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Skich's avatar
Skich
Follower
Dec 06, 2018

Slow download and fast uploads - Nighthawk mobile hotspot

Hi everybody. I’m living inside a motorhome inside a metal shop with a metal roof. I have AT&T iPhones with around one bar of signal. Not much good for anything, certainly not data. So I wired up a yagi antenna about 8’ off the roof and pointed it at the nearest AT&T tower about 4 miles away. I also got a Nighthawk mobile router so I could have unlimited data. (I have unlimited data on my phones but only 10g for hotspot.)

Now I have three or four bars and good cell signal most of the time. Right now I have -81db on the primary signal and -93 on the secondary. Looks pretty good to me. Unfortunately, my download speed is not very consistent. I’m usually under 1 meg. The upload is usually significant faster. This all before I try the WiFi through the Nighthawk. It has slower download speeds than straight cellular and similar fast upload speeds.

At this point I’m resigned to just having cellphone service in the shop. I was hoping to have decent internet speeds. I’m getting decent speeds outside the shop and in he house we’re building. I guess that means there’s a problem with my antenna setup? I have the yagi antenna then a Proutone booster and finally car-like antenna. The inside and outside antenna are more than 30 feet apart.

Any ideas?

Mobile Routers

1 Reply

  • JSchnee21's avatar
    JSchnee21
    Virtuoso
    Dec 10, 2018

    Hi Skich,

     

    Unfortunately the MR1100 has 4 antennas, but only two are accessible via the TS-9 connections.  Before investing too much in different antennas and cabling, I would suggest a simple test:

     

    1) Put your MR1100 in a bag or plastic box outside.  Mount it as high as you can (on the roof of the show is probably fine -- but i would raise it up above the sheet metal on a plastic crate / box.  Run power to it, and Ethernet from it.

     

    2) Run the Ethernet from the shop roof into your trailer and test the connection with a PC/laptop.

     

    3) if the speed is good enough, buy an inexpensive wireless access point (like this one -- TP-Link EAP225) and use it to broadcast the signal throughout your trailer.

     

    Alternatively, try your antenna setup using just one of the TS-9 connectors.  Try one than the other and compare.  You might need to powercycle the MR1100 everytime you change your setup to get it to reaquire. 

     

    What frequencies are your antennas, cabeling, amplifier designed for?  Are you sure you are covering all modern bands (AT&T especially keeps moving stuff around).

     

    Alternatively you might need to step up to a better cellular modem -- like something from MOFI -- using your current unlimited plan

    http://mofinetwork.com

     

     

    -Jonathan