Alternative to B525

Hi,

we're out in the country a fair distance from the Cell tower, but do get what appears to be a decent 4g connection (on phone) if standing in the right spot in the house.


Ive looked for the B525 65a but they aren't easy to find online anymore, does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, The signal I got here shows as O2 4G, not sure who else I might be able to get.

Thanks in advance,

Gary

Edited by Swac3 (Sun 11-Aug-19 19:28:24)

I use a Mikrotik SXT https://mikrotik.com/product/sxt_4g_kit
Although it can be mounted externally I've currently got mine mounted in the attic. At the moment I've just got out of the box configuration, connecting the SXT to the WAN Ethernet port on my main router. Some time when I can be bothered I'll probably reconfigure it for bridging.

Hi Aesmith2,

Well I took a punt on the Mikrotik SXT LTE,


Just got it set up pointing out of the upstairs window, it'll take a little trial and error I guess to find the optimal positioning but for now I've got it working.


Just gone from a laggy 1.2 M down .45 up adsl to 31.4M down 4.7M up


Initial impression obviously is fantastic. I wasnt quite expecting the huge complexity of all the options in the setup pages, but theres a ton in there i dont need to know .

Anyhoo, thanks for the suggestion,

In reply to a post by Swac3:

Initial impression obviously is fantastic. I wasnt quite expecting the huge complexity of all the options in the setup pages, but theres a ton in there i dont need to know .

I'm not sure I changed anything on mine from default, other than passwords and SNMP parameters. I'm currently just connecting the SXT to the WAN port of my main router, meaning double NAT.

Note the SXT is a router all of itself. Obviously it does not have WiFi, but you could just plug it into a lan port on your "main" router, and disable DHCP on either your "main" router or the SXT and bob's your uncle no need for bridging and no double NAT.

Alternatively ditch your "main" router, get a PoE enabled switch (technically any switch will do but the idea here is to avoid PoE injectors) and one or more decent WiFi access points.

Agree on both options. The reason I've not gone that way is that I intend to set up failover with ADSL as backup to the 4G.

This is what I've got, The new SXT handling the router function, runs to a dumb 8 port switch, hooked into that are all the usual suspects, Xbox, SkyQ box, TV etc, and 2 Ubiquiti AC mesh APs One inside the house and one outside.

The APs are slightly annoying me right now as they're both on their own poe injectors but I'll likely sort that in time with a decent Poe switch.

Naturally the speed boost from 1M adsl to 35-50M down, ~20M up is awesome,(Speeds much better than initially as i put the SXT up in the loft) and the wifi mesh is working as expected all over the house and garden.

The only downside really is I cant take advantage of 3 or voda unlimited plans as their coverage is awful here.

Edited by Swac3 (Fri 23-Aug-19 21:47:56)

Assuming a VLAN capable switch, you could just use a VLAN to connect to the ADSL modem from the SXT. Use tagged from the SXT to the switch and port based from the switch to the ADSL modem, job's a goodun.

Dont go on the coverage shown in your mobile. I have non existent 3 mobile signal at home, but have put it in external mounted SXT-LTE hand have min 15M download speed - shoots to 23M+ at times, can watch Netflix in Full HD without buffering. MY mobile signal (VoWifI), TV, CCTV cameras, etc, all work on this without any issue. Order a 3 rewards SIM (it gives you 200M ) free every month, to check the coverage.

By the way, have you mounted the SXT externally or is it still in loft?

Hi Kams,

What I did was try the cheapo empty Sims in the mobile initially to see if we got anything useful at all. Once confirmed I was actually getting a 4g signal i put credit on the EE one to do a few speed tests. ordered the SXT, then re tested all the sims in that.

The SXT is still in the loft, I need to buy a bracket to put it outside on the gable end, which is less of an issue than getting the cable out through 3 foot thick stone walls, i might be better off trying to exit from the eves under the lowest tile and run it behind the gutter.

After a post on social media i got some promising replies from 3 which sadly in the end resulted in some dullard script following dude who was incapable of deviating from his script long enough to actually understand why i was calling, Considering it was 3 themselves that asked me to contact them for follow up Lets just say i was less than impressed..