gamafranco

Hi,

I have a place in the mountains of Tavira with poor internet connection. There is direct line of sight to the provider's Antena, that is located 2 to 3kms away.

I have a TP-Link M7350 4G LTE router, but the internet connection is terrible.

Does anyone know a company that can give me advice or even install a good setup to solve my internet issues?

Thanks!

MrBife

These folks are agents for all networks and will work out which one works best for you. Are you sure the antenna you are near is the one providing the service you have a SIM card for ? Network360 | IT Solutions

gamafranco

Thanks for the quick reply.

For clarification, the place is at Grainho, 8KMs from Cachopo.

I suspect it is, because the telephone and the TDT were installed by PT and they installed an an antenna pointing to the tower. But I need further testing to be sure. The fact is that neither Vodafone, NOS or MEO work well with a 3G dongle. And in the store they always tell that the dongle is the only solution.

I'll reach the chaps that you recommended. Thanks again.

Jonny22

gamafranco

Thanks! Where I am the provider that works best e MEO. But it's still slow enough to make it difficult to even send and receive emails.

Do you see different between the B593 and a regular dongle?

I'll definitely reach Projection Dreams.

Best.

Jonny22

gamafranco

The place is in Grainho. 8kms from Chachopo.

barlaventoexpert

Firstly, I would never recommend a dongle.

Much better to acquire a 4G router like the Huawei one NOS provide.

I installed a couple of these in the Western Algarve for rural clients before moving up here.

Secondly, the router should be mounted on a window ledge with direct line of sight to the provider's antenna. If needs be connect it by a Cat5 network cable to the laptop.

If you have thick walls or you only have a usb dongle directly plugged into the laptop and the latter is in location without direct line of sight to the antenna you will suffer substantial signal degradation.

Also be aware that 4G is not as "fiel" as fibre-optic or adsl over copper.

Climatic conditions, number of people using the network, at one time, can all contribute to periodic degradation in signal quality.

If you really are in a signal's shadow, you should perhaps look to getting a Satellite system.

See: https://www.satinternet.com/pt-PT/internet-via-satelite

Greenmill - Smart Solutions

gamafranco

Thanks so much for this info. I see there is a mix of knowledge + trial and error to get a decent setup in a rural place.

I'll invest some time and resources to this, as work is getting ahead of me and I need to get a decent connection when I'm there.

Best.

Ajmandon

Some good points already made.
I have similar scenario ...... I'm about 2.6km from the nearest mast with line of sight. A simple huawei mobile 4g dongle with built in aerial......pretty poor, just about good enough for email and basic browsing, TV - forget it! Most "mobile dongles" don't allow connection to an external 4G aerial and this was key for me to improve signal strength / maximising speed. I did some research and ended up with an unlocked Huawei b593s-22 (note: the 22 covers the broadest spectrum of bands, there are other versions that might not). There are many alternative brands, newer models etc that allow external antennas ..... but the b593s-22 is/was popular and good value for 60quid off fleabay.

I then hooked it up to a decent reputable branded external aerial ( the little rabbit ear type normally supplied wont be much better than the mobile dongle). I have a Poynting aerial, xpol-0001 which is omnidirectional / multiband and I now use the xpol-0002 (I think) which is directional.......similar (small) size, panel type and effective, the directional one does give me slightly better performance but not really significant. Again other brands/models/ higher gain /quality available but I would be surprised if either of these wouldn't work fine, you just need to find a suitable place to mount and trace the cables back to the router. Again, Poynting are popular and for me well worth another 50quid off fleabay.

Having tried the others, vodafone provides the best signal for me....You should be able to find the location maps of all providers masts in your area, I found the fusion maps (they overlay onto google maps) by searching on this website https://forum.zwame.pt, and then its not too difficult to see where they are relative to your property.... vital if you have a directional antenna/line of site and useful to know just in case you've been looking at the wrong one (like I was!).

End result for total outlay of less than 150 pounds ....signal strength by various measures is consistently "good" verging on "excellent". An even better (higher gain) but significantly more expensive aerial would improve further. Performance depends a lot on demand in the network but I get 20-30ms ping, 10-20Mbps down, 5-15Mbps up. ..enough for TV behind a VPN router, multiple users etc. ... The influx of internet hungry tourists does/will affect this but MUCH better than an all in one dongle.

Shanorme

I don't know if there is a similar system in Portugal but in rural Wales, I used to get less than 1 Mbs. Recently, I have had a system installed by a company called Astra Broadband. It's an aerial type receiver hard wired to a router, which provides 4G broadband (the EE SIM card actually sits outside in the aerial receiver). I now get approximately 34 Mbs download plus about 5 to 6 Mbs upload. The system wasn't cheap but fortunately the Welsh Government provides a grant for those living in Broadband deprived areas. Does anyone know if the system (not the grant) exists in Portugal because it has changed our broadband experience completely.