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Thread: Mobile internet to replace broadband?

  1. #51
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    Using my iPhone for speed tests. Could I expect similar speeds from a half decent router or doesn’t it work like that?

  2. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coronet king View Post
    Using my iPhone for speed tests. Could I expect similar speeds from a half decent router or doesn’t it work like that?
    Using your phone for speed tests is fine; it's precisely what I did to determine that the 3 network (used by SMARTY) provided good speeds. The coverage checker suggested it wouldn't be great but it was fine - better with an external antenna.
    Last edited by Skier; 2nd August 2019 at 21:16.

  3. #53
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    Many thanks skier you’ve been a great help. Mast is .5km away and I can just about see it from our bedroom. Eternal antenna might help, shame I don’t have a cable in the loft for that.

  4. #54
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    Thank you for all the advice in this thread guys. I was considering this as a option when I eventually move house.

    Dave

  5. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coronet king View Post
    Many thanks skier you’ve been a great help. Mast is .5km away and I can just about see it from our bedroom. Eternal antenna might help, shame I don’t have a cable in the loft for that.
    You're very welcome. I suspect that if your local mast is only 500m away you probably won't need an external antenna. Keep firing the questions in as they arise.

  6. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skier View Post
    Unless your loft is converted I suspect it will get too hot for a router to last very long.
    In my unconverted loft I have modem, router/wifi, 24 port switch, 3 nas drives, alarm panel, heating controls.

    No heat related issues in 5 years. You’ll be fine placing it in the loft. Which might open up the possibilities for higher gain or external arials.

    I get good home and garden coverage from the single router/wifi Unit in my loft, dependant on the size and construction of your house it’s posable you may too. I’d be inclined to try that first and if it’s not sufficient look at some of the wifi mesh products to extend coverage.

  7. #57
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skier View Post
    You're very welcome. I suspect that if your local mast is only 500m away you probably won't need an external antenna. Keep firing the questions in as they arise.
    Just to add to this, with some more info to consider.

    My external 4G aerial comes with hard-wired cable pre-connected to it, so you are somewhat limited to the distance that your 4G router can be from the external aerial if extension cables are to be avoided (these should be avoided if possible). I think most of the aerials are the same (ie hard wired). My external antenna is one of these: https://www.solwise.co.uk/4g-antenna...pol-a0002.html

    When comparing my routers internal 'bunny ears' to the external aerial connection, my signal strength is now way more reliable, despite the internal/external aerials being in virtually the same location. My external aerial is a directional one, as I have clear line of sight to the mast also, but it is around 3 miles away. 100% signal strength showing with a TP-Link Archer MR200 router.

    HTH

  8. #58
    Just to note that where I am in Dorset (north of Poole) EE is giving 40 Mbps (through the Netgear MR1100), 3 is giving 8 Mbps (through the Netgear as well) as is Vodafone (through the wifi hotspot of my iPhone).

    The home broadband gives 48 Mbps.

    EE it is I think.
    Last edited by catch21; 4th August 2019 at 20:30.

  9. #59
    Quote Originally Posted by Maysie View Post
    This is utter nonsense nowadays in more rural parts of the UK with a decent 4G signal.

    My 4G broadband completely and utterly blows my wired connection out of the water in every respect. We still have both connected, but have not used the wired connection at all since switching to 4G.
    In every respect including latency? If so, you're fortunate. Wired connections are usually far superior at least in that regard.

  10. #60
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    Finally decided to give this a whirl ready for the new house. Ordered a Huawei 4g B525 from Amazon for £122, it arrived yesterday so this morning I thought I would have a bash. I had originally considered putting the router in the loft but they may not be necessary in the new home. The router was pretty much plug and play so very easy to setup, I’ve borrowed the sim out of my 3 network phone for a trial. Quick speed test showing 26mb, so a great start.
    I have taken the router home tonight for a trial and 4 bars showing with a download of 51mb and upload of 12mb. I also plugged in a phone to the router and seems to work fine. My fixed line plusnet broadband is showing download of 3mb and 0.45 upload. So think I’ve got a phone call to make tomorrow morning to cancel plusnet.

    Many thanks for all the advice on this thread, I’m finally getting a good speed for less money.

  11. #61
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    Great result CK, ours remains stable months after installation. I had to reboot yesterday for the first time and immediately noticed a drastic improvement in speed. What is the phone you mention plugging into the router, sounds interesting?

