Using a 4G Modem/Wifi AP As 'Repeater'

Hi,

BT's landline broadband generally, on our island home, is best described as 'pants'. Most connections are lucky to get 1Mbps and lots don't even get 0.1Mbps. It also appears that, due to the cost of sending engineers out here (2.5 hours on a once-a-day - in summer and without a global pox running amuck - ferry from Oban, 2 hours north of Glasgow!) they do not have any plans to improve the land-based system, preferring instead to push us all down the 4G route instead.

So, I have a friend (called 'J') whose house is thoroughly in the shadow of our island's only (upgrade to 4G only a year ago!) GSM cell.

However, about 300m away from J's house, the house of a friend of theirs ('K') gets a reasonable 4G signal.

I am wondering if it is practical to instal a 4G modem/wifi AP in K's house (powered by their mains) whose GSM connection comes via an externally mounted 4G antenna (directional if necessary but probably not) and which then allows wifi connections between J's house and the 4G modem/wifi AP via another externally mounted directional wifi antenna?

I have already set up a repeater system here for another resident which uses a 4G modem to deal with the 4G side and then connects via CAT5 cable to a Ubiquiti Litebeam M5 wifi link. These are situated about a 1000m from their house (powered by 12V battery) and the house-end of the Litebeam is then CAT5-connected to their LAN.

I am trying to avoid the extra cost and complexity of the Litebeam.

If this is a practical proposition, can anyone suggest a suitable 4G modem?

Thanks in anticipation.

Martin
Isle of Colonsay
Scotland

Rebroadcast of the 4G not possible.

Creation of a wi-fi bridge possible, but you've done that before.

In terms of cost the Ubiquiti LiteBeam LBE-M5-23 seems very reasonably priceed, what kit did you actually use?

Hi,

Sorry, I don't want to re-broadcast the 4G but use the 4G's built-in wifi access point to broadcast wifi to the end-user directly but via a directional antenna. It would only have to get to the house as after that it could be distributed by LAN or a wifi repeater in a suitably located window or via an external antenna, again directional if necessary. Is tis pracical? I guess some 4G routers have better (more output) pn the wifi side than others... But the distance involved is a good 200m (as measured via GoogleMaps).

For the job I did already, I used 2 Litebeam M5-23s which worked very well but still cost the best part of £150 (with associated hardware etc).

Thanks. MW

Edited by deleted (Thu 23-Apr-20 08:23:15)

In theory wifi repeaters that pick up the existing signal and rebroadcast could work, but cost wise the decent ones are in the £60 to £150 range and ties you to an internal antenna.

£150 to do what you want is not unreasonable and will work better than the repeater even if a marginal signal was possible.

So, I'd need a 4G modem/wifi AP which has external antenna connections for both the 4G tranceiver and the wifi one...

Any suggestions as to a make and model?

Regards, MW.

A lot of people use the Mikrotik SXT's. But speak to the guys at MS Dist. They can help find a solution for you for both the 4G and the Wifi bridge as they also do Ubiquiti kit.

Thanks... but why can't I just use the 4G modem's built-in wifi access point?

MW

If you have one 4G modem/wifi router then you are tied to using that as the modem and router

Yes you could add what is a wireless booster but these usually don't support external antenna

If you have two 4G modem/router devices then you can only use one as a repeater if it is designed to operate that way, i.e. pick up a wireless signal and rebroadcast it.

Hi,

Thank you but it is apparent that I have not made myself clear!

I plan to have only the one 4G modem/wifi router and it is its wifi access point that I want to use to connect to the LAN of the end user, if not to the end user's wifi-capable device directly (which would be easier but would almost certainly limit reception locations to being in line of sight of the 4G modem/wifi router).

So the question is, is there a 4G modem/wifi router with an external antenna connection for at least the wifi AP so that a directional wifi antenna can be used to maximise the wifi AP's range?

Thanks for your perseverance!

MW

The SXTs do not have WiFi.