Help! How do I get useable internet?

There’s no fibre anywhere near and not likely to be.  “Broadband” through the phone line was at best around 3Mbps but dropped to less than 1Mbps from mid afternoon so useless in the evening.

Got a 4g router which was OK. There’s no EE or 3 signal at all, O2 and Vodaphone both promise good signal indoors and outdoors.  In practice we get 5-6Mbps on a good day if the router is at the back of the house.  At the front there is nothing at all.  When the 4g signal dropped out it reverted to 3g which at least let us us the internet even if we couldn’t watch any streamed TV.  Now they switched the 3g signal off to “improve the service”, when the 4g drops out we get nothing.  There is no chance of 5g any time soon.

If I hang the router out of a window (wrapped in a plastic bag when it’s wet) then it’s better – no faster, but more reliable.  This is not a solution for the winter.

SO what are the options?  I’ve seen outside aerials and boosters but they seem to get mixed reviews.  If the only option is to give Elon Musk £75/month then I’d rather use a carrier pigeon for my emails.

Does anyone have any bright ideas?  I’m only 2 miles outside the biggest town in Perthshire so not exactly in the middle of nowhere…

4G external aerial – used one when living in North Cairngorms where regular mobile signal stopped about a mile down the road.

I’m in a similar situation and have gone from a 4G router to Starlink. It’s much quicker and more reliable.

The only other option could be a line of sight microwave service if you have any local providers.

Move

Starlink might be your best bet?

Where are you?

Does anyone have any bright ideas?  I’m only 2 miles outside the biggest town in Perthshire so not exactly in the middle of nowhere…

have you looked to see when/if  fibre might be coming? I used to live 5 miles from the exchange and only a small village further down the road and fibre (to the property) in our case arrived a few years ago. But the plan for it to arrive existed for quite some time before that

In practice we get 5-6Mbps

is that.problem? What is relatively slow broadband preventing you from doing? My partner is a film maker so sometimes needs to upload massive files, but for day to day browsing etc fibre didn’t really change our world. Did my make this site any quicker for instance 🙂

I’m 2 miles out of Blairgowrie.  The update from ScotlandSuperfast.com is:

New gigabit-capable connections are being built in your area and your address is in the R100 contract build plan – it’s part of the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) broadband programme.

Build schedule

Work in your contract area is currently due to be completed by the end of June 2028.

In practice we get 5-6Mbps

That wouldn’t be a problem if we got that all the time.  However frequently the 4g drops off completely so we get 0Mbps.  Probably 3 nights out of 7 we have no internet at all, or indeed any phone signal.  On the plus side when the alarms go off at work in the middle of the night I sometimes can’t be contacted 🙂

Moving is not happening.  It’s pretty much a dream home where we have woods on one side and lovely neighbours on the other.  We look out onto fields and woods down to a glen with a loch and the Dunkeld hills are in the background.  I’d a million times rather live here with no internet than pretty much anywhere else with superfast fibre!

A mate’s put starlink in and says it’s excellent.

GigaLoch?

https://gigaloch.com/

Outdoor aerial seems like the best option?

External aerial worked for us. Went from 4-8 meg to 20-25 meg. It was still pretty variable (and there wasn’t a lot of traffic on our mast- ie not in a city) but it worked okay. Had to use Three as nobody else had a signal (hence needing a T3 aerial from Telefonica for the smart meter) – ended up paying about £25 a month for Sim. Used Solwise in the UK for router and antenna – needed a dome type as don’t have line of sight to mast.

Placement is still really important. Higher the better. Ended up using this around 2 1/2 years (as we got 1-2 meg on very long telephone line) before Fibre arrived.  I don’t miss it, but it was way better than the alternative.

Good shout Matt but unfortunately not near us. I have registered interest though.

Starlink isn’t happening, firstly because I’m not giving any money to that prize prick Musk, and secondly it’s £300 installation plus £75/month and it’s just not worth that for us.

Thanks Alex, I’m thinking an external aerial has got to be worth a try. I just didn’t want all the hassle of installing it if it wasn’t going to help.

While the weather is OK I’ll just blutac it to the roof and run the cable through a window. If it works I’ll do it properly, it not I’ll return it!

We did similar, tried a few locations until we found the ‘best’ one before fixing it in place. First time we attached into the chimney but after loads of drop outs, we ended up with it a little bit lower on the side of the house. Just be prepared to run loads of speed tests. We thought with it being non directional, placement wasn’t going to be an issue, but in practice it definitely was.

We’ve just gone Starlink. Offer on the hardware so that was £150. £75 a month. But the phone line and broad band was most of that already.
Probably a net £20 a month uplift but it seems solid so far

Pinch your nose and pay for Starlink.

At a site I used to run we could get a stable 10-12mb with a Mikrotik outdoor 4g router on a 10′ pole where people standing at the base of the pole could barely get a signal. It’s not a silver bullet for all scenarios but an outdoor router on a tall pole (or good position on outside of a house could be the difference between sometimes mediocre and a rock solid service. Check cellmapper to see where your towers are and what’s likely to give the best outcome. You’ll need to factor in elevation.as that’s what your trying to overcome with the pole.

Recently got Starlink for my Dad’s very rural house. It’s very good. The hardware is nothing like the figures you quote, but if £75 a month is too much for you then fair enough, your choice whether it is worth it.

@benpinnick – that’s really useful, thank you for the recommendation.

@timmys – I’m just going off the Starlink website which states £75/month and £299 for hardware

https://www.starlink.com/orders/?processorToken=2a1b29df-2171-4fe4-9b6d-c5fd35cd3b86

£75/month isn’t worth it for us even if it wasn’t giving money to Musk.  We don’t work from home, don’t do gaming, we don’t subscribe to any streaming services, there’s no kids. It’s just for email, basic web browsing and iPlayer/ITVx etc if there’s nothing on Freeview worth watching.  If the internet goes down, we just catch up with the Sewing Bee or whatever another night and read a book or something.

I’m currently paying £22/month for unlimited data.  I’ve no issue with paying £100 or so for an aerial or booster to make it reliable, but I’m not paying £900 a year for the usage I need. That’s an additional £636 a year, that’s a nice week away for me.