Wireless Joint

My situation is a bit different than the other folks here.

One of my hobbies is hosting a bunch of old 3g devices in my closet that I've modded to run w/o battery..something like 150+ that I use for mining/passive income. I want to keep adding more Can't use the old wifi because the traffic has to come from a mobile ISP.

The closet's got a small server and a window A/C unit. Some of the devices intermittently lose data/3g connection which kills my passive earnings. (maybe because of the A/C unit turning on?).

Bandwidth isn't an issue, but a stable/steady connection is very important. Basically, I have a small area with a high concentration of devices/modems and I want all of the devices to have a reliable connection (don't care about bandwidth). Is a signal booster right for me? Do I wrap the devices in foil? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Maybe.

Are you using all of these devices to create multiple pathway data connections?

Are they all bonded at your end, the main router? Do they all provide access to you via wifi as wan?

I'm guessing your mining.

Are you running a separate SIM/account on each device?

Also

What signal level do you get at the location of the devices?

How far to your cell tower(s)?

Didneywhorl wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:35 am Maybe.

Are you using all of these devices to create multiple pathway data connections?

Are they all bonded at your end, the main router? Do they all provide access to you via wifi as wan?

I'm guessing your mining.

Are you running a separate SIM/account on each device?

Didneywhorl wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:37 am Also

What signal level do you get at the location of the devices?

How far to your cell tower(s)?

They are used to create multiple pathway data connections and have the ability to send/receive RPC commands (customapp). They have individual SIMs and accounts.

They are not bonded to a main router or wifi. They are devices that only connect to the carrier's cell tower and run several apps.

The devices have a pretty weak signal in the 4-11 range for CSQ but they work for slow data/sms at that signal strength with maybe 5% of the devices losing signal intermittently.

According to cellmappers, I'm about 1.6 miles from the nearest tower and it's mostly flat elevation.

Side question -- would going to 4g devices help? I've been sticking to 3g ones because they're cheaper to get on the used/refurbished market.

Thanks!

A booster would hurt more than it would help
and being only 1.6 miles from the tower most likely not needed.

Not sure the shelf life of 3G, would start your move to 4G. There are many affordable options at the LTE store.

Start out small and go slow would be my advice. Find out what band you need to plan for which antenna that will work best for you

See if band 71 is in your area (600MHz) it limits your choices for modems and antennas but is helpful in rural settings.

Thinking a good panel with MIMO should do it.

Dr-BroadBand wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 1:26 pm A booster would hurt more than it would help
and being only 1.6 miles from the tower most likely not needed.

Not sure the shelf life of 3G, would start your move to 4G. There are many affordable options at the LTE store.

Start out small and go slow would be my advice. Find out what band you need to plan for which antenna that will work best for you

See if band 71 is in your area (600MHz) it limits your choices for modems and antennas but is helpful in rural settings.

Thinking a good panel with MIMO should do it.

Can the density of devices be causing the signal drop? I also have the devices sitting on metal shelves-could that cause the signal drop?

I'll start looking to upgrade everything to 4g. At least the 700 mhz band should give better signal penetration--is my intuition correct?

You have a unique use case.

I would think the 600-800 Mhz bands would definitely penetrate better.