Question Unstable speeds, drops in speed

[klavins2003]

Hello, I'm close to giving up with this damn network.
After years of suffering from bad internet, I finally got a 4G antenna, since 4G is my only option. Worked flawlessly, got more than 100mbit/s download speed. After a week or so speeds started to drop, turned out the wire I was using to connect my pc to the router was faulty, replaced it and it went fine.
Now, after having 2 weeks of superb (for me) internet, not more than 40 ping in games, and fast downloads, started having issues. Started as minor ping spikes in online games, seems to have gotten worse (?). Sometimes I will get major spikes, download speed will go from 100 to 10, back to 100, and down to like 5. It makes online games unplayable when it happens and online meetings have also become a pain. Seems to be more severe in the evening, I guess when the network congestion is high, but I don't understand why it wasn't happening before.
I tried swapping around cables, I even tried another router (currently Huawei B535, tried a B525 that worked fine before) to no success. Went on the roof, cleaned the antenna, cleaned the contacts near the router, everything I could think of.
ISP won't help me ''because I have good speed'', also they wouldn't provide me with an antenna for 2 years, so I bought my own MIMO 4G directional antenna, fairly powerful and shouldn't be the problem.
Any ideas will be much appreciated!

 

[klavins2003]

Hi,
4G connections are the most unstable connection one can get these days since it is wireless and it is pretty hard to isolate the issue as many factors can affect 4G perfomance, this is exactly why ISP techs are very reluctant to troubleshoot it (I should know 😂).
Having said that, there are few common issues that cause 4G performance to drop
1) 4G channel frequency, higher the frequency, higher the bandwidth but at a cost of decreased stability, if you are running on 1900MHz, I suggest dropping down to 1700MHz, this of course depends on where you live and what providers you use, I highly suggest contacting your ISP and asking what are the 4G 'Bands' they use.
Also most ISP run a map of signal strength, if you give them your address, they can check the 'indoor' and 'outdoor' 4G signal strength and advice if there are any blind spots nearby.
The frequency setting has to be made in the modem, so unless you know how, I would suggest checking the manual or contacting the modem manufacturer or your ISP if it's their modem.
ISP level 1 techs might not know how to do it so don't hesitate to escalate it to senior techs if they aren't helping you.

2) There could be maintenance going on in the 4G towers close to you, not necessarily to which you are directly connected to, when one or more of the towers are down, the other towers close by pick up the slack, since the people who used to be connected the towers that are now down will be connecting to your 4G tower.
This will add extra load on the tower resulting in unstable performance.
This temporary and should go on until the maintenance are complete (which sometimes take days or weeks).
You can ask your ISP if there are any maintenance going on in towers close by too and they are bound to answer it.

Good luck klavins
Pls do keep us posted on what happened

Cheers

Thank you very much Nash.
My modem sadly doesn't let me choose bands or really anything, only between ''Automatic'', ''4G'' and ''3G''.
This ISP seems to be a bunch of bastards, whenever I mention problems they refuse to explain anything to me, just mention either ''your speed is good'' or ''the network is congested at the moment''. You're probably right tho, I think the problem rather arises from the ISP instead of my system. I will try to call them up and ask about any maintenance.
I just hope that they aren't limiting my speed on purpose, I have had situations before when my internet would be really slow, I would call them up, they would ask me to restart the router (even tho I did that 100 times before) and then for a few days my speed would be superb.
Also, I extended the contract literally days before the issues started, since I was happy with the internet at that time. Could it be that they prioritized me and after I signed nerfed my connection? Can they even do that?

Anyways, thanks a bunch for the info, I'll get back to you.