Please recommended a budget (Less than £100) 4G Router.
Soldato
Can't argue though, 70/33 with 20-30ms ping for £34 pcm. My FTTC is 60/15 for £30 so it's a really viable option now unlimited data is coming through.
This is encouraging. I am soon due to take ownership of a property which is yet to get FTTP (under build, but it dragged on for a couple of years at my current house). I need a temporary but acceptable medium term solution until that comes online, and the area amazingly actually is covered by an LTE cell.@ANDARIAL
A chap I've been doing some consultation work for has just installed an SXT LTE Kit as his home. He's copperless anyway but took his 10/1 WISP connection into a 70/33!
They are seriously good pieces of kit and we're yet to tweak it properly! You could jack it straight into a PoE switch and it would happily take over duties as your router.
The only issue we've come across is that as he's on EE they use a CG-NAT so remote access in for him for further tweaking was a bit of a problem, solved by a VPN tunnel to my AWS hosted CHR.
It'll be a bit of a shock coming from 1gbit symmetric fttp, but i hope will be very usable. The fixed phone network in the area offers <1mbit via ADSL only, so not even worth having BT install a line.
Soldato
I've been amazed by how good the 4G has turned out. You may notice a bit of a difference, slightly less responsive, possibly and certainly when you download "something big" but general usage you shouldn't be feeling or noticing that much of a difference.
Yes i am thinking that the latency will be noticeable, our existing fttp is <3-4ms to London and offers >100MB/s (900+mbit) at all times symmetric. Luckily the new property will eventually come online with the same provider (the cabling is in the ground, but they took over a year to get ours online from this point at our existing).
I think that i will follow your lead on the SXE LTE device, this can be pole mounted as the property has a convenient tall pole anyway where the mains power supply comes in. I am hoping that it will pass as a usable family connection when fed into a normal structured network internally.
Speeds on an iPhone are fairly poor at ~12/2 at ground level, but i am hoping that this at ~25ft height will be a great improvement on a phone.
I think that i will follow your lead on the SXE LTE device, this can be pole mounted as the property has a convenient tall pole anyway where the mains power supply comes in. I am hoping that it will pass as a usable family connection when fed into a normal structured network internally.
Speeds on an iPhone are fairly poor at ~12/2 at ground level, but i am hoping that this at ~25ft height will be a great improvement on a phone.
Soldato
Yes i am thinking that the latency will be noticeable, our existing fttp is <3-4ms to London and offers >100MB/s (900+mbit) at all times symmetric. Luckily the new property will eventually come online with the same provider (the cabling is in the ground, but they took over a year to get ours online from this point at our existing).
I think that i will follow your lead on the SXE LTE device, this can be pole mounted as the property has a convenient tall pole anyway where the mains power supply comes in. I am hoping that it will pass as a usable family connection when fed into a normal structured network internally.
Speeds on an iPhone are fairly poor at ~12/2 at ground level, but i am hoping that this at ~25ft height will be a great improvement on a phone.
If the LTE signal is marginal, go with the Mikrotik LHG LTE option over the SXT. It’s effective same modem in a bigger antenna with significantly greater gain.
I read an offputting review of this product, although i agree it does look ideal on paper;
Soldato
I think our Irish reviewer bought the wrong device for his requirement. There are two LHG units. The LHG 4G which only receives 4G and has a 21dBi gain antenna (which is what he wanted) and the LHG LTE which picks up 2G/3G/4G and has an antenna gain of 17dBi (which is what he bought). On paper, the LTE kit is the more flexible but in reality, in terms of what that reviewer wanted, they should have bought the 4G unit.
I've not seen a scenario in the UK where the LTE isn't the better option though as it's a 300Mbps max download speed vs 150Mbps max download speed on the 4G unit.
Ultimately you can only suggest options. In the case of that Irish reviewer, the SXT at 9dBi probably wouldn't have even pulled in a signal.
