4G Hardware DIY

Hi

As I finally reach wits end with satellite and Fibre won't reach, I've been pleased to notice that Vodafone have extended their 4G network and I can pick up a consistent and stable signal. Currently I use tethering from my iPhone to computer. This means hanging it out of the window, but at least it works.

I'm looking for a more permanent solution, so am I right in thinking I can use an external antenna:

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/15383-solwi...

run through the wall into this:

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/16012-d-lin...

put the highest data sim I can find, and then plug into my switch/WAP's as normal?

Or is it not as simple as all that!

Many thanks...

Edited by deleted (Mon 09-Feb-15 21:07:29)

In reply to a post by trumpet272:

Or is it not as simple as all that!

Nearly! I'm not sure that DLink box has a connector for an external antenna. I think the 4G/LTE antenna must be inside the box, as on the pictures on Amazon.co.uk there is only a slot for the SIM card.

I would check Vodafone, O2 and EE to see which gives you best speeds in your area, get Prepay data SIMs from each network first before signing any contract.

Yagi Antenna

Router

I have this setup, can get 60mb down, 40mb up with EE 4G

Many thanks indeed. I get 25ish down and 3-4 up which is like Utopia compared to what I've been used to.

Any recommendations for 4G routers/antenna much appreciated, there seem to be literally thousands.

Alternatively, vodafone are suggesting I up my current mobile contract by £12pm to give me a 20gb allowance - and 'share' this allowance across devices. this will include a http://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/group/devices/do...
Any views on this idea? I currently use 7 Cisco WAP's just to get coverage around the house so I doubt an R215 will cover it?No doubt they will need charging etc...

Cheers for your help.

Thank you - I'll give them a go! Is there much data lost over the cable between the two? I presume this needs to be as short as possible?

Whats strange is that the nearest mast is apparently due East of my house and yet I get my signal on a west facing exterior wall... Perhaps I am picking up another mast with better coverage?

PM me a postcode and I'll see where your serving EE cell sites are.

I have a 10m cable between the 2, and it gives my router a full 5 bars of 4G, but it is mounted on a pole on the end of my house (standard tv aerial pole and mount will do) My mast is approx 2 miles away, and I got no 4G signal at all (just 3g) with the routers built in antenna before I bought that yagi antenna.

So long as decent low loss cable is used then a few metres should be no major problem, but shorter is better.

The Huawei B593s which has 2 x SMA connectors for external antenna has been popular.

Yes, I noticed there was a 35dbi "flat" antenna with dual TS9 connectors for £30 on Amazon. Connected to a router with the appropriate antenna ports, this might be even better than the older router with the 18dbi yagi.

If only I had some spare cash right now - I'd love to play with these to do a real comparison. My old fashioned engineering sense tells me a yagi should be better, and to ignore quoted dbi figures. But the dual antenna connector business seems to be rather interesting and worth investigating, even if I don't actually know the purpose. Hopefully it has a real benefit and isn't a marketing gimmick.

In the B593 it provides support for DC-HSPA.