Leaderboard

I have had a modem that started slowing Down, once a day reset was often. I Fixed It. I simply tried another transformer (12v in my case) and it has been acting perfect for a month now, zero problems, all is well. They are built so cheap they often fail to give proper output, cheap, easy, fix.

Some mobile phones such as Windows Phones and certain Android phones can display what 3G and LTE networks are in the area, so well worth a check. Despite what the satellite providers claim, 3G is considerably faster than satellite, particularly in rural areas where there is little contention on the cell tower. If your mobile is able to connect to 3G at all (even if one bar) at your place, then it is quite possible you can get a strong signal with dedicated 3G/LTE router and an outdoor directional 3G antenna. If it shows a 3G or LTE network for another network, try to get a prepay data SIM to give it a test run. For example, at my house with the Meteor 3G network here, my phone will intermittently connect to 3G while standing outside the house. In the loft (upstairs), I have a 3G router which is unable to connect to the 3G network on its own (says 'No Signal'). I bought a 12dBi LOG antenna that covers all the cellular bands and mounted it on a camera tripod for a makeshift setup. With the antenna aimed out the window in the direction of the mast, the router is showing 4 out 5 bars lit. The following is a 24-hour speed test run from it a few weeks ago with the figures put into a spreadsheet to produce a graph. I'm in a rural area surrounded by farmland and the cell tower is in a small village. The downlink throughput here is just over double what I'm getting with my DSL connection (~4Mbps) and the uplink is three times my DSL connection (~300kbps). Actual browsing is pretty quick, latency is around 70ms and it has no problem playing YouTube in 1080p which my DSL connection can't handle. Like satellite, the main issue you will likely face is getting a decent monthly data allowance and many contract 3G/LTE plans have severe overusage charges similar to the excess weight fees airlines charge on check-in bags. For example, Meteor charge €20 per 7.5GB data bundle and then 2c/MB (€20 per 1GB!) excess, so I just mainly use when connecting to work and the occasional video I want to watch in HD and then revert to DSL for general web usage and downloads.