Unboxing and Easy Setup of a Waterproof Outdoor 4G LTE cat6 Router-outdoorrouter

[@AndyFletcherX31]

The Cat 6 for LTE refers to the radio modes of operation (up to about 300MBit) not the Ethernet cable requirements. Cat 5 Ethernet cable will be fine.

[@tomfahey2823]

Just for clarity, Cat 5E is fine, as it supports 1Gbps (or even higher) - up to 100m cable run. Cat 5, however, is limited to 100Mbps at all lengths, so you'll want to avoid that.

[@awo1fman]

Was going to say this. I don't know why they have to make things so confusing by using identical terms and wording for completely different things, especially when they are certain to often be used in the same environment.

[@markoneil8286]

@OffGridSupplies As comments your original comment unless you are going to plug the ethernet cable in to another device the cat 5e cable is just for giving the unit power. Anyway cat 5e will do over 1gbps. What is the brand of the unit and the model of the unit, curious to know.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Ah that makes sense

[@beyondtheworkbench]

thanks

[@MissFamicom]

Just about to move to 15 acres with a river and stream no house, really grateful you started this channel, excellent information on your videos for the UK people attempting this way of life

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Wow you are going to have such an adventure! Let me know how it goes

[@UKsystems]

one thing to remember always use outdoor rated cables outdoors

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Good point

[@MhWow66]

After seeing this video i went to "Outdoor-Router" website and got the indoor-not weather proof version of that cat 4 router you had. Tried an O2 and Vodafone sim and had pretty bad connection with downloads of about 13mbps and uploads that did not even work. Tried a Three Network Sim and have a decent 42 down and 38 up with the router sitting on my window ledge... out in the middle of nowhere ...(no land line) . Got a decent Data addon on a rolling contract ...so thanks to you i have Internet...Many thanks.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

I am so pleased it worked for you! I used the website cellmapper to check what providers are at the mast where the signal will be comming from so yours is likely Three which is why that sim worked the best

[@tomfahey2823]

It looks like the router runs on a customised version of OpenWRT, which is actually pretty awesome! OpenWRT is an open-source project, providing firmware and software for various routers and wireless access points. The upshot of this is that, a bit like the Android/iOS store, there's thousands of software packages that you should be able to download directly onto your router, allowing you to do cool stuff like set up VPNs, reverse proxies, adblockers, QoS (very useful for managing latency on 4G connections) and much, much more.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Amazing I am so glad you pointed that out

[@neilclarke6419]

We come up Scotland every few weeks looking at land, Saturday we went to the Isle of Bute and drove right by ! I had a melt down when I spotted the Landy my missis now thinks I’m completely bonkers 😝 keep up the good work buddy!

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Nice one! Thanks. hope your trip was a nice one the weather was lovely

[@NeonGenesisPlatinum]

I love this channel, I am very stressed out and this really helps me unwind, relax and learn some skills. Thank so very much mate.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Excellent I am glad its calming, when I am putting them together its a hard balance between too slow and thus more relaxing and also not boring people to death and getting enough pace in.

[@NeonGenesisPlatinum]

@@beyondtheworkbench Well you're doing a great job.

[@thedogsdiddies8421]

I know this is a long shot, but are there any sheds, or buildings in line of sight of the mast and your property? If so, try pointing the yagi antennae directly at the building. I have seen one site that was literally in a complete dead spot, tucked in behind a hill, but managed to bounce/reflect the signal off the tin wall of a hay shed! The signal is a bit noisy (SNR) probably caused by the scattering effect of the corrugated tin, but getting 80% of signal is better than nothing at all! Even an old metal oil tank positioned in the right place might do the trick?

