Hiya. Going away next month and want to watch the footy. Our cabin is in a bizarre dead spot for coverage (coverage within 50m in every direction around it) so I was thinking if I had a 4g modem with an external antenna I could put up on the roof or similar we might be able to Chromecast Kayo to the tv.
Any ideas of a budget friendly, preferably network unlocked modem that has an external antenna port so I can try and rig something up?
Thanks!
Managed to snag a B818-263 for $45 on marketplace today. Next I'll look for antennas. Thanks!!
Really great price.
Download LTEHMonitor (cannot remember the DL URL) as it allows to to fine tune the modem.
For the antennas head over to https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ad search for B818 and see if you can figure out which antenna you should buy.
Legend, thanks!!
These are the absolute best 4G modem you can get… I chucked a Telstra sim and go like 400mb download speeds. Mind you I am near the tower but good to know that if you can get good reception you can get amazin speeds with them…
I used to have a setup with a Huawei B315 and it was pretty good, but I had quite a bit of variation in speed. So I bought a Panorama external antenna and was able to position it in a window, with line of sight to a 4G tower.
The outright speed went up around 20 percent but the upside was that it was a lot more consistent. Could have multiple users and no interruptions.
They cost around $80-100 new and I have seen some around on Gumtree and Marketplace for $50.
Edit: I just spotted a Vivid (Huawei) 4G modem on eBay (item # 234886000584), goes today so you might want to be quick. Comes with the standard rabbit ears, which may help.
Huawei are complete garbage, get a Nokia device.
It will cost around $6000 for an Antenna to be professionally installed.
This will give you Wifi points in the cabin itself so you'll be able to just use Wifi like normal.
It might be cheaper to get NBN installed even if its Satellite it will do the job if you get the Plus version wouldn't bother with ordinary SkyMuster but for basic internet SkyMuster Plus will do the job. Or if you get fixed Wireless it will be even better.
I'd suggest Starlink but that might be expensive for a once or twice a year thing.
Or you may already have internet available depending on location.
On Gumtree see if there are any B818's near you for a resonable price. Optus and Voda sold them with a plan for about $229. They were not locked to the network. The B818 has external connectors and is a good 4G modem that have apps that you can download from the web that allow you to tweak it's settings.
The yaggi antenna will cost you allot more than the B818.
I would check out one of the phone apps that show you where the phone towers are near you before you go down this path to ensure that you are in line of sight with at least one tower otherwise you will need to have a tall antenna mast.