Is there a good 5G modem that supports bridge mode? I got tired of the unreliability of the Asus 4G-AC68U

[muddymind]

Hi there!

I live in a rural area where cellular network is the only decent internet option. Currently I have an Asus 4G-AC68U as my modem/main router to the entire house but I really want to use something to do a better job because the Asus unit is terrible in performance and reliability:

• I either have 120/30mbps or i have 10/5mbps and only a reboot restores the speed (doing it by software does not restore the performance).
• I have to restart it at least once a day or I start to have constant connection dropouts or some random requests start to get very low or lost (specially DNS requests).
• Asus treats these expensive units as an afterthought with poor FW support:
• ---- Only get a fraction of FW upgrades comparing to the other routers.
• ---- They miss a lot of features: can't change dns address for 4g wan access, no aimeshv2, is a nightmare to use as aimesh central node where it starts refusing internet requests, etc
• ---- Some FW (final ones, not talking about beta FW) are totally garbage with instability issues, huge performance degradation or just block most of the internet requests. The current 3.0.0.4.384.82230 is totally unusable for me.

Enough about complaining about the crappy Asus 4G-AC68U and this is what I'm looking for:

• 5G modem that supports bridge mode (5G should be available later this year but since I'm switching for a new device now I might as well go for the new standard for when it's available here).
• DMZ is not a solution to replace bridge mode for me since it creates a lot of issues in my experience (some ports are not forwarded properly for some unknown reason, no proper dns loopback, etc)
• (optional) Sockets to connect an external antena (i want to install a outdoor antena to maximize the connection BW and stability).
• Can be a bit pricy as long as it delivers in all fronts and is reliable.
• My ISP is Vodafone Portugal: B3 (1800Mhz), B7 (2600 Mhz) and B20 (800 Mhz) with carrier aggregation available for 1800+800 and 1800+2600 combinations.

I tried searching a bit for whats available and I can't seem to find a modem that properly supports bridge mode
Any suggestions?

If there's still no proper 5G modem for my requirements what would be a good 4G alternative?