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Wow that sounds incredible that that would work! We seem to have a pretty clean and clear signal from the mast so I dont think I need to do that but I will see if aiming it at the hill to catch the reflections makes much of a difference

[@pipsqueak2009]

4G = LTE a cellular (mobile) standard for voice and data, where the "G" means "generation" (i.e. the next big standard after "3G", which followed "2G" etc). Alternatively, 2.4G is the the frequency of the WiFI module - where "G" in this context is Gigahertz. It's confusing that "G" is used in completely different contexts, but I guess as long as the right antennas end up in the right ports, it doesn't matter what the underlying meaning is.

[@awo1fman]

It is supposed to be "4G" and "2.4 GHz". Anybody who leaves the "Hz" off of "GHz" is making things needlessly confusing. Although it would be a whole lot less confusing if they would refer to generations of tech as e.g. "4th gen" instead of being lazy and dumb and abbreviating it to just "4G".

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thank you very much for explaining that, now it makes a bit more sense

[@yorkie984]

You're not expected to pass a pre-terminated network cable through the gland, you need to put bare cable though, then terminate the cable and tighten the gland.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

aha thats why it wouldnt fit

[@missing1person]

The yagis are very powerful antennas, did you try them near the house? You may not need to go through all this.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

I have done so many tests for the next video to explore this and yea you may be right, seems there is a slight gain up the hill but I will conclude it this week and see what the overall gains are

[@Mad-Coo]

Was thinking the same, might get signal without the redirecting the signal etc. Interested to see the conclusion.

[@STRIKERnz]

I wonder if that router's version of OWRT supports containers. You could set up a home assistant container and have some cool automation with your micro hydro by using some electronic valves to turn them off once your battery's get to like 95% and turn back on at 80%. which would stop the need to have the heaters to drain the excess.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Incredible that sounds like an ingenious idea!

[@gordonkelly5450]

remember a antenna is only as good as the coax you are feeding it with . if you intend to keep the yagis at the hill site then look at lmr 400 coax if you need any links to coax and masts ect drop me a message all the best . we use similar for our ham radio remote repeater sites in scotland

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks! In the testing for the next video I am not sure we need the yagis so with any luck we can simplify the setup

[@HonestTechReviews]

Not sure if it’ll help. But theres many types of POE. If you had a network switch that do POE some of them do active and passive POE. some devices require either of them. The POE plug should indicate what POE is required. But if you have many types you can get a managed POE switch such as the Unfi or HPE and you’ll be able to change the POE type

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Great thanks for that it will work for up the hill to power both devices from one plug!

[@Sydney268]

Looks like a decent bit of kit, even got built in lightning protection

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks for pointing that out I diddnt notice it did

[@meds3ven]

Is it simply a 4g router or capable of 4g+, which can hold 2 simultaneous connections and potentially offer double speeds!?

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Ah ok thanks

[@modzzjust4u]

Did you ever make a video of you 'waterproofing' your jackets?

[@beyondtheworkbench]

No I never got around to it but I still wear the jacket I was going to do and I have the materials so it might be a project for the summer ready for when I need the waterproofing in the Autumn

[@elminster8149]

Presumably you're using 2.4 ghz wifi on the router to connect back to your house? If so, not sure why you need the network cable other than for power. If it's just for power then the cat5e will be fine.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks

[@KeithBaileyEsq]

I have that routwe on my boat - its survived 3 years of salty air, and still going strong. If you intend to run the cat5e cable back to the house to power it, i would use a domestic wireless access point at that end, and not bother with the 2.4GHz wifi the router provides.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

It looked really sturdy so I am pleased to hear yours has survived those conditions. Thanks I was planning on running it to a nighthawk router but am likely to change the whole system again in the next video because of the speeds it gets arent quite where I would like them

[@innermotion7]

CAT5e will make no difference to Cat6 for this application. Key thing is outdoor rated cable.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Ah ok thank you

[@Phone_Geek]

