Remote Internet and Power

[12VoltInstalls]

Might want to check out wilson's products.

Wilson is top shelf stuff for sure.

I bought a cheapo signal booster with a yagi-type antenna for ~1/10th the cost of a Wilson. It works fantastic.
WEboost is also a Wilson product line and is much less expensive; still 3x the cheapo price. Both run on 12VDC

I have a clone car booster for my jeep that was a spittin’ image of a weboost trucker model. I hated the bulky antenna so bought a compact Weboost low-profile antenna and it works great.

 

[NC_hydro]

Did my first trial run at my on grid place in TN with my GL iNet Slate Plus. Testing with my iPhone USB tether with Visible+ and the Travel router I get solid throttled 5.8Mbps up and down. However once I got my chain of wifi bridges linked up and configured like I wanted for when I take to my off grid place I was getting 30Mbps down and 20Mbps upload….so something about that “broke” the QOS speed limit for the hotspot. ? hadn’t even forced a 65 TTL yet.

 

[629658]

Verizon is the only one with service here and the they don’t offer their Verizon home internet here presumably because there is no 5G.

Verizon and T Mobile offer 4g LTE in areas without 5g

 

[NC_hydro]

Verizon and T Mobile offer 4g LTE in areas without 5g

You mean offer home internet in areas without 5G? Yes they probably do but they chose not to in this area for whatever reason. /shrug.

 

[629658]

You mean offer home internet in areas without 5G? Yes they probably do but they chose not to in this area for whatever reason. /shrug.

Star link is another option

 

[12VoltInstalls]

You mean offer home internet in areas without 5G? Yes they probably do but they chose not to in this area for whatever reason. /shrug.

If there’s phone service there’s internet service

 

[Mattb4]

If there’s phone service there’s internet service

The cellular home internet plans are different than cellular phone plans. They come with a dedicated cellular router/wifi that serves your homes data needs. Using a phone as a hotspot can be done but has limitations.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

The cellular home internet plans are different than cellular phone plans. They come with a dedicated cellular router/wifi that serves your homes data needs. Using a phone as a hotspot can be done but has limitations.

Right. But the phone chip I hear doesn’t care if it’s in a router is what I meant

 

[Mattb4]

Right. But the phone chip I hear doesn’t care if it’s in a router is what I meant

Actually it does. Sim cards for phone plans will not work in cellular routers without special trickery going on. And the phone companies have gotten wise to many of the dodges used in the past.

 

[NC_hydro]

Star link is another option

Not here, tried that route. Not available in my area.

 

[NC_hydro]

If there’s phone service there’s internet service

You would think but their website says nope, no coverage there for home internet. I even picked a neighbor’s address that definitely is in a spot with good signal.

 

[NCislander]

You would think but their website says nope, no coverage there for home internet. I even picked a neighbor’s address that definitely is in a spot with good signal.

What town are you closest in WNC? I work in the area for a local ISP. Lots of creative plans providing Internet service in WNC.

 

[629658]

Not here, tried that route. Not available in my area.

I know you have to apply and be accepted for Starlink but I thought it was technically available everywhere.

 

[NCislander]

I know you have to apply and be accepted for Starlink but I thought it was technically available everywhere.

Instead of waiting for local availability, people in our area have opted using the Starlink RV/Mobile setup. Though not needing mobile, use it stationary at their home. Great service when other options are not available. Pricey yes, but a working option in Western North Carolina Mountains.

 

[ChrisG]

My cabin is also in Western Carolina/TN high elevation mountains. Until StarLink was available in 2021 I used, and still do for backup, a MikroTik POE Cat 16 LTE device. Someone mentioned trickery or magic which still works as long as you have a SIM card. There is only power at my cabin location. No landline phone or other options and no cell phone reachable signal. My MikroTik is directed to a cell tower 22 miles away and gets 30mb down and 10 up. More than enough for work and streaming. Pipe the MikroTik into a router and have carrier Wi-Fi signal so never miss a cell call. Oh and it only uses 20 watts. StarLink has been a game changer though.

 

[NCislander]

My cabin is also in Western Carolina/TN high elevation mountains. Until StarLink was available in 2021 I used, and still do for backup, a MikroTik POE Cat 16 LTE device. Someone mentioned trickery or magic which still works as long as you have a SIM card. There is only power in my cabin location. No landline phone or other options and no cell phone reachable signal. My MikroTik is directed to a cell tower 22 miles away and gets 30mb down and 10 up. More than enough for work and streaming. Pipe the MikroTik into a router and have carrier Wi-Fi signal so never miss a call call. Oh and it only uses 20 watts. StarLink has been a game changer though. View attachment 147184
View attachment 147185

Exactly, Creative ideas get it done. I work with similar MikroTiks' daily.

 

[ChrisG]

Exactly, Creative ideas get it done. I work with similar MikroTiks' daily.

@NCislander Mtiks rock as you know. StarLink was iffy back when I first got it so i also still have a Mtik RBM33G doing load balancing and policy based routing behind both LTE and StarLink. They are cheap, fast and the OS is easy to learn. Funny many of us are into the same type of tech/topics.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Actually it does. Sim cards for phone plans will not work in cellular routers without special trickery going on. And the phone companies have gotten wise to many of the dodges used in the past.

Hmm. I called AT&T a few weeks back and they said I could use my own router with their phone micro sd but ?‍

 

[Mattb4]

Hmm. I called AT&T a few weeks back and they said I could use my own router with their phone micro sd but ?‍

Oh in some case you can but it is considered hotspot usage and limited. All this stuff is covered over on the Forum I linked to earlier. I have been doing this since 2015 as I mentioned.

There is not many routes to unlimited data over cellular.

 

[Crowz]

I dont know if you have a 2nd location or a neighbor that will let you hook to them for wifi but there is always 900 mhz and 700 mhz.

Ive used 900 mhz for 30 mile runs. 700mhz is LONG range in the hundreds of miles.

900mhz is free and 700mhz requires a license which is probably hard to get now. All it takes to use that method is a microtik unit and a radio card of the desired frequency. They are very reliable. The ones I setup with the internet biz are still going after 12 years or so now. Were very rural here and trees were a nightmare that made 2.4 a joke to use.

As for the cell phone route I have a at&t microcell at my old house that goes thru my internet there and creates a mini cell tower. So I have 5 bars there for the cell phone where I normally have no service at all.

Im not sure if you can hook it to router going thru a cell provider or not. Actually Im not even sure if at&t has these anymore since I dropped them for spectrum not to long ago.