Jon-Bxl

Thanks Mike I posted the 3 'free' dongles that are on http://www.tmn.pt/4g/ above. These are not one of the 3 - but its clear we are getting close.

As I say I have the most hope for zoom and will contact them to see if the ones at the bottom of the page will be supported. Will let you know when Ive got my 'round2it'

Jon

MikeJ

I see TMN also do the Huawei E5776 4G Mifi router for 30Euros (with 2 yr contract?) - it must work with their 4G Huawei dongle - so you should get an easy plugnplay setup. (Although it's £197 ish in the UK ) . BTW the TMN shop in Tavira used have a good English speaker who might be able to help.

PS You may have detected that I am interested in finding an early adopter before I lash on on 4G myself. But it does look like an interesting possibility for IPTV.

Jon-Bxl

Aha Mike you are looking for a guinea pig

Once Zoom have confirmed that I am 'future proof' I will buy the router, I want mifi in April, so I hope they will confirm it.

However I wont be getting a 4G capability for a while yet - just want to be ready for it and to be sure in advance that it will work. So you may have to find another 'tailless adopter'

The main reason I want 4G, is for TV. However I want to see at what point my 3G dongle maxes out as well.... and that is a test I'll do when all the sats change later in the year. All this is discussed (as you know) to death on the other thread.

Until we found out about the TV change I thought my TMN 3G dongle and the package was (maybe still will be) the best I have seen in Europe. For my usage.

I'll let you know when I've heard from Zoom. I am out of the country and have to time it as I am only home for a couple of days before I leave to CE and need to arrange the delivery to coincide with that.

Thanks
Jon

BTW if you go towards the library in VRSA, about 50m or so before on the right is a dealer with a TMN sign.. he speaks perfect English...

EsuriJohn

O'h for a landline my Casa for a landline and 10 mgb.

Jon-Bxl

Hi John

We have at least one mutual friend in Portugal - you need a Portugal address to get a 4G contract - maybe they would help out? Beer is a suitable 'oil' to grease the wheels

Then you will not have the 3G/4G problem I am trying to resolve and can even get the cheaper TP link router but VERSION 2 only.

Jon

alentejo

This is all fascinating- I'm in the wilds (nr Pomarao) with a TMN dongle but no signal at all in my house. I built a treehouse office 60m away down my garden after finding a signal with the dongle waving around on a 4m stick!

Huge amusement for the locals.!

A friend then gave me a Cradlepoint router which, finally, the incredibly helpful guy at TMN in Albufeira managed to persuade to 'talk' to the dongle. So I can now work in the house.

This works, but is only 3g- and if/when it fails I obviously cannot leave the pc permanently on in the treehouse because it's now in the house.

What I need is a 4g router which can talk to the new 4g dongle. Oh, and which has at least a 60m range.

Any ideas?

MrBife

Before you go too much further I would take a look at the signal strength offered by Optimus and Vodafone as all three vary in different places and in areas of marginal coverage changing from one to the other may work.

There are also solutions involving an extension antenna for your router that will boost the signal.

alentejo

TMN is the only viable signal here so I am restricted to their service. I'm amazed it's as good a signal as it is- we're in a valley and probably at least 8km from the mast.

Speedconnect says I have 3.7mb speed on my 3.6 dongle. It varies with weather conditions but will support Skype and send/receive long technical reports full of tables/photos with no difficulty.

I've had three TMN dongles to date and two have expired within 3 years. The current one- the only one the TMN techie could persuade to work with the Cradlepoint router- is an obsolete one which is now working on borrowed time. Hence my anxiety!

It'd be great to have 4g capability plus a newer dongle (I'll buy two for piece of mind), and to watch the odd bit of TV when Sky is turned off.

I can add an antenna to the router- or simply hard wire with cat 5 cable to the house- my problem is getting a definitive answer re which router will plug and play with TMN's 4g dongle. The Cradlepoint absolutely would not- the techie played around with different dongles for an hour before finding an old one, even then it took some considerable setting up. Great service though.

MikeJ

You obviously have a long relationship with TMN dongles so probably wouldn't object to a 2 year contract - so have a look at my post#17 and the TMN website under "equipment".

alentejo

Yes- I've already had the contract for about 4 years. I have to say it's worked well for me. Prior to that I'd have to copy stuff- up to 60 pages- twice, then drive a 40k round trip to the post office, pay for paper, ink, postage etc. and still have things occasionally go astray.

Now I just hit send! And losing it would be seriously upsetting.

I'm having some trouble finding your post- but it's late and my partner kindly brought me back some horrible bug from the Uk- so I'll have a look tomorrow.

