A word of advice if I may, as an RF tech most of my life, I would recommend that if people add the RF antenna mounting wires with the snap and screw mounting connectors, as recommended by Peter, that they first take the time to thoroughly clean both the screw and snap connector on their newly purchased connectors even if they look clean. Manufacturers have been known to put light oil or even grease on such things to keep them nice and shiny. I'd recommend using a clean cotton swab moistened with some alcohol for the job. Be sure to let the connectors dry well before connecting and visually inspect them for any strands of cotton left behind. Any contaminates including light oil or unseen dirt WILL cause reflections and a significant loss of power. Rf connections and circuitry need to be well grounded and have good clean circuitry...sloppy soldering and poor workmanship are major concerns when dealing with radio frequencies.
Can you write more of the affect of grounding on functionality of the antenna? As to grounding…. National electrical code requires the sheath of antenna cable to be grounded with minimum 10 awg conductor. When lighting strikes near by voltage buildup on antenna may destroy the equipment and more. If you are installing antenna on a mast higher than the house and trees that will attract direct lightening strike so at least use sma lightning arrestors.
Paul - What do you know about oxidation of dissimilar metal connector types. I recently opened my unit and replaced the leads (one broke - too much testing) and the speeds jumped back to where they were >960Mbps!!! I wondering what happened and noticed that the metal used for the PCBA connector and my connector are dissimilar. Back in the PC DRAM DIMM days, there was "purple plague" where dissimilar metals caused corrosion (oxidation).
Well installed the external antennas and it didn’t work at all, had two bars before and two bars afterwards, even took the whole unit outside and still no increase in signal, returned the items on Amazon , it was pretty easy to do thank you for the guide
THANK YOU for actually giving us a way to BOOST our signal. Not just telling us about our signal, bandwidth, etc. You actually gave us a SOLUTION and SHOWED us how one could possibly do it. You are the BEST!!!
Great info! I added the external antenna and went from 2 bars to 3. Speeds went from mid 100mbps to over 300mbps (even spikes of 400mbps!). Uploads increased greatly too - Thanks for the great tutorial!
I live in a rural area where our only option forever has been DSL with a maximum of 3mbps download. I received my Tmobile Gateway on Wednesday. I plugged it in and only got 2 bars of signal. This gave us 10-30mbps download speed. I watched your video that night and ordered the same panel antenna/cables/connectors you used here. It was delivered today and within an hour of getting home from work, I had it all up and running with the antenna connected. Looked up my local towers, aimed it in the direction of the closest one, and we were bumped up to 3 bars signal. At 1st I didn't think that was very impressive, but after running multiple speed tests on 2 different sites, we're now getting 150-170mbps! Thank you so much for thoroughly showing the pigtail connection process!
Great news!!! That sounds awesome. Sometimes it takes a several minutes to lock into two bands and start aggregating... sounds like yours is working. GREAT JOB. Thanks for sharing. Good news is always welcome.
Great video for details, and the advice for anyone who does not have patience. Agree 100%. Thanks for this close up look at breakdown of how to install external antenna leads and how to test results.
I'm getting GREAT results with zero modifications. What it looks like really doesn't matter as it'd been in my media server closet since day one. I hooked it up to my existing WiFi router and every device in the house connected instantly. The only differences I noticed is far higher speeds and reliability than my old cable Internet for 50% less cost.
Check this out... Change your PACKET SIZE and get lower PING and faster speeds. th-cam.com/video/DqYYxdVrlX0/w-d-xo.html Your existing router probably supports it and it makes VPN run smoother too.
I have had a heck of a time getting decent internet in my (barely) rural location. T-Mobile and your video on how to add an external antenna have made those problems a past issue! 258 down 36 up as of the last test. In the not too distant past, I'd be doing back flips if I got 30 down and 2 up. Usually I would be looking at something in the teens down and sub 1 up. Thanks! Starlink took too long to get to my area - T-Mobile rocks for half the cost!
Wow! I am thrilled that you got it to work. You must have good eyes, a steady hand and the patience of a saint. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is the most difficult), how difficult would you say getting the external antenna solution to work?
@fredcludius8655, Hello Fred, I have the same problem here. How did you get T-Mobile to provide the router; here they ask for your address and if you are not in what they call range they won’t sell it saying it will not work.
@@carlosfernandez7098 I was within range, but the signal was weak. And a metal roof didn't help. The signal was spotty until I put up the external antennae. That made all the difference.
Saw this video before i got tmobile 5g gateway and it conviced me to give it a try. After lots of problems and a gateway replacement I finally got somewhat stable connection and decided to give this a go. I went from 2 bars to 3 bars with the proxicast antenna in the same window that I had my gateway! Much better. Next nice day I have I will mount the antenna on my old DTV dish mast in hopes of much better speed. Thanks for making this video!
@@PeterC408 Ingot my antenna mounted on the roof today and now have 4 bars with speeds around 200-230 Mbps and upload of 40 Mbps. That's over 4x what I was getting for both. Awesome! Thanks again for your video! I'm on Bands B66 and n41. It wasn't difficult at all. I have replaced a few smartphone displays so used to some of the stuff needed.
highly interesting modification. There's a few shops here in the UK that modify B818 Huawei routers for more SMA connectors for 4X4 MIMO, but this seems like something I can definitely do myself. Cheers mate!
Excellent tutorial. Bought the antenna, did the connections as shown and voila! Went from two bars to four. I have tons of plastic picks and prybars so it was very easy. I love your channel, keep up the great content. Now I can tell Xfinity/Comcast what to go do with themselves.
Just ordered my T-Home Internet based on your first video about it. Looking forward to it. I currently have Spectrum Cable. Definitely will be interesting to compare as I believe Spectrum, formerly Time Warner Cable, isn't that great of value but was our only practical option to provide a minimum of our needs.
Just received it a couple of days ago and have 2 bars, barely 3 occasionally, stock. That being said I am getting 180-240 Mbps down. I may hold off on the antenna extension.
I gave up spectrum after promo was about to expire, so I would be paying more for frequent outages, I had already gave up tv and got a dish. Thought TMobile would be solution, but in my rural area, reception is still poor. No more than 2 bars and low speeds no matter where I put it (don't have a second floor and can't put it too high since they said it had to be plugged into wall). After a month and a half of calling tech support, spending days and hours on the phone with no real help, I'm about ready to give up. They finally recommended an extender, though only 2 brands and neither worked. I got an orbi which helped speed a little, but not cell service. I went back to spectrum on a new customer promo price and increased speed, and much better internet, but still spotty cell phone. No one can tell me how to fix that. I would be willing to try this antenna idea, but can't do it myself and would not even know who to call to do it for me. So I'm ready to give up. 😥 But I'm glad you said it worked, maybe I will try this last attempt.
Thanks for another great video and just to let everyone know i ordered my home internet unit but TMobile is a month and a couple of days behind schedule for sending your unit thanks again for all you do for us ☺️
@@PeterC408 will do as soon as I receive it I will let you know and then with testing and maybe a external antenna to get the best quality signal strength thanks again for everything you do for us with your videos and information
Just got mine yesterday after I was told I was supposed to get it anywhere between Sept 4th & Sept 27th. It is super fast!.I love it. Plus it comes with a t-vision TV hub. I wasn’t told that. But that’s even better. I use it with my computer monitor, I don’t have a TV, and it works well.
Hey Peter thank you so much for these videos! I got my T-mobile gateway in the mail the other day and I was getting decent signal out of box 3-4 bars BUT I hooked up the Wifi antenna you recommended and I have 5 BARS STRONG NOW!!!! Got some of that coax cable to clean up but haven't dropped from 5 bars since I found the best spot for it!!! :D Ty so much for your detailed videos and suggestions you helped me out big time and I''ve already told T-mobile staff I talked to about the antenna option. So glad I can get rid of my shitty cable internet they even throttled my speeds over the past two months and everything even simple web pages loaded SO SLOW. Now everything is SO MUCH FASTER. Instant load speeds to whatever websites.
@@stevezb fastest I've seen is 500 down but its been a bit all over the place as you'd expect with a budding service. It's really gonna depend on where you live with a full setup for the best quality connection
I just did this great walk through and adding the pig tails is extremely hard you have to push down pretty hard to get them to snap in 👌Thanks for all the info
Great video, I really want to do this. I have external antenna ready to go just got to get my nerves up to do. Plus I have fat fingers and old man eyes lol.
Tmobile has freed me from ATT(100Mbps) internet prison... Been using Tmobile internet for about 2 weeks... I was only expecting 100 Mbps since that's what i was told by the sales rep...I live 30 mins north of Houston and shockingly im receiving around 550 Mbps most of the time. The slowest test so far was 350 Mbps during peak hours... Excited to see my speeds after this mod.
Tmobile should have just added an external port or coax cable to connect an old dish to it for rural areas so it could double as a cellphone tower if you live in the country to eliminate deadzones
@mary allen tmobile doesnt check for downloaded copyright materials att or spectrum does if that device used a sim card i would trash the att sim and install the tmobile sim in it
I want to thank you I did this and I went from averaging about 30 to 45 down and maybe one up and now I'm getting in the hundreds down and in the thirties up.
