[Test Setup 1] - 10/31/2019
- LTE Router: gl.inet Spitz - $149.00
- Antennas: 4G LTE 2-pack - $9.99
- SIM: AT&T nano SIM - $4.99
- Wi-fi AP: UBNT AP-AC-PRO - $134.95
Summary:
Currently, I’m not serving any Ethernet devices… Coworkers only use Wi-fi so it’s not a huge deal right now. With the replacement antennas, I’m getting around 26 Mbps down, 7.5 up. Absolutely huge improvement in bandwidth, but latency is suffering a little (it was testing around 32ms before the switch).
The plan is to rate limit the users via UBNT’s controller software. People love to stream YouTube/Netflix and just take up whatever bandwidth is offered to them. So I’m not going to offer them much. Even then, it’ll be much better than what we had before. Imagine 6-10 people trying to use 3Mbps down, let alone the 1.2Mbps down that we’ve had recently. They don’t seem to understand that their LTE is faster.
On 3 bars (out of 4):
[Test Setup 2] - 11/10/2019
- LTE Modem: NETGEAR 4G LTE LB1120 - $129.98
- Antennas: Netgear 6000450 MIMO - $27.49
- SIM: AT&T nano SIM - $4.99
- Wi-fi AP: UBNT AP-AC-PRO - $134.95
Summary:
I was looking forward to testing multiple wired LTE modems and aggregating them with pfSense. Before I could do that, however - I ran into a serious issue. It’s impossible for this modem to be not detected as a hotspot. Which means that as soon as AT&T sees it connect, speeds drop from good to horrible. Initially I get speeds such as setup #1 above, but within 30 seconds it drops to 1.6Mbps down and 0.5Mbps up.
This setup has been scrapped entirely.
[Test Setup 3] - 11/19/2019
- x86 Rooter router w/ USB to PCI-E LTE cards
- M.2 NGFF LTE card: Dell Sierra DW5811e EM7455 - $32.99 each (probably cheaper on ebay but I couldn’t wait)
- NGFF to USB w/ SIM slot: powerday converter - $26.99 each
- SIM: AT&T nano SIM - $4.99
- Antennas: 4G LTE 2-pack - $9.99
- Antenna adapters: SMA to RP-SMA - $4.30
12/20/2019 update
I just got [Test Setup #3] up and running last Friday (12/20/2019).
I’m using a Lenovo S145, booting ROOter OS off of a USB flash drive. I’m using an Amazon Basics USB 3.0 to GbE adapter in addition to the other parts.
Aside from creating the ROOter OS USB, no other configuration was needed to get the LTE up and running. This was by far the easiest to set up, and has been performing well.
12/25/2019 update
Just did a speed test (had a few other applications running at the time) with test setup #3
This is just with the stock antenna setup, not the extended one that setup #1 had. Excited to see what I can get with better antennas.
