I need beeb wisedom on how I can optimize my current internet situation. I am currently using a little Verizon 4g jetpack for my home internet and it works just ok, better than I thought but not good enough for what I will need(working from home on a VM). I am looking to hook up one or two directional antennas and aim them right at the 4G tower that is about 1/2 mile from my house and in clear view. Should I get two them or is one fine? I saw pictures on Amazon of people using two at different angles. Should I try to find a narrow band or will a wideband work just fine? This is the antenna I've been looking at: https://smile.amazon.com/Electronic...Antenna&qid=1563995087&s=wireless&sr=1-3&th=1 I have no idea if the 50 ohm or 75 ohm would work better?? Paired with this: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01MQRH...colid=AHCCPK9L7G51&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
I would if I could, 4G is my only option besides satellite and I'm not going down that shitty road with their data limits. My Verizon is unlimited data
Kinda had the same problem. I bought a high boost home 10k booster. Download speeds went from 2-3 mbps to around 10-12 mbps. Was pretty expensive at $550 but worth it to me. Recently got a tower close by ...now getting 60 without boosting lol.
A decade ago that would have been a great connection. Today it's the slightly faster but less reliable DSL line.
https://www.verizonwireless.com/products/antenna-for-lte/ https://www.alternativewireless.com/weboost-home4g-cell-signalbooster.html
Thanks for the replies but verizons internet option gives me limited data. Right now I have unlimited but deprioritized data with their Pre-paid jetpack plan. Our tower has very few houses around it so I don't really ever get my speeds lowered for higher priority customers. I can pop the SIM card out and put into the modem I linked above. The antenna you linked is interesting, might pick one of those up for the RV or something. I want to get away from using the jetpack at home because it kind of sucks for how it handles multiple devices. I really want to get back to using an actual wifi router I can plug into.
If that is what you are after you need something like the TPLink TL-WR740n. It supports WDS wireless bridging.
Bumping this now that it's 2 years later. Anyone with experience with Verizon LTE Home? claims of 25mbps download. I am in Nashville so would think it should see close to that. My main issue is that they used coax when building this house, so even if I paid for fiber optic my router would only hit 18-20mbps. Short of tearing up the floor that will be my bottleneck. So if download speeds are as advertised it's a no brainer and I save $20/mo.
Check into Starlink.com. You'd probably be on a waitlist right now (refundable deposit), but there's likely to be pretty significant expansion in the next few months. If you're shopping wireless internet, you should look into it. Edit: Ninja'd by Tristan. I don't have it myself, but have spent a lot of time following it and reading reports. If you're shopping cell based internet you should really look into it. Speeds vary depending on the user, but are typically between 50mbs and 150mbs. You also need to have a pretty clear view of the sky to get consistent results.
I've had cellular internet for 11 years now, and have been on the prepaid Starlink wait list since February. Looking forward to the day when the dishy is up and running and I can load the 4g router in the skeet thrower and yell PULL. From the people I know that have it, and have gone through all the other bullshit rural internet options, Starlink is a total game changer. Can't wait.
A co worker has it and loves it. Was in the same situation as the OP, cell service only. I put in my order. Can't wait until I get it.
I'm about 10km from fiber, but there are no other options for us without erecting a large tower to get light of sight wifi (or explornet lol). With line of sight I'd be able to get unlimited bandwidth, but with 4g/lte I'm unable to get unlimited, and rate plans get expensive the more data you use. The last 6 months have been over $400/month. Speed and service have been great though. It never goes down, and is fast enough for you tube etc. Starlink will blow it out of the water, in speed and price. I'm in Canada, so theres limited competition, and insane rate plans compared to you guys in the states. We just get hosed.
If you use the external antenna, some notes: At the frequencies that 4G uses (1900MHz), the cable will have a lot of loss compared to the signal you have available (in both directions - you to them and them to you). Buy the lowest loss cable you can for that connection, probably something from Times Cable type LMR. Its expensive, but next to the antenna, its the most critical component of the system. Have it made with the correct connectors to match your antenna and modem (try L-Com for that), and have it made to the minimum length you need, not any longer. When looking at the specs, remember that a loss of 3dB is a loss of half (50%) of the signal power. Keep the cables as short as technically possible.
For working remotely via virtual desktop, the bigger metric you want focus on is latency, whats your current latency to your VM broker? If you ping the URL that you connect to to get to your VM from your laptop (if they have ICMP replies turned on) it will tell you. Anything less than 100ms is perfectly fine for the remote display protocols. Once you get up to 200 and over everything gets really delayed and laggy and is pretty much unusable.
I'm in the same boat as far as limited rural internet options. I actually have both a local wireless provider and AT&T wireless off of a tower that is about a mile away. Both provide unlimited data but the speeds aren't even comparable. AT&T is giving me 80Mbps down/18 up and the local wireless is only 5Mbps down/2 up. I have both so I have options in case one goes down as I do all of my work from home. I am just using the modem AT&T gave me with no external antenna. I would be surprised if Starlink's service ends up beating that but it will be nice to have another option. I don't trust that AT&T won't throttle me down at some point. There will never be fiber out here and the cable and telcos aren't really running new copper anymore so that will never be here either.
Had T-Mobile WiFi for a year now running everything (inc TV's), $50 per month and never missed a beat.. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp
