You have the perfect voice for explaining. Even if i knew everything you explain in the video, i still wanted to see the full length of the video. thank you :)
Due to the high radio frequency used for LTE, there's a big signal loss on the antenna cable length. Try making your cable as shorter as possible and do the speed test once again. You really would be surprised.
Did not know I needed to change the settings for aeriel. I was getting good download speeds, but more upload. Now both aeriels are set to external, I'm getting good up as well. So I thank you!
I found putting antenna to external putting rabbits ears on then rapping tin foil around each rabbit ear antenna boosted my WiFi with out all the technical stuff and was very easy to do simple as always been my motto 😁
Thanks a lot for this video. It was hard to find solid advice on 4g antennas. I went with exactly your setup, and my speed went from 10/0.5 down/up to 20/1
Good video; to add a couple of tips: 1. Find out what access point names your cellular provider use. Sometimes when you're suffering from congestion, you can change the AP name and get massively higher speeds. 2. A good MESH WiFi system will almost always perform much better than powerline adapters and access points; the technology is developing much faster.
I have had this same router Vodafone branded for 3 years. Your advice is spot on and I'm lucky enough to have an unlimited data connection. I now use mine in the car. When in the glove box, the Android radio drops out, but I have an external antenna (similar, MIMO though a bit smaller) and it works a treat. Never ever drops out, even in tunnels and mine was about a fiver from China. Yes, a slight gamble on quality and not suitable for outdoors, but it works for me and very well.
One thing to really consider is that antenna cable length has a huge effect on signal quality. Use as short a cable as possible. I would almost recommend getting a high quality outdoor unit with Power over Ethernet. Then its just one cable outside with power and ethernet.
@@Lee-haw Yes, long cable give much more noise in the signal and the signal level generally falls off. For my current setup, it got much more bandwidth from moving my modem, than having 10 meter cable to an external antenna. Also I found out that older LTE equipment is no good, just get a new Huawei router if you are stuck with something from 2013... Zyxel and others make "PoE" powered modems, which means you can put the modem and antenna outside, up to 80 meters away, with just a simple network cable. By going from a 2013 modem with an external antenna with 10 meter cable outside, to a cheap modern LTE modem placed inside, i more than doubled my bandwidth.
Just a note @ 13:20ish, Three does not cap me. I have all I can eat broadband including Netflix and other streaming media. I have been using it for working from home constrantly throughout 2020 and had about 2 short outages all year - not too bad. I'd also like to know the difference between the two antenna ports (#1 is the preference on the B535-232 for single antenna solutions, there is also a mixed mode - I may make some tests and report back). I have one of these hidden inside a commercial vehicle with external antennas in the centre of the roof for CCTV streaming so I know the external antennas work ok as the vehicle itself is a "Farriday cage" preventing normal router operation when the door is closed! Good you pointed out that you have to change the settings to enable the external antennas. Being a bloke I didn't read the router instructions at first so learned the hard way!
There is a very good utility LTEWatch(H) for Hauwei LTE Routers which gives an excellent way of determining the best signal strength for a specific position and orientation. Although the spec for this antenna says it's omnidirectional, it does actually perform better with the front face pointed at the LTE mast. Using the self same setup B315/XPOL-2 60. 60Mbps D / 30Mbps U
I set up a couple of directional antennas got speed from 20-25 up to 80-85 mbits. Run for 3 or so years already. But you are better off getting a quality brand antenna with cleaner signal and quality low loss cables expecially if you can't put modem right next to the antenna. If you are on a very low budget you could try to make a cheap can-antenna, directional bi-quad antenna or experiment with other high gain designs.
Thanks for the video which I used as a learning base to fit a Huawei B715s and an external antenna. I also noted a big rise in download speeds between speed runs one and two whenever I tested a new orientation. It left me wondering if these routers learn and adapt to their environment as the subsequent speed tests were all more stable at or around the second test result. Its important to know where your masts are to position the external antenna facing the right direction. The better face onto the mast the antenna was (although the max speeds didn't alter much) the more stable the d/l speed was in terms of delivering at or close to the max speeds. As a top tip, another thing I found was that the speed results of the router/antenna was very similar to those obtained on my Samsung S7 phone. So, at least in my case, you didn't need to roam a site with laptop, router and antenna to pin down the best location to position the antenna. The final speed results through the antenna were very close and actually a little below those obtained directly on the mobile phone.
Great video! I have for few years on mobile broadband (home and camper) and did buy an external (square shaped) aerial! My modem is same as shown. You speed test suggestion was the eye opener!!! I discover that the antenna setting was in auto and frankly I never saw a difference with or without external aerial but when I tested forcing "inside" vs "external 1+2" I discovered that the external was just crap!!!..thanks for the tip!!!
