Improving Rural Internet Connection

[ozio]

Living in rural america and trying to get a low latency, high bandwidth internet connection can be a complete hassle at times, especially since there is no DSL ISP's in our area as well. Most people would resort to satellite based internet connections but issues such as extremely high latency, low bandwidth at more than frequent intervals, and ridiculous data caps are still present even in 2019. I seem to have found my best option though with the help of a company named 'Evdodepotusa', they offer unlimited internet access to rural parts of the U.S through 3g/4g internet connections. While the experience so far is better than satellite I still feel it could be improved, with a max download speed of 10mbs, upload of 1mbs,and an average latency of 105ms it would be perfect for a single person home and minimal devices connected but I have my family with me and all of us on at once bogs down any online web content. I currently have a Yagi antenna mounted on the side of my house pointed toward the nearest cell tower in the line of sight (6 miles away) but there is another tower that is the same provider and extremely close (no more than 1.5 miles) sitting on the other side of a large hill above my home with a clear line of sight . I would like to get a signal  from the top of the hill to my home (roughly 700-800 ft distance) with the original antenna through underground fiber and keep in a budget of 600-800 dollars (or less) im wondering if anyone knows of any solution that might be able to work in this situation. Here is the current hardware in use- Tupavco TP545 Yagi Directional antenna and a WE826-T2 4G LTE WiFi Router running on  openwrt. If any other additional info is needed to find a solution to this project I will be  glad to supply it as fast as I can. 

[KarathKasun]

Move somewhere else, that is your only choice in reality.

[GateToTheFuture]

20 minutes ago, ozio said:

Living in rural america and trying to get a low latency, high bandwidth internet connection can be a complete hassle at times, especially since there is no DSL ISP's in our area as well. Most people would resort to satellite based internet connections but issues such as extremely high latency, low bandwidth at more than frequent intervals, and ridiculous data caps are still present even in 2019. I seem to have found my best option though with the help of a company named 'Evdodepotusa', they offer unlimited internet access to rural parts of the U.S through 3g/4g internet connections. While the experience so far is better than satellite I still feel it could be improved, with a max download speed of 10mbs, upload of 1mbs,and an average latency of 105ms it would be perfect for a single person home and minimal devices connected but I have my family with me and all of us on at once bogs down any online web content. I currently have a Yagi antenna mounted on the side of my house pointed toward the nearest cell tower in the line of sight (6 miles away) but there is another tower that is the same provider and extremely close (no more than 1.5 miles) sitting on the other side of a large hill above my home with a clear line of sight . I would like to get a signal  from the top of the hill to my home (roughly 700-800 ft distance) with the original antenna through underground fiber and keep in a budget of 600-800 dollars (or less) im wondering if anyone knows of any solution that might be able to work in this situation. Here is the current hardware in use- Tupavco TP545 Yagi Directional antenna and a WE826-T2 4G LTE WiFi Router running on  openwrt. If any other additional info is needed to find a solution to this project I will be  glad to supply it as fast as I can. 

In theroy, build a shed at the location of choice, run power and fiber from the house and stick the modem or router in the shed and run a new network with QoS traffic shaping on the internal side, limiting all uplaod to 150kbs and downloads to 2500kbs.

[ozio]

Spending up to 800 dollars (possibly more) for the proper equipment for this scenario would be a far better choice than just moving somewhere else but thanks for the input lol 

[GateToTheFuture]

Just now, GateToTheFuture said:

In theroy, build a shed at the location of choice, run power and fiber from the house and stick the modem or router in the shed and run a new network with QoS traffic shaping on the internal side, limiting all uplaod to 150kbs and downloads to 2500kbs.

 

22 minutes ago, ozio said:

Living in rural america and trying to get a low latency, high bandwidth internet connection can be a complete hassle at times, especially since there is no DSL ISP's in our area as well. Most people would resort to satellite based internet connections but issues such as extremely high latency, low bandwidth at more than frequent intervals, and ridiculous data caps are still present even in 2019. I seem to have found my best option though with the help of a company named 'Evdodepotusa', they offer unlimited internet access to rural parts of the U.S through 3g/4g internet connections. While the experience so far is better than satellite I still feel it could be improved, with a max download speed of 10mbs, upload of 1mbs,and an average latency of 105ms it would be perfect for a single person home and minimal devices connected but I have my family with me and all of us on at once bogs down any online web content. I currently have a Yagi antenna mounted on the side of my house pointed toward the nearest cell tower in the line of sight (6 miles away) but there is another tower that is the same provider and extremely close (no more than 1.5 miles) sitting on the other side of a large hill above my home with a clear line of sight . I would like to get a signal  from the top of the hill to my home (roughly 700-800 ft distance) with the original antenna through underground fiber and keep in a budget of 600-800 dollars (or less) im wondering if anyone knows of any solution that might be able to work in this situation. Here is the current hardware in use- Tupavco TP545 Yagi Directional antenna and a WE826-T2 4G LTE WiFi Router running on  openwrt. If any other additional info is needed to find a solution to this project I will be  glad to supply it as fast as I can. 

IMO this is your best bet, you'd ned ot redo you entire home network and may be double NATed

[KarathKasun]

For radio based setups, being too close to the tower is just as bad as being far away.  You end up under the LOS of the towers antennas.

[Donut417]

I think 105 ms Ping is good for 4G. Wireless always has higher latency than a wired connection. I dont think your going to get much better. 

