MOFI firmware vs Goldenorb?

[Mtr87]

Hi I’m new. Can someone give me a reason why the Goldenorb firmware would be a better choice than just the MOFI firmware?

I have been trying to improve my 6-15 mbps for weeks and wondering if I should try different settings to optimize. Here’s what I have:

Two Proxicast yagi 7-10 antennas at 45*
Mofi 4500 with the Sierra 7455 modem
115ft of LMR 400 connected to the ports
60ft tower with about -75 to -90 reception
parabolic long range connected to a cell booster since I have a non existent signal in the house.
Ubifi’s rural internet/ att SIM card

I can be more detailed if needed. But just trying to learn more about optimizing the modem. I’ve tried band locks and my interface shows I have a pretty fair signal, just doesn’t make sense to me why I can’t really get something closer to a consistent 25mbps or more considering how expensive this journey has been . Just wondering if it’s worth it to try and use a different firmware or if I can really expect any improvement on my speeds with that.

Thanks

[BillA]

Hi I’m new. Can someone give me a reason why the Goldenorb firmware would be a better choice than just the MOFI firmware?

I have been trying to improve my 6-15 mbps for weeks and wondering if I should try different settings to optimize. Here’s what I have:

I can be more detailed if needed. But just trying to learn more about optimizing the modem. I’ve tried band locks and my interface shows I have a pretty fair signal, just doesn’t make sense to me why I can’t really get something closer to a consistent 25mbps or more considering how expensive this journey has been . Just wondering if it’s worth it to try and use a different firmware or if I can really expect any improvement on my speeds with that.

Thanks

Usually the router itself won't improve your speeds/throughput by much, it's mostly a function of the modem/antenna being used. While higher end routers feature a faster USB3 bus which can in some cases cut down on data bottlenecks, it's the modem and antenna system which will provide you with more significant improvements.

Generally the more bands and higher CAT# the modem has, the better the speeds/throughput, however actual performance depends on several other factors such as the data plan (amount of included data/throttling), distance from the tower, terrain and environmental/weather factors.

As far as CA (Carrier Aggregation), the only thing you can do is either set the modem to auto-scan, or restrict it to a few known good bands (sometimes people include a weak or unusable band inadvertently, which can make the overall performance suffer compared to auto-scan), then let the tower handle the CA, which is does elusively, there's no way to force it. It's highly recommended to always have your modem's firmware updated to the latest version, which may contain bug fixes, speed improvements, and even new features.

You can find more info about various modems in the following links.
Here's info on modems which supports band 14, a new ATT emergency band used in some markets:
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=4423#p4423

Here's info on Quectel modems:
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=5177#p5177

Here's some information about US carriers:
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=5353#p5353

And here's a list of currently used bands by major US carriers, note that not all bands are being used in every market. Reseller/MVNO carriers pretty much used the same bands but may add their own data limit/throttling restrictions. The "*" means it's the carrier's main band.
ATT = *2, 4, 5, 12, 14, 17, 29, 30, 46, 66
TMO = 2, *4, 5, 12, 46, 66, 71
VZW = 2, 4, 5, *13, 66
SPR = *25, 26, 41

You can find a good selection of routers, modems and antennas at LTFix.com, along with tips 'n tutorials, and a nice helpful guy named JimHelms. (a shameless capitalist plug lol)
And yes, this "hobby" can become a bit expensive, especially when trying to squeeze out the last drop of Mbps, but usually it pays for itself in both performance and cost savings versus those blood sucking DSL, cable, and satellite companies, which all LOVE to HATE.

[SliverGT]

I agree with Bill that running Golden Orb on the Mofi is not liklely to help your speeds much. Is your cable length really 115ft? If so that is attenuating a lot of your signal, especially if you are using band 2 on AT&T at 1900mhz. According to their chart you are losing 7.5db which is nearly 80% of the signal.
https://www.timesmicrowave.com/calculat ... uency=1900

I started out with a Mofi 4500, Ubifi, 50ft of LMR400 and 2 Wilson yagi antennas. My speeds were all over the place and it would lose it's connection a couple times a day. I'm about 3 miles from the tower with lots of evergreen trees. Tried different antennas, aiming, booster, without much success. The booster did improve the signal strength but did not eliminate the disconnects.

After finding this site I decided to try a Raspberry Pi router running Golden Orb with EM7565 modem and place them close to the antennas in an oudoor box to shorten the cable run as much as possible. That eliminated my disconnects and I'm consistently seeing 50-70mbps down and 15-20up.

[Mtr87]

Thanks a lot y’all. Really appreciate the commentary. I’m really hoping to get some more consistency. With that I guess I’ll just stick to my regular firmware with the MOFI for now. My dad brought over this little sprint hotspot and without any of the above components outside of the cell booster and the tower, he was getting 24-30 with no questions asked. So I’m also wondering if the UBIFI service I’m paying 89 a month for is just reselling the band with no body wants or something. The one tower with in range of the yagis is like 5 miles out. My parabolic hits a tower about 10 miles out but I just don’t think I can do MIMO with that because it won’t fit on my tower at this point. Plus it’s so narrow of a beam I don’t know if I’d get any improvement there. Amazing 80%?? Geeze I thought that stuff was the top notch. I guess because there is so much of it . I was also wondering if I’m getting some interference between my booster and the mofi router. I’m just in such a dead zone I have zero reception without the booster.

Thanks again for talks help!

[ironman_gq]

Ubifi is just reselling an unlimited ATT service that does not appear to suffer from deprioritization it uses whatever bands ATT is broadcasting on in your area. Sprint might have better reception in your area.

You need to see what bands you are connected to and if you are getting carrier aggregation, log into the mofi and look at the signal status, run a speed test while watching it. Then you need to figure out what bands your tower is broadcasting and look at optimizing your settings and antennas to grab onto the ones that have the highest bandwidth. You can run a band scan in the Mofi firmware that will tell you what signals are available, try using the bandlock settings and test each band individually to see which one is fastest and second fastest, then lock out the ones that suck.

I'm 8 miles from the nearest tower with a lot of pine trees and I'm getting a pretty solid 30-40mbps downloads.
40' antenna height
50' LMR400
2 wideband yagi antennas
2 wilson M2M amplifiers just before the Mofi- these are basically a low power booser with 15db gain and allow direct connection.

Without the amplifiers I had a lot of issues with disconnects and poor reliability, been rock solid since adding them. My best speeds have all been with a band 4 connection aggregated with band 12. Total bandwidth of 30mhz

[gscheb]

So I’m also wondering if the UBIFI service I’m paying 89 a month for is just reselling the band with no body wants or something. The one tower with in range of the yagis is like 5 miles out.

$89 is pretty high price to pay for AT&T service.

[ehDuh]

$89 is pretty high price to pay for AT&T service.

There are other companies selling the exact same thing as ubifi for $200/month. Until I just found this site I thought that Ubifi was a bargain. I'm coming off of Viasat's "unlimited" plan that I was paying $150/month for...they would deprioritize your traffic after 150GB...so much for unlimited.