Are external mobile data aerials a thing?
Discussion
I've had a quick Google of this, but only seem to find ways of boosting reception from a router inside a house to phones and whatnot, which is not what I need.
I need to find a way to get reliable broadband level internet to a house in a remote location. There is no landline connection, and a mobile phone will just about pick up enough of a signal to get data, if you stand in the right place and hold it in the air but it's weak.
I wonder whether there is a way to get an external aerial on the house that would pick up the mobile phone signal better than a phone does (by dint of being larger, higher and outdoors) and relay that signal to a router in the house that the phone or laptop could then connect to.
I hope that makes sense. Any thoughts?
I need to find a way to get reliable broadband level internet to a house in a remote location. There is no landline connection, and a mobile phone will just about pick up enough of a signal to get data, if you stand in the right place and hold it in the air but it's weak.
I wonder whether there is a way to get an external aerial on the house that would pick up the mobile phone signal better than a phone does (by dint of being larger, higher and outdoors) and relay that signal to a router in the house that the phone or laptop could then connect to.
I hope that makes sense. Any thoughts?
Have a look at Draytek:
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/accessories/ant...
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-...
About £50 each for the antennas & £10 for the 5m cable.
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/accessories/ant...
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-...
About £50 each for the antennas & £10 for the 5m cable.
I use one of these antennas:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0001-Cr...
I positioned the antenna using a phone app showing tower locations and signal strength.
And this modem:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlocked-Configuration-Re...
There are better options than the modem now.
I get about 15 Mbps in a very patchy 4g area. No landline. It's fine for most requirements; streaming video surfing web etc, can drop out occasionally, but probably due to the patchy signal here.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/ is a good resource
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0001-Cr...
I positioned the antenna using a phone app showing tower locations and signal strength.
And this modem:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlocked-Configuration-Re...
There are better options than the modem now.
I get about 15 Mbps in a very patchy 4g area. No landline. It's fine for most requirements; streaming video surfing web etc, can drop out occasionally, but probably due to the patchy signal here.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/ is a good resource
OP, are you looking for an antenna to receive a 3G/4G signal just for a router to use? Or want to receive, boost and re-broadcast a mobile signal for multiple phones / devices to us?
Putting an external antenna on a router has plenty of choice eg:
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-antennas...
It's been a while since I looked at them, but at one point in time it was illegal to use a booster / repeater that wasn't provided by your mobile network. Does anyone know if that has changed?
Putting an external antenna on a router has plenty of choice eg:
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-antennas...
It's been a while since I looked at them, but at one point in time it was illegal to use a booster / repeater that wasn't provided by your mobile network. Does anyone know if that has changed?
Found this regarding legality. Date is 2020 but I'd image little has changed since. https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/networks/1409136/b...
Harpoon said:
OP, are you looking for an antenna to receive a 3G/4G signal just for a router to use? Or want to receive, boost and re-broadcast a mobile signal for multiple phones / devices to us?
Putting an external antenna on a router has plenty of choice eg:
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-antennas...
It's been a while since I looked at them, but at one point in time it was illegal to use a booster / repeater that wasn't provided by your mobile network. Does anyone know if that has changed?
It's basically to provide a stable and fast enough connection for home working, Zoom calls, that kind of thing. Putting an external antenna on a router has plenty of choice eg:
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-antennas...
It's been a while since I looked at them, but at one point in time it was illegal to use a booster / repeater that wasn't provided by your mobile network. Does anyone know if that has changed?
I used to live in a poor 4g area and used a mobile data router for internet connection to the house.
We started with just the bunny ears on the router itself and were getting about 14 mbps. Had an engineer spend a few hours at the house trying an external aerial and best he could get was 11 mbps. Apparently the bunny ears are omni directional but the external aerials are not so unless you can directly sight on to a phone mast you might not get an improvement.
This was just our experience in the location we were in so your experience will most probably differ.
Fortunately moved now to the joy of FTTP and 150 mbps.
We started with just the bunny ears on the router itself and were getting about 14 mbps. Had an engineer spend a few hours at the house trying an external aerial and best he could get was 11 mbps. Apparently the bunny ears are omni directional but the external aerials are not so unless you can directly sight on to a phone mast you might not get an improvement.