4G LTE is usually in the 700MHZ band (US) for Verizon & AT&T. But you will have to check and confirm what frequencies and band your local country and carrier are actually using. Hardware store 75 ohm cables (typical RG59 ) are very poorly made for cost savings and very lossy compared to commercial grade brand name RG-6 or even (better) 50 ohm RG and LMR communications cables and connectors. At 700MHZ those losses can quickly add up with distance, much worse as PCS frequencies increase loss at 1700, 1900, and beyond 2,000MHZ. Especially if the connectors are not properly crimped. Try not to circularly loop any co-ax cable tightly, unless you know why you are doing so (as in using it as a decoupling choke). So use gentle bends, keep as short as possible and outdoors bend slightly as needed at building entrance to droop away water and snow melt. Omni directional base antennas are a last resort. You increase the chances for multi-path distortion of the bounced and reflected carrier and data. Real world gain is limited to 3 to 5 Dbi no matter what the package propaganda says. Much better to use a directional beam antenna aimed at the cell tower (or reflected bounced signal source depending on your location) if possible. Outdoor rated flat panels and yagi beams are ok, but best to use a parabolic dish or screen antenna pointed at the signal source. They reject side reflected signals and noise much better. Gains of 10 -17 Dbi are normal and not overstated if a good quality antenna is used. In radio-land each 3db gain is equal to doubling the signal. So 3 doubles no gain, 6 doubles 3, 9 doubles 6, and so on. (look for something like these in your frequency range - www.excel-wireless.com/700-mhz-grid-parabolic-antenna ). You can usually use the device log in administrator settings to read signal strength for aligning the antenna and confirming you did a good job on the co-ax. The lower the - number in Db or Dbm (usually displayed as -80 to -109) the better. Just move the antenna around for the lowest number (best signal) you can get. Now keep your 4G / LTE radio box as close to the antenna as possible to avoid co-ax cable loss and let the WiFi and/ or wired Ethernet to another WiFi access point far away do the work of getting to your phone or computer device.
Our local provider offers unlimited data for corporate customers. It's an enterprise offer only and this video is very helpful! I'll get a Huawei router too.
Defo this is a big issue; worked on a UK wide deployment where we were installing new routers with 4G LTE backup routers (the locations of the router were often really poor for network signal, we carried O2 and Vodafone data sims too) though the comms room or cabinet was often in a poorly sited location, so the connection was very flakey, recommended this to the network bod as the support was very limited, the ones we were deploying all were fitted with the option to use an external antenna. Thanks Vice (if that's your proper name!) PowerLine adapters can also blow pretty hard / if in an unattended location too - so fire risk / as the plug is on (come across a few now so we've avoided them wherever possible).
Well detailed video! my antenna is arriving today! We cant get fibre at home and just moved over to Three Network broadband, this antenna should hopefully give it a well needed boost and its an unlimited data plan too lol! i’m also going to be using the suction cups permanently!! 🤣🤣😳
HUAWEI are definitely one of the best for mobile WiFi devices. I've had a few different models from them & they bang out a really good signal. Thanks Vince.
Thanks for the tips Vince! I have just signed up for Three's home-fi option and I'm hoping to get much better speeds with 4G than with the usual broadband.
I just signed to a 3 (three) unlimited 4G sim and the 525 Modem (model up from the one shown I think) and I’m delighted! I’ve gone from less than 8Mbps with BT, to download of ~50Mbps 👍. I should mention that I’m just using the standard router with two screw on ‘rabbit ear’ antennas so far. I’m lucky as reasonably close to the mast (less than half a mile) but it was still very dependent on exact position, I get 5 bars signal (just) with the router up in the loft close to the end gable wall. I’m debating if it’s worth spending the extra £80 on the aerial and mounting it on the gable externally.
@@rlove21 I had the same, but unluckily for us there's a mast that interferes with a fast 4G mast and offers only 20Mbps instead of 60 :( .. BT were offering 2.5Mbps here
@@Guiny hard luck with the interference, I guess that's just one of those issues that you can't do much about (are you using an external aerial?) I guess 20mbps is still well better than 2 from BT. I'm using mine as an interim solution while I wait for Gigaclear to install fibre to the house which will be a massive improvement (but is still many months away and will be somewhat higher cost per month).
Excellent well informed video mate. As folk have said, you have the voice well done. Just bought a huwawi 4g router. There’s too many people using the phone lines where I live. I get much better reliable broadband than through the cable and can take it where ever I go in my camper 👍😊
regarding the antenna location, you said best signal you got was just above the garage roof rather than a higher location, in the world of antennas that's counter-intuitive, the only reason I could think off of why that is could be because the garage roof acts as a parabolic antenna and bounces signal off of it and into the LTE antenna, by experimenting around with the antenna's location you guys must've found a sweet spot where plenty of bounced off signal from roof will hit the antenna, surely the roof doesn't have the shape of a parabolic antenna but still plenty of signal will bounce off and reach the LTE antenna so that will make a difference location-wise.
Hey Vince! I was just going to add an external antenna for our neighbour as he isn't getting very good speeds and he's on the same 4g provider to me, so I suggested an external antenna as he's getting about 70% signal strength. I get pretty good speeds as we recently moved to a 4g router instead of the copper telephone line as because we are very rural we were getting awful speeds (4-5mb and .5mb upload) and it was taking me about 8 hours to upload a 20 minute youtube video! We now get around (80mb down, 23mb up on EE) but he's only getting around 12mb and 7mb up and he's only about 1/4 mile up the road. I was looking at reviews for antenna's and your video popped up! Great video as always mate👍
Great video, I recently got 4g home broadband (with 3) and the signal is improved outside my house when I test on my phone (about 20mb download gain), will look into getting one of these antennas.
Vince, another very helpful and informative video. I followed your earlier guidance on how to get the best out of your landline broadband connection and almost doubled my speed to 7.5mbs down (still too slow but better than it was!). After a couple of years and lack of any improvement in the BT Openreach infrastructure and failure of the two local area wifi companies to provide me with a line of sight to their masts, I'm investigating 3G/4G router broadband. Two possible suppliers, both only providing 3G if I'm lucky but initial test with a little mifi unit are showing up to three times my current download speed. 4G router being delivered today for testing with an existing Three data sim. EE pay as you go sim also on its way as the EE coverage is supposed to be better. I'll see what the connection is like before looking at an external antenna, but I think I will have to go down that route. Thanks again for all your help.
Well thought out. Your tests used a good sample range (alhough running each test 10 times would give a better average). And explained without using too much jargon. Well done. Subbed.
