Mobile broadband

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Bongolia
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Mobile broadband

Post by Bongolia » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:18 am

I have just bought a property and I am presently refurbing it.
As I am not living there full time yet I use my cell phone as a hotspot and run my laptop through that.
About 2 miles away is a 4G mast so the signal strength is excellent and I am quite surprised at the speed, equal to the cabled Virgin tariff I am currently on in London.
It works very well but I cannot attach other devices so I looked at various types of gizmos that would allow multiple connections.I came across a TP Link product that acts more like a conventional hub with network sockets for connection as well as the usual WiFi facility.
I got to wondering whether it would be feasible long term to go down this route so not incurring line charges etc.
Does anyone use this sort of set up exclusively?
If yes, what provider do you use and what equipment ?
Any pointers would be helpful.
Ta.
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cmm303
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Re: Mobile broadband

Post by cmm303 » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:56 am

I have used tethering (connecting devices to the internet via a phone's internet connection) extensively when freelancing in offices without suitable WiFi but not exclusively at home. The biggest difference with the expected usage is that office use (for me) is email, web browsing, internet chat (text), file sharing and document transfer whereas home use may involve heavier data streaming like films, tv players, online music, games etc. So adopting 4G for home internet is going to come down to what the internet is required for. 4G cannot match the speed of decent fibre broadband but is sometimes faster than ADSL.

Are you connecting to your phone's hotspot using WiFi or by cable? My phone (an ageing iPhone5) allows up to 5 connections to its WiFi hotspot, I think. The formal answer to the number of connections is "The maximum number of supported connections may vary depending on your carrier or iPhone model.". Presumably applies to Android phones as well.

So it may be worth exploring why you are only getting one connection before buying additional boxes.
Also worth checking your network's T&C and fair usage policy. Giff Gaff certainly used to have limitations around contracts with unlimited data but its probably moved on since.

I'm not sure if the TP-Link product you've seen connects to your phone and multiplexes that connection to multiple devices or whether it has its own SIM card with 4G data account. The latter are nicknamed MiFi after one of the first devices but get called all sorts! Can't speak for a specific device but have come across several over time and they work well, usually with better data rates than a phone and it avoids rinsing your phone battery which tethering tends to do. You'd still need to check the maximum connections that MiFi devices support though you could expect this to be around 10. I'm not sure how the WiFi reach from these portable devices matches a proper Wireless router.
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g8dhe
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Re: Mobile broadband

Post by g8dhe » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:27 pm

There are two reasons that the connection is normally limited to 4-5 connections first the processing power & memory for the switching in the phone/device is limited and secondly the networks don't want a single connection to hog the bandwidth! Be aware that whilst you might have good bandwidth at certain times, come school home time or summer visitors the bandwidth can change dramatically leaving you very frustrated ;-) It can also become very expensive if you ever need to upload lots of pictures or video and incoming connections are also restricted by the mobile networks, so if you want to remotely access your home equipment you might not get very far, it varies by the network and also in some cases it seems the access point.
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Re: Mobile broadband

Post by wwaveydave » Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:20 pm

You'll need a "4G Router". That is technical term for it, and the best way to search.

Once you have this you are best off getting a dedicated 4G data plan from your mobile provider of choice. This is for two reasons.
The first is that if you are doing things with your internet that you don't do with your phone, like remote connections for things like remote control, security cameras, home automation etc then you can find that phone plans do not allow incoming access to all traffic types.
Secondly, you can USUALLY get better prices and more flexible use for data plans.

If you are a frequent camper, you might also consider one of the mobile 4G routers that the mobile carriers sell like from Huawei, that way you'll be able to use the same device for that too. The ones that have a rechargable battery in too can be particualarly useful.

I've used a couple of these devices for home and business and can recommend a couple, as long as forum policies allow it.
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