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3G/4G mobile broadband with an antenna . . . ?

OK have answered some of my own questions - got a BT Powerlink triple kit and have wifi all over the house, and now have ethernet over to studio, getting 50Mbps! Watched iplayer tonight for the first time without any buffering.

Should I use the two supplied mini antennas? Should I get an outdoor antenna?

The setup you have, is basically the same as we have. Just don't go streaming anything very hi-def in Netflix (e.g. a 10Meg stream). The peril of having this level of speed is that the player will take advantage of it and pick the highest quality stream, and it goes through data very fast :)

The B593 has internal antennae but I think some of them came with a pair of clip on antennae to supplement this. Mine did not. It's plugged into a roof antenna so I can't comment on whether the ones that come in the box are any use.

I'd give it a month or so and see how it goes before spending more as you're getting very good results, see if they are sustained. I'd be surprised if you get very much more from it, but then I've been surprised before :)
 
This thread has been really useful. Thank you all :)
I live in Portugal. My ISP is MEO. They supplied a B310 which is OK but I use a B593 as I think it is a better piece of kit.
Our house has thick stone walls and we are about 2km's from the nearest mast but without direct line of sight as we are in a hollow.
In the house the B593 produces RSCP/RSSI of around -100 and ECIO is around -10. On the roof the figures are -75 and -7.
Clearly height is an issue and I could mount the B593 in a weatherproof box on the roof (flat concrete and no loft).
I am thinking that using an external antenna with the router indoors as close as possible may be a better option.
I am stuck on choice though, and narrowed it down to:
Poynting XPOL A0001
Fullband MIMORAD
Konig ANT 4G20 KN
Can anyone give me any feedback on these antennas or recommend an alternative MIMO antenna?
Thank you in anticipation.
Mike.
 
Back after a long time absent. I love this thread, just wish I had something to add except my experiences.


Just to update: we have no chance of ordinary Internet. We live in the middle of nowhere. Satellite was awful. Fast for a few Gb and then capped horribly even on unlimited plan. Latency is also terrible. Originally I bought a b593 (1Mb on 3g) then an Omni A0121 from Solwise that took me to 2mbs which is pretty awful but liveable.

This Monday, the French internet gods upgraded us to 4g (and the dizzy heights of 5mbs). Now I have bought another A0121 since it appears 4g wants two. Right now it is hanging inside the loft (now 6mbs). I could stop there since 6mbs is actually more than we need and the wife is very happy that she can now watch facebook movies without troubling me while I work. However, boys will fiddle.

The first antenna is stuck on the middle of the farm roof upright, like a flag pole. Its the highest spot I could find.

Anyone know if I am right that the best place for number 2 antenna is about 3m away? Same height? Any particular direction? I don't like being on the roof so want to pick my spot to fix the thing (and whatever it will be attached to) as best I can before I go up.

Stats from the 593 are
3 RSSI (dBm): -95
4 RSRP (dBm): -125
5 RSRQ (dB): -16
 
I would like to thank all the posters in this thread for their very useful advice which has made broadband a reality for me. Without your support, even posts from a number of years ago I wouldn't have had the confidence to try this.

So huge thankyou from me.

On the basis of the advice in this thread I bought a refurbished Huawei 315 router from a well known auction site. I also bought an EE data SIM with 5GB of data and an O2 SIM (just in case we saw better reception with EE rather than O2).

I used the aerials supplied with the router (rabbit ears), and would be hard pushed to justify buying an external aerial. I also used ethernet connection into the laptop measuring the speed and Ookla as the speed engine of choice.

I had 3 different sites for testing the system. They all had poor broadband speed, delivered via the telephone line, and with no hope of improvement (what you get for living in "rural" Cheshire). The EE website mast coverage checker does seem reasonably accurate in its prediction of signal.

Results

In all cases EE SIM outperformed O2.

