As a network engineer all this trial and error and money thrown away pains me somewhat, but at the same time it's interesting to follow the journey...

@danieldevine

Ай бұрын

Same, having worked even in retail in telco for over a decade, i'm not even half way through and i'm shouting at my screen haha! I hope it gets better by the end of the video

@MartinBarker

Ай бұрын

yeah i work as Head of IT for a company, the problem is stuff like this get's very expensive very quickly, also why i learnt Enterprise Firewalls (i use Watchguard) and Ubiquity for the Switching and Wireless :D

@SignedAdam

Ай бұрын

He should go do a test next to the mast that he’s trying to get the signal from, just make a local network, local is the only way to get real results, pop up a temporary receiver next to the mast

@nickd6677

Ай бұрын

​@@SignedAdamhe did at the end 32:06

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks I was considering editing most of it out but then it would have been a very short video as only the final 5 minutes was me not messing it up

I'm glad you finally ran a speedtest close to the tower. 4G isn't some wonder WiFi technology. Getting close to 100Mbps down is fantastic with your remote location, and that price point. Of course, Starlink would most likely crush it, but the cost is exorbitant. Great job getting what you've got with low monthly investment!

@dudleysdad

Ай бұрын

The other limiting factor is number of other users. Also just think of it like a water pipe line the fastest it can flow is limited by the narrowest point, testing at the mast eliminates all other factors other than demand on the system, if you find a variation depending on time of day then other users demand may be a factor. It's a complex and complicated system there may be any number of limiting factors happening before the transmitter at the mast.

@albert_vds

Ай бұрын

It's also not a bad speed for normal home internet setup, so getting those speeds with a data plan and that remote is pretty good. I wonder if a load balancing router with multiple data plans connected to it would increase the total up and download speed.

@nirodper

Ай бұрын

the poe extender is limited to 100mbit, that's why his download speed is close to 100 instead of the 120 he was getting at the top

@jada1173

Ай бұрын

​@@albert_vdsa load balancing router quite does not work like that for a single user, it's only for bigger networks with multiple users. Also depends of his speed on his data plan.

@TonySquared09

Ай бұрын

He's had Starlink before but his speeds weren't as good as they should have been. For me, the biggest factor is probably latency. 50+ms is pretty bad in my opinion, this can affect speeds of loading websites etc 5G is better in this regard but Starlink would be the superior setup here, it is expensive but if your business depends on it, then it's a good expense. Don't get why his download speeds were as bad as they were with Starlink as I know people who got much better results at a similar latitude

Hi, I noticed you are using CAT6 Ethernet cable (up to 1000Mbps up to 100m) with a POE extender to get up to a 200m cable run to your mast on the hill setup. However the spec on your POE Extender is only 10/100Mbps (Long Range PoE Extender 10/100 Mbit ideal for harsh outdoor environment, up to 100Mbps) therefore you will only ever get up to 100Mbps over this cable run. I would look into a POE extender that can run at up to 1000Mbps to get more than 100Mpbs over your cable run, if you are receiving more that this at your mast setup. Hope that helps out.

@TomMorris1

Ай бұрын

Given he has run power up there, I would prob just run a pre-terminated fibre cable terminated into CAT6/SFP media converters at each end instead. No need for poe range extenders then, also no issues with power surges going along the outdoor Ethernet cable.

@anthonyjobson

Ай бұрын

@@TomMorris1adding a +1 to this hoping it gets seen. Fibre for the network is the way to go now power is run IF the cellular Speed can be improved with a different network. Otherwise it’s a ton of work and more money for 20% more download speed he said wasn’t as important as upload.

@JoelHaasnoot

Ай бұрын

@@anthonyjobson In practice though higher speed will likely also be lower ping and latency? That benefit will still be passed on and likely will make for a connection that feels more reliable to the end user

@LambySRI

Ай бұрын

Coz of the power cable he could just try some 1000mb powerline boxes. Should get decent speed on it's own circuit and literally end to end. Easiest and cheapest way to get a faster connection the 100mb. But I totally agree about fibre too. Fibre would be best. Just extra cost.

@gordslater

Ай бұрын

6 is a lot of cats, but i suppose he lives in the country so there must be loads of mice

Glad your signal is now at a usable speed. Looking forward to your next video there very informative and interesting

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks!

Honesty is the best policy - thanks for your openness! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks Peter

You did some good work here. On the numbers you didn't know.. RSSI is Received Signal Strength Indication, but ignore that. For 4G you look at RSRP Received Signal Received Power, which is the Signal of your mast, RSRQ Received Signal Received Quality and SNR Signal to Noise Ratio. Your earlier screen shot showed rsrp of some -80 (dBm decimal related to 1 miliwatt) but most importantly an snr of 10dB. Those 2 are very strong and decent, consistent with line of sight and antenna setup. Actually the speed you get is based on the router reporting back the value of that snr essentially, upon which the mast gives you a certain speed. However, that speed is dependent on a number of factors NOT in your control, including cell load (how many other people using mast at same time) and its backhaul speed (the speed from mast back to the network computers). Lot people trying to use the mast with a slow backhaul means you get a small share....

@BobHannent

Ай бұрын

Yup, although a lot of folk will try and maximise power, but you can end up with too much power or with a big antenna capturing more noise as well. So signal to noise ratio, or 'quality' is always the most important factor.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you it was a bit frantic as the tests werent behaving the way I expected. That is some great information and explains what I was/am dealing with now so thank you

@Phone_Geek

Ай бұрын

@offgridscotland np. I noticed I made mistake. Rsrp is reference signal received power not received signal... I won't bore you with details ha ha.

Very interesting journey!

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you very much

Many thanks. Massive effort well done. A big take away is check rate at the transmitter first for benchmark. It seems so easy when you think about it, but well done for sticking with the problem.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks it was a headache to work through but I am glad its done now

Very interesting and apprecieted. Also Scotland here and many years ago considered a 4G router up high on the roof to improve upon the dire BT broadband. Didn't end up doing it as the community set up a wireless internet service which was fantastic, cheers!