  12. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by mondie View Post
    Great result CK, ours remains stable months after installation. I had to reboot yesterday for the first time and immediately noticed a drastic improvement in speed. What is the phone you mention plugging into the router, sounds interesting?
    Had to borrow the lead from our plusnet router as we have a Panasonic wireless phone and both phone base and Huawei router have the same square connector but essentially plugged it it and you can use it to make calls. Phoned my wife’s mobile to test and it basically comes up with my mobile no.

    Badly explained but hope it makes some sort of sense.

    I will order a smarty sim when we move and essentially we can use the free minutes included in the package.

  13. #63
    Quote Originally Posted by Coronet king View Post
    Finally decided to give this a whirl ready for the new house. Ordered a Huawei 4g B525 from Amazon for £122, it arrived yesterday so this morning I thought I would have a bash. I had originally considered putting the router in the loft but they may not be necessary in the new home. The router was pretty much plug and play so very easy to setup, I’ve borrowed the sim out of my 3 network phone for a trial. Quick speed test showing 26mb, so a great start.
    I have taken the router home tonight for a trial and 4 bars showing with a download of 51mb and upload of 12mb. I also plugged in a phone to the router and seems to work fine. My fixed line plusnet broadband is showing download of 3mb and 0.45 upload. So think I’ve got a phone call to make tomorrow morning to cancel plusnet.

    Many thanks for all the advice on this thread, I’m finally getting a good speed for less money.
    Great stuff, thanks. This is the way forward I’m sure. You’re a trail blazer. I’m sure we’ll be coming back to this thread for info and advice for years to come. I’m still in commitment with BT for a while but once that’s through I’m on the next ‘plane out of here as well.

  14. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by hughtrimble View Post
    In every respect including latency? If so, you're fortunate. Wired connections are usually far superior at least in that regard.
    You are right, latency is a slightly higher figure (around 45ms), but that is still perfectly acceptable for us.
    We use VOIP phones and it has never caused a problem, in fact the much faster upload speeds we now receive have MUCH improved the performance as it used to be a bit 'laggy'.

    We are very lucky though, as we have clear line of site to the mast.

  15. #65
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    Just ordered my smarty sim.

    £15 Quidco cash back and £18.75 for life unlimited deal is back on. Grab it while you can. :)

  16. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coronet king View Post
    Just ordered my smarty sim.

    £15 Quidco cash back and £18.75 for life unlimited deal is back on. Grab it while you can. :)
    A quick tip to save you a few minutes. You MUST activate the SIM in a phone; it won't activate while installed in a modem.

  17. #67

  18. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skier View Post
    A quick tip to save you a few minutes. You MUST activate the SIM in a phone; it won't activate while installed in a modem.
    Thanks for the tip.

  19. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skier View Post
    A quick tip to save you a few minutes. You MUST activate the SIM in a phone; it won't activate while installed in a modem.
    I wish I'd read this a fortnight ago.

  20. #70
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    After 1.5 years of using the mobile network (first EE, now SMARTY) for my broadband solution I experienced the first outage from 23:45 last night until 09:10 this morning. It appears the 3 (Three) network was down across the country for data. Inconvenient for many but I slept through most of it!

  21. #71
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    Looks like they are having problems this morning still.

    My (Three) 4G connection is a bit wobbly this morning, it can do some tasks, but not others. I have never had that before.

    Still more reliable that my SKY wired broadband to date though.

  22. #72
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    We've seen similar issues but this is the first blip.

    You may recall that I started this thread looking for an interim solution while we were staying in temporary accommodation. Well it has worked so well, and is so cost effective, that we are planning on sticking with it when we move into our new house. Thank you to all for the helpful advice.

  23. #73
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    We are having a wobble with Three too - seems it’s a fault they are working on


    Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

  24. #74
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    Quote Originally Posted by cypermethrin View Post
    We are having a wobble with Three too - seems it’s a fault they are working on


    Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
    All seems to be working fine again this morning.
    I had to restart the router to get a fresh connection, but I think Three had a bad day at the office yesterday!

  25. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by jwillans View Post
    We've seen similar issues but this is the first blip.

    You may recall that I started this thread looking for an interim solution while we were staying in temporary accommodation. Well it has worked so well, and is so cost effective, that we are planning on sticking with it when we move into our new house. Thank you to all for the helpful advice.
    Really glad it worked out well for you. I hope the advice on here was of some use for you.

  26. #76
    Without using a router, I think I posted previously that I just dumped fibre. No real need for it. We are getting on with no issues without it at all. Indeed if I wanted to I have more than sufficient data to stream a NOW TV film with no issues.

    The odd occasion an app doesn't want ot open - we just hot spot a few seconds to each others device -it's never mission critical.

    I really do think that it's a bill i'll never have again.