Peter can you give the specifics on what size adapter you used going from the pigtails male to the larger “ regular “ cable thst goes to external antenna, I keep ordering but they are the same size as the pigtail male end
I got my tmobile home internet today, speed been amazing hitting 250Mbps without anything. I want to try to install the external antenna anyways coz I have it but the problem is my model seem to be a new one so I'm unsure how to open it. Do you have any idea if its still possible to install external antenna on the new models? Thank you!
Peter, have a question: Why not just use a cell signal booster, uses outside panel or directional antenna then hook up to a small antenna inside that boost the signal inside the house. That way you don't need to mess with (add antenna to)the T Mobile gateway , or am I missing something where that wouldn't work?
Cost, efficiency, safety. Check out how easy it is to add and how much less it cost. Now consider that the high frequency radio waves and retransmission are outside my house (many people are concerned of health affects of 4G/5G tech). th-cam.com/video/wXSpbP8NuWw/w-d-xo.html
@@PeterC408 ahh, gotcha. Thank you so much for the info. I just ordered the gateway yesterday, supposed to be here late next week. According to cellmapper I am supposed to be solidly in the 5G Ultra Capacity zone but apparently that may not mean doodley. There is one cell on that closest tower that supposed to be 350 down 350 up which is what I am hoping for. Tired of playing the game with Spectrum cable which I've had for 25 years and currently paying $125/month for 300/25. Love your podcast, always very informative.
ust signed up for T Mobile Home Internet. A lucky shot I would say. Got it connected and started monitoring speed, the results: some good ones and some very bad ones. But the bad ones over passed the good ones (speeds around 1 or 2 Mbps). After calling CS three times I realized that they had no answer to such erratic behavior. They sound nice over the phone, interested in resolving the issue, but not solid recommendation beyond "did you try different spots in the house?" A ticket was created but... no answer given... To what I completely found unacceptable and decided to return the equipment. Btw, I have seen a lot of videos here and I find interesting the fact of several of them addressing issues like : add an antenna, a router, change this and that, go to a website and do... etc. Who is to do that? I find those videos irrelevant for what they implied. The customer simply wants a product that works closed enough to what it is advertised... simple...
It seems to be a location thing. Many people found putting it upstairs and facing the tower did the trick, but that is not going to work for everyone. For me, the external antenna did it. Now I get over 800Mbps
It's probably metallic to be shielding. FCC got strict in the 80s. Remember trs-80 and other such devices just spewing out rf because no shield. I think trs80 chewed up AM band
Holy hell thats a lot of work...you mean this thing doesnt come with a port or anything u can just snap an external antenna on too ? well all i can say is if I get this thing it better get a good signal with the antenna it came with.. cause i aint doing all that to attach another one
I added the external pigtails to 1&2 and it help my speed dramatically (from around 25 to 100 and haven’t moved to the antenna outside yet) however I noticed that I no longer have a secondary signal, only primary on band B66. Secondary tells me it’s not connected. Is this something that happened as a result of the alteration? Thanks -Bob
Peter carcione you give me an idea am planning getting this from Tmobile why didn't you just take out the 5G signal antennas an haven them on the out side of the metal round box using hot glue are double side tape
Man so many people complaining about their worst speed. The fastest I got and it was only at night of course, was 7 Mbps. Any other time I'll get lucky if it even gets to 1.
Thank you so much for this video and others dealing with the T-mobile home internet. I've purchased the dynalink router as well and it's performing well. One question though...I'm not in quite as good of position to a tower as you are, I think, and as I move the antenna around outside I'm able to get decent signal with only one of the primary or secondary signals at a time. The strongest signal I've found is for my secondary signal but at that location it almost loses the primary. I can get the primary to a decent strength but then my secondary is pretty poor. My download/upload speeds are fine but my loaded ping, or what I need for gaming, is inconsistent at the hours I'd like to play. Is it possible to purchase another antenna like in your video and disconnect the other two built in antennas and get the benefit of find the best spot for the primary and secondary signals? Or would the gateway just look at one of the antennas and my performance remain the same. Thank you so much for all you do!
I doubt there is metal particles in the paint they used. I painted my other antenna metallic grey and contacted paint company . They use mineral mica for the shine. I checked it with my Megger and confirmed it doesn’t conduct a thing.
In regarding the color of the unit, here in Australia we have exactily the same unit provided by Optus being gloss white, and Optus retained the original NOKIA 5G Gateway 3 label on it.
Yes, I imaging that Nokia OEM'ed this to other markets. I like the idea of white. Injected plastic done in Silver is problematic because it shows flow lines and needs to be painted. Silver paint usually contains some metal which is not the best for a radio with antennas inside. Gloss White has its own problems with mold lines.. but it does sound better
I guess I am lucky. My pings are usually below 20, and I am usually getting over 200. Almost hit 400 today! All stock, no mods. I had a comcast connection that was 80/5 for 73.xx monthly. Tmobile is WONDERFUL at $50 a month at more than double in both up & down.
@@PeterC408 My home is just shy of a mile from i10 in the West of Houston area. So yep, its good right now. I plan to move further out and do aquaponics/farming. I will probably lose my current Tmobile gateway, and have to build a focused cellular connection (will use old directTV dish). But for right now, I am just glad to tell comcast how terrible they were.
I am seriously considering making the switch how can I check where my 5G antenna is located with respect to my home? It is available in my area as confirmed by their website and the flyer they sent to my home 😀
@@sat_sonic They will not tell you where they are broadcasting from. You just have to walk around with the device and figure out where is best to leave it plugged in.
Peter, I have the T mobile trash can unit. Out of the box I've seen speeds of 350 during non peak times. During prime hours I am getting 35-50 download results. Will adding an external antenna such as the many you have referenced make a significant difference? Thank you for your very informative videos and responses.
That depends on whether the signal that you are currently getting can be improved by an antenna. Take a look at 23:50 in the video and find out what Bands you are getting for 4GLTE and 5G. Then look at our SNR, RSRP and RSRQ numbers. If they can be improved, so can your scores and this is the best antenna. I am not getting over 800Mbps using two antennas. Totally worth the effort
It is a balance thing. Either omni-directional and pretty good or directional and better. Since the towers are not moving and either is my house, this appears to be a really good antenna but if I was in an RV that moved about.... I might opt for a omni-directional
So if I look at the screen on the unit would the WiFi output antenna be to the left or right or front or back of the unit? It was like a game of 3card Monty trying to follow you there 😂
Thanks for your great “how to” videos…one question is why can I receive 5G with my phone in the window, but the T-Mobile 5G router will not receive that signal…even with the proxicast antenna…? Good signal strength but only B71…Thanks again…
I got tmobile internet. I use foil lined box with the gateway and get 25% to 50% speed increase. I just ordered a antenna I am going to try and see what improvements I get.
@@PeterC408 Weird is the new norm. In the Startac days I actually got a Motorola engineer on the phone to ask if I could replace a stubby with a full length pull out type. AT&T vs Verizon models. He said absolutely, but everyone wanted "tiny" so they used inferior stubby antennas on the AT&T models. Tmobile? Go figure. Maybe the silver paint is really glass dust in gray, not metallic at all?
Hello all. I notice that Peter is using the round cylinder model. I just got mine in today and it is more of a rectangular shape. Will the modification and process in this video work for the model I received?
@@PeterC408 got everything hooked up and working! Pointed the external antenna directly towards the cell tower using cellmapper. My download speed went from around 40-60Mbps to around 70-90Mbps and sadly the upload didnt get effected at all it still sits right at about .80Mbps-1.25Mbps. My main goal was to increase the upload to help with online gaming. Anymore advice for increasing upload? I used to get around 15 until about 2 months ago. Thanks Peter!
@@fire27fire What Bands are you getting? Are you getting two? What is the RSRP and RSRQ? I'd point my antenna at the 4G signal if they are separated. That's your upstream.
@@PeterC408 Currently getting (-113 RSRP) (-15 RSRQ) and I noticed for some reason it keeps switching the towers I'm on. Which it has been doing this, is there anyway to get it to just stay on one selected tower so it will stop interrupting my signal?
Here's a much better way. It is an external modem with a highly directional antenna built-in (replacing the omni-directional gateway). It is PoE (powered over ethernet) so you can run it up to 300ft away and now your WiFi network can be inside without causing a Double NAT situation. Now you can run in Bridge Mode so that your Access Point (wifi) gets the IP address strait from your ISP and, using DDNS, you can correct for the nasty CG-NAT issue inherent in T-Mobile's network. I am getting 720 Mbps Down and 140 Mbps UP because it fixes the 5G NSA and enables 5G SA with not just one band aggregation but up to 5 band aggregation. This is next level th-cam.com/video/6CHP5T9Fu1E/w-d-xo.html
I think that Tmobile wants to present their solution as complete. I would be surprised if they come out with an external antenna solution, it would be a support nightmare. I am surprised the show the bars at all. Most people will want to see ALL BARS, it is just human nature.