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Wow thats amazing! I am glad you managed wired as at least it should be fairly stable

I'm amazed at what Internet speed you get up there with mobile networks. Thumbs up! Be reminded that your mobile station has limited amounts of frequencies/channels to use, and you're sharing that with everyone around that mobile station. You might get better or worse speeds depending on time of the day and speed might go down the more people in your region use this mobile station. Same with Starlink by the way.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks! Others have said the main mast is limited to 100mbs so I think it might be that

Good stuff, very interesting

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks

The likely reason for the 120mbit cap was the reason that the tower you have only has one or two bands witch don't play well together in carrier aggregation as that is what makes CAT18 faster than CAT6 is that CAT18 support 4 CA and cat 6 support 2CA and cat 18 supports some extra spacial stream mumbo jumbo that make it fast, but it needs band availability and also the cell tower has to support those feature. What bands are available you can check on a phone with an app like cell mapper where you will be able to see available bands and also support the open source community that maps cell tower and the bands they support.

@zuighemdanmaar752

Ай бұрын

It could may as well be that the tower he is testing on is a repeater tower with a wireless link to another tower, hence the lower connection speed right at the base. It's quite common in rural areas where running fiber to each tower is infeasible. Could be a fancy pants 5G tower but with a slower back haul you will still be limited.

@JoelHaasnoot

Ай бұрын

He mentioned the bands on the first video

@pauliusruginis5264

Ай бұрын

Mentioning does not mean checking. A 4G rotuer can connect up to 5 bands at once, sometimes they can connect to multiple slices (usually 2) of the same band. Let's just say cellular is very f in complicated. I've been working in the industry in an LTE router manufacturer for 2.5 years (not sales, help me god) and still learn about new levels of complexity, much less understanding them. Yeah, relaying could also be an option for the slow speeds, however, from the bands shown, at least band 3, which is one of the fastest ones is available, so that's a good sign, at least it's not those 800MHz bands that don't really have speed. Would be fun to know his band scan on that area

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah ok I wanst aware they had to communicate beteen bands, I tried to force band 1 and it doesnt like it only band 3 so what you say makes sense. We had bands 1 3 20 28

Bunch of people hating. Thanks for teaching me stuff. Appreciate the videos. I don’t like just seeing success it breeds a false sense of reality. Not that I think you failed by any means, just the trial and error is nice to see. Thanks man. Looking forward to more.

@offgridscotland

15 күн бұрын

Thank you, I dont mind sharing the real journey as I dont want to make it look easier than it was

Thanks so much for sharing your warts-and-all experience. Full credit to you for dumping what wasn't working and using that learning experience to move on. It's not relevant to your situation, but I discovered recently that you can run ethernet up to 2.5 Gbps down a coax cable using MoCA adapters. Good to know in older properties where there is coax cabling.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks not everyone liked that I was having a go at someting I diddnt know how to do but I wanted to share it anyway.

Glad you improved the speed quite a bit! I do quite a bit of work with 4G broadband. there are so many things to consider! I would agree with others that 120mbps is pretty good for 4G, (though i have seen speeds of 300+). The catagory of modem usually makes the biggest difference in speed; Cat18 supports up to five aggregated "channels" or "bands; however even on top of this the modem itself will have its own set of "Band Configurations" i.e. what Bands and subsequent orders it can aggregate together.

@matthewella8280

Ай бұрын

ive seen 400+ on 5G but when i speedtest on 5G i get about 20mbps 😂 just the same as 4G lol

@konadesu

Ай бұрын

@@matthewella8280 Sounds like either your mast isn't actually broadcasting 5G but is setup to be the base node in a 5G connection which yes is a thing and yes most phones will incorrectly state it's 5G or your 5G is a repurposed 4G band.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks I had a play with the bands in the conclusion video so it seems as though we have the best speeds we can get at the moment

I use a ethernet extender through my 220v system, so simple and fast. No extra wires and other stuff, just plug it in the poweroutlet and plug in the ethernet cable to the router, then on the other side so the same but connect the stuff i need... "Plug & play" Take care fr om Sweden and thanks for a great channel👍👍

@offgridscotland

4 күн бұрын

Nice that sounds like a great setup

Great video thank you , depending on cost I would get a spare cable to run up the hill for when it gets chewed cut or brakes and as mentioned below an anti lightning/surge bit of kit if there iis such thing once again brilliant video .

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I am waiting for it to happen, I have a backup router to swap the sim to at the barn if we need it in an emergency at slower speeds while I find the problem. Thanks!

At least you now have the peace of mind knowing that you've tried it all and found the best case for your location.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I was so glad to get it concluded it was keeping me up at night!

Haha I cheered at 16:45 when someone mentioned the LTE Category as being important 😊 had a feeling you weren't getting Carrier Aggregation, which is only supported on higher Cat levels, big boost in speed.

@dougle03

Ай бұрын

But only if the nearby mast supports multiple-channels... I suspect his speed is now that max he's going to get either because of aggregation limitations or simply that the backhaul from the mast is itself not the fastest...

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I was so relieved when someone pointed it out. Others have said that I have to check the frequency of the mast and match the router so I think thats my next task

Used to do Mobile radio for the Army..)) Internet via radio transmission will vary dependent on other customer use, taking bandwidth will not be infinite from a cell site mast. Your numbers today may not be the same tomorrow, and you might find the weather plays a part. Plus...the owner of the cell site mast may vary the output of data available from the site dependant on other factors, ie- internet delivery to other locations. The mast electronics at the site will have a set Data speed output, hence your stalling at no more than 120mbs, and its just the way 4G data transmits over radio. Get it the best you can, it wont ever be as stable as Wired Telephone or Fibre Optic but as long as you get what you need for the price you want to pay.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Excellent I am hearing good tips from ex signals chaps from the Armed forces. Thank you very much

i take it even after re-doing this, you're still saving in the long run over the cost of starlink

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Yea after selling the bits I diddnt need on ebay we are in for about £400 and £10pcm so at £70 pcm for starlink + £200 for selling the starlink kit it wont take long to recoup the cost.

