4G unlimited sims

[Pheasant Surprise]

Blimey , that's complicated , I just plug mine in to a socket .

Yeah to be fair most stuff just works fine through my 4G broadband, including

- Ring video doorbells (at the gates and house) - 2 way voice and video
- Nest, heating/hw control
- Security alarm app
- loads of other stuff that needs remote access

My security cams all get recorded back to a big Synology box and that has its own app (DS Cam) on my phone which I can see all the cams and control them from anywhere my phone is.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Was kinda hoping you’d say “go buy a Acme model 4 and it can cope without fixed IP”.

Have been suggested to try dynamic dns service or something, but no clue how to. Looks like I need to find a 16 year old to sort me out.

Yeah the other way would be to run the camera back to a Synology box.

Then you can use its inbuilt VPN to access your camera(s) remotely. Could be another way of skinning the cat.

 

[neilo]

Be careful if you're planning it to replace the current system and support the camera - I've had real trouble running my camera over a Vodafone 3g system - soothing to do with dynamic DNS, dynamic IP and some such. Apparently it is solvable, but I haven't worked it out yet and hence have to keep my slow BT broadband for that and not much else.

Shouldn’t be an issue (I think) as my camera is just over a wireless link to the yard, linking it to my home network. I’ve never seen the need to be able to access it from a distant mobile.

I’d just be looking to replace the broadband over the telephone line, with a 4G mobile signal. I’d likely cancel the BT landline then too, robbing barstewards that they are.

 

[PREES]

Would anyone recommend a system for boosting 4g signal? We can pick it up reliably in one corner of the house but there are pockets around the house and our Caravan park. I would like to get a more robust network as we are trying to run voip over 4g!

 

[Highland Mule]

Would anyone recommend a system for boosting 4g signal? We can pick it up reliably in one corner of the house but there are pockets around the house and our Caravan park. I would like to get a more robust network as we are trying to run voip over 4g!

Bigger aerial. You can buy signal repeaters/ boosters, but they are rumoured to be less than fully reliable and are certainly not legal.

If not, how about siting your 4g box where there is signal and then setting up a big Wi-fi zone to spread the data around your house?

 

[upnortheast]

If not, how about siting your 4g box where there is signal and then setting up a big Wi-fi zone to spread the data around your house?

Or cat6 cable

 

[neilo]

A question to those of you using broadband from a mobile signal, is it reliable, or does it drop out much?

Using a Speedchecker on my mobile (Virgin/EE) I can get 60Mb download speed on 4G sitting at my front window (1000m clear line of sight to mast). Unfortunately I can’t get an unlimited data SIM on that network though, or not yet.

I bought a cheap SIM from Three this morning, to check for signal as we are boarderline on the coverage checker (both nearest masts are 6-7km away). It drops out of 4G almost immediately but I can get 23 Mb download speeds on 3G on the front of the house.

No fibre available and ADSL speed varies erratically between 0.5 and 12Mb with regular dropouts.

I’m thinking of a 3G/4G router with an external antenna, with an unlimited data SIM from Three (changing to a Virgin/EE SIM if/when they get their act together) but don’t want to spend or commit to anything if we end up with internet that’s no more reliable.

Any advice welcome.

 

[Courier]

Change my sim to a "3" unlimited minutes and texts and 18 gig of data in 91 countries inc NZ -- £!0.83 a month + VAT.

Works quite OK in the UK and when in roaming it uses the best available signal.

 

[upnortheast]

A question to those of you using broadband from a mobile signal, is it reliable, or does it drop out much?

Been using EE 4g for 3 years now. Find it rock solid
200gb a month £60. If you don`t have kids using Xbox & looking at vids then less will do
Lad that works for us tried the 3 "unlimited" ( Coming from the same mast as EE ) & found it very variable, both speed & solid signal. Speed dropped early evening
He went back to EE !
Your 23mb download on 3G from 3 sounds OK As long as it doesn`t stray to much.

Sounds like you may not need an external antenna if you can find a decent spot for the router. Our 1st attempt at mobile broadband when only 3G was available, the router was in the gable peak of the cow building.

Find a good place for the router to get best signal then run a cat 6 cable to where you need the service in the house. Plug it into an old router ( Go into settings & turn off the DHCP Server - you main router is doing that stuff ) & it will give you both WiFi & cabled options

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

A question to those of you using broadband from a mobile signal, is it reliable, or does it drop out much?

Using a Speedchecker on my mobile (Virgin/EE) I can get 60Mb download speed on 4G sitting at my front window (1000m clear line of sight to mast). Unfortunately I can’t get an unlimited data SIM on that network though, or not yet.

I bought a cheap SIM from Three this morning, to check for signal as we are boarderline on the coverage checker (both nearest masts are 6-7km away). It drops out of 4G almost immediately but I can get 23 Mb download speeds on 3G on the front of the house.

No fibre available and ADSL speed varies erratically between 0.5 and 12Mb with regular dropouts.

I’m thinking of a 3G/4G router with an external antenna, with an unlimited data SIM from Three (changing to a Virgin/EE SIM if/when they get their act together) but don’t want to spend or commit to anything if we end up with internet that’s no more reliable.

Any advice welcome.

100% agree with what’s said - EE has been rock solid reliable for 4G. The only thing I had noticed was a gradual drop off in download speed over the years - been using them as our primary broadband service since 2014.

Yesterday was day 1 of fibre (FTTP), but I’m still keeping a 4G service on the router for backup.

I’d rate EE as easily the best performing 4G network. Won’t be the cheapest, but definitely the best.

 

[neilo]

Thank you. However, when I checked on the PlusNet portal, our use has been well over 200GB several months, and I wouldn't want to pay £60/month anyway, hence the attraction of the unlimited SIM's.

