Blue Network light on router

[PowerOfCreatine]

A month or two ago I signed up for Three’s 5G home broadband deal and I have a white router with 5 LEDs down the front which, when working, are all white

Intermittently the middle light (marked Network) goes blue and I have virtually no service, almost like dial-up. It eventually turns white again and the speeds return. Not very helpful when I’m trying to work from home.

I’m loathed to call their “thank you please” call centre so does anyone know why this keeps happening? Have I been sold a lemon? Their network coverage maps shows I should get a decent signal, especially as I keep the router right next to a window.

[Limera · Accepted solution]

With 5 LEDs down the front you must have the ZTE MC801A router.  The middle LED indicates whether you are connected via 5G (white) or 4G (blue) so it sounds as though you are dropping to 4G at times.  Possibly try relocating the router to another area of the house (or even the same room) as this may improve it's chances of hanging on to that 5G signal more of the time.  Trial and error, but you may see improvement.  Next to a window like you have been doing is usually a good idea.

[PowerOfCreatine]

Cheers for the reply.

4G is usually just about ok on my phone at home so I’m mystified how my laptop goes so crap when the router light goes blue. I guess I will have to try another part of the house but I much prefer Ethernet connections than Wi-Fi so I don’t relish the prospect of cables being run from room to room but at least your response has put a clearer idea in my head of what’s going on.

[JonathanB]

Hey @PowerOfCreatine,

I hope you do see some improvements. If you're really not getting on with the service though please let me know.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Limera]

I'm a stubborn old mule myself when it comes to considering relocating my router to hunt down a better signal, but I have taken the time to do so in the past 2 weeks as I too was getting a lot more dropping back to 4g recently. So happens that my original spot in the upstairs skylight window was the optimal location anyway (according to the app and my tested speeds) but it was worth doing if for no other reason than to prove to myself I wasn't bottlenecking performance by my own insistence on an Ethernet connection to my gaming PC. It's all about that ping and latency!

If it comes to having the router the other side of the house, have you ever tried using those Powerline Adapters which utilise your homes electricity wiring as Ethernet? I had many years of decent performance using them to pipe a wired solution from my previous landline ISPs router on my ground floor to my PC, 2 floors above. I preferred it's stability over the WiFi I was getting through 2 floors of house.

I hope you are successful in getting some stability. If your 4g speeds are reasonable in a alternative router location and it is sufficient for working from home, you could even lock the router to 4g mode only and see what kind of mileage you get out of it. Sounds like yours works OK with the 5g though so just getting it to stay there sounds like a good objective! 

[JonathanB]

Really good points here @Limera for any gaming purposes a wired connection is first preference, and I've found powerlines can be helpful too in my personal experience!