@gavin9038

Ай бұрын

@@offgridscotland I'm running both Starlink for the family to use, alongside a 4G router specifically for uploads. The problem with Starlink (beside the cost) is the capped upload speed of 10Mbit, compared to my cheap Smarty (Three) 4G router that easily uploads at 40-50Mbit off-peak. I think you've finished up with a very useable setup - like you say the upload speeds are important for content creators and your download speeds will be way more than enough for what you're needing.

Getting 100mb average download in your location is the best it'll get. That's all I get in the city amongst multiple high speed masts. 4G tops out around 160mb. You'd need 5G for consistent 250mb speeds.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah thanks for letting me know, at least we are getting as much as we can

Over 120 DL and 46 UL is pretty bloody amazing. I don’t get even close to that with a wired connection. You are in remote Scotland!! I’d be very happy with that. I’m unsure of what your expectations were?

@neodonkey

Ай бұрын

Quite. I live in area with VDSL where i'm not close to the green box and best I can get is 20Mbit down and1 Mbit up. This guy is incredibly lucky to get those speeds in rural scotland and probably only because there will be less contention on the mast than in urban settings.

@gordslater

Ай бұрын

not only low contention, but very rural places have quite recent rollout so the it is recent spec. Same in parts of rural Africa - as the systems roll out they get far better than UK town and city speeds

@neodonkey

Ай бұрын

@@gordslater Makes sense. Sometimes later is better.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you very much

I run Three broadband and the one thing that really helped me was to change the APN to 3internet in the settings. This will give you more of a fixed external IP address. Otherwise every time Three disconnects it will give you a new IP address which causes problems when logging into places or if you’re a web developer like me, FTPing. Another thing you can do is change the TTL setting so Three think you’re a mobile phone which may prevent you being throttled.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ok I will have a look and see if mine has that setting

I’m still convinced that the double yagi antenna is going to be slowing you down! Try single! SNR: Signal to noise ration RSSI: Received signal strength indicator

@dusinnhht

Ай бұрын

One should check the RI (Rank indicator) value reported by the modem. If it's as many as many antennas are connected, than it's OK, but even if it's less, it shouldn't slow things down. Either only the band3 is available, or carrier aggregation is not enabled, or carrier aggregation is not enabled on other bands on the modem-router.

@w75525

Ай бұрын

Yes, the two aerials will be doing more harm than good

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks those definitions help to explain what they are

You can try a passive repeater with 3 yagi beams so you don't need power to the antenna site: To set up passive repeaters with Yagi beams for 4G without power on the repeater site, first, select two locations with a clear line of sight. Install Yagi antennas at both locations, ensuring one is pointed towards the cell tower to capture the 4G signal, and the other is directed towards the cabin/house. Place another yagi at the cabin/house and point it towards the repeater site. Connect the Yagi antennas at the repeater site using coaxial cables, keeping the cable length as short as possible to minimize signal loss. Fine-tune the alignment of the antennas for optimal signal reception and transmission, adjusting based on signal strength readings. After installation, conduct thorough testing to gauge the improvement in signal strength and coverage. While passive repeaters can extend coverage, it's important to note that they may not provide as strong or reliable a signal as active repeaters powered at the repeater site.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you very much for this its so useful! I will copy it to my saved info so that I can have a go with it once I get the time

Hi great video,I have done a lot of testing in low signall areas in Donegal ireland,maybe you already know this ,on your gateway router only enable 4g switch off 3g and everything other signal you will not use this can help alot and make everything more stable.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks I will check if that is already done or I need to do it myself

Nice

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

thanks

After working in all different types of networking for a number of years I agree it defiantly seems like you are hitting a threshold. You have checked everything I would have done myself personally however there is one last thing you can check. The POE injector at 6:19 and 17:28 that is powering your router is the only part left I can see that you haven't changed. I have seen these deployed countless times in the field with clients reporting poor speeds (Sub 100 megabit) and usually it is as a result of these injector being only 10/100 (Fast Ethernet) not 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) for the price of a gigabit POE injector I would definitely recommend trying it because best case scenario you will see an increase in your speeds. One thing to mention also there is different types of POE that these injectors can supply so ensure you read the datasheet for your router and make sure the injector matches what this data sheet tells you.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks you are right the POE injector is limited to 100mbs so that is certainly a bottleneck

Very interesting video. Don't forget that you share the total speed of the telecommunications tower with other users. For example, living in the city, I get about 130 mbps speed at night, but during the day during peak hours, I get only 14 mbps, because more people are using it at that time, :)

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah yea I suppose we do. Luckily there arent much people here to share it with

There is new armoured cable called EV ultra. This is 4mm or 6mm (or larger) 3 core armoured cable which has a cat 5/6 cable as a fourth core. This cable would allow you to run power and ethernet in one cable as well as manage the router settings remotely by logging in to the router from the far end. This would also give you power - allowing a local light etc (you could put a waterproof consumer unit in the enclosure

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thats amazing thank you so much for pointing it out. I just googled it to have a look and I will definitely be using this in a future project

12:05 reason for same speeds both behind the trees and in front of them is that there's no line of sight anyways to the mast - the ground rises up between the trees and mast - so the trees actually scatter some signal down to the house. Without line-of-sight (and a clear fresnel zone, to be strictly correct) then both sides of the trees rely on either reflections or diffraction scattering so they give much the same result.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

That makes sense thank you

Nice one speeds are not to bad for where your located could be alot worse. interesting video again

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you James

also, next time you drive up by the antenna, try using your phone to do a speed test

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I had a go in the next video and it was slightly faster

I would recommend putting a surge protector on the non-PoE side of the ethernet to protect your home network. For example, APC does those.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks someone else has already said it thanks I will lookl into the ones APC do

I believe you're at the physical max of 4G at about 100Mbps down and 40Mbps+ upload you're doing really well.