It certainly looks the part on paper, to clarify, for use with either Three LTE or Vodafone LTE (i am unsure who i will use, but likely either of those on an Ultd deal) in a rural setting, you would recommend the LHG-LTE as the best option? I believe that Three uses band 20 (800) in rural areas for LTE, the reason for my doubt is that the Irish chap specifically mentions this band being flakey?
Soldato
It’s a nightmare trying to definitively suggest that something will work in a given place.
Both the SXT and LHG antennae are highly directional and ideally require good line of sight to the antenna. If you can see the transmitting antenna with no obstructions (100% LoS) then over a 10km range you will get about a 6dBi loss in signal strength between an 800MHz signal and a 2600MHz signal. That drops to an 11dBi loss in signal strength when you have 60% LoS and over 18dBi when you have less than 40% LoS. That’s why all the cell providers use the lower frequency range in the countryside. Bear in mind that the full gain on the SXT is 9dBi and it’s easy to find that something may not work at all.
Signal strength (and propagation) are the plus point on the 800MHz band. The downside is that the bandwidth is substantially reduced. Bandwidth is what actually carries the data so the lower frequency 4G won’t be as fast as the high frequency 4G. So basically, even with a solid -45dBi signal from the provider’s 800MHz transmission, you may not get anything much over 40Mbps download. And it’s even worse if the cell is heavily used because the bandwidth is split amongst users.
First, establish what %LoS you gave to the provider’s cell tower. If it’s low, then more gain will help (so a bigger antenna) and if it’s high, then a bigger antenna is less useful. But you may have to accept that the 800MHz signal simply won’t ever deliver ultrafast speeds. Also check out whether or not you have carrier aggregation. Most phone contracts now use carrier aggregation but most data sims don’t. So you’ll automatically get half the speed on your data setup than your handheld device if that’s the case with your provider. Amazon will happily take an SXT back if it doesn’t work for you, and replace it with an LHG. And they’ll take that back too if it doesn’t work either. Alternatively, there are friendly forum users who might lend you kit to try out if you promise to send it back
Both the SXT and LHG antennae are highly directional and ideally require good line of sight to the antenna. If you can see the transmitting antenna with no obstructions (100% LoS) then over a 10km range you will get about a 6dBi loss in signal strength between an 800MHz signal and a 2600MHz signal. That drops to an 11dBi loss in signal strength when you have 60% LoS and over 18dBi when you have less than 40% LoS. That’s why all the cell providers use the lower frequency range in the countryside. Bear in mind that the full gain on the SXT is 9dBi and it’s easy to find that something may not work at all.
Signal strength (and propagation) are the plus point on the 800MHz band. The downside is that the bandwidth is substantially reduced. Bandwidth is what actually carries the data so the lower frequency 4G won’t be as fast as the high frequency 4G. So basically, even with a solid -45dBi signal from the provider’s 800MHz transmission, you may not get anything much over 40Mbps download. And it’s even worse if the cell is heavily used because the bandwidth is split amongst users.
First, establish what %LoS you gave to the provider’s cell tower. If it’s low, then more gain will help (so a bigger antenna) and if it’s high, then a bigger antenna is less useful. But you may have to accept that the 800MHz signal simply won’t ever deliver ultrafast speeds. Also check out whether or not you have carrier aggregation. Most phone contracts now use carrier aggregation but most data sims don’t. So you’ll automatically get half the speed on your data setup than your handheld device if that’s the case with your provider. Amazon will happily take an SXT back if it doesn’t work for you, and replace it with an LHG. And they’ll take that back too if it doesn’t work either. Alternatively, there are friendly forum users who might lend you kit to try out if you promise to send it back
Many thanks for the detailed reply there
I am trying to locate the applicable masts via cellmapper but i am struggling to interpret the data there, although at least can get an idea of where the masts actually are.
For the moment i think the plan is to take a regular Huawei type LTE router down there and do some basic tests with it as high as possible, i will borrow one from the office and i can test a couple of networks that way, too. I am sure that i'll get an idea of the performance and expected signal levels fairly quickly.
I am trying to locate the applicable masts via cellmapper but i am struggling to interpret the data there, although at least can get an idea of where the masts actually are.
