Att NightHawk M1 getting below average upload speeds

Question

My NightHawk m1 has been getting above average download for my rural area, the usual on my NG unite Explore being 15 to 20 mbs and has went up to 25 to 35 mbs. BUT the upload speed is cut in half, on the explore I was getting 4 to 5 mbs upload and the NightHawk is only getting 2 to 3 mbs. Using the same bands, the same type of Access Points and I'm still getting the upload drop.

Anyone experience this and maybe have a solution?

UK-based · Answer

This is just a guess, so I may be wrong: uploads rely on transmission from the router to the mast, so the design of the antenna(s) in the router is a key factor. It's possible that the antenna(s) in your other router are more capable of transmitting a good signal back to the mast. The small size of the M1 probably has an impact on its transmission capabilities. This is apparent when one checks the range of the 2 Wi-Fi bands - they have less reach than a larger router with external antennas.

In order to increase the signal strength received by the M1, I've attached an outdoor Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Cross Polarised Omni LTE antenna to the M1 via a couple of short SMA to TS-9 pigtail adapter leads. I now have 5 bars of reception whereas without it I only had 2 to 3 bars. No doubt this outdoor antenna has also improved my upload speeds.

I'm in a rural location and the mast that I'm connecting to wouldn't offer the 4x4 MIMO transmissions that are available in some cities, so I don't think I'm curtailing my possible download speeds by using this outdoor antenna. However, my guess is that attaching an external antenna of this type to the M1 may over-ride or impact the 4 antennas built into the M1 for 4x4 MIMO transmission, so this needs to be considered.

CountryGaming · Answer

This could be it, I'm in a rural location as well and have ATT which I think they're just now rolling out 4x4 MiMo so I don't think I'll be getting the benefit for awhile.
I just purchased a Netgear MiMo dual ts9 antenna from Amazon so I'll be 4x4 ready when it does make it out here and I think if that's the issue my results should improve.

Thanks for the input, I greatly appreciate it.

UK-based · Answer

You're welcome. It would be good to hear if your new Netgear antenna improves your upload speeds.

UK-based · Answer

Something I'm trying to find out about at the moment is whether a 2 lead external antenna would be capable of receiving 4x4 MIMO transmissions. I think it's unlikely because 4 separate antennas are required, as shown in this article: 4x4-mimo. My guess is that one would need 4 antenna input ports on the router (not 2) and a specially designed external antenna with 4 feeds. There are so few 4x4 MIMO devices around at the moment that I guess there's insufficient demand for such an antenna - the devices rely on their own built-in antennas (4).&nbsp;Maybe there's a way of multiplexing signals from 4 antennas onto 2 leads but I doubt that's foreseen in the M1 - I could be wrong of course :smileyhappy:

CountryGaming · Answer

Yeah I was hesitant to buy the antenna thinking that same thing. I'm not sure if 4x4 could be done through just two connections but i would hope that Netgear wouldn't have a 4x4 device that was crippled if an antenna was attached.

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Att NightHawk M1 getting below average upload speeds

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