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Advice needed on external 3G/4G antenna

marcel353

Hi,
I am about to set up an external antenna to improve my 3G signal.
However with 4G at the corner, I may as well set up something reasonably future proof.
Would anybody be able to confirm which type of 3G/4G antenna is suitable for Ireland or even suggest a model?
I have seen different models on-line but there seems to be huge variations in prices and specs.
It will need to be sturdy and hard wearing as very exposed.

Thanks in advance,

M

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ED E

If its that dramatic it sounds like cell breathing. A cell that covers 10km during the day may drop to 8km once full to spread the load around punting you to another cell which if you've a directional antenna really hampers you.

Hococop

ED E wrote: »

If its that dramatic it sounds like cell breathing. A cell that covers 10km during the day may drop to 8km once full to spread the load around punting you to another cell which if you've a directional antenna really hampers you.

Maybe but it just seems to happen for 40 minutes to an hour, after that back to normal, that seem right?

s0000

Hi there,

I am hoping someone might have some advice here, I am using 4G wireless broadband from three on B525s-23a router, the signal strength where I am (Kilcoole Co.Wicklow) seems to be pretty crap recently, it was 4mbps download and about 6mbps upload...so purchased an external antenna (ATK-LOG ALP LTE MIMO 2x2 Antenna 800-3000MHz, 10m cables, SMA plug)
with 10m cables and mounted it to the chimney on the apex of the roof.

I hooked it up and did some speed tests, I noticed that I am getting 5Mbps download and 35Mpbs upload..

1. Can anyone offer any ideas why their is such a difference in the download and upload?
2. Can anyone suggest a way of determining the best position/orientation for the antenna?

smuggler.ie

s0000 wrote: »

Hi there,

I am hoping someone might have some advice here, I am using 4G wireless broadband from three on B525s-23a router, the signal strength where I am (Kilcoole Co.Wicklow) seems to be pretty crap recently, it was 4mbps download and about 6mbps upload...so purchased an external antenna (ATK-LOG ALP LTE MIMO 2x2 Antenna 800-3000MHz, 10m cables, SMA plug)
with 10m cables and mounted it to the chimney on the apex of the roof.

I hooked it up and did some speed tests, I noticed that I am getting 5Mbps download and 35Mpbs upload..

1. Can anyone offer any ideas why their is such a difference in the download and upload?
2. Can anyone suggest a way of determining the best position/orientation for the antenna?

1. Everyone is downloading, not that much traffic on upload.
2. Locate your ISP nearest 4G capable mast on site viewer map(click on red tags), point your antenna towards it.

s0000

smuggler.ie wrote: »

1. Everyone is downloading, not that much traffic on upload.
2. Locate your ISP nearest 4G capable mast on (click on red tags), point your antenna towards it.

thanks for the advice...

I will have a go at locating it in a better position tomorrow..

so you think its contention on threes side that's causing the massive difference between upload and download?
would that vary from cell to cell, i.e. I might be able to point it at another cell?

ED E

You're in Wicklow. There won't be any quiet cells. You might find one is 8/40 while the next one is 4/40 but they'll all be heavily loaded.

In the past switching to Vodafone would have traded speed for caps but now they've raised their caps to come play in the mud with Three.

s0000

thanks ED E,

I suppose what your saying is the 4G is inferior to the landline alternative (in Wicklow anyway) ..
The marketing would have you believe that 4G wireless broadband is better than is really is..

Any suggestions on how I might be able to increase the download speed or at least make it consistent..

I had a one or two ideas myself.. but maybe it's a pointless effort if the cell capacity is that poor.
1. Pointing 1 antenna at 1 cell and the other antenna at another ( my setup has 2 separate antenna for vertical & horizontal diversity, so i
would lose the diversity).
2. Getting a combiner and another antenna and pointing it towards another cell.

KpsCowley

s0000 wrote: »

thanks ED E,

I suppose what your saying is the 4G is inferior to the landline alternative (in Wicklow anyway) ..
The marketing would have you believe that 4G wireless broadband is better than is really is..

Any suggestions on how I might be able to increase the download speed or at least make it consistent..

I had a one or two ideas myself.. but maybe it's a pointless effort if the cell capacity is that poor.
1. Pointing 1 antenna at 1 cell and the other antenna at another ( my setup has 2 separate antenna for vertical & horizontal diversity, so i
would lose the diversity).
2. Getting a combiner and another antenna and pointing it towards another cell.

