Advice needed on external 3G/4G antenna

smuggler.ie

SmashingPilot wrote: »

The following masts are closest to the house, only a 2 minute walk away but signal is still so poor:
https://siteviewer.comreg.ie/#site/3_WX0015/52.2748260651/-6.3874976484/1/Site%203_WX0015

Linked site is marked as 3G only, unless it was upgraded and info on siteviewer is out of date, but that could explain poor signal - next nearest Three LTE(4G) mast is in Piercestown ~7km
https://siteviewer.comreg.ie/#site/3_WX0104/52.2908208809/-6.4919906316/1/Site%203_WX0104
There are closer 4G masts from other operators.
Forcing router into 3G, in some instances gives better speeds than 4G, especially with overcrowded Three network.

As above, real life testing would give real life results...

SmashingPilot

Perfect, happy testing it myself but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something before I head down there.
Thanks for the advice. I'll order an eir sim too.
Is the signal on a phone going to be the same as one of the 4G antenna?

Turbohymac

I suppose that's given that theres internet being transmitted from the mast..I'm currently line of site near youghal with an old 02 mast and it has never been upgraded to either 3or4 g
So if you're living near it theres brilliant 3 phone signal for calls but NO Internet
Hopefully that's not a similar situation in rosslare

n1st

smuggler.ie wrote: »

It should
For Vodafone:
North-West site ~4km and North-East site ~3.5km are 3G only:
https://siteviewer.comreg.ie/#site/RN048/53.5740277085/-8.1623344764/1/Site%20RN048
https://siteviewer.comreg.ie/#site/RN028/53.5717370748/-8.0826116562/1/Site%20RN028

South-East site ~5km is 4G(LTE)
https://siteviewer.comreg.ie/#site/RN050/53.5139017122/-8.0698375278/1/Site%20RN050

Is line of sight required?

The house is in a valley and the masts options are on hills in the distance, I see Eir and Three are North West and Vodafone is South East, both 2km away

smuggler.ie

n1st wrote: »

Is line of sight required?

The house is in a valley and the masts options are on hills in the distance, I see Eir and Three are North West and Vodafone is South East, both 2km away

LOS preferred, especially with directional antenna.

I'm just surprised that at 2 km distance your signal is weak. Could be due to well insulated new build or thick walls of old building. Moving modem to the window or into attic could improve.

n1st

smuggler.ie wrote: »

LOS preferred, especially with directional antenna.

I'm just surprised that at 2 km distance your signal is weak. Could be due to well insulated new build or thick walls of old building. Moving modem to the window or into attic could improve.

Actually it could be 5 km.

Yes within the house it is an issue due to walls, outside is ok, higher maybe an option

smuggler.ie

n1st wrote: »

Actually it could be 5 km.

Yes within the house it is an issue due to walls, outside is ok, higher maybe an option

On google maps, locate mast in question(reference to siteviewer), right click and select "measure distance", navigate to your place, right click and select "distance to here"
Omni-directional antenna should work either way, but signal gain is less and it'll pick signal from strongest available mast(not necessary best speed)

For directional antenna can use same google maps and point it to known/visible reference points(crossroad, building, tree)

Mount antenna as high as safely/securely possible, but would not recommend to exceed 10m coax cable to the modem/router due to potential signal loss on the cable.

oppiuy

Following this thread it looks like my best line of sight is to a 4g+ mast about 8.4kms away. is that to far to get a really good signal using an antenna

smuggler.ie

oppiuy wrote: »

Following this thread it looks like my best line of sight is to a 4g+ mast about 8.4kms away. is that to far to get a really good signal using an antenna

Good directional should improve signal, however, its not necessary guaranty you speed.
Same as yourself using B525, with 3 bars at ~4km distance to the mast, with speeds fluctuate as low 50DL to high 110DL, avg 80DL/30UL, depend on weather, time and cell connected.
Your situation could be different.

oppiuy

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Good directional should improve signal, however, its not necessary guaranty you speed.
Same as yourself using B525, with 3 bars at ~4km distance to the mast, with speeds fluctuate as low 50DL to high 110DL, avg 80DL/30UL, depend on weather, time and cell connected.
Your situation could be different.

Max i was seeing at good times was 17dl.. my Huawei q2pro mesh 3pack arrived today. Have it set up in an old xottage and its made a massive difference to coverage and speed. Currently avwrgaeing 25 when now id expext to be down around 6. Hopefully this continues and then i see an addtional increase with the antenna but id be happy with consitant 20mbs

smuggler.ie

oppiuy wrote: »

Max i was seeing at good times was 17dl.. my Huawei q2pro mesh 3pack arrived today. Have it set up in an old xottage and its made a massive difference to coverage and speed. Currently avwrgaeing 25 when now id expext to be down around 6. Hopefully this continues and then i see an addtional increase with the antenna but id be happy with consitant 20mbs

What about 3G only? if you happy with 20~25 - worth testing. This would be about max you can get on 3G, but could be more steady all times.

n1st

What hardware do I need to enable wifi inside the house? Recommendations?