@konadesu

Ай бұрын

Theoretical max assuming just b3 15Mhz, 2x2 MIMO and 64QAM. 4G can go much, much faster than this depending on configuration and this site has multiple bands that could be aggregated.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks It felt like we couldnt push it much further

@konadesu

Ай бұрын

@@offgridscotland I feel it's likely more limited backhaul (the internet connection to the mast itself) or your router being a bit reluctant to aggregate bands as I only saw band 3 in your video despite the mast also supporting bands 1, 28 and 20 (though you likely wouldn't want to use 20)

@w75525

Ай бұрын

I've had 700Mbps off 4G before on EE. They combine frequency bands to increase bandwidth.

Given the cost of the Cat 6 cable you would look at link aggregation at your mast, though am not entirely sure about the power requirement of a router that supports link aggregation. Link aggregation often (but not always) requires some ISP support to avoid simply having 2x40 upload (which is load balancing) rather than the 1x80 you would be looking for with link aggregation. It is theoretically possible to link aggregate through 2 different providers but it means splitting the load and recombining in a server in the cloud - which is definitely more complex (unless some has packaged it - they probably have)

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I am going to have to look into Link aggregation a bit more to get my head around it. Thank you

Ya might wanna consider an optical link between your termination at the house and your internals to avoid any lighting visits to your pc's ethernet port.

@cyberdude2403

Ай бұрын

Agreed, if lighting strikes that CAT6 cable in the ground then it might well make it back to your home router, and fry that, or pass that on to your PC. You might want to consider an inline surge protector for the ethernet. I have no experience of using these myself mind. I think if you were to go down the optical route, you definitely need armored, but armored optical cable really won't be cheap. Based upon what you have spent so far, I'd stick with the CAT6 cable, but add grounding / surge protectors on at each end. I do agree with others it seems that the bottleneck is clearly the connection to 4G mast. Great video, really enjoyed it.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks I will have a look into it, or others have mentioned a surge protector so I might do that one for now

You should definitely consider getting an Ethernet Surge Protector to protect any equipment in the house from surges from that outdoor Ethernet cable.

@wood42shed

Ай бұрын

No need for all that. A better solution would have been to use a fibre optic. A pair of 1Gbps fibre media converters would be £50 and the outdoor jacketed OS2 fibre would cost under £200 and could run directly to indoors with no surge risk and no repeaters needed.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I will look into that you arent the first to mention it

you could do load balancing by combine 2 bandwidth input into 1 to create an enhanced bandwidth output

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thats a great idea I will have to look into how to do it

Flush cutters will get the wires on the end of the ethernet plug

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

thanks those sould like what I need

If you want to max out the LTE tower, you need to use the antenna gain from your YAGI antennas to widen the signal to noise gap. By this, you can transmit more "bits" per MHz. The bits are modulated with more or less sophisticated methods (this is "the class" of the router). The distance does not matter so much if you have a good signal to noise ratio. You can easily use the ubiquity downlink into your house and avoid the problem with the long LAN cable (it's max specified length is 70m +- depending on the quality of the cable and the network cards on both ends). The POE adapter is feed with the power from your house. It sends/forwards the power it gets into the next part of the LAN line. At the same time, it receives the data and repeats/regenerates it. Obviously, your repeater is limited to 100 MBit. Please be aware that it is as important on how the tower can receive you - if you see the tower with 4 "bars", it does not mean, that the tower sees you with with "4 bars", too.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks! thats so much useful information now I know a little more about antennas and POE adapters

I reckon your doing ok for 4G with that. Certainly better now youve ran the ethernet cable, your connection from the house would be horrendous when weather is bad using the wifi link over that distance

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I am pleased to have ditched the wifi link. It was such a pain to set up I could see many issues arrising in the future

15:15 In case this helps clear stuff up: - Your "G"s are relevant to *cellular/mobile* connection i.e your Three internet connection and simply stands for "Generation" e.g 4G - 4th Generation, 5G - 5th Generation etc. Newer is better (faster, more reliable) and 4G is basically good enough for home internet. - "GHz" refers to the frequency of the wireless signal and for most purposes, this is *WiFi* we're talking about i.e the connection between your router and laptop/computer. There's only really two choices here, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, the latter is faster, but tends to have less range when there are obstacles between the transmitting devices. - A Byte is 8 Bits: it's simple as that! 1 Megabyte (1MB) is 8 Megabits (8Mb). The reason why you often see storage denoted in Bytes (MB/GB) and download speeds in Bits per second (Mbps/Gbps) is simply because the marketing people at Internet providers realised it would allow them to quote a bigger number! (12.5MBps doesn't sound quite as good as 100Mbps, does it? 😅)

@dougle03

Ай бұрын

5G is faster, but it's not for rural areas. 5G is closer to WiFi so fast but very short range. The countryside is never going to get 5G in any meaningful way, it would require far too many masts to make it viable. Lets see what 6G has to offer...

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Aha thank you

take note of the rssi - Received Signal Strength Indicator RSSI stands for Received Signal Strength Indicator. It's a measurement of the power level that is received by an antenna from a wireless device, like a router or mobile phone. The RSSI value indicates the strength and quality of the wireless signal being received. this will help with findind the sweet spot rf is a wonderful beast, i could go on being about lots of your setup being a it and a licensed radio amatuer, but you need to find the best signal strenght / rssi everywhere and with you directional antennas polatrity matters so most mobile masts have vertical omni antennas so you would normally be better aligning you directional antennas vertically to "align" with remote site (this is in reference to the directional antennas as all omni should really be mounted vertically)

@hunglikeadonkeybutnotassmelly

Ай бұрын

I mentioned the yagi's polarity 3 times now. some numpty told him otherwise tut.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah thank you

Put the antenna on a mast 3-5 or higher. Sometimes when im camping and there is no coverage i put my modem(iphone) in a plastic bag stick it to a 4-5 meter stick and put it up. All of sudden i got internet.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thats amazing I diddnt think about putting a phone on a stick when camping

You've arrived at the correct conclusion. With 40+ years experience as a telecoms engineer, now working mostly on mobile technologies, I'd say that the speedtest figures you're seeing are pretty much as I would expect. Without going into too much detail, I run similar 'before and after' tests on a regular basis, mostly to prove that whatever upgrade work I've just carried out at a site hasn't actually made things worse! To put your mind at rest I'll quote you some of my actual recent up/down test figures: 158/43, 31/14, 51/28, 209/52, 107,60, 84/41, 118/43. Results can vary greatly, and are dependent on a whole lot of different factors, but I'd say that about 100/45 is a fair average for 4G. No amount of Ubiquiti kit or Cat6 cabling and POE injectors will ever pull more out of your local cell site than it's capable of delivering.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you so much for pointing this out I was going slightly mad thinking I was missing something

@felixfarquharson

27 күн бұрын

Would using multiple 4g connections and sims and some VPN style connection work to increase speed?

