4g hotspot router with external aerial port

[gregs656]

A friend of mine is staying in a bit of a 4g black hole for the next few weeks, the signal is patchy. I reckon a 4g hot spot with an external aerial that can be correctly located would probably do the job.

Any recommendations? A quick look on Amazon most of them don't have aerial ports/don't come with an aerial.

Ideally less than £100

[ecsrobin]

Used one of these with good results on a yacht. TP-Link TL-MR6400 300 Mbps 4G Mobile Wi-Fi Router, SIM Slot Unlocked, No Configuration Required, Removable External Wi-Fi Antennas, UK Plug, Black https://amzn.eu/d/0gd7my0

[gregs656]

Thanks, looks good, I will pass it on.

When I looked on my phone the set up with it in the house confused me, easily done

[littlebasher]

I use a Huawei B535 router along with a Poynting directional antenna

[Murph7355]

With some routers, external aerials make no difference.

I think it depends most on where you are, where the mast is in relation etc. And small differences change things a lot

Have you tried different providers too? Where we are, Voda and O2 give very poor performance, 3 are OK but EE gives 4x what 3 gives.

This will also vary depending on location. Best way to test is to get a cheap payg sim.

Lastly, different routers give different performance too. My Huawei B818 gives consistently better performance than my phone (Galaxy Note S10+), and much better performance than my neighbour's router (lower spec Huawei from their provider).

Whatever you buy, make sure you can return it and try it quickly when it arrives

[somouk]

littlebasher said:

I use a Huawei B535 router along with a Poynting directional antenna

I use the same setup, works really well.

[littlebasher]

somouk said:

littlebasher said:

I use a Huawei B535 router along with a Poynting directional antenna

I use the same setup, works really well.

I tried the omni directional antenna initially, it caused a substantial drop in signal compared to the internal antenna! Thought it was broken, so had it replaced and was exactly the same!

Using the directional one in conjunction with the Cellmapper website (so i can tell what direction to point it), gave me a sizable increase in signal strength

[GuyW]

1000% not within the budget, but would very much fix the issue. More of an enterprise option I'll admit!

Cradlepoint cba850. It's our go-to for 4G/LTE hotspot duties. The included antenna is awesome, but if you're really struggling plenty of external options available.

[Simir]

somouk said:

littlebasher said:

I use a Huawei B535 router along with a Poynting directional antenna

I use the same setup, works really well.

I use a Huawei B818 along with a Poynting cross polarised 4g antenna here in the Cotswolds. I think it works pretty well, download speeds of around 40mb which is more than enough for me and I'm too far from a road for Gigaclear to provide a service.

What sort of download speeds should be expected for this set up?

[Captain_Morgan]

GuyW said:

1000% not within the budget, but would very much fix the issue. More of an enterprise option I'll admit!

Cradlepoint cba850. It's our go-to for 4G/LTE hotspot duties. The included antenna is awesome, but if you're really struggling plenty of external options available.

Looked at these a while back don’t they now require a recurring licence fee for the management service & have disabled local mgt?