Hi All,

We have had a few issues with our brilliant 2860 and Sky FTTC, which fortunately seem to have settled down after lots of firmware updates.

To be fair, it may not have been the router at all, but Sky, so to reduce the risk in the future we have decided to add a second vdsl line from another provider, and make better use of our 4G dongle.

I've been playing with a 4g aerial on the usb stick, and currently have it on a 3m usb lead, and the aerial itself adds 2 meters.

The conclusion I've come to, is that externally mounting the aerial is the best way forward, as it makes a drastic improvement.

Our router is located next to the BT master socket, which is by the front door. Technically we are not supposed to place aerials on the front of the house.

Has anyone come up with any novel solutions for remotely locating the 4g aerial? Is it best to extend the usb side, or the aerial side? What are the practical limitations? Can the draytek provide enough power to support a usb cable with repeater, plus the modem itself?

Or even better, any solutions that can do it over Cat6 or even IP?

cheers

Karl

Probably the best thing you can do is get a USB extender that works over Cat5e
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HDE-over-Extension-Cable-Adapter/dp/B004XYEXX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1429277023&sr=8-3&keywords=cat5e+usb+extender

This overcomes the 5m maximum length of USB extensions, and lets you place your dongle in a convenient location, so you don't have to mess about with external antennas.
The reason I say this is that the frequency bands for 4G (and 3G for that matter) are currently undergoing a review, and since aerials are frequency specific, it's quite possible that a current set-up will become obsolete in a few years time.
Also, Cat5e can be easily laid over long distances, and you don't have to worry about amplifiers and loss.