@colinwaldron7399

26 күн бұрын

@@felixfarquharson An interesting concept, but not something that I've ever explored. I suspect that multiple 4G connections could be brought together to increase speed, but then you'd also be increasing the cost. In practical terms, I've no idea how you could best implement that, if at all. As for VPN, no gain whatsoever. Where did you get that idea from?

@felixfarquharson

26 күн бұрын

@@colinwaldron7399 Well I see that multiple people have mentioned it, and its mentioned in the second video also, but i just thought could you recombine the connections with some form of vpn because otherwise you cant use the full bandwidth for one upload?

45mbps up in a rural location is very good speeds, there is probably only one radio band in use (probably LTE 20 at 800MHz)

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks

The max transfer rate of the POE extender is 100 m/bit. thats where one of the bottlenecks is. This is borne out by the cheap router with the yellow lan ports which run at 1 gigabit giving you almost twice the throughput when you had it up 'at the mast. Check all the cat5/6 ports on all your equipment are set up for gigabit ethernet. (Usually yellow) when on a router/cheap switch.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks now that you pointed it out I think it was yellow on the router

That poe extender is just a 2 port poe powered switch - it isn't the power that needs extending its the data that can't travel over 100m

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah ok that makes sense

Smarty, which is a Three MVNO claim to not to employ any data shaping or network throttling. They are really cheap too with no contract. Might be worth trying them.

@hunglikeadonkeybutnotassmelly

Ай бұрын

It would help to know which providers the mast serves. I can get well over 200/90 with Smarty 4g BTW. ( if i am close to the mast)

@gavin9038

Ай бұрын

I can say Smarty is pretty good, have used it for about a year now on Unlimited for £18/month and have consumed multiple Tb's of data. Not noticed any throttling at all but the speeds definitely dip during the day that consistently go above 100Mb in late evening. Guess that's just the amount of people streaming data to and from the mast.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ok thanks I will have a look into them

in my place. its cheaper to get a fiber monthly plan from a network and the internet is stable if they will not get interuptions. and maybe use your wireless devices to get that fiber signal going to your cabin. but lan cable is better connected to a repeater and its cheaper to buy online. if you cant get 5g access wired fiber is okay if we are talking about speed. that is the speed you can get of a 4g signal. specially if your connected to a very far cell tower.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the tips it sounds like you have a great setup!

Don't get locked into thinking LOS is a must, the signal spreads out. But great experiment non the less ....costly scenarios. Might you think about moving house to opposite side of hill? Incredibly good speeds 100+mb & 30/40mb up jealous

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks It was a bit manic trying to get it all into a video that made sense with all the testing and retesting I had to do

Traditionally, if your connection is bounded by the performance of a single connection (and not the aggregate capacity of the providers) then you would look to bonding (otherwise known as Link Aggregation) of multiple connections - this is relatively straight forward connecting 2 of your own site, but not so easy when connecting through other providers. It also means using more than 1 SIM/LTE modem. Higher Cat doesn't always help if the mast doesn't support the higher Categories, so throwing more money at it won't always solve your problem - perhaps you can interrogate the capabilities of the mast you are connecting to .

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks thats very useful information

Faster speeds than BT currently offer in my friends area. This is very acceptable for 4G haha!

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

thank you very much

RSSI = Received Signal Strength Indication. The LESS negative the value, the stronger the signal. What you perhaps have not thought about is how many other users are sharing the mast at the same time. This will also impact your perception of speed.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you very much I wasnt sure which direction was better higher or lower

@MWOCQU

Ай бұрын

@@offgridscotland 0dBm is the equivalent of a directly connected signal of 1mW or 1/1000 of a watt. -3dBm is 0.5 of a milliwatt . Every negative increase of 3dBm ,(e.g. -3 to -6 or -6 to -9 etc) represents a 50 percent reduction in received signal. So by the time you are around -100 to -120 they are VERY teeny tiny signals. If you were to hold your mobile phone up against the antenna socket on the transmitter at the foot of the mobile operator mast I would expect to see about -45dBm which in practical terms is a pretty chunky signal

Great video !! ...for me ,if you wanted a more sturdy and easier to implement mast . Use two scaffold poles... but first , watch how folk drill for water , with a simple hand drill !! Gotto be better than forcing the pole into the ground !!!! Then if the first ,isnt tall enough , you could use an insert ,to join two together , and do sane for anchor points ... !! All the best.

@wayne7521

Ай бұрын

P.s.Linus Tech Tips did a set up like what you're trying to achieve . Maybe it may help...he was sending wireless to receiver....cannot recall whether his was like fibre input though... But its America, so ours is superior 😂 Video is called , how are we going to do this . Heck reach out to him... you maybe able to brain storm... and help each others channel !!

@wayne7521

Ай бұрын

Another p.s.. Your wireless 4g ? Router .... what antennae is this using?? Are you using built in one ?? Or does the router have pigtail jumpers ,to incorporate a larger antennae? I remember on my dji phantom ... I upgraded controller antennae ,to get a longer range .. Obviously you've got to know what bandwidth ,to match frequency ... and should the router ,have rabbit ear antennae , are they able to be unscrewed .... can they adopt other antennae ... and if not ,it will have pig tails inside , to diy .. Defintly someone will have hacked one ... at some point... usually 3 network ,is decent aslong as it gets strong coverage.

@wayne7521

Ай бұрын

My mate vince ,channel. Had a topic about internal and external antennae!!