Cool idea to split the horz and vertical segments. I don't know the ins and outs, but for drone racing and picking up signal there are "diversity" modules that jumps between two antennas using the one with the best signal. I wonder if the router will already do this between the vert and horz.
Just a thought, surely signal strength would stay the same if load is high or low, so this approach might not work.

I have a similar set up, and the slow down in speed at peak times drives my crazy!! Im using 4G 3.

Ultimanemo

ED E wrote: »

You're in Wicklow. There won't be any quiet cells. You might find one is 8/40 while the next one is 4/40 but they'll all be heavily loaded.

In the past switching to Vodafone would have traded speed for caps but now they've raised their caps to come play in the mud with Three.

Vodafone still way behind Three in Their caps 250 vs 750

s0000

Just wondering if anyone has tried to Break a three wireless broadband contract based on the ridiculously poor consistency of speeds..
I was getting 20mbps speed this morning and 1mbps download now (upload has been consistently 20mbps)
Kinda ridiculous that three can even get away with saying they provide 4g Internet to be honest...

Ultimanemo

s0000 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone has tried to Break a three wireless broadband contract based on the ridiculously poor consistency of speeds..
I was getting 20mbps speed this morning and 1mbps download now (upload has been consistently 20mbps)
Kinda ridiculous that three can even get away with saying they provide 4g Internet to be honest...

Talk to them if no success e-mail comreg

ED E

s0000 wrote: »

thanks ED E,

I suppose what your saying is the 4G is inferior to the landline alternative (in Wicklow anyway) ..
The marketing would have you believe that 4G wireless broadband is better than is really is..

Somewhat. Say there are 600 homes in an area. If they all have DSL lines at 2Mb they can all use their 2Mb away and be slow but consistent (1200Mb). Or if they all go onto one 150Mb LTE sector thats fine when 3 people are online but useless once 100 are online.

If Wicklow had good alternative options then the load would be much lower but precisely why you want to use the service is also the reason why it'll be slow as the same logic applies to those around you.

Carnmore

ED E wrote: »

Certified repeaters are now legal.

Where can they bought from and how do I know which one to buy?

Axwell

Do the repeaters work or are they hindered by other factors like LTE broadband. For example if you put up a repeater are you guaranteed an improvement or is distance from the cell tower and the ampunt of people on the same network an issue?

Looking at these, any advice on what company to use or not use or best prices?

https://www.irelandboosters.com/product-category/powerful-boosters/

ED E

Repeaters help signal issues. Not speed issues. Bad signal causes low speed, so does congestion.

If your speed outside your house is much better than inside your house: A repeater is for you, potentially.

If your speed is the same all around the area: repeater will do jack all.

Axwell

Any recommendations on who to buy from or not or are they all the same?

ED E

No recommendations personally.

I'd look to get something that does B3 and B20 LTE, 3G is useful for calling at the minute but long term won't be of much use.

gearoid!

Axwell, before you setup or consider buying a mobile phone signal repeater kit, you should know the important details.

- You should know what frequency you are receiving in your target area. If you want to improve GSM Voice signal you need a 900MHz signal repeater. If you need 4G/LTE signal enhancer, then you either need 800 or 1800MHz signal repeater - depends on what your operator is throwing at you.

- You should be receiving at least 1 signal bar outside of your house. This would guarantee that the booster/repeater would work inside your house/office.

When installed correctly, any number of users inside your house can use it - if boosting GSM/Voice. If boosting 4G/LTE, then speed could be affected by your current bandwidth capacity.

You can check this page for various signal repeater kits. The manufacturer claims they are legal to use in Ireland/Europe.

Refer to this:
https://trade.novatel.ie/signal-repeaters

The Cush

gearoid! wrote: »

You can check this page for various signal repeater kits. The manufacturer claims they are legal to use in Ireland/Europe.

The repeaters can also be purchased through the manufacturers website, they are based in Waterford - https://www.stelladoradus.com/product-category/home-mobile-signal-boosters/

tinner777

Attachment not found.

hi lads, just opened poynting a xpol 0002 v2 now and instead of the two male sma i was expecting got whats in the picture, missing around 4m of cable as well.

What adapters do i need to make them connect to female sma???