Mine looks different. It is black and a square tower. Why does my iPad freeze up when I'm getting 5 bars and 5g? ...just when I take it just outside the front door of my house.
The fall 2020 4G box is a box and white. T mobile tech support states antenna on the white box is on the bottom so turn it upside down to get a better 4G signal. Also suppose to move around your house to detect best t mobile signal.
Great video!! I've ordered all the parts and they should arrive today. Just to be doubly sure, can you please confirm the following assumptions for me? 1-You ended up leaving 1 & 2 connected to the antennas that came with the unit and I assume you removed the pig tails. 2-You connected 3-4 to the Proxicast antenna 3-If connecting 3 & 4 to the Proxicast doesn't improve the signal, try inverting the two connections (pig tails to Proxicast) Final question-could there be a scenario where 1&2 might be the better choice over 3&4 and if so, can you explain why?
Hi Ray. Yes to questions 1, 2 and 3. The pairs of antennas were located on both sides at 3o'clock and 9o'clock. They are pretty much equal so swapping one for the other is basically the same. 3 and 4 are just so much easier to access.
No it is a very specialized antenna designed for 4GLTE but since Tmobile is aggregating frequencies in the 4G spectrum for 5G, I tried out that antenna. All the links including my video review are in the video description (and now below) including the cables that made this happen. I just didn't want to make the video any longer than it already was. Antenna Connectors amzn.to/3xUsBuP Proxicast Antenna used amzn.to/2LfALev Full Proxicast Bundle with Cables and Silicon Tape amzn.to/3qr9gPn My Review of the Proxicast Antenna th-cam.com/video/ZgbsePzYZTs/w-d-xo.html
Hey dude! A little tidbit of important info for you! Because I've been doing this same thing, putting External Antennas on a bunch of things. But I recently found out that on some boards their are these little little tiny Zero Om Resistors. That make it so External Antennas don't work great.. You can get a magnifying lens &some super tiny pointed metal deal (very tiny sodering tip is what I used) &you turn it off to the side Carefully &it should turn it off. Also Hot Glue is Safe for Circuit Boards.
Thanks but this fix seems to work fine. Recently, they updated my tower to n41 and my speeds doubled again! Check this out th-cam.com/video/bes9M3-60U4/w-d-xo.html
Hey There Peter Carcione I have this modem now. But I am going to use MIMO 4x4 Log Periodic External Antennas. Now I only get 2 bars because the tower is 3 miles away. So I think that if I get them about 20-25 ft. up they should perform very well. Also I will be using LMR400 cable. And if this don't work I will put it in one of my 60ft. towers. I also have a MOFI4500 SIM7 with only two of these antenna about 6 ft. off the ground and getting ping times of 40-50ms and speeds of around 30-40Mbs. So if this will also go on the 60 ft. tower. I will keep you informed when it is done. I still have to order the antennas yet.
That sounds interesting but I would most like to hear what RSRQ and RSRP number you are getting and which bands you are locking to. I am getting some very good speeds off n71 but with really good numbers. Take a look at this one th-cam.com/video/mPeASQLNUBU/w-d-xo.html
Very informative video. Question about the cell tower metrics. You mention you want RSRQ "below 10" and RSRP "below 80" but those values are negative so are you meaning below magnitude 10 and 80 (so absolute values of 9 and 70 respectively would be desired), or below as in MORE negative (values of -11 and -90 respectively would be desired)? TYIA!
After hooking up antennas feeds, then to outside antennas what channel 66, n41 disappeared, then I went back to box RE hooked box antennas n41 re appears 3 hours later ? Thoughts ???
They are in the description but TH-cam keeps making it harder to find that spot (especially on phones) Antenna Connectors amzn.to/3xUsBuP Proxicast Antenna used amzn.to/2LfALev Full Proxicast Bundle with Cables and Silicon Tape amzn.to/3qr9gPn My Review of the Proxicast Antenna th-cam.com/video/ZgbsePzYZTs/w-d-xo.html
Peter - Big fan of your channel. I just received my T-Mobile 5G Home Internet cylinder. I need to attach an external antenna. Is your current best recommendation the Proxicast 4G/LTE cross-polarized (MIMO). Are there 5G antenna coming out?
Like I said before , i believe TMobile has oversold our local Tower, . My 5g Service goes down to 20 Mbps during rush hour and up to 200 Mbps at 4:00am. Noone within 4 miles of my house has a Broadband Dataline to their house so TMobile has hit the Jackpot here. They usually stop selling when they reach a certain limit and then add capacity to the towers. Then start selling access again. Making a Modification to the Router WILL get you kicked off the system.
Hi Peter thank you for the video great info, one question is that the antenna specify a U and a H connection wire - does it matter which one connect to the gateway? Thank you in advance.
Yes it does but it is hard to know which one. Good news is that it won't hurt it if you hook them up wrong. Try both, it will be obvious which one is correct.
We don't have that kind of lightning. Come to think of it, I have not seen lightning hit the ground out hear in years! But if it happens where you live, it is good to treat it like any other antenna.
A couple of questions/comments, my gateway is accepting my password, I tried the one on the label of the gateway also, any suggestions? I also have the correct cabling, I currently have 7db antennas for wi-fi, will those work in place of the 4G one you have been using? And enjoy your videos so far, not overcomplicating the verbiage used. Have any ideas on how to set the MTU on a TP-Link Deco M3? Thanks
Peter, that is my close family nickname! Hay the external antenna you suggested has 2 inputs, horizontal & vertical. Did you notice any gain when swapping Ant-2 & 3 with Hz-input or Vr-input?
It matches exactly nothing in my house. I want to get one of those knitted hats that grandma used to try to hide the extra roll of toilet paper with. 😅
No, I live in the thick of it. Small town with 1,000,000 people. For a rural area installation, I like this type of radio design th-cam.com/video/HFh-xFx3wRc/w-d-xo.html
No, but I understand that it is very similar. The most important part is to get THIS antenna. Other antennas are toys. I get over 900Mbps an other are struggling to get 200Mbps.
Thanks for the tutorial. Very nice. I'm living in a rural area and my t-mobile phones connect to 5g. My home isp is a line of sight to a tower max: 15mb/3mb - and they just upgraded us from 10/2. The t-mobile rep found an "address", but they're shipping it to me. I'm very likely going to need to do the upgrade. Can I just purchase and "extension cord" and just stick the existing 5 g on my window facing the tower (which is about 7 miles away)? Also I understand that there are several units that tmobile uses for the home service. I hope they all work in a similar way.
Comcast is still a better option for me. 400mbps download on average for my tier with 30 mbps upload and 10-12 ms ping response. Sure it costs $75/per month but my employer picks up $25 of that through monthly reimbursement. If I had AT$T UVerse at 25 mbps I would jump all over this if I had a good 5G tower near by.
I finally installed the same external antenna following your instructions but I am not getting any improvements. Do you mind showing us how to point the antenna to right location? My speeds are 10Mbps/5Mbps and ping 31. Very frustrating. I am in a rural area and I think I am pointing to the right location when I compare the connection of the t mobile with cellmapper but I am not 100% sure. Thanks for your help.
Yeah the antenna was very little help for me also, and I'm pointing it at a tower maybe a half mile away that I can see from my yard! When I first got the service I received a consistent 70 Mbps for several months. Now even with the antenna it fluctuates wildly between 20 and 1 Mbps. Last night and today I've been lucky to get 1 Mbps! Honestly, I seriously doubt the speed tests displayed on these videos is actually coming through the T-Mobile home internet.
Peter I’m doing this all to , had the hotspot about 3 weeks now, bought the proxicast antenna and well everything for it, that you had listed . 2 questions. One is what adapter do you use going from the little pigtails we add to the T- mobile tower to the antenna cable ? Second question is the proxicast antenna says “ connect “ V” lead to main/ primary Antenna port and connect “ H” to Auxiliary port … if I follow your advise and undo 3 and 4 what goes where? Thanks for all you do for us out here in 10mbps land
I have this hot spot. I have a 4x4 antenna. I can't get any signal with the top 2 post on the hotspot. But the bottom 2 work. Sucks bc I'm not getting 4x4
Not all antennas are the same... I like the Proxicast antennas. They are real antennas made by American engineers that are radio experts! Proof is in the pudding.
In my opinion i think T mobile drop the ball on this one, for one you have to take it apart to connect the antenna when there should be some kinda connector on the side of the device some where, but you have to take it a part to connect a antenna, i call that lazy, and i dont see them doing well with this cause some people you can show a thousand times how to hook up the antenna and they will never get it...my wife is one of them
@Knoxxgrim I think I understand their side of this. They want to offer and support one solution... if they allow for external antennas, it becomes a support nightmare. I think they dropped the ball by showing BARs at all. They should have just shown "Connected!" and let the scores come out where they may.
