How can I make my 4gee wifi faster?

[wellsjjw]

Hello all, I moved into my new house in April this year. The previous tennant was using 4gee so I stuck with it (with traditional broadband we get 2/3mbs download speed...)

The problem is I find 4gee wifi terribly unreliable. Some moments its great, in other moments its terrible.

We have an aerial fitted outside which wires straight into the box, however it seems in poor weather wifi seems to degrade. Beyond that I get huge latency spikes when playing video games, and the internet is never consistent.

Perhaps I have an old aerial and this can be updated? Can I fit two of them?

On top of that, multi-person use of the router is really poor. If I'm doing something on the internet, for example video gaming, I can tell immediately when someone else is using the wifi. It totally prioritises the latest connection and degrades the previous one. Is there anyway to prioritise connections on the router?

Please share any tips you have that made your 4gee wifi faster/reliable.

Kind Regards,

Jacob.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @wellsjjw ,

You could try to buy a replacement 4G LTE router online compatible with your antenna to check whether it improves things and can be returned if it does not. (The Netgear MR1100 is a good starting point, other brands and models are available if you check online comparison reviews.)

It may be worth checking the Ofcom coverage checker in case there might be a more suitable network if the current service provider should show as horrendous on there for your particular postcode or location. Good luck!

https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage

[wellsjjw]

Hello Mike, thanks for the response.

Do you think a more suitable router would help the speed/latency spikes even when Im connected to the router via ethernet? In the end of the day, the speed is derived from the strength of the antenna so I'm not sure how much a router will help for my case. 

However, I do wonder if it will solve the issue with multiple using it and it throttling the first connection.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @wellsjjw ,

If you are in a good EE signal area and your 4GEE router is underperforming then replacing the router might benefit bandwidth and slightly help with latency. A 4G LTE internet connection is unlikely to be all that good for gaming unless you are very near a cell tower (perhaps not even then).

If the EE signal/coverage is the problem then replacing the router is unlikely to help with that.

On the other hand, a better router is likely to give you access to LTE signal parameters (e.g. SINR) so you can judge how bad the situation is and might also allow you to shape traffic with QoS if you look for a good router.

If your router has the http://192.168.1.1/index.html#/diagnostic page, it may be possible to judge better whether there would be any point in replacing the router (from searching for 4GEE router problems on here, it doesn't appear to be the best piece of hardware crafted by man).

https://jamesmacwhite.medium.com/hidden-firmware-features-on-the-4gee-home-router-17cb5d7060ba

The Ethernet cable will remove any issues created by a WiFi connection but won't solve any issue introduced by the 4G LTE connection (which might be perfect or less than perfect).