4G connection droping

[Wildsideuk]

I have an MF286D router and a B535-333 router which I use as a backup for testing if connection issues are my end or network based.

Where I live is in a very rural area and of left to their own devices these routers will both connect to band 20 with a terrible download speed of maybe 3mbps - nowhere near enough for Sky Stream to function. If they lock onto band 3 the speed is great, but the connection is unstable and causes sky stream to have the video and audio out of sync by a few seconds. To get around this issue I force the routers to lock onto band 28 by disabling bands 3 and 20. Sky stream works perfectly almost all of the time and the download speed is around 15-25mbps - excellent. Bands 1 & 7 are both available but the routers very rarely lock on them as the signal isn't great.

Here lies the issue, when the either router is unable to use bands 3 & 20 the connection is dropped by the network at 9am precisely, every day. This does not happen when they are free to use any band. This is a huge inconvenience as everything in the house stops for about 30 seconds whilst the connection is re-established, teams meetings, computer updates, browsing, wasting time on tiktok etc.

Why does the network do this and more importantly, how do I stop the connection being dropped by the network daily at 9am.

MF286D running OpenWRT, B535-333 running stock Three firmware.

[Wildsideuk · Accepted solution]

I have finally resolved this issue. The problem arises from the setup of the APN settings in the modem, if you have the APN setup to use PDP type IPV4/IPV6 the connection issue arises; in order to resolve the issue simply change this setting to IPV4 only and the network does not drop the connection.

[PeteG]

Hi there. 

Welcome to the Three Community. 

I'm unsure what would be causing the disconnect at 9am each day, but it's possible that the solution of locking bands down in order to avoid signal issues could be responsible. 

To test, we'd recommend using the Three supplied hub, and see if the same issue occurs next morning. Then it might be worth testing the other Hub you use with OpenWRT on it, but with a standard configuration. This will hopefully help you narrow down what's causing the problem. 

Pete.

[Wildsideuk]

They are both Three supplied hubs and the B535-333 is running stock Three firmware. For that router I am using Huawei LTE monitor to lock the device onto specific bands - it is at API level and not firmware.

The MF286D is also a Three supplied hub, the 4G Home Broadband one supplied at the moment. I have changed the firmware to OpenWRT as the firmware does not allow for OpenVPN, VLAN, inbuilt adblock or band locking.

As thie issue happens exactly the same with both routers I am certain it's a Three network issue.

[PeteG]

My understanding is that manually selecting or locking bands is not supported on the network, and usually an option that's disabled on the supplied hubs. I'll double check that with the network team to see if that's something that could cause a drop at a specific time. For now, it might be worth testing it with the standard configuration of automatic band selection. 

Pete.

[Geluk]

D/load a wifi analyser app, and check what channels are in use in your locale.

Then select the least used channels on your router.

[Wildsideuk]

This is why I am using channel 28 and not 1,3,7 or 20. I can receive all of them, but the quality of them is terrible even on a strong strength.