[mariushm]

An alternative to fiber would be  to go with Ethernet to coaxial converters and  BNC cable.

 

For example, this kit costs 300$ : StarTech.com Gigabit Ethernet over Coaxial Unmanaged Network Extender Kit 2.4km - IP to Coax Converter - Ethernet to RG6 Coax Adapter Kit

 

Extend an Ethernet network over Coaxial cable up to 1.5 miles (2.4km)

GbE over Coaxial Network Extender Kit

Unmanaged 1000Mbps Ethernet Extender / IP to Coax Converter

Coaxial Ethernet Extender / Ethernet Over RG6 / Gigabit Ethernet Over Coax

Gigabit Network Extender / RJ45 Ethernet to RG6 Coax Adapter Kit

Allows network connectivity in remote buildings made of stone/concrete, or heritage buildings where new Ethernet cabling or wireless is impossible

 

A 1000ft (~305 meter) spool of compatible coaxial cable (75 ohm  RG-59, RG-6, RG-7, or RG-11 ) can be as cheap as ~150$ :  https://www.digikey.com/short/pqc1qf

 

You'll need to have some power at the other end, for the converter and whatever picks the signal (wireless router). 

You could just have a mains rated cable going all the way to the top of the hill, there's gonna be some voltage drop on the cable but the two devices use very little current so they'll be just fine.

 

A side bonus is If someone plugs plows the field or breaks the cable or if some rodent chews through it, you can quickly cut the broken bit and patch it up and you're back in business.

With fiber optics, you'd have to order a brand new full length fiber, or have someone that can cut and weld together fiber ends to repair the fiber.. not cheap and not easy.

 

 

Fiber optics ... you can order custom lengths from a store like fs.com , seems like a custom 250 meters (820ft)  SC-SC cable would run you less than 150$, depending on insulation type and thickness : https://www.fs.com/products/12202.html

 

Converters are cheaper, for example here's a 100mbps ethernet to SC (multi-mode fiber) for 42$ (you'll need two of these) : https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704015&ignorebbr=1

 

 

 

 

[pianoguy15]

Some good ideas here. No matter what you do, you definitely need to get cable appropriately rated for the situation. I strongly recommend getting direct-burial rated cable, which is naturally more expensive. No point spending hundreds of dollars to have a rodent eat the cable in 2 years...

 

You can get a Multimode OM1/OM2, 2 or 4-strand, 800' direct-burial rated, pre-terminated fiber assembly from someplace like Lanshack.com for around $1000 US (not sure about shipping, etc?). Of course you will need a media converter on both ends, power on the hill (for antenna, media converter, etc.)

 

Something else that may be worth considering is a "nano beam" setup (or something similar) using relatively inexpensive Ubiquiti radios. Any chance you know someone with good internet that's line-of-site (or close to it) within 60 miles or so? https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205197750-airMAX-Which-product-should-I-use-

[GuruOfNothing]

Being a rural dweller with cellular internet with stupid expensive costs and limits AND the as-well-mentioned Satellite internet service that makes me want to kill myself every time I have to use it because I can't cancel the contract without paying $800 to do so... for another year... I feel for you. But no amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth will ever get high speed anything out to your neighborhood. Being a HAM radio operator and knowing a little about radio signal propagation, I am gonna tell you that  just because you might be able to get a LOS to the closer tower from a local hilltop does not mean you are going to get any better of a signal. Cell antenna arrays are designed to broadcast a specific pattern and being a stones throw from one just means that the signal is WAAAAAAAY over your head. That booming signal is going to go whacking into the hillside and some of it is going to be reflected causing a wonderful muddling of the existing signal and making the speed thing... well, still a thing. Not to mention, if you don't OWN the property you want to go trenching a line through, you are treading on legal ground that makes $800 look like a parking ticket expense.

 

As I have found out, you have a couple options:

The first was already mentioned... move to where high speed exists.

The second is to try and find someone that IS LOS from you that has high speed and invest in a good set of Wireless Bridges... like ones from Engenious or Ubiquiti, and pay them for access to their high speed (which is against pretty much all internet providers EULA, BTW).

The third is to convert your old computer to a media server and buy a crap ton of DVD's to rip. Because let's get real here... there is no such thing as fast, reliable internet in the sticks.

 

I have been down this road and there were no other options for me. High speed is less than 2 miles away in a few directions and there is a nice set of fibre lines running literally 700' from my house but they are not broken for 6 miles either direction of me and I was told we could have high speed put into our "block" to feed the 7 houses in the area but it would cost us 125k to have the 'plant' as it's called installed... PLUS the monthly fees as usual. I can buy a metric crapton of cellular data for that kind of money. No wells can be drilled where we live due to water rights restrictions so there won't be any new developments making it worth building plant locally any year soon. So I wired up my property for high speed anyway and slog along with satellite trash. And a Plex media server and some 600+ dvd's.

[DogKnight]

8 hours ago, ozio said:

and an average latency of 105ms

That really is pretty good considering it's over a 4G network. 

Come to Australia and you'll be celebrating if you have a ping under 300ms in games. 

[KarathKasun]

2 hours ago, DogKnight said:

That really is pretty good considering it's over a 4G network. 

Come to Australia and you'll be celebrating if you have a ping under 300ms in games. 

Well, thats mostly the fault of your entire country being "rurally located" on the globe.

 

Any game server in Aus gives me ~300 ping on a 100mbit connection that gets a ping of ~30ms to US servers and ~150ms to euro servers.