Directional aeriel, WiFi router, 10m cable, anything else

oppiuy

I Had disabled the routers wifi yesterday so couldnt turn back on unless i connected via pc. Did that this morning and the signal was slower. I seem to be connected to a 4G+ mast. Speeds slowed a lot around 8pm when the chelsea game was on but was still better than i was previously getting at those times.

So far very happy with the kit and hopefully the Antenna will give me a boost as well

SteelyDanJalapeno

Hi All,

Just read this whole thread, very informative!

I'm still a little lost thou and looking for some advice, or maybe where to start.

The house is on the coast, in a bit of a valley as there is hills either side and even the the road in descends a bit, I've checked the Comreg site and there is masts on the other side of all the hills, closest is about 2.5km away.

However I dont have LOS to any of these masts until I get to about 10m elevation.

I really just dont know where to start, I see references to loads of different products and solutions in this thread, but could someone suggest something for me?

- Currently very poor cell reception on 3 and VF inside and outside, havent tried Eir yet
- Ideally we want to get 10Meg speeds at least in the house
- Is there a device I can get to increase the chances of getting signal, and then be able to feed this to a router or switch?
- Is there a device I can get aswel to improve the cell reception on our handsets, or is there something that will do both?


Thanks in advance!

n1st

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Hi All,

Just read this whole thread, very informative!

I'm still a little lost thou and looking for some advice, or maybe where to start.

The house is on the coast, in a bit of a valley as there is hills either side and even the the road in descends a bit, I've checked the Comreg site and there is masts on the other side of all the hills, closest is about 2.5km away.

However I dont have LOS to any of these masts until I get to about 10m elevation.

I really just dont know where to start, I see references to loads of different products and solutions in this thread, but could someone suggest something for me?

- Currently very poor cell reception on 3 and VF inside and outside, havent tried Eir yet
- Ideally we want to get 10Meg speeds at least in the house
- Is there a device I can get to increase the chances of getting signal, and then be able to feed this to a router or switch?
- Is there a device I can get aswel to improve the cell reception on our handsets, or is there something that will do both?


Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I was in a similar situation. I got fixed up with 4G last week, now getting 21Mpbs with Three.
This was very surprising, we could not get more than 1 bar on 3G in or around the house. Elevating an antenna to the same height of the apex of the roof and pointing in the correct direction fixed the issue.

We used company in Mullingar, DirectTV, very good.

SteelyDanJalapeno

n1st wrote: »

Hi,

I was in a similar situation. I got fixed up with 4G last week, now getting 21Mpbs with Three.
This was very surprising, we could not get more than 1 bar on 3G in or around the house. Elevating an antenna to the same height of the apex of the roof and pointing in the correct direction fixed the issue.

We used company in Mullingar, DirectTV, very good.

Do you know what type of antenna it was? Did you need anything else to then redistribute the signal?

heffo500

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Hi All,

Just read this whole thread, very informative!

I'm still a little lost thou and looking for some advice, or maybe where to start.

The house is on the coast, in a bit of a valley as there is hills either side and even the the road in descends a bit, I've checked the Comreg site and there is masts on the other side of all the hills, closest is about 2.5km away.

However I dont have LOS to any of these masts until I get to about 10m elevation.

I really just dont know where to start, I see references to loads of different products and solutions in this thread, but could someone suggest something for me?

- Currently very poor cell reception on 3 and VF inside and outside, havent tried Eir yet
- Ideally we want to get 10Meg speeds at least in the house
- Is there a device I can get to increase the chances of getting signal, and then be able to feed this to a router or switch?
- Is there a device I can get aswel to improve the cell reception on our handsets, or is there something that will do both?


Thanks in advance!

Hi

I also live in a valley, so I wasn't sure how strong the signal would be.

My advice would be to download speed test and get a few sim cards, get up on a ladder where you think the highest position is you could install the aerials.

Granted you would have another 8ft would a pole from that point.

Run the speed tests using the different operators and see what you get, you would most likely get a lot faster, but it would indicate what you can at least expect.

I got about 12mb using my phone on the ladder, but with aerials, I get about 70 mb.

SteelyDanJalapeno

heffo500 wrote: »

Hi

I also live in a valley, so I wasn't sure how strong the signal would be.

My advice would be to download speed test and get a few sim cards, get up on a ladder where you think the highest position is you could install the aerials.

Granted you would have another 8ft would a pole from that point.

Run the speed tests using the different operators and see what you get, you would most likely get a lot faster, but it would indicate what you can at least expect.

I got about 12mb using my phone on the ladder, but with aerials, I get about 70 mb.

Cheers heffo! That sounds very promising, I'll do those experiments.

Could you help me understand the aerial a little better? What's on the other end, a router with a sim card?

heffo500

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Cheers heffo! That sounds very promising, I'll do those experiments.

Could you help me understand the aerial a little better? What's on the other end, a router with a sim card?

I used a Huawei B525 router and bought the below aerials along with the poles and brackets:

https://www.atcsupplies.ie/product.php?id=002979

So you have install them like the picture on a pole and have them spaced.

Then at the end the cables you can screw them on the router at the back.

