Am I asking for a headache? New rural setup

[Binary Cow Pie]

I wish I found this forum last year when I was close to pulling the trigger on a cba850, but instead got the new 8800L MiFi. I'll try and keep this brief while detailing my current situation if it helps. Before the MiFi my setup consisted of a phone tethered to a PC running connectify hotspot. Then wired bridge to my two routers in the house. Speeds with varying phones never consistently hit more than 30mbps at best. 8800L has been killing it speed wise with cat 18. I now get a healthy 30-60mbps, thats with my tower being 4.4mi away. I have a WeBoost 4G-X pointed to intercept that towers signal 2.7mi away to though. Fast forward to now, I'm tired of torturing this poor MiFi and swelling the batteries up. I did try just about everything from putting it on a timer and even deleting the battery. I thought for sure I could hack up a cable to feed it power and direct to the pins then all would be well. Figured it wouldn't like 5v and wanted 3.8-4.2v instead. Tried using diodes and even a voltage regulator. I keep getting it to work until I download heavy. I think its drawing too much current so after I start downloading a big file I see the amps go up and it shuts off. Part of me wants to figure out a solution to this, the other part says burn it, time to change it up! Anyone have any suggestions should I purse this cable mod or do what I should have done and buy a modem?

TLDR

1) If I go with a new setup is it worth it build my own dedicated router with a pci or m.2 card?
2) I'm building a new wall mounted PC that will be right across from my inside antenna. Should I just slap in a Telit LM960 or EM7411?
3)Since Ive had such good speeds with cat 18 do you think if say I get a Em7411 it will be much slower?
4)If I go overkill with the LM960 what pci or m.2 board should I pair it with to add the sim card?
5)Probably about to have VZW all over me if I do any of these aren't I? (Have gUDP plan)

Looking forward to reading and learning even more. Seems I'm one of the few who wants to dump a modem straight into my PC so may have more questions soon. Would really appreciate some input thanks!

[tvecell]

Is the problem with the Mifi power or heat? https://community.verizonwireless.com/t ... -p/1179977
Can you open the case up a bit and point a small fan at it?

[Binary Cow Pie]

A bit of both. Before I attempted the battery delete mod it would over heat, but only every once in a while if I tried downloading more than 30GB. Was actually thinking about putting a fan on it at one time, but decided I'd still be replacing swollen batteries. With the battery delete issue I'm quite sure its a power issue. Works fine for regular web browsing then a large download shuts it down. Lasts for a while @ 3.9v but anything else it powers down almost instantly upon downloading.

[R1250GSA]

Mr. Pie,
A question for you.
You are running a 8800L MiFi that is cat18, this 4x4 MiMo internal antennas with two external antenna ports.
So the LTE cat18 speeds are all about having 4 antenna and the CA, carrier aggregation, to combine the multiple spatial frequencies to get more throughput.
By plugging in an external antenna into the MiFi, you drop to 2x2 Mimo with the trade off of better distance due t the high gain antennas.
4G LTE wants 2 antenna at a 45 deg polarization.
Signal booster setups, for the most part, use just ONE antenna just to get any signal, as well as light up the home inside, as buildings usually block 10dB of signal right off the top.
Most people shy away from boosters because it amplifies an already bad SNR.
So besides your struggle to power your MiFi, have you plugged in a pair of quality high gain outdoor antenna directly into your MiFi?
If you plan on making the jump to CBA850 or other router in future, the high gain antennas should be reusable.

[Binary Cow Pie]

Last year I debated adding another antenna on the roof for mimo to the booster, but never thought to try hooking up one to the MiFi. I eventually got the booster dialed in with good signal and speeds. Yes I do have terrible SNR, when I'm lucky its around 7, so I've kind of turned a blind eye to it since I do have decent speeds. Now that you mentioned it and I'm already doing a new setup sounds like I may open that bag of worms yet again.

[Adm1jtg]

If I am reading this right... you cant have mimo with a booster. Unless you have 2 boosters, one for each mimo path.

[Binary Cow Pie]

Sounds like one of those yes and no answers. This link (not the video) explains it well. Sounds like I keep the booster just for the phones and build a moxon antenna on the roof for the mifi. Or just buy 2x2 mimo antennas to make a 4x4 mimo and solder additional connectors to the 8800L. Not sure how much 4x4 will help vs 2x2 however.

Was just reading that someone already had their LM960 deactivated by VZW. Such BS was really wanting to go that route even if it meant being the next Alex Nguyen and fighting big red and Ajit Pai. I just want to have the best internet and not be wasting my time and money on fighting stupid policy.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-repea ... dre-fourie