Luxury speeds! I live in a fairly modern house in a large town (Macclesfield) and the BT provided landline speeds had been so poor (I gave up BT in 2016) that I've been relying on 4G "air broadband" since. Today in 2020 I can get between 15 and 50 Mb/s via 4G on Three with the router in the highest part of my loft and a physical cable to a switch near my PC. When fibre came to town, OpenReach underestimated the demand so the waiting list was well over a year. Today the "average speed" fibre (whatever that really is - meaning is that at e.g. 4am) is 45Mb/s - pointless to take the risk and shameful this day and age to be in a built up area which such poor performance. Thanks for the vid.
Got one of those routers, I don't have those external antennas though. For the past 2 years I had perfect 4g, 3-4 bars always, stable even in storms (lack of knowledge about how things work) Now my router can only reach 3g. Its been on the same location since i got it. I called the company they told me to reset it, they did not see any fault on their part. So I took my phone to the same locations, and it runs 4g perfectly.. I'm so confused. Better call Tesla to solve this one. thanks for the video
Those cables must be seriously bad to lose the (admittedly small) gain of the antenna. Of course its the fact you don't suffer in-building penetration loss and lower multi path losses that give it so much benefit. I'm looking at that and the tplink archer as 4g backup. For better speed tests do an internal network file transfer....did that setting up mesh network
Great video. Thanks. I just ordered the HomeFi (3 network with unlimited data) as the broadband where i live is awful. No FTTP, cabinet overloaded. Fiber yes but only to the overloaded cab with no plans to upgrade. I was dubious when i spoke to 3 who claimed 20mb which was only marginally better than the 16 i was getting (paying for 36 with Sky) and they said I could get up toward 50mb. Installed the HomeFi (Huawei B311S) and after a couple of minor hiccups i'm getting 34+ mb.... essentially doubling my broadband speed. Very happy. Ordered the rabbit ear antenna's but not installed yet. Will report back. As for ping and gaming, early days. I'm getting anywhere between 39 and 60. not great but didn't notice anything untoward when playing Battlefield 1 for example.
Hey mate! I have watched your videos a few times and also shared it to others because your guiding explanation was fantastic! All the way here from Sydney Oz. :)
Absolutely brilliant. Just a quick question... Can my normal phone 📱 connect to this router and then its down to how much Gigabytes my Internet provider allows? In my case its unlimited but my house has a terrible signal. Hoping to find a signal booster so I can use it decently. In this video is this solution for me?
I found the answer to my own question. I went and bought a similar one to this but the Huewei B525 which is 300mbps rather than 150mbps (which doesn't matter unless you want to cast your phone to the TV via WiFi at UHD like I do) I also bought the antenna Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 as you have in the link in the description. I found it helped me a lot to get a better signal on my roof when I pointed it in just one exact spot for the best speed. I still had a terrible signal for 4g but when I switched it to 3g it helped me from 2mb dl and 0.5mb upload to 5mb dl and 5mb upload and that was with 3. I will say that though that although the difference wasnt a lot, it did take away a ridiculous amount of lag and it felt a lot smoother. Was able to watch TH-cam with no problem whereas I had no chance before really. My mate however tried EE and he went from 2mb dl and 2ul to 20mb dl and 40ul I've never seen anything like it. I didn't even know it was possible. Proper gutted my Internet provider didn't do the same to be honest but it does show its potential. Thank you for this video it helped me out a lot with the set up.
Way to go. I was actually advised not to go for an external antenna by Tele2. She said, no no it has its own internal one, so you won't need to bother with that! Well obviously I looked into it and here we are. Thx for the information. I only got 2.5 meter of cable though lol. Will be a challenge
Thumbs up, subbed, absolutely bang on video. Exactly what I needed but you nailed the details too so I’m sure this will help a lot to educate the people...clearly got a back for it
@@CWXM01 OffComm regulations require them to advertise that they slow it down after a certain usage, no where on their site, in the store or on my contract does it mention that, you may be thinking of their mobile plans with texts and calls where they do throttle after a certain amount
@@Kuki_ogl they said when I went into a 3 store that there's no speed cap for going over a limit, I returned it however as the speed only reached 10mbps when I switched the router to 3G only mode, no good for me
I moved it to the loft space and wow 👏 I ran a 15m rj46 cable to the hub down stairs so all rooms now have full signal, we are pulling 40mbps on all devices and didn't even need an external antenna its got 4g+ full signal on the internal So top man, your advice is awesome, its created an umbrella WiFi field all over the house and my wife can walk all round the garden with signal etc Seems to be that the wifi works best when devices connect upward to the hub, there's much less interference indeed. 😎 Beers on my if you're ever in Lincs
In Eastern Europe there is no limit for 4G, basically everyone has unlimited plan so during the day it's like 30 Mbit.. I have 80 Mbit up 40 Mbit down during the night using 4G+. Considering buying an antenna with two cables.. Even though cell tower is 500 m from me, I can even see it but signal strength is only 90 dBm. The only wired option I have is ADSL2+ which is like 15 down and 0.08 up
Greetings Vince, thank you kindly for the fantastic video. I have unlimited data/voice/text on my mobile plan. But I live in a house that very thick walls I’m afraid-which I only get 2 bars on my iPhone. I will offer you my profound gratitude and appreciation if you were so kind to help yours as to how I could possibly get to 3-4 bars accordingly thereof. I thank you in advance. Huge blessings. Stay safe...
Speed is all to do with how much users are connected to the network at the time testing but as for the signal/reception; yes - if the rooter is in a basement or in a closed cupboard or ground floor with heavy walls surrounded then you may need an external aerial for a stable connection (it will not increase the speed). All you need to do is to place your 4g or 5g router by any window, those aerials will provide you a good connection. Don't waste your money on these aerials.