Site 1, no direct line of sight to a mast. Downstream speeds equivalent to current (~11MBps), upload increased from 0 to 8.
Site 2, direct mast site across the fields. Downstream speeds increased from 1 to 45, upload increased from 0 to 35.
Site 3, farm based business park surrounded by masts across the fields. Office situated inside a Portacabin inside a farm barn. Downstream speeds increased from 1 to 35, upload increased from 0 to 17.

Outcomes
Site 1 uses too much data to make moving to a 3G/4G solution viable financially (kids!).
Site 2, chose to go with a BT SIM and their provided MIFI type Netgear Aircard 790 router. Speeds have dropped through the floor. My assumption is that this is due to BT capping SIM data speeds, the aerial on the router being pretty poor and wifi only connection to the laptop hampering connection speeds still further.
Site 3 has gone to the EE / Huawei combination for business purposes and it has revolutionised business working. I've just gone to a SIM offer with EE where they provide a Nighthawk Gigabit Router and 50GB data for £25 on a 24 month contract.

Questions
Will the Nighthawk be any better than the Aircard router?
Are routers locked to a phone network in the same way as phones are? So could I try the Aircard router with an EE card?
Will the price of data come down so that I can meet the requirements of my data hungry family with a 4G solution?
 
An excellent thread, which I hope that DTMark is still monitoring.

Like many others, rural broadband issues got me here. EE have been unable to provide a stable FTTC connection. 18mbps would be fine, but constant dropouts (despite numerous call outs) have led me to look elsewhere.

Fed up last night, I disconnected the 3G EE signalbox (this causedall sorts of is es - but that’s another story) turned off the router and found that I could get 2 bars of 4G with my iphone6 on a bookshelf downstairs. I turned on tethering, linked the Samsung Smart Tv to the Signal - and watched 30 minutes of Nowtv footie without buffering. This made me very happy.

I found I could get three bars upstairs, which suggests quite good speeds. These should be even better with the antenna in a dedicated router or perhaps some externals.

Only one thing is stopping me pressing the button- monthly cost. With 4 of us using the signal (Netflix obsesses daughter and online gamer son), I reckon 50gb pcm is a bare minimum. But that’s £50 (with an EE router thrown out n that I don’t want).

So, questions. Has anyone got a better monthly deal than this by haggling ? Will they drop the price if you don’t need the router ? Shame I’m not a business as it’s half the price (plus VAT). Any way around this ?

One more. All 4 of us have EE phones with data allowances from 5gb to 12gb. Is there an elegant way to link those to the B593 to augment the data simi that I’ll put in there and so cut the cost that way ?

Many thanks

Mike
 
An excellent thread, which I hope that DTMark is still monitoring.

Like many others, rural broadband issues got me here. EE have been unable to provide a stable FTTC connection. 18mbps would be fine, but constant dropouts (despite numerous call outs) have led me to look elsewhere.

Fed up last night, I disconnected the 3G EE signalbox (this causedall sorts of is es - but that’s another story) turned off the router and found that I could get 2 bars of 4G with my iphone6 on a bookshelf downstairs. I turned on tethering, linked the Samsung Smart Tv to the Signal - and watched 30 minutes of Nowtv footie without buffering. This made me very happy.

I found I could get three bars upstairs, which suggests quite good speeds. These should be even better with the antenna in a dedicated router or perhaps some externals.

Only one thing is stopping me pressing the button- monthly cost. With 4 of us using the signal (Netflix obsesses daughter and online gamer son), I reckon 50gb pcm is a bare minimum. But that’s £50 (with an EE router thrown out n that I don’t want).

So, questions. Has anyone got a better monthly deal than this by haggling ? Will they drop the price if you don’t need the router ? Shame I’m not a business as it’s half the price (plus VAT). Any way around this ?

One more. All 4 of us have EE phones with data allowances from 5gb to 12gb. Is there an elegant way to link those to the B593 to augment the data simi that I’ll put in there and so cut the cost that way ?

Many thanks

Mike

Anyone ? The Huawei arrived today and quick tests on my phone sim got me over 50mbs - which is great - but I really need to sort a cheaper data sim, somehow.

Mike
 
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