4G Network extender doesn't work through mobile hotspot

[hearmenow123]

I live in an area with marginal signal.

On the highest part of my property I set up a tower with cell phone amplifier. I use this to feed a 4G LTE phone in hotspot mode, and beam the signal over to the house with a long range WiFi. This has been providing a reliable and fast internet connection for me.

I do have a DSL but it only gets 0.5 Mbps orso , so I just use it for large downloads and uploads. It's very marginal for any streaming data.

I have both a 3G and 4G network extender in the house, and connected them to the Hotspot internet.

The 3G network extender works fine but the 4G one is not able to connect to the Verizon network through the hotspot. It does connect through the DSL , but it is slow and the voice quality can be choppy for the same reason.

There is no technical reason for this not to work. I bet if I tunneled the traffic through a VPN , it would work. I called customer support and they had no explanation. There must be some sort of firewall or routing issue that prevents the network extender from connecting. Part of me wants to break out Wireshark and figure it out. Has anyone dealt with this?

[vzw_customer_support]

hearmenow123, being connected in this digital world is vital, so I can see why you are looking for viable ways to strengthen your signal. I am eager to help. What the closest intersection and zip code that you are located? What phone are you using? How far is the highest point of your property and where doyou have the signal amplifier? Have you considered setting up your signal amplifier to your home instead of a wireless connection and running the outdoor antenna to the highest part of your property?

AkaneM_VZW

[hearmenow123]

I'm in 78616. According to the coverage maps I'm right on the edge of coverage.

There are three Verizon towers in my area. Two of them are about 8 miles away , but I need a tower of about 70' tall to get a line of sight to those towers. The third tower is 12 miles away, but I could get line of sight with a 25' tower from the highest point on my property. So that's the one I'm connecting to with the cell phone amplifier. (Yes, I registered the amplifier with Verizon)

There are several problems with putting the amplifier in the house directly:

1) I estimate the house is about 6-8' lower , so I would need a taller tower to reach from there. Not sure what my wife would say about having a 35' tower next to the house (but I can make a few guesses)

2) I have several smaller buildings on the property , some close by and some a few hundred feet away. The buildings have network connections and a total of 5 network extenders, 3x 3G and 2x 4G extenders. It would be impractical and expensive (and ugly) to have that many towers and network extenders

3) You may be able to put multiple antennae on one tower but the analog RF signal cannot be carried very far , otherwise it will diminish. Whereas when you carry it as a network signal, it can be extended indefinitely. 

Do you have an idea why the 4G extender does not work anymore through the hotspot? It used to work. Not sure when exactly it stopped working since our daily phones are 2G. I think back in January it was still working. As said the 3G extender still works fine.

[vzw_customer_support]

I appreciate the prompt response and thank you for the helpful information, hearmenow123. I understand how important it is to have your network extenders to work properly. Let's continue working on this together and let's work with one issue at a time to avoid confusion.

Let's start with the 4G LTE Network extender and the mobile hotspot. The 4G LTE Network Extender requires always-on internet access with 10 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up minimum; 20 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up or higher is recommended. You can find more information on the 4G LTE Network Extender using this link. http://spr.ly/6606ElLA4 To clarify, what are the download and upload speeds you are getting from the hotspot? http://spr.ly/6608ElLAA

Also, please provide us with the city and intersection where you are using the network extenders. We want to review internal coverage information in this area.

GersonG_VZW

[hearmenow123]

I'm getting about 10 Mbit down and 3 Mbit up through the hotspot and this does NOT work.

I'm getting about 0.5 Mbit down and 0.3 Mbit up through the DSL and this does work.

So it's not a bandwidth issue. Of course the DSL is really slow which affects download speeds & voice quality, which is why I want to use the hotspot.

Everything else is the same. The box doesn't physically move. Why does the city & intersection matter in this? The closest highway is FM 713 & Sand Hill Rd in Dale, TX 78616

If there is no reason on the Verizon side that this would not work, I suspect that perhaps the hotspot is not letting the data through. Although it is strange that the 3G hotspot works fine.

The phone with the hotspot is a Moto Z. I'm using a laptop to connect to the Moto Z as a USB modem, then use internet sharing to allow the Network Extender to connect .

When I have some more time I'll look into it with Wireshark , see if I can figure anything out.

[hearmenow123]

I replaced the Moto Z with a LG V30 and now it works through the hotspot.

So somehow the Moto Z was not allowing the hotspot data to propagate properly.