Im quite lucky that my house is like 100 to 500 m away to the mast from my house. I have awesome speeds on my LTE connection. Ping about 20 - 29 ms and speeds up to 150 Mbit but at peektime around 100 Mbit and I dont se why i ever should change to fiber connection. And with 5g on the rollout... but the thoughts has cross my mind to get external antennas. But i dont know... i dont think it Will make my connection any better.
@@Hezexify yeah its quite desent. But. On realy peak times and alot of ppl using the LTE network it can be as low as 50 - 60 mbit so in the long run a fiberoptic connection is the way to go realy. If you pay for 100 mbit connection you get 100 mbit at all times. But i think with 5g on the way its gonna be just as good as fiberoptic connections. And one more thing the speeds over LTE network is gong up and down like one moment your at 100 mbit and all the suden its at 50 mbit so during a big download you see a lot of it up and down. But as i said in last post im happy with it and cant see why ill ever gonna pay to get fiberoptic connection. Even my security system will continue to upload video security fotage if i ever have a power failure since it not depending on power since the LTE mobem have built in battery. And the cams run on battery power aswell if the power ever go out.
great video but I had to lol @ the end when you talked about data caps - In Ireland we have unlimited 4g for 20€ a month. good speed too. Why isn't it the same in the UK?
just installed the Huawei 315 with external antenna omni directional on the roof. original speed with talk talk phone line download 11mbps up 0.4mbps yes only 0.4 !. with this router and a vodafone unlimited max sim £30/m download 35mbps up 24mbps. The limit per month with this sim is 3tb although not published which should be enough for most people. wow talk talk are now charging me line rental plus £1 for the broadband as its so rubbish and will keep this as a backup if vodafone ever went down. Thanks for the advice.
I feel very fortunate as i can see the mast from my window. My speed test says 102Mbps on download & a third of that on upload with the 3 network with a 4g router.
What about having the Antenna on the roof like the chimney stack beside the TV antenna, use double screened Satellite coax cable, Three Mobile might be better as they will be optimized for AV and actually Three where the first to make video phones like the MOTOROLA V975 video phone.
I got the portable Huawei mifi for home and travelling but my home speed never goes above 2mbps on 3 network. I've just got this router today and have sited it on every window cill and the best speed I've managed is 6mbps.Id like to try an outdoor aerial but I'm sceptical that it will make enough difference given the low speeds I'm getting.
Good work tell me where gonna get it external antenna where am living here In South Africa cause at my place rural we have a problem of signal my wishes is buy B525 bt tell problem afraid am going to face signal problems
Hi I live on the 11th floor of a high tower ( built for 12 floors, bascially second to highest floor) I want to know if i have an advantage to the floor i live in and if so is this the right product to get outside my window or is there a better one for picking up signals?? specifically UPLOAD SPEED!!
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It's so nice to hear someone on TH-cam who doesn't say like after every few words.
Is there a way to boost mobile phone signal?
From my experience I don't think you can but I recommend getting a Huawei b535-232 2 hand from a place such as CEX
You have the perfect voice for explaining. Even if i knew everything you explain in the video, i still wanted to see the full length of the video. thank you :)
@@9b3126 🤣🤣🤣
That's gay
U r gay
Due to the high radio frequency used for LTE, there's a big signal loss on the antenna cable length. Try making your cable as shorter as possible and do the speed test once again. You really would be surprised.
Did not know I needed to change the settings for aeriel. I was getting good download speeds, but more upload. Now both aeriels are set to external, I'm getting good up as well. So I thank you!
I found putting antenna to external putting rabbits ears on then rapping tin foil around each rabbit ear antenna boosted my WiFi with out all the technical stuff and was very easy to do simple as always been my motto 😁
Thanks a lot for this video. It was hard to find solid advice on 4g antennas. I went with exactly your setup, and my speed went from 10/0.5 down/up to 20/1
Isn't that the same ?
@@thelegend3799 Nope it's twice as fast
Good video; to add a couple of tips: 1. Find out what access point names your cellular provider use. Sometimes when you're suffering from congestion, you can change the AP name and get massively higher speeds. 2. A good MESH WiFi system will almost always perform much better than powerline adapters and access points; the technology is developing much faster.
Hi, I'm from PH. And I'm using this LTE, and this video is very informative.
I have had this same router Vodafone branded for 3 years. Your advice is spot on and I'm lucky enough to have an unlimited data connection. I now use mine in the car. When in the glove box, the Android radio drops out, but I have an external antenna (similar, MIMO though a bit smaller) and it works a treat. Never ever drops out, even in tunnels and mine was about a fiver from China. Yes, a slight gamble on quality and not suitable for outdoors, but it works for me and very well.
One thing to really consider is that antenna cable length has a huge effect on signal quality. Use as short a cable as possible. I would almost recommend getting a high quality outdoor unit with Power over Ethernet. Then its just one cable outside with power and ethernet.
can you elaborate more ?
@@Lee-haw Yes, long cable give much more noise in the signal and the signal level generally falls off. For my current setup, it got much more bandwidth from moving my modem, than having 10 meter cable to an external antenna.
Also I found out that older LTE equipment is no good, just get a new Huawei router if you are stuck with something from 2013...
Zyxel and others make "PoE" powered modems, which means you can put the modem and antenna outside, up to 80 meters away, with just a simple network cable.
By going from a 2013 modem with an external antenna with 10 meter cable outside, to a cheap modern LTE modem placed inside, i more than doubled my bandwidth.
