Retired Techie
Getting older, not necessarily wiser!
Cellular 4G+ Modem Install
Published on February 28, 2022 at 1:48 pm by LEWIntroduction
I have been using a 4G LTE cellular Modem here in the Philippines for years now. Before this trip I visited the company web site and saw they had a 4G LTE + modem now. So I thought I would invest, and see if it would improve my connection. 5G in my area is very spotty, otherwise I would have gone that route.
Disclaimer: For this post I want to be clear. I will be mentioning brand names. I am currently using the products myself. However this does not constitute an endorsement for any products or services. I have no relationship, other than being a simple consumer with the company mentioned here.
Hardware
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, what I am currently using in the house is Globe at Home Wifi. I am changing to the Globe at Home Wifi Advanced option. From a hardware perspective this means I am switching from an Huawei B310As-938 cellular modem to an Huawei B535-932 cellular modem. Both modems are provided by Globe, with Globe firmware installed (not the Huawei firmware which has a lot more options).
Cellular Modem Performance
The performance of any cellular modem depends on a lot of factors. And it is a guarantee that the performance I am experiencing will not match your performance. So do not expect my results to mirror your results.
Some of the factors that affect performance are distance and line of sight to cell tower, orientation of the modem, material used in house construction (aka location in the house), spurious electromagnetic fields (from various household appliances), congestion on cellular network, and other cellular devices in the area.
I ran a couple of tests at 5:30 AM to compare the two modems. On the LTE modem I was seeing download speeds of around 8 to 12 Mbps. On the LTE+ modem I was seeing download speeds of 30 to 40 Mbps. So there was a consistent observable difference in performance between the two modems.
Modem Issues
While setting up the nee LTE+ modem I did encounter a few bumps that where not in the documentation that came with the new modem, and Globe customary support was not really much help.
It eventually took me calming down, putting on my network engineering hat, and walking through the setup and options form that perspective. I am sure that if I did more work with cellular modems, I would have been much quicker to pick up on the issues.
I will do my best to identity the gotchas (issues I encountered) in the below process.
Unboxing
The box contains the modem itself, power adapter, Ethernet cable, sim card (already installed), warranty information, quick start guide, and a couple of stickers that I am not sure what to do with.
 
 
The Modem
On the front of the modem there are several visual colored indicator lights. From left to right; power, internet, WiFi, LAN, and signal strength.
On the back of the modem, from left to right; reset pin hole, power connector, four LAN connectors, and one phone connector. The placard on the back gives default information for logging in (make sure to change it before going live).
  
 
The SIM card is inserted into the bottom and covered by a Globe warranty void tamper label.
Simple Setup
Setup is as simple as plugging in the modem, turning it on, and waiting. Once the modem has finished its startup, you can log in using either a direct connection or local WiFi. Note your WiFi name and password is different from your administrative account name and password.
The first time you log in, you will go through a startup sequence. At this point I recommend changing all your passwords to something other than the default.
Some Setup Issues
According to the Instructions that came with the modem, I was suppose to log into Facebook Messenger to get my 10 GB of data. This was incorrect. Turned out I just had to wait about 15 minutes for it to show up.
Initially, I could connect to my devices. However I noted in the default setup I could not get any of my streaming devices to achieve internet access, even though the modem showed that they should have it. Computers and phones worked fine however. Also a direct LAN connection worked fine for all devices. Turned out that in the default modem setup, both WPA and WPA2 were selected for the WiFi. Selecting only WPA2 solved the streaming device internet access issue.
Conclusion
Except for the streaming device internet access problem, setup was a breeze. That one issue had me pulling my hair for awhile. Bot once resolved, it was smooth sailing.
For general access, streaming, and mail, the modem works okay. However jitter and ping response are borderline for online gaming.
A Landline is still the best option, but this will work in a pinch if Land Line is not possible in your location.
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