You access the router through your web browser and change the settings so it knows it has external aerials connected.

n1st

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Do you know what type of antenna it was? Did you need anything else to then redistribute the signal?

Not sure I'll check later in the week.
Directional antenna I think, 2 white triangular boxes on it.
5m steel pole and bracket.
Tplink 4G router.
10m cable.

We tried Eir first, then Three, then Vodafone.
Eir and Three were similar.

n1st

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Cheers heffo! That sounds very promising, I'll do those experiments.

Could you help me understand the aerial a little better? What's on the other end, a router with a sim card?

Similar behavior for me.
Testing with phone was different to antenna. Vodafone looked good to me on phone but antenna did not agree.

Get a Three data SIM for 30 euro and test with that as well as Vodafone maybe.

Moving the antenna up or down by 3ft made a huge difference too

SteelyDanJalapeno

Back again with more questions! Much more informed this time.

So I think the poynting omnidirectional with a 4g router will serve me well for data in the home, but I've realised that won't help me mobile phone reception.

So I've been looking at it seems Comreg have legalized some 2g, 3g & 4g repeaters that will amplify weak signals through another antenna.

Some questions thou, if I go with both solutions above, what would the best implementation be?

I could separate them both, so 1 poynting connected to 4g router, that will supply mobile broadband.

Another external antenna connected to a repeater internally to boost cell reception, this sounds like the most basic and straight forward implementation.

But, since the 1st solution just picks up a weak signal and pumps it straight to the router, is it possible to take the output signal from the repeater and feed this to my router instead? Giving me an amplified signal being fed to my router?

Do repeaters have cable outputs?

Confused

heffo500

I didn't bother with a repeater for phone reception however I would go separate and get the mobile broadband up and running first then you can use Whatsapp for a call etc

SteelyDanJalapeno

heffo500 wrote: »

I didn't bother with a repeater for phone reception however I would go separate and get the mobile broadband up and running first then you can use Whatsapp for a call etc

Cheers yeah that's a good start!

Seems like you can't use a repeater in between an antenna and a 4g router, not sure why, seems like a good use case.

MF290

Very good thread.

Is there much difference between these two styles of antennae?


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Antenna-Adapters-OUTDOOR-suitable-Vodafone-SMA-Male-Female/dp/B07VP1LYM3/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Router+Antenna+Set+LTE+Log+MIMO+4G&qid=1597678271&s=electronics&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0002-Polarised-Directional-Outdoor/dp/B00C1DGGKC/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=Router+Antenna+4g&qid=1597678743&s=electronics&sr=1-19

I'm planning on putting it on the roof beside a tv aerial facing the nearer of the two masts (2nd photo) which will hopefully be ok with the elevation of the cell tower and aerial.



There's a third tower 10km with good elevation also, would a MIMO antenna be any addition in this situation?
The best signal seems to come from the first tower based off personal hotspot on the phone.

heffo500

MF290 wrote: »

Very good thread.

Is there much difference between these two styles of antennae?


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Antenna-Adapters-OUTDOOR-suitable-Vodafone-SMA-Male-Female/dp/B07VP1LYM3/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Router+Antenna+Set+LTE+Log+MIMO+4G&qid=1597678271&s=electronics&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0002-Polarised-Directional-Outdoor/dp/B00C1DGGKC/ref=sr_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=Router+Antenna+4g&qid=1597678743&s=electronics&sr=1-19

I'm planning on putting it on the roof beside a tv aerial facing the nearer of the two masts (2nd photo) which will hopefully be ok with the elevation of the cell tower and aerial.



There's a third tower 10km with good elevation also, would a MIMO antenna be any addition in this situation?
The best signal seems to come from the first tower based off personal hotspot on the phone.

Those aerials seem quite expensive, where are you based?

I got mine and it about €110 Inc vat and delivery.

TRANS-DATA LTE KYZ 10/10 MIMO 4G/3G/GSM Antenna (with 10 m cable SMA)

MF290

Ireland, They should be similar enough in price. The log type in the link is 99 pound with free delivery about 110 euro.

daraghwal

My brother is living in a caravan on a college placement for the next year. Outside there is 3 bars Vodafone 4g coverage but nothing inside the caravan. What is the best setup to basically either get WiFi in the mobile via Vodafone 4g with some sort of an antenna on a temporary pole on a €20/month sim or boost the signal to his phone and use as a hotspot. Are there any relatively cheap ways to do this?

Would something as simple as this be good enough? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VKRBGQ7/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_YBHxFbHRKB82S

I have a spare huawei device like the one pictured

ED E

LTE router inside, small antenna outside and some kind of weathersealing to get the cable out. Easy enough. Should investigate all providers for coverage first.

daraghwal

ED E wrote: »

LTE router inside, small antenna outside and some kind of weathersealing to get the cable out. Easy enough. Should investigate all providers for coverage first.

Perfect. So huawei mobile WiFi dongle plugged directly into an outdoor antenna mounted on the caravan where the best coverage is. Could you recommend an antenna or is the one I have linked above suitable? One with the suction cups would be preferrable if possible as it’s a temp solution but if there are better relatively cheap antennas available we’d work around that.

Vodafone is the only network with decent 4g in the area