Newbie Question about different modems

[cj111]

I have a mofi 4500 sim 7 running with visible. Got my band locked, got 90-93% signal strength (5 bars) with parabolic antenna, checked all my settings with the research I have done, and all I can achieve is just a little over 20mb/s download on my best days. Upload is about the same. Usually download is about 10mb/s.

Realizing that the sim 7 does not allow cell aggregation, I ordered another modem to test. It hasn't arrived yet, but I anxiously await it thinking that it is a WE826-Q-EM7565 embedded in EM7565 Cat12-600Mbps, and this will produce faster download speeds for me if nothing else changes in my signal strength.

Am I missing something here, or am I on the right track?

I realize this is a whole new idea for me, but we are trying to get adequate rural internet because we are having to work from home...

Any help in direction or advice is greatly appreciated.

[MattB29]

Although a better modem might produce a higher speed for you it also may be that you are maxed out now based on your location, service provider and signal capability (antennas are a big deal in this regard). If your tower does not have the ability to allow aggregation than the feature will not help. I do not get it where I live.

I had hoped when I upgraded from a cat 4 to a cat 12 modem I would see a improvement at my home in terms of speed but it really does not seem to be any different.

So it is a gamble.

[cj111]

Followup....

So I got my new router and modem in...specs mentioned in above post.

After some reading and following the tutorial, I did finally get it to talk to visible. My new modem connects to band 66, and I have 90-100% signal. Tested my DL speeds - 5.1mb/s, Upload - 4mb/s.

Can someone please help me with scanning my bands, choosing the correct set of bands, and hopefully combining them to help get the best speeds.

I have been reading and researching, and though it may seem simple to some, I am way too afraid to just give is a blind try and possibly brick my router. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Didneywhorl]

You can see your available bands with cellmapper.net

The rooter firmware doesn't have a built in "band scanner" like the mofi, so you have to kind of do more research and guesswork. Tradeoff for more power and configurability.

Make sure you have the TTL settings set to 64 so that you can get past the 5Mbps hotspot data cap. Here is my set of rules:

# A Hashtag is in place if not using that line.

# Popular TTL values: 64 for Visible. 65 for Verizon, ATT and Tmobile. 117 is sometimes a working TTL for Verizon.
# When changing values, first place # on all the TTL value lines beginning, like this line itself has. Then click Restart Firewall.
# Then change all of the TTL values to what you need and then delete the #s at their lines beginning.
# Then click Restart Firewall. Changes should then be applied properly.

# Start-IP6-TTL-Fix
ip6tables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o wwan0 -j HL --hl-set 64
ip6tables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i wwan0 -j HL --hl-set 64
# End-IP6-TTL-Fix

# Start-IP4-TTL-Fix
iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o wwan0 -j TTL --ttl-set 64
iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i wwan0 -j TTL --ttl-set 64
# End-IP4-TTL-Fix

Copy this to the Network-->firewall-->custom rules text box and save.
There is a tutorial for Sierra modem band locking. Read it thoroughly. http://www.wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=364

[cj111]

I followed the instructions, and changed my TTL from 65 to 64. This did improve my connections a little past the 5mb/s throttle.

I also read the tutorial and tried a few AT commands, but I am confused as to how to tweak this modem for proper carrier aggregation.

I pulled up the tower on cellmapper. I chose verizon us for my visible service, and noticed that the tower I am connecting to has 3 major bands...2,13,66.

My previous mofi sim 7 gave best results by locking to band 2...with dl speeds touching 20mb/s on my best days. When I lock my new modem to band 2, it gives about the same exact result. I have locked to band 66 with similar results, but not as stable a connection as band 2. Sometimes, my modem will lock to band 4, and give about half the performance as band 2 or 66. Band 13 is even worse.

So, can someone please help assist me in tweaking this for the best Carrier aggregation on this setup. I'm reading and researching, but this is all new to me and I am very afraid in worsening my setup by toying with at commands without some expertise.

thanks in advance

[Dr-BroadBand]

The MoFI Sim-7 lacks Carrier aggregation

But that is not your problem.

Smells like Verizon Throttling you.

Bring your MoFI to the different cell tower for some testing

See link
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2285

[Didneywhorl]

The above is spot on. The SIM7 has zero Carrier Aggregation capability. You'll want a Cat6 modem or above for that.