Thanks for the help.

alentejo

Update before I take the Night Nurse (it's medicine...) and retire to bed!

I found the mobile routers on the Tmn site- clearly designed, unlike the fixed Cradlepoint- to enable you to set up a temporary hub for up to ten devices.
Battery powered though (8-10 hr life), and seemingly without an ethernet port to enable permanent hard wiring.

Who knows anyway whether they're specified to be on permanently even if you could organise a power supply? The Cradlepoint is just on permanently like most office routers. This is what I must look for- but 4g capable and able to plug and play with one of the available 4g Tmn dongles.

All this makes my head hurt, I was born in the early fifties and really struggle with this stuff. I've learned the hard way that things which say 'plug & play' on the box don't always deliver. Give me nuts, bolts or a welder and I'm a happy bunny!

Jon-Bxl

Good to know I am not the only one having these issues... as you can see from this thread. In your case the answer is there, for 4G. My need is for both... and will contact Zoom shortly to see if they will support it.

As mentioned earlier here, the TP link VERSION 2 ONLY MR3220/3420 with a workaround will accept one of the dongles that are 'free' with a TMN contract. Check out review comments from someone who made it work on the Amazon site; a review says "Bought to enable use of my TMN Portugal 4G pen modem (ZTE MF820D). A bit tricky to set up, but OK once the modem's built-in PIN was disabled."

Jon

alentejo

My heart sinks when I read '...a bit tricky to set up'!

There are known problems with the TP link 'through the mains' on spurs/extensions etc., which might well be the problem with my treehouse. But hard wiring with Cat 5 cable will handle 100m- I just need a mains powered router, 4g capable, and able to work with the TMN dongle.

It's out there somewhere...?

I've just found a Cradlepoint 4g router on ebay- from the States at £82 (item 290884051454) . Might be ok- once the 3g one was set up I have to say it worked perfectly. This one claims a 600' range. There are others at greater cost.

masterbaits

It might be worth your time looking for a deltenna wibe setup , but at present they dont do 4g.

Other options are stella doradus boosted antennaThis works by increasing the up and downlink , then your pointing or running cable to the house from your treehouse depnding on choice.

Do a you tube search for the doradus , see how it works , just a posh idiot safe install for a signal booster.But if it works then no probs , different feqs avail , but not 4g at present.

Look for the deltenna wibe , which can be mast mounted and is power over ethernet.The 3.5 g one should help you out as it has both wired and wireless - you just put the sim into it rather than mess with routers , as it is an antenna , router and booster all in one this may get the best signal.You can buy a cap for it , its the same as the ones you see on telephone poles or telephone pits to keep the thing water tight.A bog standard router at the house end by cat will defeat any extra cost for tethering , but wont increase any phone signal for you.

You may also benefit from using a dongle that has an external antenna socket , some of the new ones have the dual antenna socket for fast full fat 3.5g , which in my best opinion is what is being called 4g but isnt really.But again you would nee a good antenna or two , and if your not line of site then your looking for some kind of parabolic one.

If your 4g is the one at 2600mhz then a wifi antenna from tplink should help you out , should be 40 euros an antenna plus low loss cable and connectors, while this is strictly a wifi antenna the closeness of freqency 2100-2400-2600 mhz might work.Actually its been used in really rural places like Aus and the american plains with decent results.

http://www.netstoredirect.com/tp-lin...FRDKtAodt20Amw

You also have to look to see what freqs your getting where you are , not just bars on a phone which are not standardised anyway.There is some free software on the net for certain kinds of dongles to give u the real signal strength in the correct format ie dbi.

Relying on a mobile for strength and location siting wont cut it , for a start the antennas are tiny , the suppliers use different freqs and styles of connections that a single mobile phone just wont be able to lock to - ie a 2g or 3g phone on 1800mhz wont list 2600 or 800 mhz 4g even if thats the best reception you have your phone cant tell you .The only phone that can do all the freqs that i know of is the moto razr hd and some anroid apps for signal strength , but i havent used it in pt so cant give a good review of its ability.

Best signal rurally on 4g should be in the lower mhz , thats what the science says , but ims is only offered by vodaphone 4g , and in all honesty probably wont be used in the algarve.

alentejo

Loads of information- thanks!

I think next time around I'm going to go for the best possible signal plus hard wiring and a good router.

I'm aware of the relative uselessness of a GSM phone to establish signal strength- I went all over my garden/roof etc. with the dongle on the end of various lengths of cana with the computer in my hand before I found the best signal, admittedly crudely measured with blocks on the TMN reception page.

A dongle I can plug the aerial into seems like a good start.