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the tips ( I did end up digging the base in the end)

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I have watched so many of his videos over the years I dont know how I missed that one!

form mikrotik LHG LTE18 kit or ATL LTE18 wich is better with 4x4 MIMO but same prise with GPER for POE may be 2x its not so expensive but you will have exellent resultat ... it's not expensive and it's testing and have good result

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you

Great video and learning curve. TBH Cat5e would have worked just as well seeing that you not running the cable outdoor alongside any mains or low voltage power. As an extra precaution you could put cable laid outside into some flexible or solid 20mm conduit. for flexi conduit i would advise to suck a grass trimmer 'draw line' using the 'vacuum' technique found online. Perhaps you could contact BlueSpot Networks for any further advise to check your positioning or further advise as they have helped me also

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks! I wasnt too sure which I should have used with cat6 or 5e. The conduit is a great idea

@johndoe-cv4we

Ай бұрын

@@offgridscotland better mechanical protection in a conduit will make the installation last longer and ensure that any wildlife dont take a peck or nibble at the cable and any weathering (even though its our door rated) . Keep up the content. Perhaps the Unifi wireless beam may have got you better results to beam the internet to your office space. oh well, hard wired is the way to go!

As a man whose internet is max 20 down and 10 up I am green with envy...nice work though

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks!

Because of the corrosive nature of the Scottish weather. I highly recommend covering every joint with Denso tape. My experience doesn’t matter what the IP rating is in Scotland it will get in and rot. Denso tape completely prevents this and it’s so cheap.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I haddnt heard of denso tape before but now I have and it looks amazing!

Ok, so yes, overcomplicated. And basically, the speed a 4g provider can provide in a particular area, is pretty much what you will get unless there is some kind of deflection interfering (for example a steel roof or whatever.) We found this out as we have a 4g router in our camper van (we had to have external aerials due to faraday effect of the van itself), but being a mobile vehicle we have tested it all round the UK. The cheapest aerials turned out to work just as well as the very expensive ones, and the expensive ones still failed if the signal was crap. Basically you rely on the providers aerials and not much you can do about that. Possibly putting a 100 foot pole up might help, but somewhat doubtful on that. But you learned a lot and always fun to watch. Tim

@timjazleitch7598

Ай бұрын

Oh and the irony that sometimes our mobiles would do better than the router. but yes you found out about the CAT thing with routers. Does make a difference, but not if the signal is crap anyway. I think they are up to CAT22 now but don't quote me. Mostly aimed at 5g anyway I think to fry your brain. lol

@timjazleitch7598

Ай бұрын

Oh and BTW while it may seem obvious elevation doesn't always seem to make a difference. So maybe that comment about the hill reflecting could be correct. The only thing I can say for sure, is wifi and 4g doesn't like metal. Have you thought of doing your own interviews? Your channel seems to be taking off, so for instance interview a guy who knows this shit?

@timjazleitch7598

Ай бұрын

And looking at other comments, yes, complain to 3 as I know all ISPs throttle unless you complain. (worked as IT consultant for years installing this shit).

@timjazleitch7598

Ай бұрын

As an example I still get elderly clients only on 2mb and paying more than me. Wankers

@richardkingsley1800

Ай бұрын

Have you run a baseline test of the speed of the link between the tower and your end location using iperf3?

Saw your videos and I thought I could make a few comments that might be helpful. Firstly, your broadband connection with a cellular provider will probably be considered good @ 120/45 Mbps that you experienced and probably late at night you might experience even greater at late night. Remember, you are sharing with all the other cell users in your area. I work on a lastly daily basis setting up microwave short haul, and long haul links and I noticed that you were using ubiquity‘s 5 GHz consumer CPE‘s. These are a great value product but they have a few caveats, number one they work best in point to point mode with a twin. They should also be configured in the widest bandwidth mode you can utilize like 80 MHz., you should also check that you’re not using a DFS frequency (reserved for wx radar) as they use a lower transmit power. Ideally, they should always be pointed as line of sight also taking in the Fennell zone. Which is an imaginary American football between the two antennas. I don’t recommend going from an ubiquity litebeam 5 to a router, always try to pair up litebeams to maximize throughput, you should easily get 300+ Mbps at the lengths you have shown on camera, never try to “tunnel” a signal through all those trees, those coniferous water storing devils are the ruination of RF signals. www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/fresnel-zone-calculator

@offgridscotland

8 күн бұрын

Thanks We found we dont ever get faster speeds so you are right thats as good as we can get. I am going to copy and save the last bit of your comment as there is so much useful information there I want to refer back to it in the future so thank you!

You should've started with test within close proximity to the tower. That sets your baseline. After that, consider the los coverage of a typical cell, which is approx 3km. Then if you're within coverage, you only need an omnidirectional antenna of around 14dB, along with a decent router (CAT 12 should suffice in most cases) And in the end, if you want to transmit with directional antenas, you should very strongly consider 2000mW+ transmitter power. That's the proper way, but what you've achieved is not bad at all., just the money spent kinda hurts.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

You are right. I diddnt actually think of it until near the end of the project. I know luckily places gave me a refund for some of it

100Mbps on 4G+ in a remote location is impressive. I'm getting a similar to lower speed in a remote hotel in Greece.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks I am happy now the dust has settled

Chinese Poe switches will often have modes allowing up to 200- 250m

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I will have a look

Hard to beat cable!!

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I know after I did it I was like why diddnt I just start with this

@AdrianMcDaid

Ай бұрын

@@offgridscotland I work in IT and try when possible try use the "simple" solution first. Your getting good speeds

Yeah the general maximum is around 100mbps for 4g. So you are getting good signal from your land already. I am moving semi rural and I will be hoping to get connected to a 5g mast 3 miles away from our new home, although there won't be direct line of sight. With tests near the mast, 1000mbps should be possible, but I would be happy with 100+ if I can pick up on the 5g signal with a 5g poynting antenna mounted to the chimney. Worst case scenario I can get good line of sight to a 4g mast also 3 miles away in a different direction, but wouldn't expect much more than around 60mbps based on tests nearby.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thats great you have 5G avaliable, I hope you have some success with the speeds good luck

not a bad connection there, I would dare say that 3 are throttling you - it also depends entirely on what frequency/channel your router and mobile provider work on, so you need to match up those channels correctly. Changing the sim card won't nessicarily change anything over - you need to keep in mind that the sim card is purely a network identifier with basic config, some routers you may need to change the APN to the correct network, you may also have a SIM PIN which will prevent you from even using the SIM until that's entered, etc...

