Home mifi system

[Howard B]

Hi

With the increasing costs of wired internet connectivity, I am after some thoughts on maybe moving from virgin internet to a 4/5 G system.

According to this site https://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ I am getting @ 65-80mbs download and 10-25mbs upload on my iphone on Vodafone so a reasonable enough signal for streaming, browsing etc.

Having though about things, I can fix an external antenna to the front of the house which I can connect to something like a RUT 955 Hub.

Our current virgin hub is in the centre of the house in my hallway. Next to it there a wall mounted 4 port Ethernet connection plate , which feeds an office upstairs , our lounge and dining kitchen,. I don’t know where the 4th port connects to.

I could run cables ( Ethernet or cables with SMA connectors) from the antenna to the hallway without too much difficulty. Distance is approx. 9m.

If I run the cables with SMA connectors I could plug straight from the hub to the wall ethernet ports. If I put the Hub upstairs close to the antenna and run an ethernet connector, I think I will need another ethernet hub to connect into the wall ports. Rough drawings attached.


If it works, the hardware and cost of a monthly Sim card should pay for itself in about 18 months over the cost of Virgin/ BT etc.

My thoughts with the Teltonika would be to get a Vodafone 100 or 200GB sim which I could use in the van when away. I would have a second sim 5-10gb just to keep monitor the security cameras when away.

Any thoughts on the above?

Thanks for looking

 

[CAB96]

I'm no expert, but Option 1 won't work.

So Option 2 it is. you need a hub (or more properly I think, a switch) after the router, for the ethernet to connect in to, assuming the plate is just a collection of distribution cables.

 

[Howard B]

Why wont option 1 work?

 

[Guigsy]

Signal drop-off on antenna cable is really severe. You might find you get a better signal inside that you would with the antenna on 10m of aerial extension cables.

 

[donkey]

I have installed an external antenna with the router (TP Link MR600) in the loft. I have a TP link mesh unit connected to router by short cable. From there it is all wireless to two other mesh units in the house.
Works great and about 20 times faster download speeds than BT could supply.
You need to keep the antenna cables as short as possible, they normally come with about 5m of cable, I would not extend them.
If it helps I have an unlimited Tesco (O2) sim and because I have a Tesco Clubcard it costs me £17 per month.

Geoff

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Option 1 should work with that specific RUT955 router. It has 4 ethernet ports (one configurable as WAN / LAN so put into LAN mode), so each port would have an ethernet lead between the router and into one of the front 4 port wall socket ports.

Only need for the hub (switch) of option 2 is if you want only 1 ethernet cable out of the router to the hub, and then 4 from hub to each of the wall socket ports. Hub obviously would be close to the wall socket rather than router so you have fewer wires to run.

But the RUT955 is only 10/100 on the LAN ports. Most ethernet wiring is gibabit (1000), and sometimes now greater. If you shift data between computers internally you might find it a tad slow, but it's adequate for your internet browsing as that is limited by the cellphone speeds.

Not really sure why you have so many ethernet connected wireless access points shown. Mesh systems are a bit beyond me, but if they are being used simply to extend range then reasonably placed around a central wireless point they should not need to be wired?

 

[Guigsy]

Not really sure why you have so many ethernet connected wireless access points shown. Mesh systems are a bit beyond me, but if they are being used simply to extend range then reasonably placed around a central wireless point they should not need to be wired?

I've got a three floor town house with a lot of gizmos and home automation stuff running off of WiFi. I've got about 40 devices connected at any one time, so I'm running a couple of access points. I'd like a third AP, but only so it can get a better signal in our small back garden.

Note that WiFi shares the bandwidth between all the devices connected to that access point. And if you've got any old devices or anything that's a long way off so it drops down to a slower speed, that's using up even more of the airtime, so you get even less bandwidth. I run my main desktop and as many devices as possible off of ethernet to reduce the WiFi where I can.

 

[Howard B]

Option 1 should work with that specific RUT955 router. It has 4 ethernet ports (one configurable as WAN / LAN so put into LAN mode), so each port would have an ethernet lead between the router and into one of the front 4 port wall socket ports.

Only need for the hub (switch) of option 2 is if you want only 1 ethernet cable out of the router to the hub, and then 4 from hub to each of the wall socket ports. Hub obviously would be close to the wall socket rather than router so you have fewer wires to run.

But the RUT955 is only 10/100 on the LAN ports. Most ethernet wiring is gibabit (1000), and sometimes now greater. If you shift data between computers internally you might find it a tad slow, but it's adequate for your internet browsing as that is limited by the cellphone speeds.

Not really sure why you have so many ethernet connected wireless access points shown. Mesh systems are a bit beyond me, but if they are being used simply to extend range then reasonably placed around a central wireless point they should not need to be wired?

Thanks for the reply.
As I am getting between 65-80mbs from my 10/100 would probably suffice for now. There are normally just the two of us in the house and we dont do gaming and at present dont watch too much streamed media.

My thoughts on the wiring. I am a bit old school and prefer cables to wifi/ bluetooth hence my bike satnav and comms are all hardwired.

I would probably put the antenna at the front of the house. From there to the rear is @ 25m. If I can run from the antenna to the centre of the house where the ethernet hub point is I can then use that to transfer data rather than doing via wifi. So plug the repeaters into the ethernet ports at either end of the house which should reduce any wifi data loss.

 

[Howard B]

I have installed an external antenna with the router (TP Link MR600) in the loft. I have a TP link mesh unit connected to router by short cable. From there it is all wireless to two other mesh units in the house.
Works great and about 20 times faster download speeds than BT could supply.
You need to keep the antenna cables as short as possible, they normally come with about 5m of cable, I would not extend them.
If it helps I have an unlimited Tesco (O2) sim and because I have a Tesco Clubcard it costs me £17 per month.

Geoff

Thanks, I may look at that router. I just know the Teltonika 955 is good kit that works (I have one in my van) .

 

[autorouter]

I'd consider installing a RUTX11 very near the antenna. It has gigabit ethernet ports, so you could run one single cable, CAT6 or CAT7, to the central point where your ethernet sockets are. Chances are it will plug into the WAN port of the existing Virgin router, if it has one (some routers only have a phone port), and you can carry on as before, no need to change any wifi settings on your devices. Probably best to switch off the wifi option in the RUTX11 in that case.

If the existing router won't work, you could replace it with a gigabit hub if you only want wired ethernet connections, or another wireless router with LAN outputs to the wall sockets. Lots of choice, I use a Linksys WRT3200ACM, but you may want something that fits in better with the decor.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Googlebot]

I would tell Virgin to get stuffed.

I was having 120Mbps off them and they upped it to £54 a month. Told them to get stuffed and cancelled, rang me the next day and offered me 250Mbps for £23 a month.

I was going for your solution but this was much cheaper and faster.

 

[Lenny HB]

9m cable to aerial is far too long you will loose most of the gain the aerial gives you as autorouter says you need to install the router as close to the aerial as possible 2m cable length max but the shorter the better.

 

[CAB96]

Kannon Fodda answered it better than I did;

It won't work with a single cable as your diagram has it, but would with a cable from each port to your router.

Why wont option 1 work?

 

[Howard B]

Kannon Fodda answered it better than I did;

It won't work with a single cable as your diagram has it, but would with a cable from each port to your router.

Drawing was meant to indicative, (I appreciate it would have been 3 into 3 from the RUT955 to the wall fitting) a.