It's a little confusing when you say things like "80 or below" when talking about signal strength. That makes it sound like 80 or below means "less than" when a lower negative number really means "greater than." I would say negative 80 or lower, meaning closer to positive, therefore greater or more signal.
If you're right and everyone things you are wrong, are you really right? It is a good question and I struggle with it in this video too. th-cam.com/video/MZ4k1D_GxyA/w-d-xo.html
Hey Ken, all parts are listed in the description. Tmobile implemented 5G by aggregating frequencies in the 4G spectrum so my 4G LTE antenna worked just as shown.
@@PeterC408 I have a WiFi antenna with 2 outputs Vertical/Horizontal but not for Cell Freqs. The T-Mobile product is very interesting and I hope it becomes successful in a major way forcing the local cable companies to reduce their price. High speed Internet needs some serious competition. The T-moble approach based on my cell phone with T-moble is much more reliable too. I have dealt with bad weather causing loss of power = loss of internet, and cable TV where my cell phone coverage was never interrupted. Next step is to make the T-Moble a "take with you internet" for R/V, car, second home. Same thing has running a hotspot off your cell phone.
No, Coax is not good enough signal integrity. Let's not start people doing that. If you really want a long run, here is a much better solution th-cam.com/video/6uXWAI8bXBY/w-d-xo.html this gets the modem outside and up high without external antennas because the whole modem is outside.
Hello, Thank you for the video can you please let us know how to stop the wifi for model:KVD21? When I go to my browser for T-Mobile. I do not see all this information to turn of the 2.4 and 5 ghz WiFi's. THANK YOU
I have my Mimo Antenna coming tomorrow, I am only getting 2 bars in my house but my speeds are still hitting about 200 MBPS down and 25Up and ping is about 20-35. I look forward to seeing what the increase will be..
Me too. Let us know. I want to know what bands you are picking up before and after. Make note of the RSRP/RSRQ change, if you would. Take a look at this video th-cam.com/video/rF_cWzPOjuM/w-d-xo.html It will show you how to pull those and know where you tower is for pointing.
@@PeterC408 Quick question before install. I am smack dab in the middle of two towers but I am showing I’m on the South tower it says (tower 32026016999179) Should I point the antennas both to the south tower or should I point one at the south and one at the north tower?
How do you think the tmobile home gateway stacks up against the likes of something like the NETGEAR Nighthawk M5 5G Mobile Hotspot with WiFi 6 (MR5200)? I have a very good friend that lives out in Utah and doesn't have access to proper fiber internet- his internet is very average and he frequently experiences packet loss and generally poor performance for gaming. I'm a computer engineer myself so I'd like to help him out by setting him up w/ 5g (he is already on tmobile, and i've checked there are 5g towers (no n41 though, only n71) close to him). What i'm uncertain about is if he'd be better off w/ something like the MR5200 in this case- thanks again love the channel amazing info!!!
First you need to find out which Bands are being broadcast in his area and who (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) they belong to. This video will show you how to use network data to see where the towers are and the bands they put out th-cam.com/video/rF_cWzPOjuM/w-d-xo.html Here is a video on n71 th-cam.com/video/mPeASQLNUBU/w-d-xo.html
I'm looking at the Waveform Mimo 4x4 kit, which comes with RS240 N-Male to SMA Cable. If I have a longer run, like 100 ft, is it worth getting the RS400 or RS600 cable instead. The listings say they have lower loss. Thanks.
Waveform is not the same as Proxicast. I have had the largest improvement of anyone on the web, pulled a 910Mbps earlier today. I would go with that. 100ft is very long. Try to reduce that for you own wallet sake.
This reminds me of the days I had to use clear wireless. Does anyone remember clear? You had to pretty much do the same thing and rig a external antenna.
Awesome vid was wondering if you’re son has been playing games like fortnite and other computer games . I I’m in a very rural area but there is a tower near me I get about 3 to 4 bars and it’s almost enough to play but I just need a little bit better internet . Thank you
Yes, he is a heavy PC gamer but we are also getting really good < 30ms PING and that is going to be the Latency issue for most PC games. Here is how I chipped away at the PING th-cam.com/video/MZ4k1D_GxyA/w-d-xo.html I am currently getting 900Mbps down, with a 26ms PING.
If my 2 bars already get 300, should I bother doing this? It’s for business, so no gaming/no streaming, mostly voip and cloud based health records. Also my unit provides both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi which I disabled.
I have never talked about a waveform antenna. I have only been happy with Proxicast. While I have not tested the Waveform, every other antenna a tried was a joke with no real engineering behind it. Proxicast was night and day amzn.to/2LfALev
stupid question im sure, but why not just attach the new connectors to the original buttons/snap thing on the board? not a tech person so like i said prob dum question but had to ask?
Antennas come with some pretty standard but much larger connectors. We need to use a small cable to attach them. The connectors that come from the antenna are 3/4" in diameter and I have to bring them down to like 3mm. I shrink them down cable after cable. You can see the hookup in this video th-cam.com/video/sS1TTvZEbB4/w-d-xo.html with my NEW SPEEDS
I am seriously considering making the switch how can I check where my 5G antenna is located with respect to my home? It is available in my area as confirmed by their website and the flyer they sent to my home 😀
Fair question. Take a look at this video that shows you how to know where your local tower is and the band it is putting out. th-cam.com/video/PAl3D84V-3o/w-d-xo.html
A word of advice if I may, as an RF tech most of my life, I would recommend that if people add the RF antenna mounting wires with the snap and screw mounting connectors, as recommended by Peter, that they first take the time to thoroughly clean both the screw and snap connector on their newly purchased connectors even if they look clean. Manufacturers have been known to put light oil or even grease on such things to keep them nice and shiny. I'd recommend using a clean cotton swab moistened with some alcohol for the job. Be sure to let the connectors dry well before connecting and visually inspect them for any strands of cotton left behind. Any contaminates including light oil or unseen dirt WILL cause reflections and a significant loss of power. Rf connections and circuitry need to be well grounded and have good clean circuitry...sloppy soldering and poor workmanship are major concerns when dealing with radio frequencies.
Thanks. Always appreciate the knowledge of others. These things were so tight plugging in the first time. Reseating them is way easier!
Can you write more of the affect of grounding on functionality of the antenna?
As to grounding…. National electrical code requires the sheath of antenna cable to be grounded with minimum 10 awg conductor. When lighting strikes near by voltage buildup on antenna may destroy the equipment and more. If you are installing antenna on a mast higher than the house and trees that will attract direct lightening strike so at least use sma lightning arrestors.
Good to know. A little scary as nothing I have ever touched has every really been clean afterwards. I am going to try it.
Paul - What do you know about oxidation of dissimilar metal connector types. I recently opened my unit and replaced the leads (one broke - too much testing) and the speeds jumped back to where they were >960Mbps!!! I wondering what happened and noticed that the metal used for the PCBA connector and my connector are dissimilar. Back in the PC DRAM DIMM days, there was "purple plague" where dissimilar metals caused corrosion (oxidation).
Well installed the external antennas and it didn’t work at all, had two bars before and two bars afterwards, even took the whole unit outside and still no increase in signal, returned the items on Amazon , it was pretty easy to do thank you for the guide
THANK YOU for actually giving us a way to BOOST our signal. Not just telling us about our signal, bandwidth, etc. You actually gave us a SOLUTION and SHOWED us how one could possibly do it. You are the BEST!!!
Sounds like you got it to work! Great news.
Great info! I added the external antenna and went from 2 bars to 3. Speeds went from mid 100mbps to over 300mbps (even spikes of 400mbps!). Uploads increased greatly too - Thanks for the great tutorial!
How long are your cable and what brand?…. Thanks
what kind of antenna and where u get it?
@@lattermanstudio antenna came with 15 feet if cable. I added another 25 feet
I live in a rural area where our only option forever has been DSL with a maximum of 3mbps download. I received my Tmobile Gateway on Wednesday. I plugged it in and only got 2 bars of signal. This gave us 10-30mbps download speed. I watched your video that night and ordered the same panel antenna/cables/connectors you used here. It was delivered today and within an hour of getting home from work, I had it all up and running with the antenna connected. Looked up my local towers, aimed it in the direction of the closest one, and we were bumped up to 3 bars signal. At 1st I didn't think that was very impressive, but after running multiple speed tests on 2 different sites, we're now getting 150-170mbps! Thank you so much for thoroughly showing the pigtail connection process!
Great news!!! That sounds awesome. Sometimes it takes a several minutes to lock into two bands and start aggregating... sounds like yours is working. GREAT JOB. Thanks for sharing. Good news is always welcome.
Great video for details, and the advice for anyone who does not have patience. Agree 100%. Thanks for this close up look at breakdown of how to install external antenna leads and how to
test results.
I'm getting GREAT results with zero modifications. What it looks like really doesn't matter as it'd been in my media server closet since day one.
I hooked it up to my existing WiFi router and every device in the house connected instantly. The only differences I noticed is far higher speeds and reliability than my old cable Internet for 50% less cost.