Timmaay

I get a very poor phone signal of any sort in around my house and farmyard here, however I usually get 2 bars at the edge of the yard. For Internet at the minute (land-line broadband not an option) I have a b593 in a pump house 200m away, with 2 nanostations to sent it back to the house. That works reasonably well (esp on a three ayce 20e/month sim, which is usually roaming on the coda phone network), however if possible I would like to get a signal booster to improve mostly the 4g signal all around the yard and house, and also let me receive texts in the house (calls aren't as important but would be a bonus). If possible then Id like to relocate the b593 to the home yard. Part the reason I'd like to have this in the home yard is I seem to have to regularly (every week or so) have to physically turn on and off the b593, which is a pain when I have to go over to the pumphouse. What sort of signal repeater would be suitable for the likes of all this?

djivide_

I know it wont fix the signal issue but you could always get a smart plug such as tp-link hs100 and schedule it to reset the router once a week. I did this for a relative so I would not be called every couple of weeks to reset their B593 which also needed some power cycling, I had it powering off for a minute at 4am one of the days, haven't had a call for that issue since

gearoid!

@Timmaay, signal repeaters are now legal to use these days. But only a few, like the StellaDoradus repeaters.

You can solve your signal issue and boost your 4G signal by using any of the following, depending on your frequency band received.

For 1800MHz 4G Signal Repeater Kit - You can check out below:
https://signalsolution.novatel.ie/4g-1800mhz-signal-booster

For 800MHz 4G Signal Repeater Kit - Link is below:
https://signalsolution.novatel.ie/4g-lte-800mhz-signal-repeater

You can use the repeater kit at the far edge of your yard and use the nanostations to throw wifi signal to your house.

Note: You either receive 4G/LTE signal at 800 or 1800MHz.

smuggler.ie

Timmaay wrote: »

... Part the reason I'd like to have this in the home yard is I seem to have to regularly (every week or so) have to physically turn on and off the b593, which is a pain when I have to go over to the pumphouse.

You don't have to physically attend B593 - you can reboot it from Web interface(see ~6:15 into video, different model, but work same way).
Another, automated option, could be - introduce timer switch , i use them for Xmas lights when season comes. Lidl or Aldy have them time to time for less than tenner.

Hococop

Just looking at these signal repeaters, tempted as my signal is still not great with the antenna, my only worry is they are expensive and I would hate if it ended up not working, just wondering if anyone has bought one and are they worth it?

ED E

Hococop wrote: »

Just looking at these signal repeaters, tempted as my signal is still not great with the antenna, my only worry is they are expensive and I would hate if it ended up not working, just wondering if anyone has bought one and are they worth it?

The repeaters take the same input as an antenna. If that antenna is failing you its very unlikely a repeater will do any better.

Hococop

ED E wrote: »

The repeaters take the same input as an antenna. If that antenna is failing you its very unlikely a repeater will do any better.

Ah right, thought it would improve the signal good to know, might be the position of the antenna, might have another go at adjusting it and see can I get a better signal

The Cush

Hococop wrote: »

Just looking at these signal repeaters, tempted as my signal is still not great with the antenna, my only worry is they are expensive and I would hate if it ended up not working, just wondering if anyone has bought one and are they worth it?

My brother purchased a Stelladoradus 900 MHz one a few years ago, after using cheap Far East imports over the years. The cheap units generally failed or didn't operate satisfactorily. The Stelladoradus unit is still going strong and without issues since.

gearoid!

Ah right, thought it would improve the signal good to know, might be the position of the antenna, might have another go at adjusting it and see can I get a better signal

@Hococop Signal Repeaters are made to amplify weak signals. 1 External antenna is installed outside to pick up weak signal, then brought in to the house via a cable, connected to the amplifier device. Then it re-transmit the amplified signal via a 2nd antenna installed inside your home. This serves as your mini base station.

Added to that, like what @The Cush mentioned above, StellaDoradus products are not cheap compared to Chinese made. But it will serve its purpose really well. Also, the only legal booster there is in Ireland.

If you hesitate to buy, then call one of Stelladoradus distro, they offer money back guarantee if the booster won't work for you. You may call their Ireland Distro for help and further info.

grimeire

Hi all,

I recently got a 4g aerial and set it up. The problem is that I was expecting a far better improvement in speed. I am about 0.5Km from the mast using a E5186.
here is the aerial i got.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Theta-Mobile-Broadband-Antenna-Aerial-Booster-4G-LTE-MIMO/392308894048?hash=item5b576ea960:g:5esAAOSwfx9c9Yjt

I was getting about 10-25 down and 5-12 up during peak times but now I am getting about 10-25 down and 20-40 up at peak times. While it does seem a lot more stable as before the connection was up and down now it is pretty consistent but still was expecting higher speeds.

When configuring the aerial is there some thing we can use to confirm the position is optimal area to pick up the signal from the mast. When setting up the aerial I just pointed it in the general direction of the mast.

Thanks