  27. #77
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    For those of you using SMARTY how does Netflix work/stream is it able to maintain a 4k stream without buffering.

  28. #78
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    Quote Originally Posted by SNA View Post
    For those of you using SMARTY how does Netflix work/stream is it able to maintain a 4k stream without buffering.
    Yes, no problem at all. I've streamed 4K from both Netflix and iTunes without issue.

  29. #79
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    Surprised to see so many comments using mobile broadband. Always assumed it's not reliable.

    Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

  30. #80
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    Quote Originally Posted by zenius View Post
    Surprised to see so many comments using mobile broadband. Always assumed it's not reliable.

    Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
    Up until the Three outage earlier this week it has been flawless. We had Virgin fibre at our previous house and, although I'm sure on paper 4G is slower, we've seen no material difference across the multitude of devices concurrently used in our current home.

  31. #81
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    After reading this thread at it's inception I became very interested in the possibilities of installing one of these mobile routers on my motor yacht.
    Today I can confirm the idea is now a confirmed success.
    I have indeed installed a mobile router, running on 12V from the onboard battery banks, it's stabilised to prevent over volt when charging from shore or on the engine alternator.

    £21.00 per month ( they wanted 26 quid until i pushed them, the router is not the very latest 315, 311 is old stock i'm guessing )
    The contract is 12 months.
    The sim is 3 unlimited mobile broadband.
    The router is a Huawei 311.
    I've fitted an external antenna at the top of the mast.

    Ping 35.
    Download 26.5 Mbps.
    Upload 5.2 Mbps.

    Impressed is an understatement, magic internet from the sky.

  32. #82
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    Checked the speed on my phone at home, varies from nothing (no signal) to 5 Mbps,


    Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

  33. #83
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    Hi All,

    I’m jumping on the thread as I’ve recently moved to a more rural area and frankly the regular landline based broadband is useless (struggling to get 2mbps) no fibre available whatsoever and no plans at the moment according to Openreach.

    I can get decent 4G coverage so I’m considering trying that as an option. The Smarty unlimited deal is back on, so it’s looking like a decent way forward.

    Which router would you suggest is best between these two?

    Huawei B525

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-unlo...376&s=computer s&sr=1-1

    Or

    TP-Link TL-MR6400

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-MR6400-U...hvpos=1o1&hvne tw=g&hvrand=12482622898482283215&hvpone=&hvptwo=&h vqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006532 &hvtargid=pla-386070767726&th=1

    Thanks for your help.
    Mike

  34. #84
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    Mike I have the Huawei you have linked to. Its been bulletproof since I first set it up and it manages to push a good wifi signal throughout all rooms of an old Victorian house with its high ceilings and thick walls.

  35. #85
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    I don't have a recommendation between the two routers as I haven't used either. Do you believe a single router will give you good WiFi throughout your house? It depends on the size and internal structure of your house. If large with thick walls then you may find yourself looking at a Mesh solution so ensure whichever router you buy has the option to be put into Bridge or Modem only mode to give you flexibility in the future if you feel you might need it.

  36. #86
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    Quote Originally Posted by mondie View Post
    Mike I have the Huawei you have linked to. Its been bulletproof since I first set it up and it manages to push a good wifi signal throughout all rooms of an old Victorian house with its high ceilings and thick walls.

    Thanks for the reply, that’s great.

    After doing a bit more googling the Huawei does seem to get plenty of positive reviews. I think I’ll proceed with that one!

    Thanks again
    Mike

  37. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skier View Post
    I don't have a recommendation between the two routers as I haven't used either. Do you believe a single router will give you good WiFi throughout your house? It depends on the size and internal structure of your house. If large with thick walls then you may find yourself looking at a Mesh solution so ensure whichever router you buy has the option to be put into Bridge or Modem only mode to give you flexibility in the future if you feel you might need it.

    Yes, I think I’ll be ok. It’s a new build house, so certainly no super-thick walls etc. It still amazes me in this day and age that developers don’t really consider infrastructure properly, I mean most homeowners expect decent internet speeds nowadays. The builders blame BT, BT blame Openreach and they inturn blame the developers

    Thanks for the replies!

  38. #88
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    I'd appreciate some similar advice on portable kit. Quite widely differing prices on these examples that seem to rate reasonably well on Amazon:

    TP-LINK M7200

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-M72.../dp/B0797VW7FG

    NETGEAR AC790

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-AC7.../dp/B016WGT7DQ

    TP-Link M7350

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-M73.../dp/B06XC16QC1

    NETGEAR AC810

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-AC8.../dp/B01FUZE5H8

  39. #89
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    Anybody looking to sign up with smarty you can go through Quidco and get up to £15 cash back or sign up this month through this

    https://referme.to/OgCGiYo

    Refer a friend and you get a free month * I would also get a free month supposedly so happy to Chuck a tenner into the fundraiser if anybody uses the link.