Check this out... Change your PACKET SIZE and get lower PING and faster speeds. th-cam.com/video/DqYYxdVrlX0/w-d-xo.html Your existing router probably supports it and it makes VPN run smoother too.
I have had a heck of a time getting decent internet in my (barely) rural location. T-Mobile and your video on how to add an external antenna have made those problems a past issue! 258 down 36 up as of the last test. In the not too distant past, I'd be doing back flips if I got 30 down and 2 up. Usually I would be looking at something in the teens down and sub 1 up. Thanks! Starlink took too long to get to my area - T-Mobile rocks for half the cost!
Wow! I am thrilled that you got it to work. You must have good eyes, a steady hand and the patience of a saint. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is the most difficult), how difficult would you say getting the external antenna solution to work?
Sound like AZ West Valley to me.
@fredcludius8655, Hello Fred, I have the same problem here. How did you get T-Mobile to provide the router; here they ask for your address and if you are not in what they call range they won’t sell it saying it will not work.
@@carlosfernandez7098 I was within range, but the signal was weak. And a metal roof didn't help. The signal was spotty until I put up the external antennae. That made all the difference.
I just talked to Tmobile today and I'm switching can't wait Charter can suck it lol. Can't wait to get my stuff in the mail!!!
How is it ?
after I open show more link was in place, Thanks keep the subscribers number climbing, maybe 200k next week
Saw this video before i got tmobile 5g gateway and it conviced me to give it a try. After lots of problems and a gateway replacement I finally got somewhat stable connection and decided to give this a go. I went from 2 bars to 3 bars with the proxicast antenna in the same window that I had my gateway! Much better. Next nice day I have I will mount the antenna on my old DTV dish mast in hopes of much better speed.
Thanks for making this video!
Just saw the message where you got it working!!! Great news! Did you find it difficult? What part? What bands are you now picking up?
@@PeterC408 Ingot my antenna mounted on the roof today and now have 4 bars with speeds around 200-230 Mbps and upload of 40 Mbps. That's over 4x what I was getting for both. Awesome! Thanks again for your video!
I'm on Bands B66 and n41.
It wasn't difficult at all. I have replaced a few smartphone displays so used to some of the stuff needed.
highly interesting modification. There's a few shops here in the UK that modify B818 Huawei routers for more SMA connectors for 4X4 MIMO, but this seems like something I can definitely do myself. Cheers mate!
Excellent tutorial. Bought the antenna, did the connections as shown and voila! Went from two bars to four. I have tons of plastic picks and prybars so it was very easy. I love your channel, keep up the great content. Now I can tell Xfinity/Comcast what to go do with themselves.
Excellent! Great to hear! What bands are you picking up?
Good one I'm glad I never could get Comcast or infinity. Good internet is all that's needed. Cable is not everywhere and too expensive. 73
Just ordered my T-Home Internet based on your first video about it. Looking forward to it. I currently have Spectrum Cable. Definitely will be interesting to compare as I believe Spectrum, formerly Time Warner Cable, isn't that great of value but was our only practical option to provide a minimum of our needs.
Ordered mine this morning with a Sept 4-27 anticipated delivery. Checking w/you to see what the estimated window was a week ago when you ordered? Thx!
Just received it a couple of days ago and have 2 bars, barely 3 occasionally, stock. That being said I am getting 180-240 Mbps down. I may hold off on the antenna extension.
How is it? Did you cancel spectrum?
I gave up spectrum after promo was about to expire, so I would be paying more for frequent outages, I had already gave up tv and got a dish. Thought TMobile would be solution, but in my rural area, reception is still poor. No more than 2 bars and low speeds no matter where I put it (don't have a second floor and can't put it too high since they said it had to be plugged into wall). After a month and a half of calling tech support, spending days and hours on the phone with no real help, I'm about ready to give up. They finally recommended an extender, though only 2 brands and neither worked. I got an orbi which helped speed a little, but not cell service. I went back to spectrum on a new customer promo price and increased speed, and much better internet, but still spotty cell phone. No one can tell me how to fix that. I would be willing to try this antenna idea, but can't do it myself and would not even know who to call to do it for me. So I'm ready to give up. 😥 But I'm glad you said it worked, maybe I will try this last attempt.
Time Warner actually used to be awesome a few years back before Spectrum purchased it!
Thanks for another great video and just to let everyone know i ordered my home internet unit but TMobile is a month and a couple of days behind schedule for sending your unit thanks again for all you do for us ☺️
Great to hear! Let us know how it goes and the speeds you are seeing.
@@PeterC408 will do as soon as I receive it I will let you know and then with testing and maybe a external antenna to get the best quality signal strength thanks again for everything you do for us with your videos and information
Just got mine yesterday after I was told I was supposed to get it anywhere between Sept 4th & Sept 27th. It is super fast!.I love it. Plus it comes with a t-vision TV hub. I wasn’t told that. But that’s even better. I use it with my computer monitor, I don’t have a TV, and it works well.
Hey Peter thank you so much for these videos! I got my T-mobile gateway in the mail the other day and I was getting decent signal out of box 3-4 bars BUT I hooked up the Wifi antenna you recommended and I have 5 BARS STRONG NOW!!!! Got some of that coax cable to clean up but haven't dropped from 5 bars since I found the best spot for it!!! :D Ty so much for your detailed videos and suggestions you helped me out big time and I''ve already told T-mobile staff I talked to about the antenna option. So glad I can get rid of my shitty cable internet they even throttled my speeds over the past two months and everything even simple web pages loaded SO SLOW. Now everything is SO MUCH FASTER. Instant load speeds to whatever websites.
What is your download speed on the Speedtest ?
@@stevezb fastest I've seen is 500 down but its been a bit all over the place as you'd expect with a budding service. It's really gonna depend on where you live with a full setup for the best quality connection
An outstanding video Peter thanks for the tutorial.👍👍👍
I just did this great walk through and adding the pig tails is extremely hard you have to push down pretty hard to get them to snap in 👌Thanks for all the info
I don't think that is a modem limitation but must be a setting on the modem or the service.
Thank you! Looking fwd to the test results.
Looking front wheel drive....mmkay
Great video, I really want to do this. I have external antenna ready to go just got to get my nerves up to do. Plus I have fat fingers and old man eyes lol.
Thanks for the in depth video, i like your vibe and reviewing style so i subscribed.
Thank you. I've got a lot of new things coming up.
Tmobile has freed me from ATT(100Mbps) internet prison... Been using Tmobile internet for about 2 weeks... I was only expecting 100 Mbps since that's what i was told by the sales rep...I live 30 mins north of Houston and shockingly im receiving around 550 Mbps most of the time. The slowest test so far was 350 Mbps during peak hours... Excited to see my speeds after this mod.
Awesome video brother. Thanks for sharing. Keep the content coming. Hope you have an amazing night.
Thanks Tim. Have a good night
Tmobile should have just added an external port or coax cable to connect an old dish to it for rural areas so it could double as a cellphone tower if you live in the country to eliminate deadzones
@mary allen tmobile doesnt check for downloaded copyright materials att or spectrum does if that device used a sim card i would trash the att sim and install the tmobile sim in it
Kudos!
Awesome video. Keep that fantastic work
A very informative video thanks for the tutorial a cool series, stay safe.👍👍👍
Thanks Lou, will do!
I want to thank you I did this and I went from averaging about 30 to 45 down and maybe one up and now I'm getting in the hundreds down and in the thirties up.
That's great news! Did you find it difficult? Would you do it again?
Peter can you give the specifics on what size adapter you used going from the pigtails male to the larger “ regular “ cable thst goes to external antenna, I keep ordering but they are the same size as the pigtail male end
I got my tmobile home internet today, speed been amazing hitting 250Mbps without anything. I want to try to install the external antenna anyways coz I have it but the problem is my model seem to be a new one so I'm unsure how to open it. Do you have any idea if its still possible to install external antenna on the new models? Thank you!
Thanks for this video. I have this device coming as soon as T-Mobile gets them back in stock. Probably within 30 days or so.
"Thats why they have kids build these things" had we diein for a moment.
Peter, have a question:
Why not just use a cell signal booster, uses outside panel or directional antenna then hook up to a small antenna inside that boost the signal inside the house. That way you don't need to mess with (add antenna to)the T Mobile gateway , or am I missing something where that wouldn't work?
Cost, efficiency, safety. Check out how easy it is to add and how much less it cost. Now consider that the high frequency radio waves and retransmission are outside my house (many people are concerned of health affects of 4G/5G tech). th-cam.com/video/wXSpbP8NuWw/w-d-xo.html
@@PeterC408 ahh, gotcha.
Thank you so much for the info.
I just ordered the gateway yesterday, supposed to be here late next week.
According to cellmapper I am supposed to be solidly in the 5G Ultra Capacity zone but apparently that may not mean doodley.
There is one cell on that closest tower that supposed to be 350 down 350 up which is what I am hoping for.