As per comments on previous vid, this is a good product meaning you have router as close to antennas as poss. Since cable loss is big problem, phone masts have had this setup for 4G for over 10 years. Config called RRUs (Remote Radio Unit, having fibre up the mast to this equipment). Anyways, this should give good results, and having those cheap log periodic antennas included (they're like £30 on ebay and work very well) should improve speeds a lot. Try both x-polar and space diversity. Former as you had with yagi (+-45deg orientation as close to each other as poss), latter being have them separated by 30cm.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thank you, I ended up changing it again as this wasnt getting enough speed as a Cat4 unit

[@JohnSmith-uv5zq]

The science of water episode 2. For energy to be changed in to heat by friction there must be movement between the surfaces that are in contact with each other. When the water is flowing in your pipe. The water in contact with your pipe does not move. Therefore there is no loss of energy due to friction between the water and your pipe. The loss of energy is due to the viscosity of the water. Which is a constant at any given temperature. However the loss of energy due to the viscosity of the water is directly proportional to the length of your pipe. If we apply the 1st and 3rd laws of motion to the move water, we find, simply put. That any change in the direction of flow of the water slows it down.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks John excellent explanation

[@hurrichad8871]

Is that LTE modem going on your mast, if so, youre running power to it, so might as well run some CAT 6 to it as well...

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks It has gone on the mast but the armoured cat 6 was way more expensive than the point to point wifi so I decided to only run the power

[@adamfredrickson7908]

Antenna separation distance is critical for MIMO receivers.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks!

[@markaz2kk]

The LTE antennas don’t necessarily have to be parallel vertically. You can always try one or both horizontal or vertical towards the Mobile cell tower. As mobile phones work both ways depending on the angle of the device is being used. As signals get further away from the fresnel radio pattern points. You can have better gain on one than the other during storms, fog, sun and other conditions that can cause signal degradation.

[@Sydney268]

One antenna should be mounted at +45° and the other at -45° since 4g is transmitted cross polarised so mobile phones work well in different orientations

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Ok great, in testing them they actually diddnt make a differenct to the speeds, the signal was stronger but I think we were hitting the limit of the router. I have a third one arriving this week to test on the next video as well

[@Sydney268]

@@beyondtheworkbench in my experience you're normally limited by the bandwidth available at the cell tower itself

[@alanjrobertson]

Enjoying the updates! For the speeds involved with 4G the cat 5e will be totally fine. Looks like a nice UI on the router, hope you set up the WiFi side whilst you had it on the wired connection so you don't have to do it when up the hill 😉 Will be interesting to see if any speed difference with the bigger antennae.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks, It was actually worse on the speeds but I think I have worked out the issue and will be showing it in the next video

[@lewistaylor6695]

Can’t find your part 2 of Starlink

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Sorry its taken me a little longer to get it out with all the testing so it will be released this Friday rather than before the 4G router video

[@nietmijnechtenaam2477]

why did you get 4G instead of futureproof 5?

[@beyondtheworkbench]

I diddnt know 5G devices were backwards compatible otherwise I would have. I actually diddnt end up using this one after testing, the next video will go into why. Speeds werent good enough

[@remog38]

Is the router POE ? thanks for posting

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Yea the central and left port are POE and it worked when I tested it

[@remog38]

@@beyondtheworkbench so with external grade ethernet cable you could run this up the hill and it would be powered and you have best internet speed ?

[@wingman1392]

Not sure if anyone has said but LTE CAT6 is a reference to the LTE UE-Category, so the mobile network bit not the ethernet bit. Cat 1 is a max download connection speed of 50Mbps. Cat6 is 300Mbps. In effect will try to make 6 similtainious connections to the mobile network. Upload is the same for all catagories max of 50Mbps. Speed will denpend on the distance to the cell site, number of users connected, the amount of data they are downloading and the cell site capacity. Out in the boonies where I beleive you maybe the local cell is. probibly low capacity, so speed may very greatly as the school bus drives through with all the kids streaming.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thank you thats such good information

[@JohnSmith-uv5zq]

How much of the energy the water is capable of supplying are you using. your meters are reading the unused potential energy. you are only using 50% of the potential energy. so there is little point in changing the diameter, length or straightness of your pipe until you use at least 90% of the potential energy.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Ah ok thanks!