Just a note @ 13:20ish, Three does not cap me. I have all I can eat broadband including Netflix and other streaming media. I have been using it for working from home constrantly throughout 2020 and had about 2 short outages all year - not too bad. I'd also like to know the difference between the two antenna ports (#1 is the preference on the B535-232 for single antenna solutions, there is also a mixed mode - I may make some tests and report back). I have one of these hidden inside a commercial vehicle with external antennas in the centre of the roof for CCTV streaming so I know the external antennas work ok as the vehicle itself is a "Farriday cage" preventing normal router operation when the door is closed! Good you pointed out that you have to change the settings to enable the external antennas. Being a bloke I didn't read the router instructions at first so learned the hard way!
There is a very good utility LTEWatch(H) for Hauwei LTE Routers which gives an excellent way of determining the best signal strength for a specific position and orientation. Although the spec for this antenna says it's omnidirectional, it does actually perform better with the front face pointed at the LTE mast. Using the self same setup B315/XPOL-2 60. 60Mbps D / 30Mbps U
It would be interesting to know what speeds you would have with the two smaller aerials fitted with the correct settings
I set up a couple of directional antennas got speed from 20-25 up to 80-85 mbits. Run for 3 or so years already. But you are better off getting a quality brand antenna with cleaner signal and quality low loss cables expecially if you can't put modem right next to the antenna. If you are on a very low budget you could try to make a cheap can-antenna, directional bi-quad antenna or experiment with other high gain designs.
Thanks for the video which I used as a learning base to fit a Huawei B715s and an external antenna. I also noted a big rise in download speeds between speed runs one and two whenever I tested a new orientation. It left me wondering if these routers learn and adapt to their environment as the subsequent speed tests were all more stable at or around the second test result. Its important to know where your masts are to position the external antenna facing the right direction. The better face onto the mast the antenna was (although the max speeds didn't alter much) the more stable the d/l speed was in terms of delivering at or close to the max speeds.
As a top tip, another thing I found was that the speed results of the router/antenna was very similar to those obtained on my Samsung S7 phone. So, at least in my case, you didn't need to roam a site with laptop, router and antenna to pin down the best location to position the antenna. The final speed results through the antenna were very close and actually a little below those obtained directly on the mobile phone.
2020 I am here and found this the most useful information I have received in the , thumbs up x10000000000
Great video! I have for few years on mobile broadband (home and camper) and did buy an external (square shaped) aerial! My modem is same as shown. You speed test suggestion was the eye opener!!! I discover that the antenna setting was in auto and frankly I never saw a difference with or without external aerial but when I tested forcing "inside" vs "external 1+2" I discovered that the external was just crap!!!..thanks for the tip!!!
4G LTE is usually in the 700MHZ band (US) for Verizon & AT&T. But you will have to check and confirm what frequencies and band your local country and carrier are actually using. Hardware store 75 ohm cables (typical RG59 ) are very poorly made for cost savings and very lossy compared to commercial grade brand name RG-6 or even (better) 50 ohm RG and LMR communications cables and connectors. At 700MHZ those losses can quickly add up with distance, much worse as PCS frequencies increase loss at 1700, 1900, and beyond 2,000MHZ. Especially if the connectors are not properly crimped. Try not to circularly loop any co-ax cable tightly, unless you know why you are doing so (as in using it as a decoupling choke). So use gentle bends, keep as short as possible and outdoors bend slightly as needed at building entrance to droop away water and snow melt.
Omni directional base antennas are a last resort. You increase the chances for multi-path distortion of the bounced and reflected carrier and data. Real world gain is limited to 3 to 5 Dbi no matter what the package propaganda says. Much better to use a directional beam antenna aimed at the cell tower (or reflected bounced signal source depending on your location) if possible. Outdoor rated flat panels and yagi beams are ok, but best to use a parabolic dish or screen antenna pointed at the signal source. They reject side reflected signals and noise much better. Gains of 10 -17 Dbi are normal and not overstated if a good quality antenna is used. In radio-land each 3db gain is equal to doubling the signal. So 3 doubles no gain, 6 doubles 3, 9 doubles 6, and so on. (look for something like these in your frequency range - www.excel-wireless.com/700-mhz-grid-parabolic-antenna ). You can usually use the device log in administrator settings to read signal strength for aligning the antenna and confirming you did a good job on the co-ax. The lower the - number in Db or Dbm (usually displayed as -80 to -109) the better. Just move the antenna around for the lowest number (best signal) you can get.
Now keep your 4G / LTE radio box as close to the antenna as possible to avoid co-ax cable loss and let the WiFi and/ or wired Ethernet to another WiFi access point far away do the work of getting to your phone or computer device.
Great information. Thanks for sharing :-)
Yep, this is the way to go. I've just ordered a wifi mesh system to go with my 4g router to minimise antenna cable length.
Thnx for the tips,Gary your a savior i keep lossing connection while looping my cables. coz its 30meters long .and i dont know what to do
Our local provider offers unlimited data for corporate customers. It's an enterprise offer only and this video is very helpful! I'll get a Huawei router too.
Thanks!
I didn't know how to change to an external antenna until this video!!
Defo this is a big issue; worked on a UK wide deployment where we were installing new routers with 4G LTE backup routers (the locations of the router were often really poor for network signal, we carried O2 and Vodafone data sims too) though the comms room or cabinet was often in a poorly sited location, so the connection was very flakey, recommended this to the network bod as the support was very limited, the ones we were deploying all were fitted with the option to use an external antenna. Thanks Vice (if that's your proper name!)
PowerLine adapters can also blow pretty hard / if in an unattended location too - so fire risk / as the plug is on (come across a few now so we've avoided them wherever possible).
