Learning the Hard Way: Overhauling Our 4G Mast for Max Internet Speeds-Off grid day 50

Рет қаралды 30,305

Күн бұрын

Part 1 • Beating Starlink inter...
Part 3 • Rural Internet Setup R...
In this follow-up video, we're upgrading and revamping the 4G internet mast setup after receiving lots of helpful comments on the first video. We're replacing the flimsy mast with a sturdier pole, running armored cable, and testing out a new outdoor router with different antennas.
The main goal is to see how far we can push the internet speeds by testing the setup at various locations around the site. We'll be troubleshooting issues, swapping components, and trying different configurations to maximize download and upload speeds.
Despite the challenges, this is a learning experience as we tackle understanding signals, antennas, and the factors influencing rural internet performance. By the end, we settle on a simpler ethernet cable solution after much trial-and-error.
Whether you're looking to improve your rural internet or just curious about this DIY project, come along for an insightful ride full of valuable lessons learned along the way. Let's see what speeds we can achieve!
3G internet-www.three.co.uk/broadband/hom...
Starlink- www.starlink.com/residential?...
Directional antenna-www.netxl.com/directional-ant...
Point to point wifi-www.broadbandbuyer.com/produc...
Socket set-www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-25-Pi...
Router-www.outdoorrouter.com/product...
Router-www.broadbandbuyer.com/produc...
POE extender-www.senetic.co.uk/product/DN-...
Website-www.offgridscotland.co.uk/
Facebook- / offgridscotland
Instagram- / offgridscotland123
00:00 Intro
01:00 Replacing the mast
01:04 Point to Point wifi
05:17 Test 1
06:17 Test 2
07:16 Test 3
08:42 Test 4
10:57 Retest 1
11:56 Retest 2
12:11 Retest 3
13:11 Antennas
15:11 What have we learned
16:49 Cat 18 Router
19:06 Running ethernet
23:50 Terminating
27:58 Results
29:39 Visiting the main mast

Пікірлер: 530

@MaD_fX Ай бұрын

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

@danieldevine Ай бұрын

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

@MartinBarker Ай бұрын

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

@SignedAdam Ай бұрын

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

@nickd6677 Ай бұрын

@@SignedAdamhe did at the end 32:06

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@DG8RS Ай бұрын

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

@dudleysdad Ай бұрын

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

@albert_vds Ай бұрын

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

@nirodper Ай бұрын

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

@jada1173 Ай бұрын

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

@TonySquared09 Ай бұрын

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

@PeterFinney Ай бұрын

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

@TomMorris1 Ай бұрын

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

@anthonyjobson Ай бұрын

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

@JoelHaasnoot Ай бұрын

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

@LambySRI Ай бұрын

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

@gordslater Ай бұрын

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

@Dan-vv1tl Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks!

@petershores Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks Peter

@northillvideo Ай бұрын

Very interesting journey!

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thank you very much

@Phone_Geek Ай бұрын

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

@BobHannent Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@Phone_Geek Ай бұрын

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

@howardatherton3889 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@Eb3nez3r Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@AnonymousMiner2 14 күн бұрын

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

@offgridscotland 12 күн бұрын

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

@ramfrancisuk Ай бұрын

Good stuff, very interesting

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks

@318ishonk Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@pauliusruginis5264 Ай бұрын

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

@zuighemdanmaar752 Ай бұрын

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

@JoelHaasnoot Ай бұрын

He mentioned the bands on the first video

@pauliusruginis5264 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@SmartAndTidy Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@MegaKrustyman Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@annas1970 2 күн бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Күн бұрын

Nice that sounds like a great setup

@Elliott-ET Ай бұрын

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

@matthewella8280 Ай бұрын

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

@konadesu Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@remog38 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@MhWow66 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@markerichannelly Ай бұрын

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

@dougle03 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@itsadamoc Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@lucasthielke Ай бұрын

Nice

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

thanks

@Player456-xy1gs Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@gordslater Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

That makes sense thank you

@pogman15 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@gavin9038 Ай бұрын

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

@garwilliams1 Ай бұрын

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

@neodonkey Ай бұрын

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

@gordslater Ай бұрын

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

@neodonkey Ай бұрын

@@gordslater Makes sense. Sometimes later is better.

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thank you very much

@LambySRI Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@johnboyle1807 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@baldelectrician Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland 29 күн бұрын

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

@TaylorMadeSmartHomes Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@tomfahey2823 Ай бұрын

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

@dougle03 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Aha thank you

@jklhgfdsa Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@ianjohnson1881 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@stewartstewartstewart Ай бұрын

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

@dusinnhht Ай бұрын

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

@w75525 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks those definitions help to explain what they are

@james3418 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thank you James

@TomMorris1 Ай бұрын

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

@wood42shed Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@AdrianMcDaid Ай бұрын

Hard to beat cable!!

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@AdrianMcDaid Ай бұрын

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

@mixza81 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@M7TFT Ай бұрын

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

@konadesu Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks It felt like we couldnt push it much further

@konadesu Ай бұрын

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

@w75525 Ай бұрын

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

@tehsimo Ай бұрын

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

@cyberdude2403 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@zodofilies2307 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@andreaspfeil8682 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@hurrichad8871 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@bthjf12003 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks I am happy now the dust has settled

@sine1989yahoo Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@Beansswtf Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

thank you very much

@insAneTunA Ай бұрын

Well, now you know 👍

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@f35t3r6 Ай бұрын

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

@hunglikeadonkeybutnotassmelly Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Ah thank you

@shakymedia258 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@DodgyFPV Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

thanks those sould like what I need

@Will-sc3hw Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

I will have a look

@ianjohnson1881 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Thanks thats very useful information

@scottrtq Ай бұрын

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

@hunglikeadonkeybutnotassmelly Ай бұрын

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

@gavin9038 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

Ok thanks I will have a look into them

@colinwaldron7399 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@felixfarquharson 24 күн бұрын

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

@colinwaldron7399 23 күн бұрын

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

@felixfarquharson 23 күн бұрын

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

@hurrichad8871 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@stephenlipton525 Ай бұрын

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

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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

@Saeglopur89 Ай бұрын

Zyxel is really good. Mikrotik just after that

@offgridscotland Ай бұрын

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