Which 5G Hub should I have?

[SWalsh]

I recently purchased the Three 5G Broadband expecting the device displayed on the adverts which outlines the capability for connecting up to 64 devices. When the Hub arrived I got something looking nothing like it. Upon looking on the Three website I saw that the hub device I have ZTE MC801A can only connect up to 32 devices.

Is someone able to explain this difference in device from the one one advertised please?

I live in County Durham, UK - if that has any impact on this...

[russdaz]

Yeah the Zyxel units Three have had no sure what’s happening, I had one and it was poor went back.

But If you concerns about how many devices you connect to the router, I suggest using a lan from the Threes device to another router. 

Other more focused routers rather then mobile routers give you more control over your network that will make your network much faster and support more devices. I use a dedicated router geared towards gaming, as you set it up to favour some devices over others, or type of traffic.

In most places the MC801a is just as good as the Zyxel will be, MC801 misses out the b28 connectivity and the Zyxel does see massive improvements with properly setup external antennas. But b28 isn’t yet widely used at present. (At least private ones, as I haven’t seen the improvements on Threes branded firmware so not sure if Three lock them off)

I have a Zyxel sourced Nr5101 and yes it can be much faster then the Mc801 but only on the upload speeds, but is by far more stable than the mc801a on the externals. I do stay in hotels alot and they come with me, and I check the local network setup etc.

But I don’t see any network in England pushing the Mc801 anytime soon. Your contract will be up long before so I wouldn’t worry too much if your happy with the speeds from the mc801a

[crypt0ninja · Accepted solution]

They should have given you the new ZyXEL NR5103E 5G Router as far as I'm aware...the ZTE is the previous model used by Three, however 5G seems to be bugged for many of us running the NR5103E at the moment.

Once the NR5103E issues are resolved then it will for sure be the better hardware to have though.

[SWalsh]

Just as an update - 

I have spoken to Three customer support and they have informed me that they are now no longer sending out the ZyXEL NR5103E 5G Router due to faults reported within the system. They are now only sending out the older model ZTE MC801A 5G Router. Which does have some drawbacks in that it can only accommodate 32 devices as opposed to the newer models 64 devices and its maximum capacity for download and upload is reduced, although this is still higher than the current 5G network capacity with Three. 

It would seem that Three have not yet updated their website and marketing to reflect this change.

[JonathanB]

Hi @SWalsh,

Sorry for any confusion this has caused. I'll get clarification on if we can do a router swap for you once the Zyxel firmware issue is sorted, if you'd like? Also, thanks for flagging up the concern about the online info I'll make sure this is looked into.

JonathanB

[_bomber]

Hi @JonathanB.

I too was surprised to be given an old router model but wasn't too bothered at the time as it worked at the time.

However since last week I have been having the same constant connection dropouts and slow speeds (0.75MB rather than 80)+ that everyone else reports.

Interestingly I am now running b15 firmware, so that isn't a solution; and I got that a couple of weeks before problems started, so it doesn't seem to necessarily be the cause either. 

I have three questions:

1) Is it possible for me to roll back to a previous stable firmware version (like b9)? and if so how?

2) I have heard there is a b16 released recently, will that be pushed out soon? (you never know, that may help).

3) Can I have the ZyXEL router that I thought I was signing up for when you've sorted the firmware on that?

Thanks

[JonathanB]

Hi @_bomber,

Sorry for the delay in picking up on your post. If you've specifically getting issues as of the B15 update, then the tech teams do have the option to roll back to B12 firmware. I don't believe they can force it back any further than that though. Let me know if you're still having that issue, and I'll send you some info to get you in touch with some colleagues.

I'm not aware of a further update to a B16 version at the moment.

With regards to the Zyxel, there was a firmware issue stopping 5G from working for some users, but that has been patched for several months. There has been another similar hardware issue stopping some users connecting to 5G, but that's been relatively rare. Roughly when did you take the account out?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[SWalsh]

Thanks JonathanB that would be very much appreciated if we could arrange for my current device to be swapped out for the newer device, as this was the one I was expecting from the marketing online and when selecting through the webpage.

 Just hope for others the 5G connection issue is resolved soon

[JonathanB]

Hi @SWalsh,

Thanks for getting back to me. We'll need to wait till the underlying issue is resolved to confirm if the swap is possible, but I'll reach out again as soon as I can.

As @crypt0ninja mentioned, we're doing some internal testing and if that all goes as expected, there'll be a new firmware update released to customers soon. 

JonathanB

[Scoobysteve]

Hi Jonathan, I started a similar thread about my signal/reception dropping dramatically last Thursday. From what I am being told this appears to be a mast or firmware issue as you mentioned above. Do you have any rough time scales on the solution? Do I have to do anything to my Zyxel to make it kick in? Many thanks Steve