[@BernieBolt]

In the 70's where there were a few houses in a valley, they used a "passive reapeater" point one Yagi at the transmitter. connect to the other pointing at your house. connect with 6 inches of coax. no power required, as you already have the aerials maybe you could try this in a later video. Pity I did not see your first Video.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Someone else has said this so It will be really interesting to see what kind of speeds it can get

[@markoneil8286]

Waiting on the next part in the series

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks hope you like it. I have been doing lots of testing and couldnt conclude it this week as I had planned but it should be out next week

[@Cambridgeshire-m1x]

Excellent I hope it works well 👍

[@beyondtheworkbench]

It did work well but not the speeds I wanted so I will be doing some more testing for the next video

[@TheAlpineflyer]

@@beyondtheworkbench You may want to try a LTE Cat-18 (Mikrotik) or (even better) a 5G router (Zyxel NR7101 or NR7102).

[@TaviUrsu15]

How do you get this weather in Scotland?!🤣

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Its amazing! I think the forcast lies and Scottish people are keeping the beautiful weather a secret from the rest of the country. We have had it like this for weeks

[@gordslater]

When inside things like this, cut off a 2 inch by 1 inch peice of double-sided parpet tape. This helps temporarily hold screws while you mess about on a landrover bonnet, AND it will catch tiny insects that would otherwise become goopy goo (which conducts) in the longterm. How do they get in? Magic.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Excellent idea thanks!

[@markphillips8019]

Yep, do the MultiWAN thing for more bandwidth. Still cheaper than Tesla's in Space.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks Mark

[@insAneTunA]

cool stuff 👍

[@beyondtheworkbench]

thanks

[@JohnSmith-uv5zq]

WATER HAMMER. When the water in your pipe starts to move it gains energy in the form of momentum. The law of the conservation of energy tells us that energy can not disappearing but it can change. If you turn off your tap quickly the momentum energy is turned into pressure. Water can not be compressed so this energy is transferred to anything in contact with the water. for an instant the pressure can reach tens of thousands of PSI. causing damage.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks John, I have been more careful since reading the comments on this

[@AdamMW]

Looks a sturdy bit of kit. Shame about the 10/100 Mbps ethernet port though. May be a bottleneck down the line

[@beyondtheworkbench]

I found it wasnt fast enough for what I wanted so it made it into the next video but It wasnt the equipment we kept

[@AdamMW]

@@beyondtheworkbench Look forward to watching it!

[@GhostAreReal6]

It's basically using OpenWRT very good free source software, I'm suprised there's no 5G LTE unless you're not in a 5G Area would get more speed I always have slow speeds with Vodafone UK 4G LTE.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

There are different versions for sale so there is a chance one of their other ones does 5G

[@GhostAreReal6]

@@beyondtheworkbench They always change the versions something better comes out.

[@lucasvermeulen9535]

I see the second video is not available anymore of the mast

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Sorry I havent released it yet it has taken me ages to get it concluded. Hopefully this Friday

[@JohnSmith-uv5zq]

The problem of silt building up in the jet. If we look at a single partial of slit as it enters the jet housing. It has momentum in the direction of the jet. The first law of motion tells us, that it will continue in a straight line at the same speed unless a force acts upon it. To stop the silt partial needs a equal and opposites force. The poor design of the adjustable jet has caused the boundary layer to reverse direction. stopping the silt. This is very bad as the same force will be applied to the water slowing it down. There is a simple device called a venture which would speed up the water. The adjustable jets should be replaced with them. Only 25% of your turbine is being used. An extra couple of venture jets fitted to the turbine would increase the output.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Excellent thanks for the information I will check out those other nozzles you mentioned too

[@inquisitiveexplorerlee3299]