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah, thank you others have also mentioned I need to work out the frequency band

Your signals are very strong. I think the LTE/4G site is limiting you. Possible the backbone of the Tower is the limit. Maybe to expensive but you can try a dual simcard router with bonding. I live in the country side and I noticed the speeds are much lower here than in the City's. Even when I'm close to the tower. Luckily we have fiber since 2 years now. Before that I had ADSL 512/2000 kbps very slow.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you others had also mentioned dual band sim routers but we might then be close to starlink costs monthly. I will keep it in mind though if we need more speed at any point

Years ago passive repeaters were used. Like everything it was a bit touch & go.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I was considering those as others mentioned them in the comments but I am new to this signal stuff so felt it was a bit above my abilities for now

Zyxel is really good. Mikrotik just after that

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks Its good to hear they are an ok brand as I chose it based on price and avaliability given it was a higher category

Im sure somewhere in these comments or maybe pt1 of your video somone must have mentioned starlink. We used to help rural users with 4 and 5g mobile networks, the mikrotik dish was a total winner but the router and sim were in the dish so if u ever had to change the sim it was a pain but starlink was a proper game changer speed wise.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/an6hz5JwcpXWeLg.html The first video went into why we were leaving starlink, the hillsides really limit our speeds

@67derekthomson

Ай бұрын

Ah gotcha, what a shame. You are getting good speeds then with 4g. Nice job. ​@offgridscotland

the RSSI is the strength of the signal from the cell tower. The lower the value the stronger it is - so -80 is weaker than -48. It was way way stronger on the hill

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah I wasnt sure with the negatives if that meant negative or just a dash

All depends on how much congestion is on that site. if there are 10 phones/devices connected to the site it will divide or traffic manage the speeds equally. 1GBs connection divided by 10 users 100 mbps

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah ok thank you

The speed depends on the BTS load, the way it connects itself to the rest of the network and of course the conditions/terrain. It is more than likely that the speed you are measuring is her maximum (even taking into account her load of other people). The solution might be 5G, if the BTS is equipped with 5G.

@offgridscotland

25 күн бұрын

Thanks

I don't have any experience with the Speedify service so am not advertising it but it looks like a software solution similar to what i previoulsy hinted at - you would however have to run something at your mast to run the agregation - which means some low power device which might still exceed your POE capabilities - so i can't say it is practical - there are quite a few small form factor devices available that offer enough horse power in the 5-7W region - and it is definitley more complex.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

OK I will have a look

Get a duel sim router double speeds

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Others have said that too so I wil have to have a look into that

So many comments about the placement and location. You need to log into the 4G modem and change bands to gain better speeds. With antennas, you’ll be able to use a higher band of frequency in the 4G range which where you are located will have little to no one on it. Most people will be on a lower band for better range vs speed. Find the bands used by your carrier whichever you pick and force different bands in the modem interface and you’ll be sorted 😊 Googled it, and you should be able to force LTE band 1 which is 2100Mhz if the new Cat18 modem supports and if the tower has it enabled vs band 3 (1800mhz) you are using in the video. Higher frequency = higher throughput

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you someone else mentioned the bands so I will have a go at that. I have screenshotted your comment to help me out when I come to sorting the bands out

Hi @Off grid Scotland if your cellular mass isn't putting out fast internet then your equipment at the house isn't going to receive fast internet so it all depends on the instrument that provides the internet service.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you

gigabit Powerline adaptors would be a great way to bring the connection back to the property through the power wire

@offgridscotland

4 күн бұрын

Thanks I will look into those

That speed is ok, im in hong kong and my mast is liturally 50metres and im getting 200 down 100 up on 5g and we have really fast internet here so yours is perfectly fine

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks, I cant wait for 5G to be installed here.

Get a 60 watt poe injector to power upto 200m for poe, i do it with CCTV cameras not had a issue, or put it half way I have some cameras on a 260m run with poe injector mid way to get a signal from the cameras.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Great thanks for the tip I diddnt know you could run lengths that long so I will check it out

Nice work, but what you are looking for is the best signal so you need to be looking at the RSRP/RSSI - DL/UL speed is not the best indicator for signal strength

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah ok thank you

Have you considered the MikroTik LHG LTE kit? It comes with an high gain directional antenna. And the p2p should be faster then your LTE connection if proper configured. Specially in an rural envoirement.... But.. You can also order a armored fiber cabel? If you are running a cable anyway?

@67derekthomson

Ай бұрын

The mikrotik dish works great but if I remember it has a 100mb ethernet port so maxes out

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Others have also mentioned it so I will have a look thanks for letting me know.

For the whole of this series of videos I've been thinking 'why does he think that a better signal will provide a faster connection?' An inadequate signal would certainly compromise the connection - but if he took the phone and TOUCHED it to the mast he wouldn't get infinite data rates.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you that makes a lot of sense. I just dived in and had a go so as you have noticed I dont know very much about this topic

For such distances it is better to use Powered Fiber Cable. You can terminate with quick connectors.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I had thought about that because I have read its the best but It sounded a bit advanced for me at this stage

Make sure to do your tests with a reasonable test server, some of them are either loaded up a bit or just suck, you can favorite a certain server to always do tests from, find the best one for you and do all your tests with that, i always do my test from Zen Internet from London but im not in London

@TonySquared09

Ай бұрын

Not just that, but providers might prioritise speedtest servers because they are used for diagnostics but throttle other services.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah I wasnt sure what those were I did notice they changed