    I have gone from 2.5mbs to 25mbs and it’s £13 a month cheaper, so it comes highly recommended from me.

    Also a big thanks to skier for convincing me to give this a go.

  40. #90
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    I can't give any advice on British providers/subscriptions etc. to use, but here's my few cents. For a really short, temporary situation, a good smartphone with a solid data subscription may work reasonaby well as a wifi hotspot connected to 4G. I use that when we have a problem with the internet at home, and my wife did it when she had to stay in a corporate apartment on weekdays during a three-month training program with an employer. It's good enough to read and write e-mails and do some light internetting, but as soon as you need higher speeds and good reactivity, you may be in trouble. I assume that is less the case in an urban invironment where one is always close to a relay antenna, as more distance makes the milliseconds for the lightspeed connection add up. You see the same thing with internet connections by satellite: decent download speed for large files, but horrible latency due to the distance involved.
    Anyway, it might be worth a try to do that thing with your smartphone first to see if the 4G connection is suitable.
    It may also be worth looking into the detailed specs of any laptop computer you are using. Some have a slot for a 4G wireless card, it may even already be fitted but just disabled in the OS, absent a SIM card, so you may not even need a stand-alone 4G modem or router if the PC can adopt that role for you. Just pop in a SIM card straight into the laptop itself.
    Enjoy... ;-)

  41. #91
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fschwep View Post
    I can't give any advice on British providers/subscriptions etc. to use, but here's my few cents. For a really short, temporary situation, a good smartphone with a solid data subscription may work reasonaby well as a wifi hotspot connected to 4G. I use that when we have a problem with the internet at home, and my wife did it when she had to stay in a corporate apartment on weekdays during a three-month training program with an employer. It's good enough to read and write e-mails and do some light internetting, but as soon as you need higher speeds and good reactivity, you may be in trouble. I assume that is less the case in an urban invironment where one is always close to a relay antenna, as more distance makes the milliseconds for the lightspeed connection add up. You see the same thing with internet connections by satellite: decent download speed for large files, but horrible latency due to the distance involved.
    Anyway, it might be worth a try to do that thing with your smartphone first to see if the 4G connection is suitable.
    It may also be worth looking into the detailed specs of any laptop computer you are using. Some have a slot for a 4G wireless card, it may even already be fitted but just disabled in the OS, absent a SIM card, so you may not even need a stand-alone 4G modem or router if the PC can adopt that role for you. Just pop in a SIM card straight into the laptop itself.
    Enjoy... ;-)
    The 4G service where I am in the UK is fast enough to stream 3 channels of 4K video simultaneously - what more speed could you possibly need? When I was with EE I got 80Mbps/40Mbps. Now with SMARTY I get around 60Mbps/30Mbps. Both are plenty fast enough for anything and everything we do and the latency wouldn't be noticeable to a gamer; we are not gamers. The latency for both averages out at 42ms. Aside from satellite served internet, latency is clearly affected by distance but not by anything meaningful - way less than 1ms for any distance at which you'd receive a useful signal. If you go to the posts near the top of this page you'll see that using a phone with a relevant SIM installed was discussed as a means of determining speeds and suitability of a service provider.

    I have gone from 6.5/0.7Mbps using the landline to the speeds above by using the 4G networks. It's cheaper, faster and I no longer have a landline; I haven't missed it for a minute. As you'll see from this and other threads several of us have gone down this route and as we've checked things out first we've all had great experiences. With the roll-out of 5G already occurring in the cities in the UK I simply don't see the landline infrastructure surviving for too long as it's expensive to install and maintain. 5G can also match and even exceed the fastest of fibre currently available although at roll out this isn't the case - you get around 350Mbps currently with 5G.
    Last edited by Skier; 20th October 2019 at 23:04.

  42. #92
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    Really impressed with this thread and might be buying a mobile home in a rural area so my only question so far...

    What is the benefit of having an external antenna and the extra cost involved.

    Thanks

    Mark

  43. #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by mjc1216 View Post
    Really impressed with this thread and might be buying a mobile home in a rural area so my only question so far...

    What is the benefit of having an external antenna and the extra cost involved.