Well detailed video! my antenna is arriving today! We cant get fibre at home and just moved over to Three Network broadband, this antenna should hopefully give it a well needed boost and its an unlimited data plan too lol! i’m also going to be using the suction cups permanently!! 🤣🤣😳
Superb and really clear - thank you for recording and uploading and sharing your expertise. Off to buy an external antenna now.
HUAWEI are definitely one of the best for mobile WiFi devices. I've had a few different models from them & they bang out a really good signal. Thanks Vince.
Tp link are brilliant aswell
BEST VIDEO ON TH-cam!!!
You sir are a DIAMOND 💎 👍
Thanks for the tips Vince! I have just signed up for Three's home-fi option and I'm hoping to get much better speeds with 4G than with the usual broadband.
Everclean how are you getting on with HomeFi, I’m considering it
I just signed to a 3 (three) unlimited 4G sim and the 525 Modem (model up from the one shown I think) and I’m delighted! I’ve gone from less than 8Mbps with BT, to download of ~50Mbps 👍. I should mention that I’m just using the standard router with two screw on ‘rabbit ear’ antennas so far. I’m lucky as reasonably close to the mast (less than half a mile) but it was still very dependent on exact position, I get 5 bars signal (just) with the router up in the loft close to the end gable wall. I’m debating if it’s worth spending the extra £80 on the aerial and mounting it on the gable externally.
@@rlove21 I had the same, but unluckily for us there's a mast that interferes with a fast 4G mast and offers only 20Mbps instead of 60 :( .. BT were offering 2.5Mbps here
@@Guiny hard luck with the interference, I guess that's just one of those issues that you can't do much about (are you using an external aerial?) I guess 20mbps is still well better than 2 from BT. I'm using mine as an interim solution while I wait for Gigaclear to install fibre to the house which will be a massive improvement (but is still many months away and will be somewhat higher cost per month).
@@rlove21 yeah, I just connected to the fast one again and its 150mbp/s! I don't want to go 20 again :O
Excellent well informed video mate. As folk have said, you have the voice well done. Just bought a huwawi 4g router. There’s too many people using the phone lines where I live. I get much better reliable broadband than through the cable and can take it where ever I go in my camper 👍😊
regarding the antenna location, you said best signal you got was just above the garage roof rather than a higher location, in the world of antennas that's counter-intuitive, the only reason I could think off of why that is could be because the garage roof acts as a parabolic antenna and bounces signal off of it and into the LTE antenna, by experimenting around with the antenna's location you guys must've found a sweet spot where plenty of bounced off signal from roof will hit the antenna, surely the roof doesn't have the shape of a parabolic antenna but still plenty of signal will bounce off and reach the LTE antenna so that will make a difference location-wise.
Exactly the information I needed presented in an extremely clear and concise way.
Thank you very much indeed!
Hey Vince! I was just going to add an external antenna for our neighbour as he isn't getting very good speeds and he's on the same 4g provider to me, so I suggested an external antenna as he's getting about 70% signal strength. I get pretty good speeds as we recently moved to a 4g router instead of the copper telephone line as because we are very rural we were getting awful speeds (4-5mb and .5mb upload) and it was taking me about 8 hours to upload a 20 minute youtube video! We now get around (80mb down, 23mb up on EE) but he's only getting around 12mb and 7mb up and he's only about 1/4 mile up the road. I was looking at reviews for antenna's and your video popped up! Great video as always mate👍
Try to change your external antenna with at least 16 dbi then you will get fast and boost internet connection. Anyway it's great video..
Amazing!!
Lower ping, Faster speed, stable connection...
How much of a difference to ping did you notice?
Very handy; I've just ordered the antenna you put in your links. Fingers crossed!
Thanks. I'm gonna try this on my *RoOoTer.*
Great video, I recently got 4g home broadband (with 3) and the signal is improved outside my house when I test on my phone (about 20mb download gain), will look into getting one of these antennas.
Vince, another very helpful and informative video. I followed your earlier guidance on how to get the best out of your landline broadband connection and almost doubled my speed to 7.5mbs down (still too slow but better than it was!). After a couple of years and lack of any improvement in the BT Openreach infrastructure and failure of the two local area wifi companies to provide me with a line of sight to their masts, I'm investigating 3G/4G router broadband. Two possible suppliers, both only providing 3G if I'm lucky but initial test with a little mifi unit are showing up to three times my current download speed. 4G router being delivered today for testing with an existing Three data sim. EE pay as you go sim also on its way as the EE coverage is supposed to be better. I'll see what the connection is like before looking at an external antenna, but I think I will have to go down that route. Thanks again for all your help.
this is how to know if someone really understand or not, thumbs up for u bro
Well thought out. Your tests used a good sample range (alhough running each test 10 times would give a better average). And explained without using too much jargon. Well done. Subbed.
Luxury speeds! I live in a fairly modern house in a large town (Macclesfield) and the BT provided landline speeds had been so poor (I gave up BT in 2016) that I've been relying on 4G "air broadband" since. Today in 2020 I can get between 15 and 50 Mb/s via 4G on Three with the router in the highest part of my loft and a physical cable to a switch near my PC. When fibre came to town, OpenReach underestimated the demand so the waiting list was well over a year. Today the "average speed" fibre (whatever that really is - meaning is that at e.g. 4am) is 45Mb/s - pointless to take the risk and shameful this day and age to be in a built up area which such poor performance. Thanks for the vid.