Tired of playing the game with Spectrum cable which I've had for 25 years and currently paying $125/month for 300/25.
Love your podcast, always very informative.
Followed your tutorial my speed goes 1 terabyte at 2 am in the morning 500 to 700 mbps on working days thanks so much kudos to you sir.
Great to hear! Glad to help. That sounds pretty FAST!
Yes it is we're 500 ft far from sprint/verizon tower that might be the reason :)
ust signed up for T Mobile Home Internet. A lucky shot I would say.
Got it connected and started monitoring speed, the results: some good ones and some very bad ones. But the bad ones over passed the good ones (speeds around 1 or 2 Mbps).
After calling CS three times I realized that they had no answer to such erratic behavior. They sound nice over the phone, interested in resolving the issue, but not solid recommendation beyond "did you try different spots in the house?" A ticket was created but... no answer given... To what I completely found unacceptable and decided to return the equipment.
Btw, I have seen a lot of videos here and I find interesting the fact of several of them addressing issues like : add an antenna, a router, change this and that, go to a website and do... etc.
Who is to do that? I find those videos irrelevant for what they implied.
The customer simply wants a product that works closed enough to what it is advertised... simple...
It seems to be a location thing. Many people found putting it upstairs and facing the tower did the trick, but that is not going to work for everyone. For me, the external antenna did it. Now I get over 800Mbps
It's probably metallic to be shielding. FCC got strict in the 80s. Remember trs-80 and other such devices just spewing out rf because no shield. I think trs80 chewed up AM band
Oh, I remember them well. When I was a kid, I wanted the TRS-80 Color computer. It hooked up to your TV via an RF box.
Holy hell thats a lot of work...you mean this thing doesnt come with a port or anything u can just snap an external antenna on too ? well all i can say is if I get this thing it better get a good signal with the antenna it came with.. cause i aint doing all that to attach another one
For most people, it will just work. I am the one that had to chase down the final last bit of performance.
I added the external pigtails to 1&2 and it help my speed dramatically (from around 25 to 100 and haven’t moved to the antenna outside yet) however I noticed that I no longer have a secondary signal, only primary on band B66. Secondary tells me it’s not connected. Is this something that happened as a result of the alteration? Thanks -Bob
Peter carcione you give me an idea am planning getting this from Tmobile why didn't you just take out the 5G signal antennas an haven them on the out side of the metal round box using hot glue are double side tape
Man so many people complaining about their worst speed. The fastest I got and it was only at night of course, was 7 Mbps. Any other time I'll get lucky if it even gets to 1.
Thank you so much for this video and others dealing with the T-mobile home internet. I've purchased the dynalink router as well and it's performing well. One question though...I'm not in quite as good of position to a tower as you are, I think, and as I move the antenna around outside I'm able to get decent signal with only one of the primary or secondary signals at a time. The strongest signal I've found is for my secondary signal but at that location it almost loses the primary. I can get the primary to a decent strength but then my secondary is pretty poor. My download/upload speeds are fine but my loaded ping, or what I need for gaming, is inconsistent at the hours I'd like to play. Is it possible to purchase another antenna like in your video and disconnect the other two built in antennas and get the benefit of find the best spot for the primary and secondary signals? Or would the gateway just look at one of the antennas and my performance remain the same. Thank you so much for all you do!
Maybe consider a video showing the effects of the silver casing and speeds with it on and with it off ? Thanks Peter!
I doubt there is metal particles in the paint they used. I painted my other antenna metallic grey and contacted paint company . They use mineral mica for the shine. I checked it with my Megger and confirmed it doesn’t conduct a thing.
@@duduudu4463 Even if it doesn't contain metal particles, I would have to guess 'naked' antennas would gain something over being behind the cover.
In regarding the color of the unit, here in Australia we have exactily the same unit provided by Optus being gloss white, and Optus retained the original NOKIA 5G Gateway 3 label on it.
Yes, I imaging that Nokia OEM'ed this to other markets. I like the idea of white. Injected plastic done in Silver is problematic because it shows flow lines and needs to be painted. Silver paint usually contains some metal which is not the best for a radio with antennas inside. Gloss White has its own problems with mold lines.. but it does sound better
I guess I am lucky. My pings are usually below 20, and I am usually getting over 200. Almost hit 400 today! All stock, no mods. I had a comcast connection that was 80/5 for 73.xx monthly. Tmobile is WONDERFUL at $50 a month at more than double in both up & down.
Sounds like you have real estate on your side... location, location, location.
@@PeterC408 My home is just shy of a mile from i10 in the West of Houston area. So yep, its good right now. I plan to move further out and do aquaponics/farming. I will probably lose my current Tmobile gateway, and have to build a focused cellular connection (will use old directTV dish). But for right now, I am just glad to tell comcast how terrible they were.
I am seriously considering making the switch how can I check where my 5G antenna is located with respect to my home? It is available in my area as confirmed by their website and the flyer they sent to my home 😀
Congratulations. 🙂
@@sat_sonic They will not tell you where they are broadcasting from. You just have to walk around with the device and figure out where is best to leave it plugged in.
Peter, I have the T mobile trash can unit. Out of the box I've seen speeds of 350 during non peak times. During prime hours I am getting 35-50 download results. Will adding an external antenna such as the many you have referenced make a significant difference? Thank you for your very informative videos and responses.
That depends on whether the signal that you are currently getting can be improved by an antenna. Take a look at 23:50 in the video and find out what Bands you are getting for 4GLTE and 5G. Then look at our SNR, RSRP and RSRQ numbers. If they can be improved, so can your scores and this is the best antenna. I am not getting over 800Mbps using two antennas. Totally worth the effort
Yes that exactly what I was looking for ....lol now what would be the best out door 360° antenna for this to pick up WiFi hotspots and cell signal
It is a balance thing. Either omni-directional and pretty good or directional and better. Since the towers are not moving and either is my house, this appears to be a really good antenna but if I was in an RV that moved about.... I might opt for a omni-directional
So if I look at the screen on the unit would the WiFi output antenna be to the left or right or front or back of the unit?
It was like a game of 3card Monty trying to follow you there 😂
Thanks for your great “how to” videos…one question is why can I receive 5G with my phone in the window, but the T-Mobile 5G router will not receive that signal…even with the proxicast antenna…? Good signal strength but only B71…Thanks again…
I got tmobile internet. I use foil lined box with the gateway and get 25% to 50% speed increase. I just ordered a antenna I am going to try and see what improvements I get.
Yes, I am excited to hear your results. :) The Proxicast is a great antenna.
Unless the silver paint is also designed as an RFI shield. Many routers have metallic sprayed inside the case for this reason.
It would be very weird to shield a design with 10 antennas right under the skin. I am glad I got these antennas outside.
@@PeterC408 Weird is the new norm. In the Startac days I actually got a Motorola engineer on the phone to ask if I could replace a stubby with a full length pull out type. AT&T vs Verizon models. He said absolutely, but everyone wanted "tiny" so they used inferior stubby antennas on the AT&T models. Tmobile? Go figure. Maybe the silver paint is really glass dust in gray, not metallic at all?
Hello all. I notice that Peter is using the round cylinder model. I just got mine in today and it is more of a rectangular shape. Will the modification and process in this video work for the model I received?
I'm about to order the bundle you have listed in the description...wish me luck! I'll post an update soon!
Good luck. Let us know how it goes!!!
@@PeterC408 got everything hooked up and working! Pointed the external antenna directly towards the cell tower using cellmapper. My download speed went from around 40-60Mbps to around 70-90Mbps and sadly the upload didnt get effected at all it still sits right at about .80Mbps-1.25Mbps. My main goal was to increase the upload to help with online gaming. Anymore advice for increasing upload? I used to get around 15 until about 2 months ago. Thanks Peter!
@@fire27fire What Bands are you getting? Are you getting two? What is the RSRP and RSRQ? I'd point my antenna at the 4G signal if they are separated. That's your upstream.
@@PeterC408 Currently getting (-113 RSRP) (-15 RSRQ) and I noticed for some reason it keeps switching the towers I'm on. Which it has been doing this, is there anyway to get it to just stay on one selected tower so it will stop interrupting my signal?
@@fire27fire Power is too low and the quality a little off. Try switching the antenna LEDs. One is Hoizontal and one Vertical.
The easier way is to get a water proof box and mount it outside. I ran 100 ft underground wire back to my network. I get 4 bars and really good speed
Here's a much better way. It is an external modem with a highly directional antenna built-in (replacing the omni-directional gateway). It is PoE (powered over ethernet) so you can run it up to 300ft away and now your WiFi network can be inside without causing a Double NAT situation. Now you can run in Bridge Mode so that your Access Point (wifi) gets the IP address strait from your ISP and, using DDNS, you can correct for the nasty CG-NAT issue inherent in T-Mobile's network. I am getting 720 Mbps Down and 140 Mbps UP because it fixes the 5G NSA and enables 5G SA with not just one band aggregation but up to 5 band aggregation. This is next level th-cam.com/video/6CHP5T9Fu1E/w-d-xo.html
I hope T-Mobile is watching.. I'll wait for the new advanced, upgraded version.