Just been changing cables and siting the existing router in different places, and it's dropped out twice (reporting DSL 'stability' issues, which PlusNet/BT say is a problem our end, not on their line). I've got the kit on order to try now, along with a Three SIM. With luck Virgin or EE will bring out an unlimited SIM before too long, and it will just be a case of swapping SIM's over.

 

[Steevo]

I had a unlimited SIM from 3 with a router a couple of weeks back.

Worked reasonably well - 20mbps downstream and similar upstream. However the speeds varied quite considerable over the course of a day - sometimes good, others less so.

Decided to cancel and send it back before the 14 day period was up as didn't fancy getting into a 12 month contract at £27 a month if it wasn't reliable. Might get some external antennas and try out with another one in a month or so time to see if that helps.

 

[Steevo]

Been using EE 4g for 3 years now. Find it rock solid
200gb a month £60. If you don`t have kids using Xbox & looking at vids then less will do
Lad that works for us tried the 3 "unlimited" ( Coming from the same mast as EE ) & found it very variable, both speed & solid signal. Speed dropped early evening
He went back to EE !
Your 23mb download on 3G from 3 sounds OK As long as it doesn`t stray to much.

Sounds like you may not need an external antenna if you can find a decent spot for the router. Our 1st attempt at mobile broadband when only 3G was available, the router was in the gable peak of the cow building.

Find a good place for the router to get best signal then run a cat 6 cable to where you need the service in the house. Plug it into an old router ( Go into settings & turn off the DHCP Server - you main router is doing that stuff ) & it will give you both WiFi & cabled options

If you have two internet connections plugged into the same network, but only one router running DHCP....how do you know which internet it will use? Or can it use both at once?

I know @Pheasant Surprise has a fancy load balancing router....but how about us mortals?

 

[sleepy]

If you have two internet connections plugged into the same network, but only one router running DHCP....how do you know which internet it will use? Or can it use both at once?

I know @Pheasant Surprise has a fancy load balancing router....but how about us mortals?

If you set the second router to say 192.168.1.2 (assuming the first is on 192.168.1.1), you can then just change the default gateway on your device to either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2 depending on which internet connection you want packets to go out on.

 

[neilo]

If you set the second router to say 192.168.1.2 (assuming the first is on 192.168.1.1), you can then just change the default gateway on your device to either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2 depending on which internet connection you want packets to go out on.

Hello stranger.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

If you have two internet connections plugged into the same network, but only one router running DHCP....how do you know which internet it will use? Or can it use both at once?

I know @Pheasant Surprise has a fancy load balancing router....but how about us mortals?

You could do as @sleepy says, but it’s not very flexible and not trivial if you have more than a few devices or want to change what device goes out on what connection. It also doesn’t allow you to easily ‘failover’ (and back) from one connection to the other. It works, but it’s a bit clunky

If you have more than one internet connection to a network, then really a router is the way to go. You can get 4G routers that have a wired (ethernet) interface for xDSL/fibre connection and then also their 4G radio as the alternative connection for reasonable money. Some routers allow you to plug in a USB 4G stick as a second connection.

You have to spend some time setting up the router to decide which connection to use and the “rules” for that .Can be quite straightforward or more complex, as you wish.

 

[sleepy]

Hello stranger.

Hello Sir

 

[bobk]

3 is the new Tiscali

 

[neilo]

Thank you. However, when I checked on the PlusNet portal, our use has been well over 200GB several months, and I wouldn't want to pay £60/month anyway, hence the attraction of the unlimited SIM's.

Just been changing cables and siting the existing router in different places, and it's dropped out twice (reporting DSL 'stability' issues, which PlusNet/BT say is a problem our end, not on their line). I've got the kit on order to try now, along with a Three SIM. With luck Virgin or EE will bring out an unlimited SIM before too long, and it will just be a case of swapping SIM's over.

An update.....Router and antenna arrived at the end of last week, along with an unlimited SIM from Three. Tried it all around the house, inside and out, and I can't get a reliable 4G signal anywhere (we're are between 2 masts, both 6-7 miles away, behind hills). 3G seems to get a reliable connection with up to 13 Mb/s, which is about the same as we get from ADSL.
Openreach have been out and found 3 different places where the phone line is crimped over on a pole outside (which leccy guys had re-sited) and ADSL connection has been stable since then.

I'm sticking with the phone line for now, cancelling the Three SIM and putting the equipment in boxes until an unlimited Virgin/EE SIM comes out, whilst looking longingly at the EE mast 1000m away.....

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

An update.....Router and antenna arrived at the end of last week, along with an unlimited SIM from Three. Tried it all around the house, inside and out, and I can't get a reliable 4G signal anywhere (we're are between 2 masts, both 6-7 miles away, behind hills). 3G seems to get a reliable connection with up to 13 Mb/s, which is about the same as we get from ADSL.
Openreach have been out and found 3 different places where the phone line is crimped over on a pole outside (which leccy guys had re-sited) and ADSL connection has been stable since then.

I'm sticking with the phone line for now, cancelling the Three SIM and putting the equipment in boxes until an unlimited Virgin/EE SIM comes out, whilst looking longingly at the EE mast 1000m away.....

The only thing that could possibly help with that sort of mast distance is a high-gain (like 9db or more) external antenna that is "directional". A Yagi style antenna or directional patch antenna. They also have to be mounted as high as possible to get the best possible signal.

Note for 4G - you need two Yagi' antennas mounted at 90 degrees to each other like this...for 3G you only need one.

You're wasting your time with rabbits ears on the router or an omni-directional antenna as they don't have the "gain / focus" to get you the signal level that you need.