I do feel bad ! He is at 3rd/4th router and still cares only about Speeds . Brains(on what it runs), hardware specs(CPU etc), features(auto reboot, band info lock etc) are important specially when mobile router is running on remote location. His latest router Zyxel! What is that, Amazon recommendation or what lol ? Cant find any hardware information for that thing only that it is "cat 18". Gosh, for 500$ you can have top 5g 4x4 mimo router with antenna. Imagine using PoE extenders and not fibre cabel when you already have power at location! Remember: At the end of first video he is getting 115Mbit and says: "When I brought my wife's phone I was getting 50Mbs upload and 200Mbit download speeds . At the end of this video he is getting 90 Mbit / 45 Mbit speeds when 1 mile away from the antenna ! WHAT A PAIN, his 1st "kitchen" mobile router was more powerful than meme Zyxel! Let's find out how much such a journey costs when you deal with youtube comments instead of getting a pro.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thank you for your thoughts

@incandescentwithrage

Ай бұрын

With all due respect, if you've never heard of Zyxel before, I don't think you are well placed to give advice on networking.

@funnypepe

Ай бұрын

@@incandescentwithrage Zyxel ? A brand that sells hardware and tells zero information about hardware (only some modem stuff which is not theirs) 🤣 Never saw a PC company doing that ...PS: you said something i never said.

@incandescentwithrage

Ай бұрын

@@funnypepe You're not as funny as you think. I was able to find the firmware and full user guide download for LTE7490-M904 in 30 seconds. Zyxel have been making decent network kit for decades. Anyway, enjoy being muted.

@funnypepe

Ай бұрын

​@@incandescentwithrage Enlighten me with user guide info.. Which one contains info about chips, cpu,ram,storage, etc 🤪 jup .. better mute yourself 😬

When you go close to the mast, what speeds are your phones getting? - You could be reaching the limitations of the mast. At home in the outskirts of London, I get 415/15 down/up on 5G, but only 8/7 on 4G. Your pings and jitter are good though (ping is how long it takes you to reach the destination when you're not using the full capacity, jitter is when you are using full capacity, so they are normally higher). I get idle 22/84/85 idle/down/up on 5G, on 4G it's 25/88/57.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

I diddnt take the phone with me. I havent been able to repruduce the 200 download I once got so I am not sure that wasnt a fluke speed. I diddnt know what ping and jitter meant so thanks for letting me know!

@felixfarquharson

27 күн бұрын

From google: Jitter, focuses on the variation in packet arrival times.

Not sure who's mast you are close to, but if it's a Vodafone one then it's likely on 800Mhz in rural. Make sure the router has 800Mhz, 900, 1800 and 2300Mhz as most cell provider's run on them. The higher the frequency the faster the internet speed but best in line of sight with no blocking of trees and hills. But 800Ghz lower frequency means it penetrates hills trees and objects more. So carriers with higher frequency are faster but need more masts for same area. Carriers with lower frequency need less masts but are a little slower. It could all be down to the equipment on the mast being a low frequency.. this would ring true with the no change of speed at different locations. Also the router AC cat could be a throttle point...

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Someone else has said the same. I am going up today to check the bands we have it set to as I diddnt change them just left it as default

I would use fibre instead of cat6 due to the lighting risk

@offgridscotland

29 күн бұрын

I looked into it but its supposed to be really hard to terminate isnt it?

Well, now you know 👍

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Yup or at least have all the comments to remind me if I forget

looking at the metrics you posted, i found the cell tower you are using, it appears that EE, uses 2 bands on that tower site(3,20) but "3" has 4 bands (1,3,20,28) so technically 3 is going to likely out perform EE in speed. but it all depends on what the tower backhaul is like too, whether its on fiber or microwave, it might only have a 150mbps connection itself way out there thats shared with others around

@WesWeasel

Ай бұрын

i now see you went up to it and still barely got 100mbps. so yeah my guess still stands at to the connection at the tower site, only being ~100mbps.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ah I wondered if it was something like that

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks

13:30 - LPDA omnis. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. edit: OK, basically, for those antennas, you point the narrower end of those two spikey long things in the plastic triangly-pointy white things at the cell site mast. widest end, by the mount, goes away from the cell site mast. RSSI - is Received Signal Strength Indication -46 is better than -57. -90 would be bugger all, for reliability you want the highest you can get. It's measured in Decibels, which are like Babybels, but have no wax on them. The minus figures is simply to cause confusion and be clever. But if ever it says something wierd like + or minus j something,eg: 72+j16 , you've got some pretty complex maths to do to solve it. But we'll probably have to the capacity to help you. Or at least induce you in the other direction :)

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Yea I thought the minus was odd if it never goes positive. Thanks It sounds like you know an awful lot about this

It's your POE injectors.. you have limited yourself to fast ethernet speeds and not gigabit, upgrade them to gigabit capable or replace the backhaul with fiber with media convertors. You can run the fiber in piping to protect it underground.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks someone else also said the POE injector was limited so I will have a look into that

I see 30 atbest with three where i am. Three adnitted to me that its over subscribed in my area at my own home i may get 2mbps over 4g. Pre covid id see around 100 so it has dropped drastically. Unfortunately id mobile who im with was with three prior use threes network but they are well ahead in pricing. Being relatively rural i cant see demand being an issue as much.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thats a bummer

Maybe do yagi antennas between the shed and the antenna aswell? Since its a direct line

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thats a great idea

If the SIM is a normal SIM and not a specialised one for pure data. You may find that you will get capped. The way they find this out is via the TTL of the device. (Time to Live.) There is a way to bypass this, yet it is in a grey area legally. You can do TTL Mangling, which will basically make the router act like a mobile device and therefore mitigating the data cap.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Ok thank you. I will definitely check out TTL mangling as I haddnt heard of it

You're on LTE Band 3 (~1800Mhz) on 3 network - they've got 15Mhz channel width... 120mbps isn't too bad. You'd likely go faster on EE... o2 and Vodafone likely won't come close to 3/EE. You'd need to get into 5g, different bands and carrier aggregation to go faster tbh.

@offgridscotland

Ай бұрын

Thanks I tried band 1 as well in the conclusion video but it diddnt work