This was just our experience in the location we were in so your experience will most probably differ.
Fortunately moved now to the joy of FTTP and 150 mbps.
You need a 4G modem/router and external aerial.
Teltonika make some good kit in this area. This might work for example
It picks up the 4G signal from outside then distributes it via wifi inside the house. Other models with other features are available.
Teltonika make some good kit in this area. This might work for example
It picks up the 4G signal from outside then distributes it via wifi inside the house. Other models with other features are available.
Check out Mikrotik, they do very good directional stuff, though the cheaper stuff is limited to a 100meg ethernet port on it. Also not all 4G/5G modems are equal, pay attention to its category. This can have a big effect on speeds you will get. this is more so at the lower end of the speed spectrum.
+1 for the Poynting.
They do directional and omnidirectional antenna.
I went for the directional one.
A little bit of trial and error to line it up with the 4G mast - but then bingo. 1 bar suddenly became 4.
And the speed difference was a quantum leap.
Connected the antenna to a 4g router. and switched on wifi calling on my phone.
They do directional and omnidirectional antenna.
I went for the directional one.
A little bit of trial and error to line it up with the 4G mast - but then bingo. 1 bar suddenly became 4.
And the speed difference was a quantum leap.
Connected the antenna to a 4g router. and switched on wifi calling on my phone.
May be worth trying a 4G router before buying an external antenna.
My iphone on 3 gets 1 bar or no service inside my house , my mobile router gets 3 bars in the same location with no external antenna. I get 20-30 meg from the router.
Make sure you get a proper router not a mifi type portable router.
My iphone on 3 gets 1 bar or no service inside my house , my mobile router gets 3 bars in the same location with no external antenna. I get 20-30 meg from the router.
Make sure you get a proper router not a mifi type portable router.
Don’t believe that this has been mentioned yet but cellmapper might help you find what 4g options are closest ‘ will have line of sight.
https://www.cellmapper.net/map
https://www.cellmapper.net/map
Have a read of this thread:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
1) Try sims from all major providers (who have distinct networks). There are big differences between them (potentially)
2) Assuming you can get some sort of signal by phone, try a Huawei B818 router. Move it around the property to see where you get the best results
3) As someone above intimated, and at the thread linked, getting a better signal using an external antenna is difficult/guarantees nothing
Depending on where you are, there may be other solutions if the above yields nothing. Starlink? (Other threads on here/via Google) And there are increasing numbers of companies doing different solutions rurally that might be worth a look. Our county council has a website that has a postcode checker and then lists of operators who are doing things.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
1) Try sims from all major providers (who have distinct networks). There are big differences between them (potentially)
2) Assuming you can get some sort of signal by phone, try a Huawei B818 router. Move it around the property to see where you get the best results
3) As someone above intimated, and at the thread linked, getting a better signal using an external antenna is difficult/guarantees nothing
Depending on where you are, there may be other solutions if the above yields nothing. Starlink? (Other threads on here/via Google) And there are increasing numbers of companies doing different solutions rurally that might be worth a look. Our county council has a website that has a postcode checker and then lists of operators who are doing things.
Jenny Tailor said:
+1 for the Poynting.
They do directional and omnidirectional antenna.
I went for the directional one.
A little bit of trial and error to line it up with the 4G mast - but then bingo. 1 bar suddenly became 4.
And the speed difference was a quantum leap.
Connected the antenna to a 4g router. and switched on wifi calling on my phone.
The downside to the directional antennas is when the operator turns off the mast to do maintenance on it, you won't get any connectivity from the next nearest mast. I fell foul of this myself as my nearest mast seems to go down for maintenance work nearly every week for many hours at a time. I now have an omni and no connectivity issues.They do directional and omnidirectional antenna.
I went for the directional one.
A little bit of trial and error to line it up with the 4G mast - but then bingo. 1 bar suddenly became 4.
And the speed difference was a quantum leap.
Connected the antenna to a 4g router. and switched on wifi calling on my phone.
We used them a lot on our site offices. A lot cheaper than running a landline. External antenna and a 4g router.
Try this lot:
https://www.3grouterstore.co.uk/
Try this lot:
https://www.3grouterstore.co.uk/
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff