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Forum Discussion
mackov83
Mar 23, 2020Star
LB2120 with external antenna
Has anybody ever attempted to use an external antenna with this device? I live in Sydney Australia and am ~800m from my closest tower. I bought this external MiMo antenna to try and boost my signal -...
mackov83
Mar 27, 2020Star
With the new LTE Cat6 modem I am now pulling ~100mbps down and about 8mbps up - not a bad increase!
I also tested the LB2120 Cat4 again at the same time for a comparison - 12mbps down, 24mbps up.
LlamaLarry
May 07, 2020Luminary
What modem did you switch to? I would also like to know if it has CA.
- Sheaj544May 16, 2020Aspirant
I am quite curious too ?
I have picked up a second one of these to play with Dual Wan and to really just get more data for our home.
The first in my case is flawless with Vodafone, 100Mb/s down most of the day, Uploads even more stable throughout the day with 35-40 Mb/s.
Do i hear NBN is defunkt :o
Second LB2120 for Optus with their recent deal on 500GB Mobile Broudband.
Pretty abysma speeds so far and it varies heaps. 30 - 60 Mb/s down and a WHOPPING 7-9 Mb/s UP.
Just patheric really, cant even get double digits, more the fault of Optus and made worse by the 4G Modem for not allowing Frequancy selection.
Come on NETGEAR, is this NETgear or S**tGear. with a High Gain external antenna i would thave thought to get more than single digits for the upload. It seams to be stuck on the B40, 2300mHz frequancy 20 Mhz width. There is no ability to manualy select 1800 Mhz, 25 Mhz wide band, where one could only hope the uplaod speed would increase.
Shame. guess its toygear after all. No support for OpenWRT either. Guess im out of luck.
Anyways, What was the Cat 6 4G Modem you have picked up ? curious to hear your findings :D
Happy Hunting
- mackov83May 16, 2020Star
LlamaLarry apologies, I had not seen your message until Sheaj544 responded. I bought the Huawei B525s-65a and went through a process and installed what's called the 'factory' firmware. This gives you access to features that most telcos block from use - i.e. bridge mode, band steering etc. Sheaj544 if you are on Optus, I'm guessing you likely have the locked down version of this exact device!
You can get them on eBay or GumTree second hand for anywhere from $50 (I wouldn't spend more than $150 or so). I saw many people stating in their ads they 'no longer needed it because they upgrdaded to NBN'. Unfortunately, vendors, telcos and NBN are misleading the public with marketing BS. With LTE (unless directly under a tower) will never get the advertised speeds without a high gain external antenna.
To be fair, I did end up testing the Nighthawk M2 and got similar speeds to the Huawei, but the LB2120 never came close. It does not support carrier aggregation whatsoever. Also, while the M2 marketing suggest speeds of 1gbps, it is highly unlikely you would ever reach that either.
Also, Sheaj544 , by the sounds of it you are also in Australia. Therefore I would highly recommend checking out:
1) rfnsa.com.au. This allows you to get details on the local towers nearby, as well as it's capabilities - freq, throughput etc. My nearest tower is 800m away. Keep a lookout for the 'cellID'
2) Aus Phone app - allows you to get a good idea of what bands are reaching your location the strongest, and focusing on them
- mackov83May 16, 2020Star
BTW, I am also using a directional antenna - which as the name suggests focuses its energy directly at the tower. I am interested to hear how others have got on with omni-directional, as this would be easier to setup.