Wireless Joint

This connection test is shown from a PS4.

The first picture is 4G LTE (hard wired)
Please note, I have no LOS, many trees, and I live in the Foothills of SC.

The second picture shows the "connection" I've dealt with for the past 12 years, on AT&T DSL. (hard wired)


My setup is a WE826 router, and a MC7700 modem, with stock(included)antennas.

I haven't made any changes(other than updating firmware), this is simply a plug and play test run. I actually received my equipment last night, hooked it up, and giggled like a kid on Christmas morning.

I'll eventually add external antennas after switching carries, because AT&T has a nasty strict NAT that doesn't allow me to fully use my speeds.

Thanks to everyone at The Wireless Haven and Wireless Joint! Ya'll are awesome!

Wow, that's quite the difference! I bet you will get 2 to 3 times that speed with outside external antennas.

Do you have a screenshot of your signal status? It would be interesting to see that info.

That would be awesome! Thanks for the interest, and if you can add anything, please do!

is that the signal strength on your phone, or the WE826 router? Also, what operating system are you running on it? I highly recommend installing GoldenOrb, if its not running that already. Reason I ask, is it has a lot more detailed info available in it. From what I can gather, that doesn't look like too bad of a connection, but you can always benefit from having external antennas, regardless of their type.

The signal status is from the router, I logged in from my phone. Is that correct? I am running the current version of GoldenOrb and can get you any info you're interested in, but may need clear directions. I'm new to the depth of all this. I did screenshot the bottom half of the signal status but it didn't upload. I will upload it now along with a couple others for comparison.

oh, that info is good, but is that an app on your phone that connects to your router/modem to view info? I've never seen those screenshots before much less on GoldenOrb.

If you login to the router interface from your computer, you will go to Modem -> Misc -> AT-Command and type 'at!gstatus?' like in the screen shot below.

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I found what you were asking for, the previous screenshot is just a basic connection status on the page where you first login to the router. These pics come from the AT command. I just got a new antenna, so I'll be tweaking it tonight for better connection. I'm learning slowly, but it's keeping me interested which is rare!

Without taking too much of your time, could you give me any tips? Please forgive my questions if they seem unanswerable, as I may or may not understand what I'm talking about haha.

I see I'm connected to B4. But my router seems to be "set" for B2. Is this an issue, or am I even correct?

Sure, I'm glad to help where I can! I'll address a few different topics/questions below.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by your modem/router is connected to Band 4, but is set for Band 2? Is that pictured somewhere in the screenshots? All I see is you connected to Band 4. You can "lock" your modem to a specific band, but for most use cases that is not ideal or desired. I would let the modem select the proper band.

2. What antennas did you get?

3. The signal values in your screenshot look pretty good, except for the SINR (Signal to Noise Ratio) In my opinion, and experience, SINR, is in fact, the most important value in LTE. In your case, you have a negative signal to noise ratio. The fact that your connection is even working with a negative signal to noise ratio is amazing to me. You want this value to be as high as possible. Here's a few links I'd recommend reading on what this value means, and why you want to increase it:

https://www.radio-electronics.com/info/ ... -ratio.php

SINR is really important in LTE, because the higher the signal to noise ratio, the higher modulation rate you will get, and hence throughput. LTE uses an adaptive modulation scheme based on SINR. Below is a example on a 10mhz bandwith LTE cell:

https://www.mwrf.com/sites/mwrf.com/fil ... TEfig5.gif

All this being said, I'd first recommend taking your modem/router setup outside, and comparing the signal results to what you get outside. You might need an extension cord outside or something to be able to move it around and compare. Additionally, I'd recommend looking at http://www.antennasearch.com/ and trying to figure out where the cell tower in your area is that you are connecting to. If you can't figure it out, you can kind of figure this out through experimentation. Start by moving your modem/router from one side of the house to the other (or all 4 corners) and see which spot has the strongest signal. Chances are that side will be the direction the signal is coming from (your house is really good at blocking signal). Then you can coorelate that to antennasearch. If you can get a good signal to noise ratio inside the house (I'd say greater than 10 at least), then you'll likely never need to mount antennas outside. In my experience though, everytime you double your SINR, you'll double your thoughput.