You have the perfect voice for explaining. Good Tips shared
Got one of those routers, I don't have those external antennas though. For the past 2 years I had perfect 4g, 3-4 bars always, stable even in storms (lack of knowledge about how things work)
Now my router can only reach 3g. Its been on the same location since i got it. I called the company they told me to reset it, they did not see any fault on their part. So I took my phone to the same locations, and it runs 4g perfectly.. I'm so confused. Better call Tesla to solve this one.
thanks for the video
Ten years later, this is just as inspiring
internet should work as reliably as electricity, its bull we have to deal with this
Milan Penk it is if you get cable to your house
@@boxfullofneutral8514 it is if the goverment get fiber to your house
Those cables must be seriously bad to lose the (admittedly small) gain of the antenna. Of course its the fact you don't suffer in-building penetration loss and lower multi path losses that give it so much benefit. I'm looking at that and the tplink archer as 4g backup. For better speed tests do an internal network file transfer....did that setting up mesh network
Great video. Thanks. I just ordered the HomeFi (3 network with unlimited data) as the broadband where i live is awful. No FTTP, cabinet overloaded. Fiber yes but only to the overloaded cab with no plans to upgrade. I was dubious when i spoke to 3 who claimed 20mb which was only marginally better than the 16 i was getting (paying for 36 with Sky) and they said I could get up toward 50mb. Installed the HomeFi (Huawei B311S) and after a couple of minor hiccups i'm getting 34+ mb.... essentially doubling my broadband speed. Very happy. Ordered the rabbit ear antenna's but not installed yet. Will report back.
As for ping and gaming, early days. I'm getting anywhere between 39 and 60. not great but didn't notice anything untoward when playing Battlefield 1 for example.
that's certainly playable, I was wondering what the ping is going to be like. Just took the 4g plunge myself and ordered the kit and sim.
Excellent video.
I'd be very interested to see a set up for a van please.
Yes I liked the detail you showed..
Hey mate! I have watched your videos a few times and also shared it to others because your guiding explanation was fantastic! All the way here from Sydney Oz. :)
Absolutely brilliant. Just a quick question... Can my normal phone 📱 connect to this router and then its down to how much Gigabytes my Internet provider allows? In my case its unlimited but my house has a terrible signal. Hoping to find a signal booster so I can use it decently. In this video is this solution for me?
I found the answer to my own question. I went and bought a similar one to this but the Huewei B525 which is 300mbps rather than 150mbps (which doesn't matter unless you want to cast your phone to the TV via WiFi at UHD like I do)
I also bought the antenna Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 as you have in the link in the description. I found it helped me a lot to get a better signal on my roof when I pointed it in just one exact spot for the best speed.
I still had a terrible signal for 4g but when I switched it to 3g it helped me from 2mb dl and 0.5mb upload to 5mb dl and 5mb upload and that was with 3. I will say that though that although the difference wasnt a lot, it did take away a ridiculous amount of lag and it felt a lot smoother. Was able to watch TH-cam with no problem whereas I had no chance before really.
My mate however tried EE and he went from 2mb dl and 2ul to 20mb dl and 40ul I've never seen anything like it. I didn't even know it was possible. Proper gutted my Internet provider didn't do the same to be honest but it does show its potential.
Thank you for this video it helped me out a lot with the set up.
Way to go. I was actually advised not to go for an external antenna by Tele2.
She said, no no it has its own internal one, so you won't need to bother with that! Well obviously I looked into it and here we are.
Thx for the information.
I only got 2.5 meter of cable though lol. Will be a challenge
Pretty sure you can use an extension of the cable
Thumbs up, subbed, absolutely bang on video. Exactly what I needed but you nailed the details too so I’m sure this will help a lot to educate the people...clearly got a back for it
Most precise video ever, thanks mate good job.
Thanks good video. In the UK 3 currently offer an unlimited plan. This is great for people like me who are in a rural area.
Or for people in the centre of London who have a landlord that refuses to buy Fibre (Using 3 unlimited)
Be aware that the 3 “unlimited” it speed capped when you exceed a certain usage. That cap it to around 500kbs I I remember rightly.
@@CWXM01 OffComm regulations require them to advertise that they slow it down after a certain usage, no where on their site, in the store or on my contract does it mention that, you may be thinking of their mobile plans with texts and calls where they do throttle after a certain amount
SirFlukealot Esquire did you find any more info about this limitation? Maybe it is true because i feel a speed drop last week of subscription.
@@Kuki_ogl they said when I went into a 3 store that there's no speed cap for going over a limit, I returned it however as the speed only reached 10mbps when I switched the router to 3G only mode, no good for me
If I have an outside antenna how do I know how near I have to have the router to it or how far away I can put it ?
Some really good info and points that most people wouldn't think of or consider so great informative video. Nice one👍
As normal, a great, clear and explanatory video.
Excellent video. Very helpful
Crystal Clear Instructions, Thanks so much Vince!
Everyone: 10 mbps is slow af!
me: oh i got a 0.70 mbps great
30kb /s
😏
0.10
perfect tip thanks its exactly what I was looking for, I have that router top man
I moved it to the loft space and wow 👏 I ran a 15m rj46 cable to the hub down stairs so all rooms now have full signal, we are pulling 40mbps on all devices and didn't even need an external antenna its got 4g+ full signal on the internal
So top man, your advice is awesome, its created an umbrella WiFi field all over the house and my wife can walk all round the garden with signal etc
Seems to be that the wifi works best when devices connect upward to the hub, there's much less interference indeed. 😎
Beers on my if you're ever in Lincs
Great video mate I’m just planning to do an install for a customer using Draytek kit
In Eastern Europe there is no limit for 4G, basically everyone has unlimited plan so during the day it's like 30 Mbit.. I have 80 Mbit up 40 Mbit down during the night using 4G+. Considering buying an antenna with two cables.. Even though cell tower is 500 m from me, I can even see it but signal strength is only 90 dBm.
