

Dord

I found the position really did have a big impact on speed. In other news, my aerials are waiting in parcelmotel for me. Watch this space!

-=al=-

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Omni-Directional-4G-3G-LTE-MIMO-External-Antenna-for-Huawei-B593-E5172-B880-/231284385944?pt=UK_Computing_Boosters_Extenders_Antennas&hash=item35d99fa898

There's the one I got off of ebay and it's also shipped!

That one above for 40€ looks great! Wish I saw that before I opted for the other one!

Dord

with antennas, 3/5 bars reception.


without antennas, 4 bars reception.

Something isn't right... :(

EDIT: I should mention, they're still plugged in. I've just changed the settings in the software from external to internal.

-=al=-

Yeah that's not right. I find the position very important too as it seems with 4g that extra bar really goes a long way! I was reading that sometimes it has trouble detecting the external antennas but I'm sure you've changed the settings again and again so maybe have a google to see what the story is. I almost got the normal antennas myself but figured is go all out on a proper external one!

Dord

-=al=- wrote: »

Yeah that's not right. I find the position very important too as it seems with 4g that extra bar really goes a long way! I was reading that sometimes it has trouble detecting the external antennas but I'm sure you've changed the settings again and again so maybe have a google to see what the story is. I almost got the normal antennas myself but figured is go all out on a proper external one!

It detecting the external antennae and seems to be using them... Just not very well. I tweaked it a bit last night and got 4/5 with the external ones. Still I was kinda expecting a solid 5.

Scruff

hmm... these daytime speeds are pretty brutal

jay93

Fine for me on Meteor.

jay93

3G Meteor

jay93

3G On 3

warlikedave

jay93 wrote: »

3G On 3

Sums Three up really

-=al=-

Got an external antenna today so mounted it to the roof, fed the wires inside along with a cat5 ethernet and set it all up in the attic...

Meteor


2-3 bars of signal at the minute haven't messed with antenna position yet since it got dark pretty quick but so far, pretty good!

pajor

Cork City on 3. Blegh.

Automan

Meteor broadband 3G:



Meteor mobile 3G:



Been like this for about 2 months all across Dublin for me with many people giving out about it on boards talk to meteor.
Does not seem to affect iphone users apparently.

-=al=-

No problems here... Just breaking records!

warlikedave

-=al=- wrote: »

No problems here... Just breaking records!

Am so tempted to get 4g broadband from a provider but the data caps are just so restrictive - even with three :mad:

-=al=-

Yeah, definitely... That's the major problem really, the data caps. I've used about 12GB in a few days for just normal simple stuff and if there is a few users or devices, it adds up very fast.

You just download so much data because it's so fast... videos, images and music it all loads before you have a chance to stop the page from loading... not something I've been used to really!

I have to say the b593s' software is pretty good you get a lot of control over the network if you do make the move... PAYG sims can be used if you need more data if you run out. Even the 3g signal almost tripled the speed with the device

Automan

-=al=- wrote: »

No problems here... Just breaking records!

Yep good speeds on 4G and for some crap speeds on 3G, possible throttling :mad:.

http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057277702

Automan

warlikedave wrote: »

Am so tempted to get 4g broadband from a provider but the data caps are just so restrictive - even with three :mad:

Im currently looking at getting threes all you can eat data on 4G payg with 20 euro topup, looking around boards people are claiming there is no cap some claiming downloads in the 100s of Gbs per month, do you have a different experiance? Or are you talking about mobile broadband only?

warlikedave

Automan wrote: »

Im currently looking at getting threes all you can eat data on 4G payg with 20 euro topup, looking around boards people are claiming there is no cap some claiming downloads in the 100s of Gbs per month, do you have a different experiance? Or are you talking about mobile broadband only?

Mobile broadband only - three dont allow the use of phone sims for broadband although you can but you run the risk of the service being barred.

The limit on three in terms of their phone data is 2TB :eek::D

Automan

warlikedave wrote: »

Mobile broadband only - three dont allow the use of phone sims for broadband although you can but you run the risk of the service being barred.

The limit on three in terms of their phone data is 2TB :eek::D

Cheers for the info, will be tethering my phone to the laptop, I know they dont allow this but again reading through the forums plenty of people doing it with some claiming that three cant tell if your tethering or not.

warlikedave

Automan wrote: »

Cheers for the info, will be tethering my phone to the laptop, I know they dont allow this but again reading through the forums plenty of people doing it with some claiming that three cant tell if your tethering or not.

Had a long call with their tech support - they can tell the exact device that it has been in and the period of time the session has been active. As for restricting service, he stated that it is entirely possible and it it at their discretion.