I think that Tmobile wants to present their solution as complete. I would be surprised if they come out with an external antenna solution, it would be a support nightmare. I am surprised the show the bars at all. Most people will want to see ALL BARS, it is just human nature.
Mine looks different. It is black and a square tower. Why does my iPad freeze up when I'm getting 5 bars and 5g? ...just when I take it just outside the front door of my house.
Thanks for the tutorial. Btw, do you sell tshirts that say "that's the wrong screwdriver"? Just a thought.
Or "That's not my screwdriver" ...
The fall 2020 4G box is a box and white. T mobile tech support states antenna on the white box is on the bottom so turn it upside down to get a better 4G signal. Also suppose to move around your house to detect best t mobile signal.
I have heard that their are internal antenna connectors in that one as well. :o
Great video!! I've ordered all the parts and they should arrive today. Just to be doubly sure, can you please confirm the following assumptions for me?
1-You ended up leaving 1 & 2 connected to the antennas that came with the unit and I assume you removed the pig tails.
2-You connected 3-4 to the Proxicast antenna
3-If connecting 3 & 4 to the Proxicast doesn't improve the signal, try inverting the two connections (pig tails to Proxicast)
Final question-could there be a scenario where 1&2 might be the better choice over 3&4 and if so, can you explain why?
Hi Ray. Yes to questions 1, 2 and 3. The pairs of antennas were located on both sides at 3o'clock and 9o'clock. They are pretty much equal so swapping one for the other is basically the same. 3 and 4 are just so much easier to access.
Where do u connect the two new antenna wires to,
Do u connect to outside antenna ,where do u connect,
Can u set up for outside antenna
I have roof antenna with coaxial cable do I change ends of cable
No it is a very specialized antenna designed for 4GLTE but since Tmobile is aggregating frequencies in the 4G spectrum for 5G, I tried out that antenna. All the links including my video review are in the video description (and now below) including the cables that made this happen. I just didn't want to make the video any longer than it already was.
Antenna Connectors amzn.to/3xUsBuP
Proxicast Antenna used amzn.to/2LfALev
Full Proxicast Bundle with Cables and Silicon Tape amzn.to/3qr9gPn
My Review of the Proxicast Antenna th-cam.com/video/ZgbsePzYZTs/w-d-xo.html
Hey dude! A little tidbit of important info for you!
Because I've been doing this same thing, putting External Antennas on a bunch of things.
But I recently found out that on some boards their are these little little tiny Zero Om Resistors. That make it so External Antennas don't work great..
You can get a magnifying lens &some super tiny pointed metal deal (very tiny sodering tip is what I used)
&you turn it off to the side Carefully &it should turn it off.
Also Hot Glue is Safe for Circuit Boards.
Thanks but this fix seems to work fine. Recently, they updated my tower to n41 and my speeds doubled again! Check this out th-cam.com/video/bes9M3-60U4/w-d-xo.html
Can you identify what antennas you are familiar with that have the zero ohm resistors? Is there a YT video on these resistors?
Hey There Peter Carcione
I have this modem now. But I am going to use MIMO 4x4 Log Periodic External Antennas. Now I only get 2 bars because the tower is 3 miles away. So I think that if I get them about 20-25 ft. up they should perform very well. Also I will be using LMR400 cable. And if this don't work I will put it in one of my 60ft. towers.
I also have a MOFI4500 SIM7 with only two of these antenna about 6 ft. off the ground and getting ping times of 40-50ms and speeds of around 30-40Mbs. So if this will also go on the 60 ft. tower. I will keep you informed when it is done. I still have to order the antennas yet.
That sounds interesting but I would most like to hear what RSRQ and RSRP number you are getting and which bands you are locking to. I am getting some very good speeds off n71 but with really good numbers. Take a look at this one th-cam.com/video/mPeASQLNUBU/w-d-xo.html
Very informative video. Question about the cell tower metrics. You mention you want RSRQ "below 10" and RSRP "below 80" but those values are negative so are you meaning below magnitude 10 and 80 (so absolute values of 9 and 70 respectively would be desired), or below as in MORE negative (values of -11 and -90 respectively would be desired)? TYIA!
this
The first part of your question is correct. You want a less negative number...
After hooking up antennas feeds, then to outside antennas what channel 66, n41 disappeared, then I went back to box RE hooked box antennas n41 re appears 3 hours later ?
Thoughts ???
Antenna did not support n41 frequency?
Peter Always a good video, need amazon link for pigtails. Thanks
They are in the description but TH-cam keeps making it harder to find that spot (especially on phones)
Antenna Connectors amzn.to/3xUsBuP
Proxicast Antenna used amzn.to/2LfALev
Full Proxicast Bundle with Cables and Silicon Tape amzn.to/3qr9gPn
My Review of the Proxicast Antenna th-cam.com/video/ZgbsePzYZTs/w-d-xo.html
Peter - Big fan of your channel. I just received my T-Mobile 5G Home Internet cylinder. I need to attach an external antenna. Is your current best recommendation the Proxicast 4G/LTE cross-polarized (MIMO). Are there 5G antenna coming out?
Like I said before , i believe TMobile has oversold our local Tower, . My 5g Service goes down to 20 Mbps during rush hour and up to 200 Mbps at 4:00am. Noone within 4 miles of my house has a Broadband Dataline to their house so TMobile has hit the Jackpot here. They usually stop selling when they reach a certain limit and then add capacity to the towers. Then start selling access again. Making a Modification to the Router WILL get you kicked off the system.
Not only am I convinced they oversold our area, they also lied to us when they told us there was 5G in our area. We don't have 5G here.
Peter so pointing at 3 o’clock towards tower was likely to get best results
Yes, either 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock as that's where those 4G/5G antennas are.
Thanks for these videos. Did you test whether removing the painted cover added any performance advantages?
Interesting... I wanted to test that but I already did my Dr. Frankenstein mods. If anyone tests it, I want to know too.
Hi Peter thank you for the video great info, one question is that the antenna specify a U and a H connection wire - does it matter which one connect to the gateway? Thank you in advance.
Yes it does but it is hard to know which one. Good news is that it won't hurt it if you hook them up wrong. Try both, it will be obvious which one is correct.
I got this and I only got 3 bars and I get 150 down and 48 up and 37ms latency I would love excellent I'll have to try this
I get 1mbs download with 3 bars
Also, don't forget to properly ground your antenna. Lightning tends to love these things
We don't have that kind of lightning. Come to think of it, I have not seen lightning hit the ground out hear in years! But if it happens where you live, it is good to treat it like any other antenna.
The gateway web interface is so different now. Can't see practically anything like you showed. Wish they hadn't simplified it.
Yes, it seem hurtful when they keep changing the software. Try the phone app as it is the same for both units.
A couple of questions/comments, my gateway is accepting my password, I tried the one on the label of the gateway also, any suggestions? I also have the correct cabling, I currently have 7db antennas for wi-fi, will those work in place of the 4G one you have been using? And enjoy your videos so far, not overcomplicating the verbiage used. Have any ideas on how to set the MTU on a TP-Link Deco M3? Thanks
Peter, that is my close family nickname! Hay the external antenna you suggested has 2 inputs, horizontal & vertical. Did you notice any gain when swapping Ant-2 & 3 with Hz-input or Vr-input?
Silver is nice 😊, nice color!!!!
It matches exactly nothing in my house. I want to get one of those knitted hats that grandma used to try to hide the extra roll of toilet paper with. 😅
@@PeterC408 😂😂🥁!!! That’s understandable lol, I can dig it fasho.
Thanks, really enjoying the information. Quick question, do you live in a low signal area, Hills, etc?
No, I live in the thick of it. Small town with 1,000,000 people. For a rural area installation, I like this type of radio design th-cam.com/video/HFh-xFx3wRc/w-d-xo.html
Question, do you leave the antenna inside or outside your home? If outside, did you put holes in your wall to run the cables?
Peter Thank so much for sharing this info. I have the newest modem from T-Mobile, Acryndin (SIC) it’s black. Do you have any videos for this modem?
No, but I understand that it is very similar. The most important part is to get THIS antenna. Other antennas are toys. I get over 900Mbps an other are struggling to get 200Mbps.
Thanks for the tutorial. Very nice. I'm living in a rural area and my t-mobile phones connect to 5g. My home isp is a line of sight to a tower max: 15mb/3mb - and they just upgraded us from 10/2. The t-mobile rep found an "address", but they're shipping it to me. I'm very likely going to need to do the upgrade. Can I just purchase and "extension cord" and just stick the existing 5 g on my window facing the tower (which is about 7 miles away)? Also I understand that there are several units that tmobile uses for the home service. I hope they all work in a similar way.
Yes, they all use the same parts and are very similar inside.
