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Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

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Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#31

Post by devxpy »

zegerius wrote: post #20
sails wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would appreciate a link to your researched aerial and router. I'm sitting in the country with my phone in a metal kitchen bowl (DIY aerial) for maximum signal, and think I could benefit from some technology!

Take a look at the Teltonika RUTX11[1] with a MIMO LTE antenna from Poynting[2]. Not cheap, but certainly got good results with it. I used Cellmapper[3] to check where the closest tower was. I have heard that the Huawei ones that accept external antennas are also decent, be it with a much smaller featureset. [1] https://teltonika-networks.com/product/rutx11/ [2] https://poynting.tech/antenna-category/antennas/urban-r…

These are really expensive in India, any suggestions for us plebs?

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#32

Post by simonbarker87 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #26
square_usual wrote: post #3

That's a snazzy looking app, but why iOS only, and why iOS 14 only?

In particular, why not a webpage? This doesn't need to be an app.

Probably a side project for a full time iOS dev who wanted an excuse to mess about with SwiftUI and decided to use the tool they are most familiar with

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#33

Post by TaylorAlexander »

devxpy wrote: post #31
zegerius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at the Teltonika RUTX11[1] with a MIMO LTE antenna from Poynting[2]. Not cheap, but certainly got good results with it. I used Cellmapper[3] to check where the closest tower was. I have heard that the Huawei ones that accept external antennas are also decent, be it with a much smaller featureset. [1] https://teltonika-networks.com/product/rutx11/ [2] https://poynting.tech/antenna-category/antennas/urban-r…

These are really expensive in India, any suggestions for us plebs?

I am having good luck with a ZTE MF279 on our farm in California.

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#34

Post by areille »

Nice app, do you plan to develop an Android version ?

However, I'm not sure to agree with all your points. Since two weeks I work at my grandpa's in French countryside. 2.7Mbps download and 0.5Mbps upload. I can use Zoom (no video), watch Youtube (480p), and use Slack with no problem at all.

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#35

Post by devxpy »

thruflo22 wrote: post #11

I moved recently from the UK, where my home and office both had fiber, to live in a tiny picturesque village in the Istrian hills in Croatia. Initially, my 4g router was getting a signal strength of -110 to -120db, corresponding to two bars and zoom video not working. Spent €90 on an outdoor aerial. Plugged it into the router. Signal now averages -85, four to five bars on the router, zero issues with video calls. My…

I dont get why these 4g routers are so expensive. I can get a phone with snapdragon processor, lte chip, display, battery and everything for around 1/2 the price of a decent 4g router, its insane. Market theory sucks for the consumer.

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#36

Post by Hamuko »

thruflo22 wrote: post #11

I moved recently from the UK, where my home and office both had fiber, to live in a tiny picturesque village in the Istrian hills in Croatia. Initially, my 4g router was getting a signal strength of -110 to -120db, corresponding to two bars and zoom video not working. Spent €90 on an outdoor aerial. Plugged it into the router. Signal now averages -85, four to five bars on the router, zero issues with video calls. My…

How are you running the outdoor cable to the router? I find the hardest part of this setup actually getting the cable from outside the house to inside the house.

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#37

Post by leokennis »

devxpy wrote: post #35
thruflo22 wrote: post #11

I moved recently from the UK, where my home and office both had fiber, to live in a tiny picturesque village in the Istrian hills in Croatia. Initially, my 4g router was getting a signal strength of -110 to -120db, corresponding to two bars and zoom video not working. Spent €90 on an outdoor aerial. Plugged it into the router. Signal now averages -85, four to five bars on the router, zero issues with video calls. My…

I dont get why these 4g routers are so expensive. I can get a phone with snapdragon processor, lte chip, display, battery and everything for around 1/2 the price of a decent 4g router, its insane. Market theory sucks for the consumer.

Probably lack of volume and competition?

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#38

Post by thruflo »

Hamuko wrote: post #36
thruflo22 wrote: post #11

I moved recently from the UK, where my home and office both had fiber, to live in a tiny picturesque village in the Istrian hills in Croatia. Initially, my 4g router was getting a signal strength of -110 to -120db, corresponding to two bars and zoom video not working. Spent €90 on an outdoor aerial. Plugged it into the router. Signal now averages -85, four to five bars on the router, zero issues with video calls. My…

How are you running the outdoor cable to the router? I find the hardest part of this setup actually getting the cable from outside the house to inside the house.

Yup, definitely a head scratcher! So far I've been able to thread through an open window but when the weather turns I'll need to drill a hole somewhere at some point :)

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#39

Post by thruflo »

sails wrote: post #18
thruflo22 wrote: post #11

I moved recently from the UK, where my home and office both had fiber, to live in a tiny picturesque village in the Istrian hills in Croatia. Initially, my 4g router was getting a signal strength of -110 to -120db, corresponding to two bars and zoom video not working. Spent €90 on an outdoor aerial. Plugged it into the router. Signal now averages -85, four to five bars on the router, zero issues with video calls. My…

Would appreciate a link to your researched aerial and router. I'm sitting in the country with my phone in a metal kitchen bowl (DIY aerial) for maximum signal, and think I could benefit from some technology!

An omni-directional "Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001": https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C1DGFPS

They make lots of different types: https://poynting.tech/antenna-category/antennas/

Re: Show HN: Lag – Know Before You Go

#40

Post by harha »

One more issue when going somewhere: not all places have useful 4G offerings.

In France, Germany and Italy for instance I couldn't find a monthly prepaid 4G offer with unlimited data, especially in France you frequently even need a local bank account and in Germany 4G is so bad in many places that it wouldn't make a difference how much data is in the plan. Other places like Austria offer monthly prepaid as low as EUR 20, though speed may be limited to 25-40Mbps, which should suffice for 1:1 video calls.

My solution for now is to at least have my workstation connected somewhere with a fast connection and someone who could reboot it if needed, connect to that from where I am and have that do all the heavy lifting. Doesn't solve the video conference issue though.

Having flexible and reasonably quick connectivity, or an EU wide subscription, would really lift the value of locations outside of cities - I don't understand how badly this is done compared to other infrastructure investments (e.g. roads are pretty amazing in Western Europe and not that bad in places I've been in Eastern Europe compared to the US). I hope non government actors like Starlink manage to close this gap.

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