I am located in an area that requires a cell antenna booster. I would like a VPN router with an internal cell modem with an option to connect it to an outdoor boosted antenna. This is for an RV. I am familiar with Netgear and Linksys, but can look at other routers if they are well supported. I can flash my own router. Are there some recommendations or examples that I can look at?
I am using a old Huawei b525 router with external anntenna.
5G MIMO 2x2 Antenna (698-3800MHz)
And a rpi4 for openwrt:)
Ok. Thanks for the reply.
ZBT WE826-T you find on alibaba. Good and cheap openwrt device, very well supported. You need to verify the correct modem variant for your country, i.e. EC25-AF (USA) or EC25-E (Europe).
A good antenna, particularly if it results in line-of-sight to the tower can have a big effect on bandwidth. There are a number of youtube videos testing fixed wireless with and without external antennas and most testers measured worthwhile improvements.
I have a new in box MikroTik LtAP mini + Quectel EC25-AFmini-pcie card that I ended up not using. The Cell Tower Fixed wireless providers in my area only provide service with their modem/routers which did not allow for external antenna's. The LtAP mini can be fit with SMA jacks and the mini-pcie card easily upgraded.
How to Get Better Internet with MikroTik LtAP mini LTE Kit Antenna Installation
https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/mikrotik/mikrotik_rb912r-2nd.
It's gathering dust, if you or anyone else, are interested, $40 for LtAP+EC25 + U.S. shipping.
PM me.
The one downside is the 10/100 NIC.
Thanks reinerotto and shep for the replies. That gives me some things to look at.
I like that antenna! Thanks again for the reply.
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Be advised that the Quectel EC25 is a 150 Mbps downlink and a 50 Mbps uplink card so top speeds may be impacted
The EC25 is not the fastest but you can swap it for a faster card. Additionally, others are already using it with OpenWrt. You also need to check to see which bands your provider supports and are available on the tower nearest you.
In case, you want to access Verizon, you need to take care of certification. In this case, a Teltonika device, i.e. RUT955, is a good choice.
Thanks for the suggestion of the RUT955. I looked at it on the Teltonika website and will do more reading on it. That looks like a cool unit. Thanks.
Be advised, that RUT955 has reached EOL, end of this year. RUT956 might be better option. Unfortunately, RUT956 not supported by official openwrt, whereas RUT955 is supported. I have a large fleet of them in the USA, running my custom built official openwrt. Connected to Verizon LTE.