O2 Huawei 4g broadband dongle performance

[dongleuser]

hi,

for the last couple of months ive had great performance through my 4g dongle in my garden office(no decent broadband where i live) , consistent 10-15mbs download and 5-8mbs upload. Perfect for my voice and video calls. As of Monday morning its gone down to 0.3-4mbs for upload, my voice calls have been delayed and stuttering and video not an option. I know its not my pc as i have an android phone on 4g also connecting to the same cell tower that has similar performance.  anyone have any suggestions of what action i should take ?

thanks 

[Anonymous]

Hi if your mobile broadband dongle isn't working so well, you need to connect it to a 10-15cm USB extension cable and fit the dongle to it, connecting the other end to your laptop's USB socket and it will work just like an aerial. This will improve the signal and speed.

😀

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@dongleuser 

Check for faults here O2 Service Status

[dongleuser]

hi, thanks for the idea. However, I have the dongle in a power bank that i put up on a high shelf, which takes my signal strength to 4 bars. I connect via wifi. i have tested and found that Wifi vs USB connection gives me a 50-70% increase in consistent speed. Have to say I find it odd that a USB connection is slower than Wifi but thats been my experience over the past year. 

[dongleuser]

thanks. and you were right. O2 report a local mast issue... 👍 hoping that is resolved quickly and normal service will resume..

[MI5]

Fingers crossed

[gmarkj]

Might be that the position the dongle is in causes the drop in speed rather than the connection type.

Being directly next to the laptop/PC might be impacting the reception of the dongle vs it being on the shelf away from interference...

[dongleuser]

hi, i've always had it on the shelf across the room. The fault has been cleared from O2 status yet upload wont go above 0.4mbs. not good...

[MI5]

Usually need to reboot everything after a repair @dongleuser