5G Broadband dropouts

[MacDavidson]

Hi folks,

So I got Three’s 5G broadband and get great speeds, with great coverage around the house. But at various times each day (for no apparent reason), it just disappears from being available as a wifi device for around 10 minutes, or until reset. The Mac connected by CAT7 cable is unaffected, and all lights remain as they should.

I’ve positioned the router in various places, tried changing the APN from 3internet to three.co.uk, and reset several times. 

Am I doing something wrong? Should I have 2.4 and 5 GHz on at the same time? 2.4 GHz is slower, but I need that for the smart gadgets in the house, but speed is what it’s all about…

Thanks in advance for your time

[Jayward]

i'm pleased someone has found a way to stop these annoying dropouts,  i still have dropouts on my MC 801A router, i tried to do the above remedy but i cant seem to find how to do it on my device, i found the three settings but they only state what they are: short medium and long and no option to select any of them.

[iceNfire]

I've tried stopping my switching between 5g and 2.4g but made no difference. It's still happening now, my phone WiFi suddenly intermittently dropping out. I'm getting fed up of it. I'm going to contact 3 next week and terminate the contract because I'm not getting the service I'm paying for.

[verrierRoberts]

For me with a ZTE MC888 and software code ending B09, putting the wifi power down to the minimum has fixed all the problems with temporary dropping IP connection on WiFi and Ethernet connection  as well as fixing SSL connections for Lightroom. 

Not sure how may find things, it easy to try. Its in the advanced settings for WiFi. It is supposed to be reducing the power to the wifi and allowing the modem over all to function better 🙂

[Max1]

There appears to be TWO Zyxel models. I currently have the (NR5103ev2) and it is lousy. I get frequent dropped connections despite all lights staying on. There is also another Zyxel hub (NR5103e) which I do not have. Can people confirm which of the two Zyxel hubs they have? Based on my experience the NR5103ev2 model is just as useless as the ZTE hub. 

[PotatoMan]

I have both, NR5103E worked ok-ish, I didn't have many problem with it. Recently it got swapped with the v2 version, and I'm frustrated with it, no problems with 2.4ghz but 5ghz is a joke. I cannot connect to it, from multiple devices, I managed to connect just after restarting the router, and just sometimes. Mac tells me "connection timeout" and my Samsung TV, just displays no IP assigned and both of them ask for credentials in an infinite loop even though they are saved.

[DrGreenGiant]

Yesterday I got the ZTE MC888 (HWV1.0.0).  Firmware is B02.

The speed is very variable, I am running a test every 30mins with the occasional manual test.  Averaging around 225Mbps, peaking at well over 500 and dropping several times an hour to less than 10.  Last night between 3-5am it was consistently below 100, a persistent long term drop to about 30% of the average.

Latency/ping is averaging 50-60ms.  Upload also drops frequently.

I've had one moment where everything completely died but the ZTE appeared to show everything working fine.  A power reset fixed the issue.

Early days for me still but so far I am not impressed by the huge variability and seemingly unexplained dropouts. I'd be worried that the dropouts are caused by traffic, which would lead me to a capacity issue (guessing.)  Unless this settles and becomes more reliable then this isn't suitable for working at home (on video calls) or streaming because of the intermittent drops, hangs and latency.  Online multiplayer gaming I haven't dared try but I would guess it's a write-off.

Fyi, my router is in bridge mode, wifi is off.  Cat6 to a good router in gigabit ethernet mode.  Speed tests done on a wired gigabit connection to a server, so wifi is completely out of the loop. I am content the issue is the 5G network.  If I switch back to my VM modem (which isn't cancelled yet!) on coax cable there are no issues like this.

Graphs linked below, I have put the red line where the install happened.  I was on 120Mbps VM coax before.

Download graph: https://prnt.sc/ruT56opHmUWu

Upload graph: https://prnt.sc/rkgmpndA970W

Latency graph: https://prnt.sc/KkYKZhiAGUo2

[WCAT-15]

Over the past few months I have bought (privately) each of the routers that THREE supply currently.  ZTE MC810, Zyxel NR5103, ZTE MC888.  I am about half a mile from 5G mast and get very good signal strength. (MC888 claims 10db better strength than others).  Connected to router by ethernet (not WiFi).
Not much difference between routers.  I have an internet monitor that tests every minute and records latency.
All can give 450Mb/s on a good day. All have regular frequent (1 or 2 per day) dropouts lasting (usually) just a few seconds, and then everything works again.  Most of the dropouts are at night and don't bother me.
Download speed is much lower at peak times, but usually not below 20 or 30 Mb/s at worst (OK for streaming, etc).

Conclusion, the routers are not the problem. The 5G mast is likely overloaded or similar.  Nothing has changed in the past 6 months in terms of speed or dropouts.
I stay with THREE 5G because it is mostly good, and I can live with the problems -- hoping they will improve things in future.

[WCAT-15]

In summary:
Many people have no problem with the ZTE MC801
Some change to the Zyxel NR5103 and say it is a big improvement over ZTE MC801
Latest Posts!!!   some change to ZTE MC888 and say it is the best.
But some have problems with ZTE MC888, change to Zyxel MR5103 and
     say this is better.

Conclusion.....   I can't see definitive pattern.   More user feedback needed.

[Smudger114]

Hi WCAT-15

I am having the same problem here with the ZTE MC888 only a lot more frequent than most are reporting and speed tests show between 0mb to 7/8 mb at best. Reset does sort the issue but o ly for it to go down again sometimes within minutes.

I got mine around late February and was great up until last week now it's drops 2/3 per hour between 11am and 12pm