Wireless Joint

What antenna(s) would you recommend to increase our current two bars of LTE reception (AT&T) via a Netgear Nighthawk M1?

As of 12:00 noon EST today, we have Internet at our rural house for the first time since 2005! It’s a Christmas miracle in... well, May. But I’ll take it.

We’re using the Nighthawk with an AT&T SIM chip via i3 Mobile, connected to an Archer AX21 router. My kids are freaking out (as am I). The Nighthawk is currently on our second story, inside our bedroom’s bay window, and roughly facing the closest tower.

Cheers!

CK

Hello,
There is allot of variables that go into antennas. Band frequencies and terrain for example.

Start with what speeds you currently getting?
Log to the ip address of the nighthawk let us know what band it is connecting too currently?
You property is there allot of trees and hills?
Are they close to your home?
Do you have some kind of tv antenna tower or something already to mount a antenna on?

Edit:
Also can check on this link here to find your local tower and see what bands are available.
https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=310& ... pe=roadmap

Thanks for the reply and clarifying questions.

• Nighthawk says it’s on LTE B14; quality 47dBm.
• We are atop a flat plateau. Some trees, but not heavy.
• No nearby obstructions.
• It looks like the closest towers on cellmapper are a few miles away; I’ll need to bust out some measurement tools if precision is important here.
• No, I don’t currently have a pole or tower in place. I was hoping for something I could Mount inside or outside on the wall or roof.

Thanks in advance,

CK

Typically in the past best connections I got with high gain parabolic antennas with AT&T. What I have now at my place but had to replace it with my T-Mobile home internet since they are not tuned to lower frequencies that their 5G uses.

Band 14 is a lower frequency slower band. What speeds are you getting from it?

You can measure distances on google maps to see how far away the towers are.

Should also be able to see what tower you are connected to now somewhere in the interface of the nighthawk.

Here is a chart for signal signals to shoot for.

I forgot the current speeds part; my apologies.

Currently 11 down, 4 up, 75-95 ping.

I’ll see if I can hunt around for those details in the Nighthawk backend.

I’ll start researching high gain parabolic antennas. Thanks for the tip!

Here is a link about some of those antennas. thewirelesshaven.com used to sell them but think they are out of stock now. Don't buy the bolton ones. Get a mimo one where you get both antennas with one dish.

Here is a long post about them.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=394

Here is one like what I am talking about here = https://www.ebay.com/itm/194060967651 Don't think this is a bad price.

Currently have an extra one of these but not ready to let it go yet. T-Mobile still jacking around with the towers so don't know if i still need it or not.

Now you might not have the same experience as me with these type of antennas. But I have been successful at 5 different locations with higher frequencies for Verizon and AT&T.

Have you ever seen if you have T-Mobile home isp or Verizon 5g home internet available to you?

Before you get too elaborate with antennas have you taken the nighthawk outdoors and checked how it connects? If you get a good connection while outside you might get by with a rather simple mimo flat panel wall mount antenna facing the right direction

MattB29 wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 3:22 pm Have you taken the nighthawk outdoors and checked how it connects?

So, the Nighthawk is sitting in my upstairs window (window open, as it's a lovely day) facing the towers to the east of our home. I'm not sure how much more "outside" it needs to be, but I was kind hoping for something simple.

Any suggestions?

gscheb wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 2:54 pm Have you ever seen if you have T-Mobile home isp or Verizon 5g home internet available to you?

Yes. Negative to both.

Here's the most I can seem to find form the Nighthawk:

Even sitting with a window open you are not really outside. The house is one big box that constrains radio signals in all directions other than the narrow window opening. It might make no difference but I would test outdoors. For my AT&T connection from Cricket I use a flat panel mimo antenna that I bought off Aliexpress. It is mounted to my TV antenna on my roof.

MattB29 wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 3:57 pm The house is one big box that constrains radio signals in all directions…

Understood. I'll do that. And thanks for the tip on the antenna.

Yep that is the page you want. Shows band and signal strength and everything. Can compare to the chart I gave you. Sure isn't any harm in putting it outside and see what happens.

See Amazon and read the reviews
If you have a good signal and if it’s working now this may do the trick

Netgear 6000450 MIMO Antenna with 2 TS-9 Connectors - Retail Packaging - Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DN3J03O/re ... TYJM5YR1K4

I have that Netgear mimo antenna sitting in drawer presently unused. Used it for about a year with my Netgear LB1120 before my present setup. It gives a very small boost to signal and is in my opinion not worth the money. Which at that Amazon link Dr-BroadBand gave I notice is much more than I paid for mine IIRC.

I'll have to agree with Matt that the Amazon Netgear antenna won't help much with the signal strength you have. However, you will need TS9 to SMA female adapters to use with the ebay antenna. The Wireless Haven sells them, the ones I bought for my Nighthawk fits pretty good.

MattB29 wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 9:27 pm ... before my present setup.

Would you be willing to share what your current set up is? Unless you do think it really pertains to my situation.

Thanks for the reply and word of caution.

gscheb wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 2:54 pm Here is one like what I am talking about here = https://www.ebay.com/itm/194060967651 Don't think this is a bad price.

Just thought I should clarify when I used these type of antennas they didn't have that long lead wire on it. They had short 12 lead wires on them. And was hooked to the router with LMR 400.
Not that this wouldn't work just can't say i have direct experience with it.

My current setup is a Sierra EM7565 installed in an WG3526 router with Golden Orb firmware version 2020-12-16. My data is from Cricket Simply data sim. However Cricket will no longer accept the Sierra Air Cards IMEI. Mine was done before they changed their rules in February. It is grandfathered till next year (maybe longer if they add to their whitelist functioning LTE devices).

Bring the M1 to the tower for testing take good notes. This will be your base line of what you can hope to yet. Not all towers are equal!

See link
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb26 ... o5wxYEgquc

Like Dr broadband said drive right by the tower and test it, I’d also test drive away and test to see when nighthawk switches from higher frequency bands(2,4,66) to lower frequencies. Bands 12/14/17 are super slow. Getting a high gain directional antenna and placing it high enough should allow you to reach high frequency lte bands and get 35mbps +. Once u have towers address google maps has some good features for aiming like getting a straight line as the crow flies distance from you to the tower, it also has a tool that allows you to see the elevation change. (You could be a mile away from the tower but if there’s a massive hill in the way ur kinda screwed unless u get up high enough...)

hey now my setup resembles that remark. (in the mountains and heavy trees), mostly just screwed

Well you have your antennas placed pretty high up right?..