Do I need a 4G aerial or booster?

longwalks1

I’ve just received my Huawei HomeFi router and 3 data sim. The reception is pretty good but I’d like to try and speed it up if possible as we live in a small village. Do I need an external aerial to plug in to it, or a booster? Or are they the same thing?

dj1471

That device appears to support external antennas, so something like this should help:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-External-Antenna-Increases-Strength/dp/B01CU9XQX6

Just an example, there's no need to buy Huawei ones, shop around. You could go for something bigger, if needed.

Chino

dj1471 wrote: »

so something like this should help:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-External-Antenna-Increases-Strength/dp/B01CU9XQX6

Judging by the title of his or her post ("Do I need a 4G aerial or booster?") and the remark that "as we live in a small village", the OP appears to want to improve the reception of the 4G signal by the router and is not specifically looking to improve the router's Wi-Fi performance, which is what the aerial you link to is intended for - "If your Huawei B593/ B315 has a weak Wi-Fi signal, an external Antenna will help extend and improve your signal and transfer speeds".

longwalks1

Sorry guys, I wasn’t as clear as I could of been. It’s got a strong signal, but I want to try and improve the speed of the 4G that comes in on it

The Wi-Fi range indoors from it is fine, just want to speed it up (if possible)

dj1471

The Amazon listing is incorrect, the SMA sockets are used for the mobile signal not the WiFi. See the comments...

If the signal is good then you're probably limited by the network rather than the router, so not much you can do. What speed are you getting?

Gloomendoom

I have played around with the Homefi router quite extensively. I've tried all sorts of external aerials from little rabbit ears through four foot long omnidirectional types to twin polarised 9 element yagis.

None of them worked as well as simply mounting the router as high as possible and using the internal aerials. What you gain with the sensitive aerials you lose in the cable and connections to the router.

There is a useful Android app I found to help you set up the aerials, internal or external, for best reception. Do a search on for "Stats for Huawei LTE Routers". It gives you the RSRQ, RSRP, SINR and RSSI values.

Xbigman

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I have played around with the Homefi router quite extensively. I've tried all sorts of external aerials from little rabbit ears through four foot long omnidirectional types to twin polarised 9 element yagis.

None of them worked as well as simply mounting the router as high as possible and using the internal aerials. What you gain with the sensitive aerials you lose in the cable and connections to the router.

There is a useful Android app I found to help you set up the aerials, internal or external, for best reception. Do a search on for "Stats for Huawei LTE Routers". It gives you the RSRQ, RSRP, SINR and RSSI values.

Ditto. Nothing worked like putting my Huawei 4g dongle on the end of a 5m USB cable and hanging it in an upstairs bedroom window.
However... reception and speed are different beasts. No matter how good the reception I only get between 5 and 12 meg of speed. That's the network speed and that's about it. It's perfectly usable so I have no complaints, and it's cheap. Its 3hree BTW.


Darren

System

britishboy wrote: »

Sorry guys, I wasn’t as clear as I could of been. It’s got a strong signal, but I want to try and improve the speed of the 4G that comes in on it

If it has a good signal then there's nothing you can do to improve the speed so save your money. The speed will be dependent on the service provider's internet capacity and demand on the local cell tower you're connecting to.

Frozen_up_north

As Tarambor said, speed is more to do with the cell site and the connection from it to the rest of the network.


I am on Three and at home I get a strong 4G signal and typically 12 to 20 Mb/s download. If I go 2 miles down the road to the next village, the signal is weaker but the speed is usually 50 Mb/s or faster!

longwalks1

Ahhh right, I'm learning a bit now, thanks all. I was planning to fit the router in the loft as high as possible, and was thinking an additional aerial would improve the speed for me, now i know it doesnt work that way


If i did place it in the loft, or an upstairs bedroom and was happy with the speed and strength of the signal, would i be better to reconnect everytihng directly to that, such as both Sky boxes, computer, Ring doorbell camera etc, or connect the Huwaei router to my TP Link wifi hub downstairs and still use that for signal?

Frozen_up_north

I’ve just run a couple of tests:

At home 3 bars (out of 4) on my iPhone SE on Three.
Test download 23.4 Mb/s, upload 7.6 Mb/s

Indoors 2 miles away from home, signal strength 2 bars.
Test download 61.8 Mb/s, upload 11.3 Mb/s

Obviously results vary depending on others using the same site, but aren’t related to signal strength, unless the signal is very weak. These tests were conducted around 10am and 1pm. Data rates are generally better during the mornings and can be very variable after around 4pm.