topic Patchy Signal for past month in Broadband

Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 10:31:29 GMT

I live in rural Norfolk and after several failures to get FTTP I left my old provider to try Three's mobile broadband in Feb 2022.

When I received the MiFi my speed increased from an average of 5mb to 12mb. I then purchased a Tp-Link router and external antenna which increased the speed to between 25 and 30mb.

For 8 to 9 months I have had no issues but the past 4+ weeks the signal has been poor. Some days I get no or 1 bar on the router for hours. I have called twice, the first time they confirmed no issues in the area, same as the web page, got me to re-boot, which I had already done, and then passed me on to technical team that remotely affected my router. During this process I got 3 bars and 25+mb download again. However the next day the same issue although it was a bit drizzly!

Since then no matter if its sunny, foggy, icy, raining or stormy I will either get 3 bars or 1or none for extended periods. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Col

P.S. I have re-booted and checked the router and its working fine, I have also put the sim back into the MiFi and that just shows red signal light.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

crypt0ninja — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 11:27:56 GMT

Hi @Col33

With the change in signal going from 3 bars to 1/0, has there been any change in the bands that your router usually connects to and/or are you being connected to a different cell than compared to when the signal+speeds were better?

Can you post a screenshot of the cellular stats page via your router admin portal?

Also which external antenna do you have? If its the enclosure type it might be worth checking it for water ingress (not uncommon have seen this a few times now with some Poynting external antennas so worth checking).

Cheers

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 11:44:32 GMT

Hi crypt0ninja

Not sure if this is what you are asking for. Signal strengh went from 25% when I logged in to 100% when I took the screen shot.

When I spoke to the technical team, they confirmed I was pointing at the only mast in my area. I use the Poynting XPOL-1 V2 5G 3dBi Omni-Directional Cross Polarised LTE 2x2 MIMO Outdoor Antenna which is under the roof line so is partly shielded by the rain. Got a stronger signal under the roof line than above!

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

crypt0ninja — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:11:57 GMT

Apologies @Col33 I made an assumption that you understood the network bands etc.

Three use the following frequency bands in general (however not all masts have every band available, seems to vary by location and infrastructure upgrades etc.):

B1
B3
B20
B28
B32 (This is a download only band, doesn't provide upload)
N78 (This is the 5G band)

Location dependant, some bands can provide better/worse signal than others.

Even though you have the antenna directed at the only mast in your area I'm wondering if its switching bands at the times that you notice the signal levels drop, might be worth keeping an eye on the cellular stats as it happens to see what changes...

Also what TP link router model do you have?

I cant see your image atm as it needs approval so hopefully one of the mods can approve your image soon so I can see it and try and help you figure out what's going on.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

crypt0ninja — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:33:30 GMT

Also I just picked up on your Antenna model, its the same one as I have except mine is the 4x4 MIMO version.

That antenna is omni-directional so its radiation pattern attracts signals from all directions so its not the correct antenna for you if you are looking to direct at a specific mast, you would need a directional antenna such as the XPOL-2.

This would likely benefit you nicely being in a rural location also as the directional antennas achieve much higher gain.

Even if you are pointing the Omni at the mast you want it could still pick up signal from a mast much further away in another direction.

It could be a case that as your antenna is omni-directional its picking up signal from a mast that's further away. To get around this if your router has band and cell locking available you can lock it to the mast/cell/bands that you want.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:18:21 GMT

I use the TP-LINK AC1200 4G+ Cat6 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router although its technically the MR600.

According to the Advanced page it only says Band 1.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

crypt0ninja — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:24:49 GMT

Does it show the CELL ID that its connected to? does the CELL ID and/or band change at the times the signal is dropping?

or does it stay connected to the same CELL ID and band but the signal levels just worsen at the times the signal is dropping?

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 14:30:45 GMT

I don't see anything relating to Cell ID.

This is the router info under 3G/4G :-

3G/4G
SIM Card Status: SIM card prepared.
Signal Strength: 100%
ISP: Three
Network Type: WCDMA
Data: 2588.174GB (Total Used)
Upload speed: 1.403KB/S
Down speed: 2.787KB/S

Under advanced I get:-

3G/4G
ISP Three
Network type: WCDMA
Band: 1
Data: 2588.175GB (Total Used)
Upload speed: 518Bytes/S
Download speed: 481Bytes/S
SIM Card Status: SIM card prepared.
Signal Strength: 100%
RSSI: -78dBm

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 14:35:01 GMT

I also found a Band option that is set to Auto. If I select manual I get the following options with Band 3 selected.

Band 3(Three)
Band 7
Band 8
Band 20
Band 28(Three)
Band 40
To enable a specific 4G+ carrier aggregation, select the corresponding bands.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 15:03:07 GMT

I went for the Omni one as I was not 100% sure where to point it. A near neighbour, also with Three, points his West but the nearest mast is South East where I point, tried West and go no more than 14mb. He get's download up to 20mb but cannot change it towards the SE to see if it improves. As mine is at the back of the house, I doubt it can pick up the one from the West but it could be a reason.

I will keep an eye on the signal strength and RSSI readings and see next time it drops. Been raining heavy all afternoon and I've got strong connection and download of 20mb!

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

JonathanB — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 17:09:51 GMT

Hey @Col33,

It looks like that "WCDMA" part is indicating you're on 3G rather than 4G, not sure if that's possibly why your connection quality has went down lately.

How does the network look for Coverage and Network Status on our checkers? I'm assuming you were getting 4G before these issues started, does that reflect on the coverage, and is there any fault/maintenance showing on the status?

Thanks,
JonathanB

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 17:33:28 GMT

Network status always shows no issues. The coverage map shows 4G for external only. I did notice that it was showing 3G, I will check next time I get 30mb to see if it's shows 4G. Let's hope 4G improves before they turn off 3G.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 09:16:33 GMT

Just done a speed test this morning, very windy and wet, and got 26.8 download and 4.1 upload which is about average. Checked the settings and still showing WCDMA and 3G so wonder if that's all I've been getting. Router is 4G and antenna is 5G.

I'll check again next time I get 1 bar or less.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

Col33 — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 11:07:32 GMT

Just spent time looking at the cellmapper site which does indicate that there is no 4G signal that covers my area. The only cell towers close are all 3G band 1. Hopefully these will be updated to 4G at some point.

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

crypt0ninja — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 11:20:13 GMT

Cellmapper is awesome 🙂

But you did say that the Three checker says 4G outdoors? If this is not correct then Three may need to update this for your area as its misleading...

Re: Patchy Signal for past month

JonathanB — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 11:29:26 GMT

Good point from @crypt0ninja there, we want our coverage estimates to be as accurate as possible.

@Col33, I'll send you a private message to get the location info, and can reach out to a contact that might be able to confirm if there's perhaps a decommissioned mast or some other explanation of why you've been running into these issues.

JonathanB