    Thanks

    Mark
    An external (to the modem/router) or an external i.e. outdoor antenna will help where using the modem/router's inbuilt antennae provides a marginal signal. If you get a good signal using just the modem/router there's no real benefit. Have a look at post 49 of this thread where I've linked to two antennae I have used with great success.

  44. #94
    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post
    I'd appreciate some similar advice on portable kit. Quite widely differing prices on these examples that seem to rate reasonably well on Amazon:

    TP-LINK M7200

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-M72.../dp/B0797VW7FG

    NETGEAR AC790

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-AC7.../dp/B016WGT7DQ

    TP-Link M7350

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-M73.../dp/B06XC16QC1

    NETGEAR AC810

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-AC8.../dp/B01FUZE5H8
    I was faced with the same dilemma. The M7350 seems to review up well.

    Do you need Ethernet out of it? I do for use at home as well.

    Would you ever be anywhere there’s internet on Ethernet and you could plug into that? I.e. use Ethernet again but the other way round. Useful if you’re in a rental cottage and don’t have the WiFi password but do have physical access to the router and its rj45s on the back :) Stick it in, make your own access point, voila.

    Will you ever need to connect an external 4g aerial? Some results about this are posted above.

    What is the power source for each one? Battery? Replaceable? Capacity? Can you use it to bump start your phone in an emergency?

    The only one I found that did everything on my list and more was the netgear mr1100. Pricey but they were heavily reduced in Black Friday last year.
    Last edited by catch21; 21st October 2019 at 07:44.

  45. #95
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coronet king View Post
    Anybody looking to sign up with smarty you can go through Quidco and get up to £15 cash back or sign up this month through this

    https://referme.to/OgCGiYo

    Refer a friend and you get a free month * I would also get a free month supposedly so happy to Chuck a tenner into the fundraiser if anybody uses the link.

    I have gone from 2.5mbs to 25mbs and it’s £13 a month cheaper, so it comes highly recommended from me.

    Also a big thanks to skier for convincing me to give this a go.
    Thanks to kungfupanda for using the link. I will add £10 to the fundraiser on his behalf as a thank you.
    Only 2 days left on the smarty offer if anybody fancies their 2nd month for FREE!!

  46. #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by catch21 View Post
    I was faced with the same dilemma. The M7350 seems to review up well.

    Do you need Ethernet out of it? I do for use at home as well.

    Would you ever be anywhere there’s internet on Ethernet and you could plug into that? I.e. use Ethernet again but the other way round. Useful if you’re in a rental cottage and don’t have the WiFi password but do have physical access to the router and it’s rj45s on the back :) Stick it in, make your own access point, voila.

    Will you ever need to connect an external 4g aerial? Some results about this are posted above.

    What is the power source for each one? Battery? Replaceable? Capacity? Can you use it to bump start your phone in an emergency?

    The only one I found that did everything on my list and more was the netgear mr1100. Pricey but they were heavily reduced in Black Friday last year.
    Thanks. Food for thought. I hadn't thought it through. One size EDIT DOESN'T! fit all. Good point about Black Friday too - can't be more than a month away?
    Last edited by David_D; 21st October 2019 at 14:46.

  47. #97
    Master Maysie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    Quote Originally Posted by mjc1216 View Post
    Really impressed with this thread and might be buying a mobile home in a rural area so my only question so far...

    What is the benefit of having an external antenna and the extra cost involved.

    Thanks

    Mark
    I have an external antenna (uni-directional) which has improved my signal strength from 75% to a constant 100%. With that came increased speeds and reliability. I am fortunate to have clear line of site to the mast.

    My signal using the supplied 'bunny ears' on the router was probably fine, but I wanted something which was as good as it could be as we rely heavily on our 4G service for VOIP phones and home offices.

  48. #98
    Master
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    Coming Straight Outer Trumpton
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    9,385
    To assist others, this is the router I recently purchased to give my mum home broad band on 4G.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Seems stable and consistent speed wise.

  49. #99
    Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    M62 corridor
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coronet king View Post
    Anybody looking to sign up with smarty you can go through Quidco and get up to £15 cash back or sign up this month through this

    https://referme.to/OgCGiYo

    Refer a friend and you get a free month * I would also get a free month supposedly so happy to Chuck a tenner into the fundraiser if anybody uses the link.

    Done! Got to be worth giving it a go!

  50. #100
    Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    M62 corridor
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    Quote Originally Posted by catch21 View Post
    The only one I found that did everything on my list and more was the netgear mr1100. Pricey but they were heavily reduced in Black Friday last year.
    Lowest Amazon price was £222 just before Christmas last year. About £240 last November - poss BF deal.

    Can I ask what you paid?

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