Afrihost Vodacom Fixed 5G thread

dotcat said:
Restarted router. Some kind of update has been pushed to it as it now is Afrihost branded and it refuses to connect to the 5G network.
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The ZTE G5TS router ? My Cool Ideas G5TS is still on the BD_ARBZAG5TSV1.0.0B03 Firmware.
 
deweyzeph said:
I haven't done any queue management yet, this is just a raw test. Got the sim in a TP-Link NX510v with a Poynting external antenna attached, and the TP-Link is connected to my Opnsense router as a failover WAN. I also don't have 5G in my area, so the router is only connected to 4G bands.
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Great speeds on 4G and an awesome hardware setup. Hopefully Vodacom rolls out 5G to your tower very soon. Which 4G bands are you using ? In most cases the G5TS is using 1 and 3 and N41 on 5G.
 
Jake45 said:
Great speeds on 4G and an awesome hardware setup. Hopefully Vodacom rolls out 5G to your tower very soon. Which 4G bands are you using ? In most cases the G5TS is using 1 and 3 and N41 on 5G.
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I'm mostly on B1:

1762197839606.png

Sometimes I get aggregation with B3 and B8, but mostly it just sticks to B1. The reasons my speeds are so high even on B1 is because of my external directional antenna and a solid SNR of 20dB. The tower I'm connected to is about 3km away with a clear line of site.

I'm sure 5G is coming soon. MTN already has 5G in my area but it's painfully slow. Can barely get about 10Mbps with an MTN sim. Unfortunately my external antenna only works with 4G, I'll need to buy a new one once Vodacom launches 5G here. But to be honest I'm pretty happy with 200Mbps+ speeds on 4G.

I'm also very happy with the TP-Link NX510v. It's a breathe of fresh air compared to the dumbed down ZTEs.
 
Jake45 said:
The ZTE G5TS router ? My Cool Ideas G5TS is still on the BD_ARBZAG5TSV1.0.0B03 Firmware.
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BD_AFHZAG5TSV1.0.0B03

I'm having endless trouble since they pushed this update ,so thinking of cancelling as it's so unstable.
 
@dotcat: Thankfully there does not appear to be an updated firmware for the CI G5TS. Maybe I should turn off the auto update feature ?

By unstable do you mean that the router keeps disconnecting ? I have found that the latest BD_ARBZAG5TSV1.0.0B03 was much more stable than the initial BD_ARBZAG5TSV1.0.0B01 firmware which used to disconnect more frequently. Hopefully AH will update the firmware for you very soon !
 
Jake45 said:
@dotcat: Thankfully there does not appear to be an updated firmware for the CI G5TS. Maybe I should turn off the auto update feature ?

By unstable do you mean that the router keeps disconnecting ? I have found that the latest BD_ARBZAG5TSV1.0.0B03 was much more stable than the initial BD_ARBZAG5TSV1.0.0B01 firmware which used to disconnect more frequently. Hopefully AH will update the firmware for you very soon !
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It keeps switching from 4g to 5g and back. Eventually I've given upon it and switched back to the MC801A. Now it is nice and stable and speeds between 250 to 300.
 
@dotcat: Many thanks for the feedback about the MC801A. I thought that the G5TS would perform better since it was a later generation but evidently not.

I have noticed similar stability problems myself shortly after you posted about the firmware update. My connection went down for a while in the early hours of the morning. I think the instability might be related to some network issues or software upgrades but not on the router as the software on mine has not changed. Hopefully things will stabilise very soon.
 
@Afrigirl could you please check in as the Vodacom network seems to be down in Port Shepstone, KZN.
 
Jake45 said:
@dotcat: Many thanks for the feedback about the MC801A. I thought that the G5TS would perform better since it was a later generation but evidently not.

I have noticed similar stability problems myself shortly after you posted about the firmware update. My connection went down for a while in the early hours of the morning. I think the instability might be related to some network issues or software upgrades but not on the router as the software on mine has not changed. Hopefully things will stabilise very soon.
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I'm still seeing great results with the TP-Link NX510v. It's like a breathe of fresh air compared to the ZTEs. I just hope it makes on the final list of approved routers because it would be a great pity to have to regress to the G5TS. The bridge mode functionality works very well too. I've got a proper public IP address assigned to my Vodacom sim which is attached to a WAN interface on my Opnsense router. All the ports are open too, so you could do port forwarding no problem. You just have to make sure your firewall is up because when I check the logs I see the usual suspect bot nets trying to scan for open ports.
 
dotcat said:
Sure ive done that - it says No Service
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It could be a provisioning issue? I had the exact same issue when I first got my sim card - it would only connect to 3G with no IP address assigned. Once the sim was correctly provisioned it worked perfectly.
 
deweyzeph said:
It could be a provisioning issue? I had the exact same issue when I first got my sim card - it would only connect to 3G with no IP address assigned. Once the sim was correctly provisioned it worked perfectly.
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ive forced to 4g now and rebooted - lets see if it stabilises - thanks
 
@Afrigirl signed up for the Vodacom 5G deal for holiday house.

I do have a question however, will I be able to "upgrade" the package to higher speed and FUP during the month of Jan 2026, and then downgrade to a lower packages when basically we're only there over a weekend once a month?
 
grant_cpt said:
@Afrigirl signed up for the Vodacom 5G deal for holiday house.

I do have a question however, will I be able to "upgrade" the package to higher speed and FUP during the month of Jan 2026, and then downgrade to a lower packages when basically we're only there over a weekend once a month?
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Hi.

Upgrades are immediate. For a downgrade, there will be a month's notice.
 
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