Curious question...

[kobi]

Hey folks, long time luker. My home net is only good for viewing websites (~3-4mbps) but i use a 4G router attached to external antennas and get around 65mbps.

Now because my garden is so dense i don't get a great signal, but i've got my antennas outside my garden pointed at the mast. Now this is fine, i get a decent signal, but my cables from the antenna to the router is 35 meters long(although i'm only using around 30 meters). At the weekend, i started toying with the idea of getting an external router and connecting that to a switch via 30 meter cat6a cable(if im honest, i would of done this originally, but i didnt know external routers were a thing).

So my question is, do you think i'd notice any difference in latency( and maybe speed) switching from a 35 meter antenna cable(i'll point out its quite a beefy cable) to an external router and 30 meter cat6a cable?

Cheers

 

[Bigyinuk]

I would have thought that you'd loose a huge amount of signal having a 35 meter cable between your 4G antenna and your router. Anything over a few meters (>5m) could very well result in a big drop in speed as the signal attenuation per meter is significant at high frequenceis. If you were able to get your 4G router near to the antenna and run an ethernet (Cat5e/Cat6) cable into your house that would be much better. Ethernet is designed to go up to 100m without any issues. You could bury some 20mm plastic pipe to run the cable up to your house.

 

[Mark.J]

Signal degradation is always a problem when using traditional copper based cables between the router and antenna (usually it's wise to keep that link below 5 metres.. maybe 10 max). I'm actually quite impressed that you get such a speed with a 35 metre cable (what type is it?) and I half wonder if the cable hasn't become a better antenna than the antenna itself .

Past a certain point you tend to get into more professional setups, where you receive the signal and then need to boost it onwards to another location using a different approach. But then we're talking all kinds of expense and additional complications.

Honestly if you're getting a stable 65Mbps on 4G then you're already doing something right, unless this is somehow considered bad for your area / cell.

 

[kobi]

Oh, actually. I was looking over my old emails. Its a 30 meter cable. I originally went to Stelladoradus to get a repeater. But then found i'd need 2 for mimo, which my partner wasn't game for. Then i noticed i could just plug the cable straight into my router. So i ordered another antenna and 2 30 meter cables off them. but being a longer cable, it had to be thicker. so its like 10mm thick. I'll see if it has any other info on it tonight after work.

I currently use Three with their unlimited data deal. But if im on EE, its usually around the same, but going as low as 40mbps during peak times, but also at 6:30am i've seen max speeds of 113mbps. But im happpy with the speed, latency is like low 40's to high 40's depending on the time of day - again, im happy with this. It's more since 5G will be a good 4+ years away for me, i'd like to try and make sure im getting the best till then.

Worst case scenario, if the external router doesnt work out any faster latency/speed over ethernet, then i could just keep it in the house and use it as a normal router.