3G setup advice

Hi

So BT have told me they cannot continue to provide my 0.5Mbs service after multiple engineers and Top level complaints involvement.

I have found that 3G will actually work (on and off) where I live - rural obviously.

About 2K from the nearest mast. I have a Three 3G dongle at the moment which I have to hang off the roof and on which I have had >2.5Mbs which frankly is amazing.

What I want to do it pull this into a wireless router so the rest of the house can have access to the internet.

I have tried to connect the dongle to both a Zoom and a TP-Link £G router via a USB cable through the wall. The cable is <5m long but neither router even with up to date firmware can see the dongle.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Phil

Hi, which dongle have you got & has it an antenna port ? 2km from the mast isn't far at all, you might just want to get the 3 Premium Dongle (£60 for existing customers). I started with a ZTE MF112 which worked but was very sensitive to the position and direction it was placed. The Premium Dongle is much easier to set up to get a strong signal because it has MiMo antennae built in. Also this will work with HSPA+ when the 3 network upgrade goes live so you could be looking at significantly higher speeds later this year.

You could consider an external 3g panel antenna like the ones on this list
http://www.antennasonline.co.uk/how-to-boost-your-mo...
and drop the 10m cable down from the roof or eaves to your 3g router into which the dongle is directly attached. You might not even need the external version if there is a window conveniently looking in the right direction & attach one of these to the wall under the pelmet.
The Premium Dongle Huawei E367 does have an external antenna port on the side, if you choose to do something like this you'd be best to check with the suppliers that the correct fittings for the port are supplied.
There is something called a modem mate which is a wrap around affair for dongles without external ports but I'd rather go with a proper plugin connection if possible.

Edited by deleted (Sun 22-May-11 14:26:01)

Thanks - I started with the ZTE as well - think you are right and the Premium dongle is the way to go with an external antenna,

What is the aerial connector like on the Premium dongle, do you know?

The connector is on the side behind a flap which I originally thought was just a flap to help remove the sim card cover, I don't know what the size is, it's pretty small looking to be about 33% size of a headphone mic or jack but hopefully it's a standard size for dongles. You'd better consult whoever you but the antenna from.

I have just seen an alternative set up though which could be interesting because it serves multiple devices in your home.
Check this out on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjg-DhFoZFo for installation and here for the demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zBBKbK0Ncg
The company is http://www.stelladoradus.com/
It could be a future proof way to go and enable 3g phones in your house too.

Edited by deleted (Sun 22-May-11 18:21:32)

Check Ofcom regulations on that sort of device http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/spectru...

Although USB devices are meant to work on 5m cable I find that is not always the case.
While my older Huawei E220 will work on 3m, the newer & better Option 515 will NOT.
Best I can manage is about 1.8m shielded USB cable (bought from a French supermarket !)

Best I can suggest is to place the dongle indoors but on or at least close to a window, then let the WiFi do the rest.

Post deleted by billford