Rural Setup in Ontario, Canada Questions

[mmltehack]

We are located on a lake in Ontario and we are looking to increase speed and reliability for our internet.
We are using Bell and have a ZTE MF275R modem. I have been reading the forum (filled with great information) but get stuck with wondering is we need an external antenna or just a better modem. The ZTE inside has a -101dbm and with my phone (Pixel 5) on our flat roof I can get spots with -95dbm.

There are only two towers that we can use and we have decent access to one of them and the other is behind out location and we are down a hill so would need to run 120' plus of cable to have access to it.

At the moment we are getting 11 mbs down and 1.5-2 mbs up.

I'm happy to spend money on a good setup but I'm at a bit of a loss where to start.

[R1250GSA]

Here are a couple ideas for you...

You have an Android phone, have you used the cellmapper.net app? Its free and very helpful to see what you have access to and where.

Get high. Although you are in Canada, I mean vertically!
You have mentioned improvement of being on the roof, so be creative and try out your router as high as you can place it. With long cables, get the router on the roof for a sunny afternoon.

Yes, quality high gain antennas, two of the same type will have the largest impact.
Being outside, antennas get around a 10dB boost.
But too early to buy antennas yet.

If you really get a nice signal 120ft away, the investment in some underground cable maybe worth it, you could power the router with PoE+ ethernet cable.
This might be a spend trade off between very expensive antenna that are hard to aim and digging a trench.

Get some more facts on paper.
How much bandwidth do you really want?
What are the distances to the towers, what frequency bands do they provide?
Are the towers line of sight? Lots of trees in the way?

[Dr-BroadBand]

Looks like Bell has a service for wireless home internet.
Would give them a call. Ask if you can use your own hardware (BYOD)

Also check StarLink

https://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/produ ... e-internet

https://www.starlink.com

[Dr-BroadBand]

Here is an example of what a PoE setup would look like.

[gscheb]

Hello,

I agree with getting antennas would help. Gain in signal is always more important than upgrading modem. Better modem with low signal give about same results.

Don't have to do a POE set up. But here is another example of one to review.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1208#p7869

Also agree with the star link since you are in that area. If you are willing to pay for it from what I have seen so far it is quite impressive.

[mmltehack]

Thanks for all the suggestions and information. I have walked our property and on the roof is the best signal that we can get so that would be the best place to mount antenna or modem in a box with POE I think.

I did look at cellmapper.net website and there was nothing close to me. I just downloaded the android app and it finds the 2 towers. I also have been looking at OpenSignal and LTE Discovery.

We have a few trees in the way but not that bad we are going over the lake. The issue is that it is far away. From this site (https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html) I can get information on the tower. It has 700 and 850mhz and is about 6kms/3.7miles away (guess).

After looking at the forum I was thinking that a Netgear Nighthawk Mobile Hotspot Router in a box on the roof could be a relatively simple setup. But wanted to see if going with external antenna would make for a more reliable setup.

Speed:
I would like as much as we can get based on where we are. Once Starlink is available I imagine we will switch to it but that could take time and performance could be an issue with load. I have been following it and the beta testers are getting decent speeds but I will want to see it at scale and could still have an LTE setup as a backup.

At the moment we have 2 people working from this location so more bandwidth would be helpful. I was looking at bonding solutions to bond 2 sims but seems more complicated and not straightforward.

[gscheb]

Have had quite a bit of success with outside antennas pointed at tower in the 5 mile range. Even at address where they didn't have any cell phone service with that provider at all.

[mmltehack]

What started me looking at this was helping a neighbor that is using a Yagi directional antenna and a WeBoost Connect 4G-X, they have very poor signal without the external antenna. I was thinking that I might be able to get a better setup running here.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Your ZTE MF275R is a 4G LTE Category 4 Modem
The Nighthawk M1 Mobile Router is a 4G LTE Category 16
NIGHTHAWK® M5 (MR5200) is a 5G LTE CAT 22, LTE 5G, 4x4 MIMO, 256QAM
LBR20-Orbi LTE 4G LTE Category 16

NetGear makes some very fast modems. I have the M1, the problem is they are all turn key equipment and lack the control to tweak them so you can trick your way onto the cell network. An example is being able to set the TTL so the modem looks like an iPad. This trick is getting harder to do.

The M1 also lacks Band 71 which I found out is the only hope of getting a cell signal at my location. It’s good to go slow and have a plan.

You will find that the Cell network was NOT design for what we all are doing on this form. Using a cell signal to get the internet in a rural setting.

You can have an awesome modem and antenna setup, but without the correct SIM/Data Plan ie…. The key to open the cell network you will go nowhere fast.

“Looks like Bell has a service for wireless home internet.
Would give them a call. Ask if you can use your own hardware (BYOD)”

Make sure you have a workable SIM/Data plan, then get a good antenna… antennas you will need Qty-2 for MIMO

[Dr-BroadBand]

Cell Mapper

https://www.cellmapper.net
.
.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Before you can go shopping for a antenna you will need to now what Cell Band and
what frequency you are hunting for.

There are some good antennas in the LTE store.

Poynting is also good

[gscheb]

This link is also always a good review of advice for starting out on this stuff.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=37 ... 8674&hilit

[mmltehack]

You will find that the Cell network was NOT design for what we all are doing on this form. Using a cell signal to get the internet in a rural setting.

I'm not expecting to get the speed and signals that you guys are getting, nor am I trying to get an unlimited plan. I just want to get the best stable service that I can in my location.

“Looks like Bell has a service for wireless home internet.
Would give them a call. Ask if you can use your own hardware (BYOD)”

Wireless home internet is not available and I doubt will be anytime soon.

Make sure you have a workable SIM/Data plan, then get a good antenna… antennas you will need Qty-2 for MIMO

Most data/cell plans in Canada are crap (stupid expensive), our data plan scales so we can have the same service we just pay more when we use more and if we use less we pay less.

I'm happy to build a setup as I would like to learn about this stuff as I then would be able to help others in the area that due to Covid are moving up here. Do you think that going with a Mofi4500 and external antennas would be a better path forward?

[gscheb]

Do you think that going with a Mofi4500 and external antennas would be a better path forward?

No

[mmltehack]

Before you can go shopping for a antenna you will need to now what Cell Band and
what frequency you are hunting for.

Based on the tower the freq are 700 and 850Mhz and band 5
With Cellmapper I can see 842.5MHz and Band 5

There are some good antennas in the LTE store.
Poynting is also good

Thanks

[mmltehack]

This link is also always a good review of advice for starting out on this stuff.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=37 ... 8674&hilit

Thanks I read that post, I will look into contacting thewirelesshaven.com to see if they can offer some guidence.

[Hogwild]

FYI:

Also keep in mind that you don't have to pay full retail price for something like a Netgear M1. They're often available on eBay for about 50% off retail. Make sure whatever you buy is carrier unlocked, however. Some devices can be unlocked from carrier locks, but others can't or not so easily. Of course, you could buy stock hardware that wasn't ever locked to any carrier.

Also, IIRC water helps signal propagation, so that might mitigate some of the distance problem. I can't remember if that's true on 4G/LTE frequency bands. Can someone comment on that?