Proto
Legendary Member
- Location
- East Devon/West Dorset
Hoping someone can help me understand my current home 4G broadband setup, and possibly improve it. I'm fairly techie but am now at (beyond?) the limit of my networking knowledge, help!
It's a bit of a saga .......
We live in the sticks on the Dorset/Devon border. Old cottage, thick stone walls. No possibility of fibre broadband in my area so when we bought the house I arranged for a local fellow to install a 4G system for me. Went with a EE contract, 4G, unlimited data, £34 per month. Wife works from home and needs good internet access, plus we want to stream Netlix, Prime, movies etc.
He installed a MicroTik combined directional antenna/modem on the gable end, pointed to the nearest mast, about 1.5 miles away. Coax cable from modem down to a MicroTik hAP ac Lite router in the sitting room, terminated with an RJ45 plug.
One of these: https://www.senetic.co.uk/product-rbd52g-5hacd2hnd...
Coax/RJ45 plug into Port 1 of the router which provides PoE to the modem on the gable end. Set up the router WiFi 2.4 and 5.0Ghz, renamed, changed passwords etc, all good. Speeds, download (Ookla test) vary, depending on time of day but 10mbps is unusual, 20mbps typical, 30mbs sometimes, and rarely 40mbps. Ping time (latency?) varies 23-30ms. Upload speeds always 20+mbps.
To improve WiFi throughout the house (250 year old cottage, some very chunky stone walls) I bought three Devolo power line WiFi adaptors. This sorted the distribution problem, good WiFi coverage, but this meant we now had three networks running. I made their names and password the same hoping that 'roaming' in the house ould be seamless but found that often the device in use didn't 'release' one network and log onto a better one with stronger signal. So there was an element of manually disconnecting from one and reconnecting.
This became tiresome, so I invested in a TP-Link Deco P9 Mesh system to replace my D-Link power line adaptors. One of these: https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/deco/de...
Ran a Cat5 cable from router to first Deco unit. The Deco P9 combines Powerline and Mesh technology and seemed the answer to a maiden's prayer. All worked well. I left the WiFi network from the MicroTik router alone, just don't log into it.
About a week ago we noticed that internet connections were getting slow, maybe 10 seconds to load a page, but this was intermittent, sometimes it was fine, others times it was slow. Sometimes page time out report. A page refresh usually sorts. Even when slow/hesitant, a speed test reported that speeds were very 'normal', which doesn't make much sense.
Any ideas why this might be?
Is it possible that the MicroTik router is playing up, I'll admit I've taken against it, looks cheap and nasty. Happy enough to go and get another (I gave a BT Home Hub 6 away last month!) but routers with PoE are few and far between. I can see plenty of PoE Switches and Access Points, but I don't think that's what I need. (or do I?)
Would I be able to use a router without PoE if I add a PoE Injector, like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-PoE150S-Inject...
Thoughts and suggestions gratefully received. Thanks.
PS have been trying to get to the router settings to switch off the WiFi but can't get past the Admin login page. Reluctant to do a factory reset until I have an escape route as my wife needs good internet access to work from home on Monday.
PPS Am I correct in thinking that I can't connect my Deco directly to the modem (even with a PoE injector) as it is not a router?
It's a bit of a saga .......
We live in the sticks on the Dorset/Devon border. Old cottage, thick stone walls. No possibility of fibre broadband in my area so when we bought the house I arranged for a local fellow to install a 4G system for me. Went with a EE contract, 4G, unlimited data, £34 per month. Wife works from home and needs good internet access, plus we want to stream Netlix, Prime, movies etc.
He installed a MicroTik combined directional antenna/modem on the gable end, pointed to the nearest mast, about 1.5 miles away. Coax cable from modem down to a MicroTik hAP ac Lite router in the sitting room, terminated with an RJ45 plug.
One of these: https://www.senetic.co.uk/product-rbd52g-5hacd2hnd...
Coax/RJ45 plug into Port 1 of the router which provides PoE to the modem on the gable end. Set up the router WiFi 2.4 and 5.0Ghz, renamed, changed passwords etc, all good. Speeds, download (Ookla test) vary, depending on time of day but 10mbps is unusual, 20mbps typical, 30mbs sometimes, and rarely 40mbps. Ping time (latency?) varies 23-30ms. Upload speeds always 20+mbps.
To improve WiFi throughout the house (250 year old cottage, some very chunky stone walls) I bought three Devolo power line WiFi adaptors. This sorted the distribution problem, good WiFi coverage, but this meant we now had three networks running. I made their names and password the same hoping that 'roaming' in the house ould be seamless but found that often the device in use didn't 'release' one network and log onto a better one with stronger signal. So there was an element of manually disconnecting from one and reconnecting.
This became tiresome, so I invested in a TP-Link Deco P9 Mesh system to replace my D-Link power line adaptors. One of these: https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/deco/de...
Ran a Cat5 cable from router to first Deco unit. The Deco P9 combines Powerline and Mesh technology and seemed the answer to a maiden's prayer. All worked well. I left the WiFi network from the MicroTik router alone, just don't log into it.
About a week ago we noticed that internet connections were getting slow, maybe 10 seconds to load a page, but this was intermittent, sometimes it was fine, others times it was slow. Sometimes page time out report. A page refresh usually sorts. Even when slow/hesitant, a speed test reported that speeds were very 'normal', which doesn't make much sense.
Any ideas why this might be?
Is it possible that the MicroTik router is playing up, I'll admit I've taken against it, looks cheap and nasty. Happy enough to go and get another (I gave a BT Home Hub 6 away last month!) but routers with PoE are few and far between. I can see plenty of PoE Switches and Access Points, but I don't think that's what I need. (or do I?)
Would I be able to use a router without PoE if I add a PoE Injector, like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-PoE150S-Inject...
Thoughts and suggestions gratefully received. Thanks.
PS have been trying to get to the router settings to switch off the WiFi but can't get past the Admin login page. Reluctant to do a factory reset until I have an escape route as my wife needs good internet access to work from home on Monday.
PPS Am I correct in thinking that I can't connect my Deco directly to the modem (even with a PoE injector) as it is not a router?
) but I also use a Netgear wifi repeater (at 25% power) to help boost signal to the farthest 2nd story bedroom. That said, using a wifi signal analyzer app, I can see its signal at the end of the city block.
