{"id":40264,"date":"2021-05-03T14:24:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T13:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=40264"},"modified":"2021-05-03T16:54:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T15:54:37","slug":"boosting-our-4g-internet-speed-at-home-using-an-outdoor-antenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/boosting-our-4g-internet-speed-at-home-using-an-outdoor-antenna\/","title":{"rendered":"Boosting Our 4G Internet Speed at Home Using an Outdoor Antenna"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog post looks at using an outdoors Poynting omni-directional 4G antenna\/aerial<\/a> to boost the internet data signal at a house or static caravan in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"4G<\/a>
4G Poynting Outdoor Omni-Directional Antenna<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If, like us, you spend weeks away from home, can’t get a wired internet connection into your home, don’t want to have to pay for a land line you’ll never use or want a back-up in case your fibre connection goes down, you might want to consider using wireless 4G mobile internet at your house. My dad’s done this for the past year, using his 4G Huawei router at home which he takes with him when he visits his static caravan, with an unlimited data \u00a320-a-month Smarty SIM<\/a>, enabling us to stay in touch using WhatsApp video calls wherever he us. We’ve also used a 4G router in our motorhome<\/a> for a few years, connected to a roof-mounted antenna from motorhomewifi.com<\/a> which we’ve been very happy with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4G internet signal at our home in the UK was just a little too weak to reliably stream TV though, so we’ve recently boosted it using an external 4G antenna, in a similar set-up to our motorhome. This post describes the equipment we used, the installation process and the resulting speed increase we saw. The system we’ve used is only suitable for a static installation, as it uses a mast and while the antenna is supposed to be omni-directional, it definitely works better when pointed towards the nearest mast. For a motorhome, caravan or boat, the same concepts and types of equipment apply, although most people using omni-directional antennas designed for roof mounting, like the popular Poynting Puck (available from Amazon for about \u00a365<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why We Got an External 4G Internet Antenna<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We currently use a Huawei E5577Cs-321 router to connect to the internet in our motorhome, and more recently have started using it at home too. The router works best when high up and outdoors, as the metal shell of the van and the bricks and insulation at home partially block mobile signals. This is fine when the weather’s good and for short periods, as we can just put the router on the roof and run it from the built-in battery. For wet weather or for longer periods, that’s not great though so attaching it to a permanently-mounted outdoors weatherproof antenna is well worthwhile. That way we can leave the router inside, plugged in so it’s always on charge and with a boosted signal from the antenna, which makes the WiFi in the van\/house significantly faster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our well-used Huawei 4G E5577Cs-321 Router<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the van we’ve a roof-mounted omni-directional 4G antenna<\/a>. This has worked very well for us over the years, enabling us to use the boosted internet while driving and wherever we pull up across the UK, Europe and North Africa, we have the internet working immediately. No hassle, no trying to work out where to point an antenna, no dog-slow times of the day, no stress with passwords or limits on devices, it just works. For \u00a320-a-month on a rolling 30 day unlimited data contract from Superdrug Mobile<\/a>, it’s proved to be a great system. Normally we cancel our SIMs when we get back to the UK and hunt out the best deal ahead of our next trip overseas, however we knew we’d be doing some motorhome trips in the UK this year, so we decided not to cancel the SIM and use it for our internet at connection if we could get a good-enough signal while at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The 4G antenna on the roof of our motorhome<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Using speed test sites like this one<\/a>, we knew we could get around 3 or 4Mbps with the router indoors and upstairs at home, and the front of the router showed a weak (1 bar) 4G internet signal. We saw the speed increase to around 5 or 6Mbps if we took the antenna on the roof and held it up high, so we knew there was an opportunity to boost our internet speed if we fitted an outdoors antenna. We wanted a consistent speed of above 8Mbps, to allow us to stream high definition TV in the evening when the networks are busiest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about 5G? If I’m honest we only thought about this after we’d bought a 4G antenna! However, checking the various networks’ coverage checker websites only EE showed a weak outdoors 5G signal here, which we’re not confident would actually exist in practice as we’re in an area of town notorious for poor mobile signal. Also, we’d have to replace our router and SIM with 5G-enabled ones, which wouldn’t be cheap. Finally, we don’t actually need 5G network speeds, so we’re OK with our 4G internet system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 4G Omni-Directional Antenna<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a>
The Rear of the Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Mounted on a Pole<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are a ton of different 4G antennas available, but we chose the Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001<\/a> for these reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n