Hopefully thats helpful, and not information overload. Let me know if you have any other questions, and what results you find!

He's a few screenahots of a more dialed in connection. I'll answer your previous questions tomorrow, and I appreciate all suggestions and info. I'm learning as I go. Any idea why my UL is so high in the fourth pic? This was taken with speed test, but with my phone on wifi. Not sure if that matters, or if I need to use a computer? The first two pics are from a laptop with a wired connection, the last 3 pics relate, and the middle two that show a history of speeds are just that.

Here's the antenna info. I'm ashamed to say I went elsewhere for that, to save money on the coax. I ended up with a used Poynting A-XPOL-0002-V2. It's roughly 17ft off the ground with the included 15ft coax. I'm running the coax through the window until my wife finds out. Then I plan to build a PoE setup of some sort. I'm having to connect to Interstate towers, and I'm probably lucky to get what I'm getting. I don't want to guess, but I'd say I'm 6 miles away with no LOS. I'll get the facts soon.

Based on the screenshots you shared, it looks like your modem is connecting at times to Band 17 and Band 4. You are likely on the outer edge of a cell, and that is why its hopping back and forth between those bands. I did some research on that Sierra modem you have, and I can't tell if it supports carrier aggregation or not, but you might consider upgrading to one, if it doesn't (you could get a lot more throughput that way).

Your SINR looks better in that status shot (all your other stats look pretty good all other things considered), but its still really really low. Are you positive you're aiming towards the cell tower? Have you tried experimenting with aiming in different directions while the antenna is outside? I'd recommend that, and the higher up in the air you can get it, the better your signal and SINR will be.

Hard to say why your upload speed was faster in that last test, but that upload speed I would not complain about

I would do a speed test hardwired into the modem, and one connected via wifi. It's possible that your wifi is really slow, and hence why you see a difference from your phone.

I just wrote four paragraphs with info I half know/understand, and went to post and got redirected to the login page!!!! I'll try again lol.

I'll ask around about the MC7700, good call if so.

I am definitely on the outer edge of a cell. Picture this: I'm 6 miles away from two AT&T towers (possibly B17 on one and B4 on the other) They are both along Interstate 85. I am horizontal to the Interstate, but 6 miles away. From looking at the antenna on the towers by the Interstate, I can see each is pointed up or down the interstate, and I guess I'm trying to grab that. I have ZERO towers to my left, right, or behind me.(They're there, but way too far off)

I've tested my antenna a full 360° (even the dead zones), little by little, about a minute apart, and this is by far the best signal.

I can't go any higher with the antenna unless I add coax and connectors. But I might try a PoE setup instead, since every little bit of loss adds up and I have minimal to start with.

To clarify, I wasn't mad about the UL speed , just thought it was weird and possibly something wrong on my end.

I'll do a wired computer test and wifi phone test and see how that goes. I've learned the hard way that testing my connection through the PS4 is completely unreliable with UL speeds. That's what we mainly use our Internet for, so it was handy haha.

Thanks again!

It's more than likely that B17 and B4 are on the same tower. You can compare by look at the cell id in your at!gstatus? command.

With my setup (you can see in my thread on the flat panels) I'm only connected to one physical tower. The term cell though actually typically refers to one radio on the cell (typically one antenna per radio on a tower, even though there are tons of them there). In my experience, if you get a good signal to a band that is a higher frequency, your modem will select that as primary. This is because the lower frequencies are more valuable to the service provider (AT&T) because it extends the coverage of the cell significantly due to better propagation characteristics. That being said, if I drive close to the tower I'm connecting to at my house, it will always select Band 2 over Band 12.

You are probably right that the sector antennas for that tower are more likely focused on the interstate than your area. That doesn't mean there isn't any though. I'd recommend driving to it, and taking a peak. Even better if you can take your whole modem/antenna setup and test it with clear line of sight to the tower (You'll have to find a way to power your setup remotely, but you can do that easily with a cigarette outlet converter in a car).

I'd recommend getting that antenna as high as you can, and also, before you go the PoE route, testing this setup, so you can see if your time is not wasted. I really believe if you can get that SINR value up as high as possible (even a value of 7 to 10 would be a huge improvement) you'll get much faster throughput, and a much more reliable link.