For the moment i think the plan is to take a regular Huawei type LTE router down there and do some basic tests with it as high as possible, i will borrow one from the office and i can test a couple of networks that way, too. I am sure that i'll get an idea of the performance and expected signal levels fairly quickly.
Many thanks for the detailed reply there
I am trying to locate the applicable masts via cellmapper but i am struggling to interpret the data there, although at least can get an idea of where the masts actually are.
For the moment i think the plan is to take a regular Huawei type LTE router down there and do some basic tests with it as high as possible, i will borrow one from the office and i can test a couple of networks that way, too. I am sure that i'll get an idea of the performance and expected signal levels fairly quickly.
Last time I looked the cell map data was hideously out of date and something the main sites often don't tell you though I can't remember the site I found it in detail unfortunately is what the actual coverage of the masts are - a mast near you might be setup to optimally broadcast down a valley, etc. and not actually as good signal for you specifically as one further away and so on.
Soldato
https://www.mastdata.com/ is ok for checking out locality to masts.
What you need to bear in mind is gain is like a torch with adjustable focus, the higher the gain, the more focused that output/receiving is. Great if you can point it straight at the transmitter however it also isolates the receiver where as a mobile device has lower gain omnidirectional antenna. I think my point is, if you get signal at ground level, don't put a dish up and expect awesome signal without panning it around a bit first.
What you need to bear in mind is gain is like a torch with adjustable focus, the higher the gain, the more focused that output/receiving is. Great if you can point it straight at the transmitter however it also isolates the receiver where as a mobile device has lower gain omnidirectional antenna. I think my point is, if you get signal at ground level, don't put a dish up and expect awesome signal without panning it around a bit first.
Of course, the pole has a 360deg view over the property and surrounding countryside so i would expect to have to carefully install a directional dish like the above.
I'll try a regular Huawei LTE router as a first port of call simply as we have some at the office as temporary solutions for staff at their homes, i can fling it onto the roof near the pole which is a similar height and also try the other end of the property too.
Soldato
You can also get some some very high gain Omni antennae. I’ve seen 20dBi pencil antennae advertised but these are generally good for reception only. On Transmit they tend to blast out so much noise they make all other signals worse.
Soldato
Got my SXT LTE kit delivered today
IT WAS NOT easy for me to get it online,sooooo complicated (for me anyway)
got it connected and updated.Will be having a play with the settings before i mount it ,it is just on window cill atm and have 30 MB dl which is way better than my plusnet home bb @2.7
IT WAS NOT easy for me to get it online,sooooo complicated (for me anyway)
got it connected and updated.Will be having a play with the settings before i mount it ,it is just on window cill atm and have 30 MB dl which is way better than my plusnet home bb @2.7
On that note - I was playing around with a high gain omni the last couple of weeks or so - the downstream increases but upstream seems to suffer - might just be coincidence as I've not had a chance to try swapping back yet (as my router doesn't have SMA plugs I had to DIY it).
Still amazed I get those speeds as the masts are on the slope of a hill the other side of the peak from us and there is another hill heavily wooded between that and us with a distance of just over 2.5km.
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Soldato
Mounted it on the gable end of the house and am now getting up to 20 meg
according to google i have a clear los to the transmitter with a line of trees about 500 yards away(trees were still there from the window cill)
not as good as i was hoping for
Next option is to get up on the roof and mount it to the TV pole and try the transmitter in the other direction.was hoping to avoid that though
according to google i have a clear los to the transmitter with a line of trees about 500 yards away(trees were still there from the window cill)
not as good as i was hoping for
Next option is to get up on the roof and mount it to the TV pole and try the transmitter in the other direction.was hoping to avoid that though
Soldato
Before you try that, what is the signal strength on the back of the unit?
Could you please post a screenshot of the LTE page in Webfig? It should show the signal strength as it is received and I want to see if your provider is capping the data now. Also - is the device fixed to one band or is it allowed to switch bands?
Could you please post a screenshot of the LTE page in Webfig? It should show the signal strength as it is received and I want to see if your provider is capping the data now. Also - is the device fixed to one band or is it allowed to switch bands?