The only wired option I have is ADSL2+ which is like 15 down and 0.08 up
What I would like to know is, did it have any impact on the ping time? Thx for a nice video
Greetings Vince, thank you kindly for the fantastic video. I have unlimited data/voice/text on my mobile plan. But I live in a house that very thick walls I’m afraid-which I only get 2 bars on my iPhone. I will offer you my profound gratitude and appreciation if you were so kind to help yours as to how I could possibly get to 3-4 bars accordingly thereof. I thank you in advance. Huge blessings. Stay safe...
great video :-) ..what the make of your laptop you using in video ?
Speed is all to do with how much users are connected to the network at the time testing but as for the signal/reception; yes - if the rooter is in a basement or in a closed cupboard or ground floor with heavy walls surrounded then you may need an external aerial for a stable connection (it will not increase the speed). All you need to do is to place your 4g or 5g router by any window, those aerials will provide you a good connection. Don't waste your money on these aerials.
Simply a brilliant video! So well explained! Keep up the good work!
great vid what laptop are you using it looks pretty kool
Wow. When I clicked this video I did not expect something so informative! Left a like!
Im quite lucky that my house is like 100 to 500 m away to the mast from my house. I have awesome speeds on my LTE connection. Ping about 20 - 29 ms and speeds up to 150 Mbit but at peektime around 100 Mbit and I dont se why i ever should change to fiber connection. And with 5g on the rollout... but the thoughts has cross my mind to get external antennas. But i dont know... i dont think it Will make my connection any better.
wow that is faster than low-entry budget fibre at my place
@@Hezexify yeah its quite desent. But. On realy peak times and alot of ppl using the LTE network it can be as low as 50 - 60 mbit so in the long run a fiberoptic connection is the way to go realy. If you pay for 100 mbit connection you get 100 mbit at all times. But i think with 5g on the way its gonna be just as good as fiberoptic connections. And one more thing the speeds over LTE network is gong up and down like one moment your at 100 mbit and all the suden its at 50 mbit so during a big download you see a lot of it up and down. But as i said in last post im happy with it and cant see why ill ever gonna pay to get fiberoptic connection. Even my security system will continue to upload video security fotage if i ever have a power failure since it not depending on power since the LTE mobem have built in battery. And the cams run on battery power aswell if the power ever go out.
@@Kammaflaje yeah so true, if 5g come, we just need to change 5g modem thats all :P
I didn't know i needed a rooter, thanks.
great video but I had to lol @ the end when you talked about data caps - In Ireland we have unlimited 4g for 20€ a month. good speed too. Why isn't it the same in the UK?
We have that now with three. Except £20 a month
I have unlimited data on three in the UK £17 pm
Great video.. Kindly put a diagram antenna down to the wifi Modem. Thank you.
Well articulated Sir
This video was very helpful, thanks for investing your time making this video
hey, nice video! So what plan do you currently have? what''s your data cap for 4G LTE? No problem with cellular carrier at all? very curious. thx
Great info, thank you, just what I needed for the house we're moving to.
just installed the Huawei 315 with external antenna omni directional on the roof.
original speed with talk talk phone line download 11mbps up 0.4mbps yes only 0.4 !.
with this router and a vodafone unlimited max sim £30/m download 35mbps up 24mbps.
The limit per month with this sim is 3tb although not published which should be enough for most people.
wow
talk talk are now charging me line rental plus £1 for the broadband as its so rubbish and will keep this as a backup if vodafone ever went down.
Thanks for the advice.
Great video, really informative and gives me hope we might get better speeds now
Exactly the info I had been looking for. Thanks
Thanks all for you help.!!!
I feel very fortunate as i can see the mast from my window. My speed test says 102Mbps on download & a third of that on upload with the 3 network with a 4g router.
What about having the Antenna on the roof like the chimney stack beside the TV antenna, use double screened Satellite coax cable, Three Mobile might be better as they will be optimized for AV and actually Three where the first to make video phones like the MOTOROLA V975 video phone.
Its been a while since ive seen one of your videos and still enjoyed this one
Thanks, very informative
Very helpful video. Thanks Vince!
Great video and so well explained thanks
If a company sets your mbps, can it be speeded up, rather than upgrade, is, if you need more as family visit?
I got the portable Huawei mifi for home and travelling but my home speed never goes above 2mbps on 3 network. I've just got this router today and have sited it on every window cill and the best speed I've managed is 6mbps.Id like to try an outdoor aerial but I'm sceptical that it will make enough difference given the low speeds I'm getting.
Excellent tutorial, everything's there, thanks.
Where was this test carried out? I find that the speed varied quite wildly in different areas.
Thqnks from the philippines 👍👍👍
Hi. Nice video, thanks. Can you set up 4G mobile broadband routers (and optimize them) for people in London?
Thank you Vince.
Wonderful tutorial
will look into this and as for data, my contract is unlimited so that side of it does not affect me.
Good work tell me where gonna get it external antenna where am living here In South Africa cause at my place rural we have a problem of signal my wishes is buy B525 bt tell problem afraid am going to face signal problems
Hi I live on the 11th floor of a high tower ( built for 12 floors, bascially second to highest floor) I want to know if i have an advantage to the floor i live in and if so is this the right product to get outside my window or is there a better one for picking up signals?? specifically UPLOAD SPEED!!
Hey 3 years after it still helps me! But My router only has 1 input for external antenna. What can I do? What antennas could I but?
Hey dear, please tell me the exact model and manufacturer of the antenna
Eye opener video...Thank you very much