New to 4g Routers

[vnmb13]

I am considering getting into building a 4g router. I often work in rural locations, and currently I am tethering to a walmart phone and using PDAnet. And often the work trailers I am in are equipped with a WeBoost. However I would like to get a more sophisticated set up. From what I've seen so far on the forums, it seems you guys are installed 4g modems into routers? I am not interested really in wifi, only being able to tether my laptop and get signal in remote areas.

Also, I've seen on other websites and videos that people say that their 4g router antennae gets a better boost than some of the weboost or cell signal boosters. This may be a reason for me to consider a router with good antannae?

I've already seen some 4g modem chips and the guides to install firmware on them. I am confident I could do this, I guess I just need a push in the right direction. I just want to know what other methods of actually using modems there are. Or which one applies to me the most (which is just tethering to it on my laptop).

[Didneywhorl]

Welcome to the forum! You've come to the right place.

It really depends on what you want to do. You say you just want to hook up to your laptop, assuming via Ethernet.

But how powerful of the system do you want?

What carriers, cellular carriers, do you want to have coverage for? All of them?

Do you want to have the best antennas and signal quality?

Building a cellular gateway router is actually super duper simple, once you get into it it's not that bad.

The hardest part is usually just getting the routers to work with different cellular phone plans and tablet plans and hotspot plans.

Do you want to start off with something simple, and aren't really worried about having good Wi-Fi, I would recommend getting a WG3526-P from https://thewirelesshaven.com and drop either a Sierra mc7411 or em7565 into it.

The em7565 would be my choice, but the mc7411 covers bands 14 (ATT) and B71 (Tmobile).

[Didneywhorl]

You can build that system above pretty simply and test it out wherever you're at, then if you need something like some better antennas directional or otherwise you can test out those and add them onto your system.

This saves you money up front and allows you to work with the modem and router and understand troubleshooting signal strength and stuff like that.

You could go straight to the custom router inside an antenna enclosure outdoor directional high-powered yada yada yada builds, but most people get in over their heads with those if it's their first project.

Something like this: https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=16

Honestly it's not really hard to build one of those, but for one of your first projects and maybe a little daunting.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Would agree with the above advice.
If you can get the data you need from a phone tether set up you many not need to get crazy with the antenna and cabling hairball.

Could save you half the cost & pain of a complete setup.

Start small and go slow you can always add as needed.

The fact is you have a workable solution, so there is no rush!

[gscheb]

For easy build always like the the Quectel EM12.

[derekjsmith]

My setup is a NEXQ6GO router with a EM12 modem running the latest The Wireless Haven firmware. I've got two, one with a Verizon SIM the other a Visible SIM. Am using a log periodic cross-polarized MIMO external antenna array for the best performance.

[vnmb13]

Thanks for the advice guys. I am leaning toward building the WG3526-P. I just want to make sure whatever I do is more powerful than what I am using now. It would be nice to not have to wait until I go on days off and have wifi to download certain things.

*I am using a Samsung A01 btw. The uplink and downlink speeds are 150 and 50mbps.