
Building an LTE Access Point with OpenWRT Rooter - kingsomething
https://snikt.net/blog/2019/05/30/building-an-lte-access-point-with-openwrt-rooter/
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Hengjie
Currently, my ideal setup is GLinet Spitz X750, with the LTE modem swapped out
to a MC7455 for maximum compatibility (for mpcie slotted cards) with the
world's LTE bands. Then run GoldenOrb's ROOter. The x750 has integrated dual
band simu WiFi, and has an integrated slot and pigtails for the modem. Since I
travel a lot, I can power this entire thing off of an Anker USB power bank.

Today, you can go the route of: 1) OpenWRT with ModemManager, 2) WiFix's
ROOter, or 3) GoldenOrb's ROOter. Personally I like GoldenOrb's ROOter because
it has a nicer UI interface that I can access from my phone. You can SSH into
it and hack the scripts to get things to work exactly how you want to as well.

Shoutout to the GLinet team, they actually listen to feedback.

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jcims
Curious how you use this on the road. Is it basically a hotspot?

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Bucephalus355
I believe GL iNET already sells something similar too: [https://www.gl-
inet.com/](https://www.gl-inet.com/)

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javier2
I love this, but I found their web pages confusing and with too many products.

I think they need someone to look at how they express themselves. Can't
believe I'm saying this, but it's in need of some simpler, clearer marketing.

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hinkley
Jesus, you ain't kidding. A carousel with 8 slides, each a different product.
I'm just starting to absorb what the difference is between the product on tab
3 and the products on 1 & 2 and then I'm looking at product #4.

And if you look at their product page they actually have _11_ products and a
discontinued section _with 10 more products in it_.

Half the time I think I want to work for a company of nerds, by nerds, and for
nerds.

The other half the time I remember what we think 'marketing material' and
'documentation' looks like and get a little scared about my own judgement.

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some1else
It acts as a hotspot, not a base station. The title doesn't make that clear.

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Roark66
If you have time to spare this is a nice option to have. However,I didn't so
after looking up reviews online I got a TPLink Archer MR200 LTE/4G router that
you can simply plug a sim card in and it provides both wired and 2.4/5GHz
WiFi. As the thing sits in the attic next to a diy dual biquad lte antenna its
Wifi doesn't cover lower floors of the house so I have two of Fritz Wlan
Repeater 1750E.

Now the TPLink router is not cheap. The US price is around $300, but in my
opinion is well worth it as it gives me the ability to connect my DIY antennas
and up to now it has been working almost flawlessly (barring a restart every
few months) for 3 years. There are probably other routers that are equally
good, but my experience is with this one.

Regarding the WLAN repeater, it is also an expensive one at around $100, but
it is the only reliable WLAN repeater I found. I started with a cheap D-Link,
returned it to the store after a day, tried another one etc. I went through 5
or 6 repeaters until I found this model that actually works with multiple
devices, is fast etc.

Also, on the subject of LTE, I had real trouble finding a directional antenna
I could purchase that would have at least 10dB gain at 800MHz (that's the LTE
frequency my local tower uses) and wouldn't cost more than the router itself.
So I ended up making two of them(as the router supports multi paths). At the
end of the day it is only a bit of sheet steel and wire. I don't get why good
lte antennas costs as much as they do.

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alias_neo
Having played with all of this before I have some opinions on a few of these
things.

I have half a dozen of those TP-Link routers in a drawer, they're fun to play
with and ok for on the go. For traveling I'd stick with one off those over a
Raspberry Pi, or better yet, for a nice little upgrade I'd go with one of the
GL.INet routers, I have a few of those too and they all support OpenWRT/LEDE.
They come with it out of the box (albeit with their GUI on top).

RPi is sensitive to power fluctuations and note great for travelling because
pulling the plug a couple of times will likely destroy your micro SD. If you
were to use one for travel I'd suggest mounting your microSD read-only for
maximum safety. I've been through a dozen or so cards in a static Pi before I
switched to ramdisks and read-only root.

Currently I only use my mobile as a hotspot because it's inconvenient and
extra cost to have additional SIM/data when my mobile contract offers plenty.

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squarefoot
Another more powerful device is the NanoPI R1 which packs WiFi, BT and two
Ethernet ports (one through USB) in a form factor comparable to that small TP-
Link router. The second Ethernet and bigger hardware specs could be handy to
set up a VPN to a safe network when connecting from untrusted places.
[https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&...](https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=248)
Currently not listed among Rooter compatible devices, but the Orange PI zero
plus is (both use Allwinner CPUs), so porting shouldn't be that hard.

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Nursie
ROOTer is awesome. I used the Golden Orb release a couple of years ago for
something similar (hooked up to a phone).

It got us through a couple of months when we couldn't get a wired connection.

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jeroenhd
The drop in download speed is quite disappointing in my opinion. Possibly this
can be solved by using more powerful hardware for the WiFi router, of course,
but not being able to handle 70mbps can indicate possible bottlenecks on the
future.

I'd be interested in seeing the difference between connecting the 4G stick to
a PC instead of to the OpenWRT modem to see if the real bottleneck isn't
actually in the receiver.

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867-5309
the dongle should be able to handle 75Mbps (searched for some speed tests),
which leads me to believe the problem could be a) position of the 4G antenna -
it is internal so not as powerful as their previous router which had external
- have they tried placing the dongle on the top floor of his house near a
window facing the nearest 4G mast? not a lot is explained about the testing
process b) the mini router consumes 0.5W power! could the USB 2.0 port even
provide the standard 2.5W, or anywhere near it for that matter? c) a
combination of both

~~~
gsich
150 Mbit/s are also not a problem.

I had a similar setup, also with an E3372 for a few years (before switching to
a EM7455 and then a Huawei B618) and never had USB power issues on a TP-Link
router.

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wcfields
If one needs something more "pro" for LTE routers there's Peplink
([https://www.peplink.com/](https://www.peplink.com/)) and Cradlepoint
([https://cradlepoint.com/](https://cradlepoint.com/))

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turdnagel
Noob question: why would you ever want to use this instead of Wifi?

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bri3d
This isn’t in lieu of WiFi - it’s just a DIY WiFi hotspot with an LTE modem
attached to it. The title could be read to misleadingly make the device sound
like an LTE base station.

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ferdek
As a former engineer building LTE base stations - the title is extremely
misleading.

