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Forum Discussion
Nighthawk M2 mobile router signal
I have had terrible trouble with my nighthawk M2. I live in a tin shed and study online. I have constantly had my classes on zoom and Skype even messenger freeze constantly making it very difficult to...
Hi sorry to sound dumb but I don’t understand how to get to the URL. I logged into the net gear and from there was completely lost. I tried putting that URL link in but I got a very very long list of what looked like Computer code. How do I do what you asked?
Hi Steffy,
I think the "tin shed" is the giveaway here. The metal surround will be acting as a bit of a Faraday cage (not unlike the shielding in your microwave oven that ensures only the stuff inside is heated by the microwave radiation).
My suggestion towards solving this one is to take the Nighthawk modem outside and then compare the effective speed of the 4g connection. Beyond that, see if you can hoist it up a little higher for a better connection with the tower as height makes a worthwhile difference.
- Yes I’ve tried what you mentioned. I’ve put it up high and whilst I get 4 bars I’m still getting freezing during video calls (zoom etc). I took it outside and got full signal however it wasn’t making a difference as my Mac is inside and the signal dropped so low that the speeds was 1mpbs for incoming and 5-7 for outgoing. What I haven’t tried is taking the nighthawk and max outside becoZ my course is at night and being a sign language course visual is important.
Hi Steffy,
Great to see that you're getting 4bars on the 4G cellular connection when the Nighthawk unit is outside the tin shed.
With your Mac on the inside, what are you using for the connection between the Nighthawk and the computer? If it's WiFi then you're going to have issues with that (due to what is effectively tin shielding in the way of the signal path). Are you able to take the Mac outside as well for a test or run a network cable over to it?
Look forward to hearing back from you again.
- Hi Mr Doppalina
I was getting 4 bars inside - it was still freezing. Even with it plugged into the router via Ethernet cable and 4 bars it freezes. I have even tried hotspot data - whilst a tiny bit better I still get freezing but to a lesser degree but still enough to cause annoyance and expensive when on zoom for 3.5hrs. I have yet taken the max out Maude to try it with the full router signal - you were right when the router was outside with 5bars the signal was terrible and speeds were 1mpbs and it was raining that night so I didn’t want to go outside with the max. I shall have to try this but I’m curious as to why at 4bats inside with it also hooked up to ethernet and data that it’s still freezing.