Comcast is still a better option for me. 400mbps download on average for my tier with 30 mbps upload and 10-12 ms ping response. Sure it costs $75/per month but my employer picks up $25 of that through monthly reimbursement. If I had AT$T UVerse at 25 mbps I would jump all over this if I had a good 5G tower near by.
Comcast cost me $69/mo but was limited to 1TB, which kept me from watching 4K streams!!! Goodbye Comcast, worst cable company on the planet!
@@PeterC408 they allow us 1.25 TB per month of which we use about 650 GB on average…..I hear you but I can’t justify the T-Mobile 5G plan yet.
Don't switch! Especially now! It's not even worth 50/mo! I WISH I could get Comcast or any decent wired broadband!
I finally installed the same external antenna following your instructions but I am not getting any improvements. Do you mind showing us how to point the antenna to right location? My speeds are 10Mbps/5Mbps and ping 31. Very frustrating. I am in a rural area and I think I am pointing to the right location when I compare the connection of the t mobile with cellmapper but I am not 100% sure. Thanks for your help.
Yeah the antenna was very little help for me also, and I'm pointing it at a tower maybe a half mile away that I can see from my yard! When I first got the service I received a consistent 70 Mbps for several months. Now even with the antenna it fluctuates wildly between 20 and 1 Mbps. Last night and today I've been lucky to get 1 Mbps! Honestly, I seriously doubt the speed tests displayed on these videos is actually coming through the T-Mobile home internet.
Very strange how your getting rather good ping, but bad upload and download.
Thanks Peter! Awesome video for us inveterate tinkerers......;)
Peter I’m doing this all to , had the hotspot about 3 weeks now, bought the proxicast antenna and well everything for it, that you had listed . 2 questions. One is what adapter do you use going from the little pigtails we add to the T- mobile tower to the antenna cable ? Second question is the proxicast antenna says “ connect “ V” lead to main/ primary Antenna port and connect “ H” to Auxiliary port … if I follow your advise and undo 3 and 4 what goes where?
Thanks for all you do for us out here in 10mbps land
Try it... then try switching them and see if it makes a difference. Maybe I got lucky, I guess it was a 50/50 chance.
Thank you for the videos
I have this hot spot. I have a 4x4 antenna. I can't get any signal with the top 2 post on the hotspot. But the bottom 2 work. Sucks bc I'm not getting 4x4
Not all antennas are the same... I like the Proxicast antennas. They are real antennas made by American engineers that are radio experts! Proof is in the pudding.
In my opinion i think T mobile drop the ball on this one, for one you have to take it apart to connect the antenna when there should be some kinda connector on the side of the device some where, but you have to take it a part to connect a antenna, i call that lazy, and i dont see them doing well with this cause some people you can show a thousand times how to hook up the antenna and they will never get it...my wife is one of them
@Knoxxgrim I think I understand their side of this. They want to offer and support one solution... if they allow for external antennas, it becomes a support nightmare. I think they dropped the ball by showing BARs at all. They should have just shown "Connected!" and let the scores come out where they may.
It's a little confusing when you say things like "80 or below" when talking about signal strength. That makes it sound like 80 or below means "less than" when a lower negative number really means "greater than." I would say negative 80 or lower, meaning closer to positive, therefore greater or more signal.
If you're right and everyone things you are wrong, are you really right? It is a good question and I struggle with it in this video too. th-cam.com/video/MZ4k1D_GxyA/w-d-xo.html
This was pretty good. What did you use for external antennas, both the cell tower 5G sig and WiFi
Hey Ken, all parts are listed in the description. Tmobile implemented 5G by aggregating frequencies in the 4G spectrum so my 4G LTE antenna worked just as shown.
@@PeterC408 I have a WiFi antenna with 2 outputs Vertical/Horizontal but not for Cell Freqs.
The T-Mobile product is very interesting and I hope it becomes successful in a major way forcing the local cable companies to reduce their price. High speed Internet needs some serious competition. The T-moble approach based on my cell phone with T-moble is much more reliable too. I have dealt with bad weather
causing loss of power = loss of internet, and cable TV where my cell phone coverage was never interrupted. Next step is to make the T-Moble a "take with you internet" for R/V, car, second home. Same thing has running a hotspot off your cell phone.
You can get coax leads with much better coax too.
No, Coax is not good enough signal integrity. Let's not start people doing that. If you really want a long run, here is a much better solution th-cam.com/video/6uXWAI8bXBY/w-d-xo.html this gets the modem outside and up high without external antennas because the whole modem is outside.
Hello,
Thank you for the video can you please let us know how to stop the wifi for model:KVD21? When I go to my browser for T-Mobile. I do not see all this information to turn of the 2.4 and 5 ghz WiFi's.
THANK YOU
Any chance you could do one of these for the Inseego FX2000? My speeds are awful, yet they're fine on my phones.
I have my Mimo Antenna coming tomorrow, I am only getting 2 bars in my house but my speeds are still hitting about 200 MBPS down and 25Up and ping is about 20-35. I look forward to seeing what the increase will be..
Me too. Let us know. I want to know what bands you are picking up before and after. Make note of the RSRP/RSRQ change, if you would. Take a look at this video th-cam.com/video/rF_cWzPOjuM/w-d-xo.html It will show you how to pull those and know where you tower is for pointing.
@@PeterC408 Quick question before install. I am smack dab in the middle of two towers but I am showing I’m on the South tower it says (tower 32026016999179) Should I point the antennas both to the south tower or should I point one at the south and one at the north tower?
How do you think the tmobile home gateway stacks up against the likes of something like the NETGEAR Nighthawk M5 5G Mobile Hotspot with WiFi 6 (MR5200)? I have a very good friend that lives out in Utah and doesn't have access to proper fiber internet- his internet is very average and he frequently experiences packet loss and generally poor performance for gaming.
I'm a computer engineer myself so I'd like to help him out by setting him up w/ 5g (he is already on tmobile, and i've checked there are 5g towers (no n41 though, only n71) close to him).
What i'm uncertain about is if he'd be better off w/ something like the MR5200 in this case- thanks again love the channel amazing info!!!
First you need to find out which Bands are being broadcast in his area and who (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) they belong to. This video will show you how to use network data to see where the towers are and the bands they put out th-cam.com/video/rF_cWzPOjuM/w-d-xo.html Here is a video on n71 th-cam.com/video/mPeASQLNUBU/w-d-xo.html
I'm looking at the Waveform Mimo 4x4 kit, which comes with RS240 N-Male to SMA Cable. If I have a longer run, like 100 ft, is it worth getting the RS400 or RS600 cable instead. The listings say they have lower loss. Thanks.
Waveform is not the same as Proxicast. I have had the largest improvement of anyone on the web, pulled a 910Mbps earlier today. I would go with that. 100ft is very long. Try to reduce that for you own wallet sake.
This reminds me of the days I had to use clear wireless. Does anyone remember clear? You had to pretty much do the same thing and rig a external antenna.
I had Clear as well. It did the trick for me back when. And yeah, I had to use an external antenna, but with that I got a good signal.
I had Clear back in the day. It’s funny because I believe Sprint bought Clear and now T-Mobile has bought Sprint. Maybe the same thing but with 5G.
Awesome vid was wondering if you’re son has been playing games like fortnite and other computer games . I I’m in a very rural area but there is a tower near me I get about 3 to 4 bars and it’s almost enough to play but I just need a little bit better internet . Thank you
Yes, he is a heavy PC gamer but we are also getting really good < 30ms PING and that is going to be the Latency issue for most PC games. Here is how I chipped away at the PING th-cam.com/video/MZ4k1D_GxyA/w-d-xo.html I am currently getting 900Mbps down, with a 26ms PING.
If my 2 bars already get 300, should I bother doing this? It’s for business, so no gaming/no streaming, mostly voip and cloud based health records. Also my unit provides both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi which I disabled.
I’m not for sure but I bet many cell phone repair shops would do this work for you for around $40 as long as you brought this supplies to them.
Waveform external antenna had zero effect for me. Tried aiming at multiple towers and use the 1-2 and 3-4 connections nothing helped. Oh well.
I have never talked about a waveform antenna. I have only been happy with Proxicast. While I have not tested the Waveform, every other antenna a tried was a joke with no real engineering behind it. Proxicast was night and day amzn.to/2LfALev
stupid question im sure, but why not just attach the new connectors to the original buttons/snap thing on the board? not a tech person so like i said prob dum question but had to ask?
Antennas come with some pretty standard but much larger connectors. We need to use a small cable to attach them. The connectors that come from the antenna are 3/4" in diameter and I have to bring them down to like 3mm. I shrink them down cable after cable. You can see the hookup in this video th-cam.com/video/sS1TTvZEbB4/w-d-xo.html with my NEW SPEEDS
I use same
I am seriously considering making the switch how can I check where my 5G antenna is located with respect to my home? It is available in my area as confirmed by their website and the flyer they sent to my home 😀
Fair question. Take a look at this video that shows you how to know where your local tower is and the band it is putting out. th-cam.com/video/PAl3D84V-3o/w-d-xo.html