So it is use at your own risk so to speak. Still if you are just tethering instead of using a modem then they will still detect the phone as the usable device so you should be ok

-=al=-

Signal dropped slightly from constant 3 bars to 2 bars so I moved the antenna about a foot and 3 bars has come back.

I gotta say the extra bar made A LOT of difference! So if you're getting an external antenna or placing a device anywhere for 4g, make sure the cable is long enough for the antenna or the device and that is in the best possible position to give you the best chance of a decent signal.

I know it's probably very very basic simple stuff here but there really was a dip in performance a lot more noticeable than the same scenario happening on a 3G connection.

Scruff

bizarrely i have seen the converse to be true in my situation. Signal dropped to 1 bar and i started getting 17mbps down and 4mbps up. Then when i put the dongle outside the window where it gets 4 bars it dropped down to about 4mbps down. Now its back to 3 bars and is 7-10mbps down. Odd as fook.
I have the speedtests i took somewhere to post up.

jay93

Havnt done any recent tests on 4G with Meteor but this was my last one .. Quite good havnt seen it below 40 in most areas

warlikedave

Meteor 4g - 3 bars - I need to test out more locations throughout the house but not bad for it being set up for 20 minutes



Has anyone tested the antennas that were designed to be attached to these devices (b593s-22)

-=al=-

Haven't moved the antenna and it has gone down to 1-2 bars now!

I get a consistant 16Mb down and 8Mb up.. Ping of less than 40ms.. Not terrible but not quite the speeds I got initially. Still perfectly fine though anything over 10Mb down is quite decent imo

As for antennas, there was one mentioned a few pages back from an irish company in Carlow selling directional MiMi antennas for 40€ that looked very decent and 9db gain I think... Worth a look

I use this one - http://www.ebay.com/itm/331263189598 (can't find an auction with just the antenna) and it works great. There isn't that much gain but place it anywhere outside and it worked good... I don't know if the meteor signal deteriorated on my end or theirs but it had connection issues that was totally on the network and not my setup so it hasn't been as good since... But still works aok

That one is quite expensive for what it is but it's very decent quality and cable and works great. Expected a bar or two more but it makes having a solid connection with an external antenna very easy

Heraldoffreeent

-=al=- wrote: »

Haven't moved the antenna and it has gone down to 1-2 bars now!

I get a consistant 16Mb down and 8Mb up.. Ping of less than 40ms.. Not terrible but not quite the speeds I got initially. Still perfectly fine though anything over 10Mb down is quite decent imo

As for antennas, there was one mentioned a few pages back from an irish company in Carlow selling directional MiMi antennas for 40€ that looked very decent and 9db gain I think... Worth a look

I use this one - http://www.ebay.com/itm/331263189598 (can't find an auction with just the antenna) and it works great. There isn't that much gain but place it anywhere outside and it worked good... I don't know if the meteor signal deteriorated on my end or theirs but it had connection issues that was totally on the network and not my setup so it hasn't been as good since... But still works aok

That one is quite expensive for what it is but it's very decent quality and cable and works great. Expected a bar or two more but it makes having a solid connection with an external antenna very easy

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Omni-antenna-GSM-3G-4G/dp/B00C1DGFPS

warlikedave

-=al=- wrote: »

Haven't moved the antenna and it has gone down to 1-2 bars now!

I get a consistant 16Mb down and 8Mb up.. Ping of less than 40ms.. Not terrible but not quite the speeds I got initially. Still perfectly fine though anything over 10Mb down is quite decent imo

As for antennas, there was one mentioned a few pages back from an irish company in Carlow selling directional MiMi antennas for 40€ that looked very decent and 9db gain I think... Worth a look

I use this one - http://www.ebay.com/itm/331263189598 (can't find an auction with just the antenna) and it works great. There isn't that much gain but place it anywhere outside and it worked good... I don't know if the meteor signal deteriorated on my end or theirs but it had connection issues that was totally on the network and not my setup so it hasn't been as good since... But still works aok

That one is quite expensive for what it is but it's very decent quality and cable and works great. Expected a bar or two more but it makes having a solid connection with an external antenna very easy

Could be contention mate - the more users they sign up the more it will effect - 4g is still suseptable to contention unfortunatly

-=al=-

Yup could very well be but the connection dropped for about an hour or so then when it returned the signal was weaker... Even with contention the signal should be similar right?

If I saw this antenna before the other one I definitely would have opted for this

http://www.dipol.ie/cellular-systems/gsm-3g-lte-antennas/lte/lte-mimo-antenna-atk-log-lte-800-2170mhz-5m-cable-sma-plug.html

10m and 5m cable length for about 40-50€ Reasonable price, directional and better gain