[REQUEST] Looking for a hot spot which will cover my 3 bedroom home with unlimited high-speed internet access

[InHomeComputerHelp.com]

Hoping to stay away from Spectrum but it's not looking good

 

[Sky-Knight]

This is why you have these things: https://protectli.com/lte/

You can plug them into your usual router / wireless things...

 

[InHomeComputerHelp.com]

Can it be plugged into a mobile hotspot And if so what does it do?

 

[Diggs]

Hoping to stay away from Spectrum

I'm curious why? In my neck of the woods their basic service is over 200Mbs and is unlimited. Business support answers the phone on the third ring (residential a bit longer) and they are local people on the phone, not farmed out support. The guys in the trucks on the street have been all great to work with. Charter/Spectrum is the Internet connection of choice. Hmmm...

 

[Markverhyden]

In my book a hotspot is a WWAN, as in 4G, 5g, LTE, etc, device which in turn uses either bluetooth and/or 802.11 for clients to connect. By definition bluetooth is a short range transmitter so you need to have 802.11. Since hotspots run off of batteries their 802.11 signal strength is low to increase battery life. I've only worked with a couple of hotspots and they were very limited in what the carrier allowed you to do. So I doubt they allow you dial up the signal strength.

There's plenty of devices out there that are WWAN modems with router functionality, AKA cellular routers as @Sky-Knight mentioned. Digi and Cradlepoint are two that I see a lot in businesses. But they're probably a lot more than you want to pay. A Google search will yield others. Another option is to use a USB cellular modem and a Raspberry PI as the router. Been working on that but it's low on the list of priorities, having problems getting the aircard to work. Alternatively you could use one of the common Linux router distros and a desktop. I tested that with Vayatta years ago with a Sierra aircard, worked great. Then I'd use a good quality AP like a Unifi AP LR or similar model. With a good AP you can easily cover you home with just one. To improve the cellular modem bandwidth you can use a Yagi antenna with an amplifier. That can increase the signal strength by as much as 3 times if it's very weak.

Of course the other half of the equation is the plan. I think almost all cellular providers that advertise unlimited actually shrink the pipe after X gig of data. So if you're planning on gaming or large file up and or down loads don't expect spiffy performance all month long.

You'll also want to start by looking at cellular tower locations for your area. The link below has some good info. Not to mention Wilson also has external antennas and amps.

5G Cell Towers Near Me - 4G & 5G Locator

Quick guide to finding AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon cell phone towers near you. From cell tower maps, to great apps, & even 5G tower locations.

www.wilsonamplifiers.com

 

[Sky-Knight]

Can it be plugged into a mobile hotspot And if so what does it do?

It's a router, just like any other wireless router on the shelf... except it's WAN link is a cellular connection. It can be configured as a bridge as well, which allows you to treat it like any cable modem and attach it to the stuff you already have at home.

 

[InHomeComputerHelp.com]

I'm curious why? In my neck of the woods their basic service is over 200Mbs and is unlimited. Business support answers the phone on the third ring (residential a bit longer) and they are local people on the phone, not farmed out support. The guys in the trucks on the street have been all great to work with. Charter/Spectrum is the Internet connection of choice. Hmmm...

I've seen them do some dirty tricks to clients. Miss a bill force an upgrade when one isn't necessary for example.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I've seen them do some dirty tricks to clients. Miss a bill force an upgrade when one isn't necessary for example.

I've "seen" this too, and every circumstance boils down to an end user either asking for things they know nothing about, or ignoring the efforts of the local ISP to communicate changes to them.

I've had recent cause to actually work with Spectrum on both a business and residential fiber line Hawaii recently. Their support was great!

The only problem I have is the cable modems they use to deliver their service are crap.

 

[Diggs]

A quirk of Spectrum that annoys me is they lock you out of their business modem/routers. You must call them and have them do everything like port forwarding from their end. Yet, residential routers are wide open for changes with the admin name and passwords on the back. To me this is backwards. It's the clueless residential segment that needs to be locked out and businesses given access. Aside, Charter has the greatest passwords in the industry on the back of their routers. (crystalsunset707, sparklingpeaches321, moonlighttrain509, etc. Kudos!)

 

[mikeroq]

A quirk of Spectrum that annoys me is they lock you out of their business modem/routers. You must call them and have them do everything like port forwarding from their end. Yet, residential routers are wide open for changes with the admin name and passwords on the back. To me this is backwards. It's the clueless residential segment that needs to be locked out and businesses given access. Aside, Charter has the greatest passwords in the industry on the back of their routers. (crystalsunset707, sparklingpeaches321, moonlighttrain509, etc. Kudos!)

Our cable company Sparklight does this too. They claim you should still be able to log in but I never can. Even had a tech out one time and they tried to login "the customer way" and it wouldn't work. Pretty much I just have them put it in bridge mode so we don't have to fuss with it. They require you to use their modem when you have a static IP sadly (recent change in the last few years).

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah, you just have to make them put the device in bridge mode. There are a ton of ISP's that pull this crap, as they attempt to muscle in on the MSP space.

If only the FCC here in the states would regulate them as utilities... then they'd not be allowed to provide "interior" services at all!

 

[britechguy]

What is the floorplan of your house, and what are your actual speed needs in the various parts of it?

I ask because you make reference to a mobile hotspot. Right now I'm typing on a computer that's connected to the internet via the mobile hotspot feature in my phone (but it wouldn't matter if it were a dedicated hotspot device) where it's upstairs and behind me with two brick walls in between. When it's there, rather than next to me or in the line of sight of the computer, my signal strength does go down, but not in any way that generally effects what I'm doing, which is mostly working with text, such as writing these messages, web browsing, emailing, etc.

Right now I have "one dot" in the Windows signal strength indicator in the system tray and have had all morning, since I haven't bothered to run up and get the phone. It's still way more than adequate for what I'm doing.

I just said to someone else, elsewhere, ". . . a general truism with computer technology in general: If what you have is meeting your needs to your satisfaction, then you don't need something else."

There seems to be, in general, an obsession with signal strength in many instances where, for all practical intents and purposes, it just doesn't matter. The perfect being the enemy of the good or good enough. You just don't need high signal strength at all times for all activities.

Also, if you're using a wireless access point, and not everyone needs high signal strength at all times, but you do at the moment where you don't typically have it, picking the thing up and moving it "for the duration" can be done with ease. These things are generally pretty darned small, or at least all the ones I have experience with in "the residential world" have been.

 

[Markverhyden]

A quirk of Spectrum that annoys me is they lock you out of their business modem/routers. You must call them and have them do everything like port forwarding from their end. Yet, residential routers are wide open for changes with the admin name and passwords on the back. To me this is backwards. It's the clueless residential segment that needs to be locked out and businesses given access. Aside, Charter has the greatest passwords in the industry on the back of their routers. (crystalsunset707, sparklingpeaches321, moonlighttrain509, etc. Kudos!)

That's all the more reason I tell customers to always get their own router. You can tell Spectrum to turn off DHCP so it's just passing the public IP then you're free to do as you please.