My bad. I just noticed you used the app instead of the windows program. I uninstalled that a while ago. Login as usual. Username will be admin and whatever password you set. After that, i'm not sure. I'd need to redownload it and don't have a lot of time at this moment.

Thanks mate.
I started off with Smarty on my B525 and they were great - I was regularly getting 4G+ and speeds of 60Mbps, then something happened and I found I couldn't access my Dropbox which is vital to my work. I've lodged a complaint with them and they're being as helpful as they can be, but can't find out the problem...yet.
As I need my Dropbox, I've also signed up to Three and have a rolling contract with them - Dropbox works, so I know it's at Smarty's end.
Now here's the funny thing, I never get 4G+ with THREE and on speaking to rep, they told me that even though I can get 4G+ with Smarty, I can't get it with Three because 'they're working on 5g'.
Anyway, through your method, i've fixed my router to band 3 (I can only get 3 and 20 here) but still not getting 4G+.
Waiting for SMARTY to sort their stuff out so I don't have to pay for two ISPs at the same time!!

Edited by deleted (Wed 17-Jun-20 22:58:12)

Hmm, that is odd. I used to own the b525. Another method to force 4g plus is head to the router page. Probably 192.168.8.1, login, click network settings tab, click mobile network searching tab, set it to 4g only and manual network search mode and click save. Choose 3 4g (or smarty? Can't say i've tried this method with smarty though) After that follow the same steps but instead of selecting a carrier, click cancel once it loads a list of available carriers. That always forced 4g plus for me. But i doubt that will work considering you can't force it with the app.

Could try changing the APN also. Though, i have no idea if a specific APN would cause problems with CA. I have to alternate between three.co.uk and 3internet sometimes.

Adding something to the mix here.
So finally, my Dropbox started working throught Smarty today, so time to cancel Three (although Smarty is under the THREE 'umbrella')
Incidentally, I bought a Huawei B311 I cos I thought I'd knackered my B525 (but I hadn't, it just so happened that Smarty went down at the same time)
I used to get 4G+ (very infrequently) on my B525, so whilst I was messing around today, I put the Three simcard into my old Samsung Galaxy S7 and 4G+ right from the off!!! And various other places in my house...even tho the RSRQ was as little as -108db, I was still getting 4G+!!! both with Smarty and Three.
Yet at the same time of day and in the same places, NEITHER router would give me 4G+!!
WTH?!!
So I can get 4G+ with a poxy little phone, yet none with routers especially made for the job????
How can this be?
Any ideas?
(I'm thinking it might be better to leave the simcard in the phone and just tether it!)

In reply to a post by JackpotUK:

How can this be?

These routers are in my view, made to a price. They are not as polished as ANY of the mobile phones, especially not as good as a Galaxy S series phone.

Don't assume 4G+ is giving you better speeds. All it shows is you have joined two bands, on Three (Smarty being basically a price plan) this is most likely Band 3 and Band 20. B3 has 15mhz of LTE capacity, and B20 has 5mhz. The additional 5Mhz is really aimed at phone call coverage in hard to reach areas/buildings.

4G+ would make more sense if you have Band 3 (15Mhz) and Band 1 (10mhz or more).

You might be an area where they are aggregating bands 1 and band 3. If so, the B525 doesn't do that, but your phone might.

Additionally your phone could be connecting to a different cell/mast which does support it.

Saw similar with EE but with external antennas.

My B525 got a weaker signal but used CA/4g+ with a weaker signal on its internal antennas. With external antennas, it connected to a different mast with a better signal but didn't support CA/4g+ and gave worse performance.

Lots of variables involved.

BTW, the S7 is a cat 9 modem and supports CA on 3 bands compared to the cat 6 of the B525 and 2 bands (not that we can use 3 yet generally). As others said, the phones are usually much further ahead.

That said, I found the internal antennas in my B525 to be superior to my LG V30+ as I'm in a marginal area.

Hi Ben
Thanks so much for the info! Life is a forever learning process and I love it!
With the Three (and thus basically, Smarty as they are the same company) simcard in my S7, I started looking at the info on 'Network Cell Info Lite' - the phone was mainly connected to band 3 and speeds were so-so, despite it saying 4G+
I then noticed it switched to band 1 and I tried speedtest - BOOM 60Mbps!
So, now with the Smarty card in my B525, I'm hoping I can get Band 1 - is that possible?
A previous poster said that with various 'inspecteur' programs (I'm currently using huactrl on Android), you can force it to only receive on certain bands, so I'm thinking if I can only use 3 and 1, I can get good speeds?
The B525 HAS shown 4G+ before, so I'm guessing it CAN work.
I didn't know if it could do CA and now I know it can, and secondly that it can only do 2 bands - so thanks

I hear what you're saying about the internal antennae - I've tried a couple of external options and internal is by far better - crazy. I guess it'll only get better if you use one of those expensive Poynting things.

I've found a good posi for my B525 and am currently getting -4db on RSRP and -81db on RSRQ...but no 4G+

As you said, lots of variable involved, but I shall persist!

Thanks again!

In reply to a post by Benjanyan:

(not that we can use 3 yet generally).

Sorry, not sure what you mean by that statement.
In many towns, on EE, Vodafone, O2 and yes Three, you can use 3 CA today. In some towns 4 CA and 5 CA is possible on EE or Vodafone.

At my parents, on Three you can CA B20, B1, B3, B32 at the same time. I've seen 400 Mbps on a speed test.

Couldn't say for sure. And I also use HuaCtrl. You can lock to specific bands to use for sure but I don't know about the CA part. I use to avoid B20 with it's 5MHz of bandwidth and use B3 with it's 15MHz.

If open the app, hit the spanner at the bottom, there's a "set band" area with a pencil icon. You can choose your bands there. But it's up to the network and masts you're connecting to to allow it. Looks like you can configure "1800+2100".