What is this internet connection?

[mrochester]

Hello.

I’m staying at a fairly remote holiday cottage that now has an internet connection provided. I assumed it would be down the phone line but on closer inspection it appears to be something else.

The router is just a bog standard wireless N router. An Ethernet wire comes in from outside and connects to an adapter that then connects to the router. This adaptor appears to be powered as the cable splits and one part of it connects to an electrical socket.

I’ve followed the wire outside and it leads up to a chimney stack where there is a small white square panel that looks a little bit like a very tiny satellite dish. However, unless satellite broadband has improved considerably, I always thought it relied on a telephone line for up traffic and that it was very slow. The internet connection I’m getting here is actually pretty decent; 20mb down and about 6mb up.

The cottage has only in the last 18 months gained any sort of mobile signal (you can get a decent 4G signal on O2 and Vodafone now). Could this be a 4G internet connection?

Any thoughts as to exactly what it is?

Many thanks.

M.

 

[ANDARIAL]

Pics?
But yeah sounds like a 4G panel antenna

 

[mrochester]

Pics?
But yeah sounds like a 4G panel antenna

Solved! I've just spoken to the farmer down the track and he has told me it's satellite broadband.

Apparently there's a satellite dish on the hill behind the house which is powered by solar panels. Each of the houses in the area then has one of these small dishes to pick up the repeated signal (which explains why the network cable appears to need power, it must power the dish attached to the chimney stack).

Obviously satellite broadband upload speeds have improved considerably!

EDIT - Although saying that I'm beginning to think the 'satellite' on the hill (which I haven't seen) might actually be a small mast that picks up the 4G signal from further down the valley and then recasts it to the houses.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Hello.

I’m staying at a fairly remote holiday cottage that now has an internet connection provided. I assumed it would be down the phone line but on closer inspection it appears to be something else.

The router is just a bog standard wireless N router. An Ethernet wire comes in from outside and connects to an adapter that then connects to the router. This adaptor appears to be powered as the cable splits and one part of it connects to an electrical socket.

I’ve followed the wire outside and it leads up to a chimney stack where there is a small white square panel that looks a little bit like a very tiny satellite dish. However, unless satellite broadband has improved considerably, I always thought it relied on a telephone line for up traffic and that it was very slow. The internet connection I’m getting here is actually pretty decent; 20mb down and about 6mb up.

The cottage has only in the last 18 months gained any sort of mobile signal (you can get a decent 4G signal on O2 and Vodafone now). Could this be a 4G internet connection?

Any thoughts as to exactly what it is?

Many thanks.

M.

WIMAX (long range 802.11) connection? Can you see a water or cellular tower anywhere on the high ground near the property?

I have internet via this in technology in rural France as you’re lucky to get 2 bars of 3G around here. 12 Mb DL / 2 Mb UL with very low jitter.

 

[Rainmaker]

It sounds like something like these?

Edit: Beaten by a second.

 

[mrochester]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Here is a pic of the thing attached to the house.

https://ibb.co/b8XmtV

 

[PiKe]

Check the ping times, if they're under 100ms you're looking at 4g most likely.

Also whois the external IP address and see who owns it.

 

[mrochester]

Check the ping times, if they're under 100ms you're looking at 4g most likely.

Also whois the external IP address and see who owns it.

Ping is around 50ms.

 

[Steveocee]

That's a mikrotik CPE.
The connection will be FWA (fixed wireless access).

 

[mrochester]

That's a mikrotik CPE.
The connection will be FWA (fixed wireless access).

Which means what exactly?

 

[Steveocee]

It's being delivered via point to multi point wireless.

 

[mrochester]

It's being delivered via point to multi point wireless.

So is this ultimately likely a 4G connection?

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Check the ping times, if they're under 100ms you're looking at 4g most likely.

Also whois the external IP address and see who owns it.

My WIMAX connection has a 20ms ping with 2ms jitter.

 

[bremen1874]

So is this ultimately likely a 4G connection?

Very unlikely to be 4G. Much more likely to be a connection to a local wireless internet service provider (WISP).

 

[blueacid]

Go to icanhazip.com and note down the ip.
Then, go to whois.com/whois/1.2.3.4 (replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP), and see if you can find out about the company which owns that IP address.

 

[Caged]

Doesn't look like external grade cable, so I expect someone will have to hop up and replace it once the sun breaks it down.

 

[mrochester]

Go to icanhazip.com and note down the ip.
Then, go to whois.com/whois/1.2.3.4 (replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP), and see if you can find out about the company which owns that IP address.

I've got the IP address and some of the details on whois.com are:

Hootys Supplies Ltd IP Assignment
Fluidata Admin Team

 

[Steveocee]

So is this ultimately likely a 4G connection?

No. It's a local wireless internet service provider distributing a connection over fixed wireless links.

 

[mrochester]

And as a decent thread revival, here’s a picture of the equipment at the top of the hill.

https://ibb.co/RTFsGyD

 

[VaderDSL]

That looks like a sitting duck for a lightning strike but no expert, there may be protections there I can't recognise