Greetings from a too far away country

[EdiCavani]

Hi all and thanks for reading. First above all excuse my english as it is not my native language ( Im from Uruguay, the small country between Arg and Brazil).

Having read a lot of posts and comments in the forum, let me tell you I am learning a lot more than any other place. I was really lucky to find you guys!

As you may suppose I am totally newby about LTE connection and stuff, but without this forum I should have to move forward and get into a contract for the only one service offered where I will be living in a couple of months.

In the city where I live atm, Montevideo, we have fiber and easily can get 120mb dl and 20mb ul. The thing is that we decided to move out of the city and there isn´t fiber service at all. The only two services are the one I mentioned above and the other one is trying to get the best possible signal from LTE towers.

Having that in mind, I began doing a research about the second option and finally reach the forum. At home we already have the ASUS RT-AC88U used as router, so, here goes my first 2 questions:

1- Could I connect a M.2 to USB 3.0 adapter (with a modem attached to it) to the router USB 3.0 port and been able to get internet from a sim card?

2- The router has MIMO cappabilities, so, should I been able to connect outdoor antennas to it?

In case the answer for this 2 questions were affirmative, I am thinking into buy this modem: Quectel EM160R-GL CAT16 M.2, from The Wireless Haven. Otherwise I should consider spending some extra cash into some of theirs routers too.

Having the setup at home, here comes the following questions:

3- Will I be able to choose what band to connect from with that modem? I mean, is this some feature for the modem or am I limited by the router? This must be obvious for some of you guys, but not for me.

4- The furthest tower is 4miles away from my new house, I do have 3 closer but from the furthest I get better dl and ul speeds. Should I choose the furthest instead of the closer ones?

Excuse me about the long post, I will be more than happy to get all your comments and suggestions.

[Didneywhorl]

Hi all and thanks for reading. First above all excuse my english as it is not my native language ( Im from Uruguay, the small country between Arg and Brazil).

Having read a lot of posts and comments in the forum, let me tell you I am learning a lot more than any other place. I was really lucky to find you guys!

As you may suppose I am totally newby about LTE connection and stuff, but without this forum I should have to move forward and get into a contract for the only one service offered where I will be living in a couple of months.

In the city where I live atm, Montevideo, we have fiber and easily can get 120mb dl and 20mb ul. The thing is that we decided to move out of the city and there isn´t fiber service at all. The only two services are the one I mentioned above and the other one is trying to get the best possible signal from LTE towers.

Having that in mind, I began doing a research about the second option and finally reach the forum. At home we already have the ASUS RT-AC88U used as router, so, here goes my first 2 questions:

Welcome to the forum!

1- Could I connect a M.2 to USB 3.0 adapter (with a modem attached to it) to the router USB 3.0 port and been able to get internet from a sim card?

If your Asus has drivers for the modems, then yes. Otherwise you may need to try and find a "Goldenorb" or openWRT (with modemmanager added) firmware image and flash that to the router, OR buy a router that can use LTE gateway modem supporting firmware.

2- The router has MIMO cappabilities, so, should I been able to connect outdoor antennas to it?

In case the answer for this 2 questions were affirmative, I am thinking into buy this modem: Quectel EM160R-GL CAT16 M.2, from The Wireless Haven. Otherwise I should consider spending some extra cash into some of theirs routers too.

The MIMO capabilities for the LTE connection are dependent on the modem,the routers antennas are just for the WiFi. The EM160 is a great modem and is 4x4 MIMO, so you will need 4 matched antennas for it.

Having the setup at home, here comes the following questions:


3- Will I be able to choose what band to connect from with that modem? I mean, is this some feature for the modem or am I limited by the router? This must be obvious for some of you guys, but not for me.

The modems have a manuals on what "AT Commands" can be sent to it for settings changes. One of those commands is to lock the modem to certain cellular bands. This can be done and undone with a simple command. We have tutorials on some of this here in the tutorials sections

4- The furthest tower is 4miles away from my new house, I do have 3 closer but from the furthest I get better dl and ul speeds. Should I choose the furthest instead of the closer ones?

Excuse me about the long post, I will be more than happy to get all your comments and suggestions.

Sometimes you can choose this, sometimes not, but I always say connect to the best one for you, far away or not.

[EdiCavani]

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks!

If your Asus has drivers for the modems, then yes. Otherwise you may need to try and find a "Goldenorb" or openWRT (with modemmanager added) firmware image and flash that to the router, OR buy a router that can use LTE gateway modem supporting firmware.

Well, I did some research through the ASUS website and found this: https://www.asus.com/event/networks_3g4g_support/. There isnt a clear reference to the modem I am planning to buy. May I know your thougths on this, please?

The MIMO capabilities for the LTE connection are dependent on the modem,the routers antennas are just for the WiFi. The EM160 is a great modem and is 4x4 MIMO, so you will need 4 matched antennas for it.

Perfect. About the antennas, my idea is buying some LPDA or parabolic grid, mainly because of the bigger gains. I saw a lot of post where you recommend the flat pannels. Are this ones better than parabolics?

The modems have a manuals on what "AT Commands" can be sent to it for settings changes. One of those commands is to lock the modem to certain cellular bands. This can be done and undone with a simple command. We have tutorials on some of this here in the tutorials sections

Ok, nice!

Sometimes you can choose this, sometimes not, but I always say connect to the best one for you, far away or not.

Perfect!