👍

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Thanks

[@msvaughan]

For 4G connection, Cat5 cable is more than enough

[@beyondtheworkbench]

ok thanks

[@awo1fman]

Cat5E Ethernet cable is better for longer distances. Cat6 can go faster, but over shorter distances, and most consumer equipment can't really take advantage of the extra speed anyway. Plus, the bottleneck here is going to be the 4G wireless, not the Ethernet speed. And "4G" is 4th generation wireless mobile data, whereas "2.4GHz" is the WiFi frequency. The there are also 5GHz and 5.8GHz WiFi frequencies with faster speeds but shorter ranges.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Ah thats the difference, I will keep that in mind then as sometimes I do need a longer run and other times its just a short run between the router and a computer

[@flatfoot]

@@beyondtheworkbench Sorry, that's incorrect info there. CAT6 is superior in every aspect (except maybe price) . It was designed to go faster by having improved characteristics, which make it more capable at any speed. You might want to consider getting surge arrestors - you don't have to have a direct lightning strike to fry stuff. The Ubiquiti UAC-LRE will do PoE plus data up to 1km. Just make sure cable is UV protected.

[@Fosg8n]

Cat 5e cable is all you need. Up to 100 meters, 99% speed should remain.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Aha great thanks!

[@rklauco]

Testament to the device if the unbox and setup video ends up "boring" :)

[@beyondtheworkbench]

I know! I was expecting a world of pain

[@patricklyons7683]

Looks like y/t shadow banned my reply because their kunts. Please don't bother with further money on relay lark, get a second hand Clark mast qt-10/15meter kit with guying gear. You can easily get a single mast straight up to pick up that phone tower from your location. Plenty appear & ask for silly money. Got a mint SQT-15HP for £500 + £150 van to collect it as it's 3-mtr long. Now got solid internet using the 60foot max reach but only require 45' height.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Nice! thanks for the tip. I have already put together the second version but I will save your comment for when we are upgrading

[@SHADOW.GGG-]

off grid my arse lol

[@ruzziasht349]

You obviously have seen how much power his water turbine is generating.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

We are off grid for our power, I am not sure there are many people who dont have internet even if they are more remote than us

[@beyondtheworkbench]

@ruzziasht349 thanks

[@janosszabo98]

It's surprising that in 2024 SIM cards are still a thing. It's literally just a chip storing data. It made sense back in the day, specially for small portable handheld devices, but the technology moved on. We have devices with WiFi, bluetooth and various other data transfer technology, we can store gigabytes of data in similar form factors as a SIM card, and it's all already built in. The card socket and the whole reader module is literally just a waste of space and added cost. We have eSIM now to replace all that.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

I always wondered why it kept getting smaller and smaller but its just plastic bits being removed. You could absolutely have a digital version maybe even stored on a blockchain. It would certainly stop me worrying about dropping it in the long grass

[@janosszabo98]

@@beyondtheworkbench It already exist, it's called eSIM. The only problem that not all phone carrier companies support it yet. That will be solved once all major phone manufacturers start rolling out "eSIM only" flagship phones. This will force them to get in line or lose customers. The only argument for physical SIM card is that you can "easily" swap it out. Of course this argument not really valid anymore since the modern phones don't have removable backs, and if you don't have something handy that fits in that tiny hole, you're out of luck. This was kinda solved with dual SIM slots, but let's say you travel a lot to different countries, then 2 still wouldn't be enough. Not to mention that with dual SIM slots, you generally lose the extendable storage support. And how often people swap SIM in general anyways besides a few edgecases?

[@212MPH]

Wrong device. You should have used the zyxel 7101 cat19 lte router.

[@beyondtheworkbench]

Funny you mentioned it because I discovered in the testing it was too slow and ordered just that router

[@212MPH]

@@beyondtheworkbench there you go. Good choice. I've been installing wireless networks and microwave links for over 40 years.