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Forum Discussion
Trying to connect Netgear Mobile Hotspot MR5000 to Netgear Nighthawk R7000P Router
** Please note the Model above is not correct, this website does not have the new MR5000 Hotspot as an option, so I selected the closest one.
Good morning, I am trying to "upgrade" my old set up which was working well until 3 weeks ago. I had diagnosed it to a potential hardware issue so I purchased an upgraded device but I'm experiences tons of issues. I need some help and advice please. We live in the country so the only internet we have access to is 5G wireless.
Old set up - ATT Home Base Wireless Internet Modem (ZTE Z700) connected to Nighthawk R7000P configured as second wireless network (not AP or Bridge) different IP addresses so no conflict, different bands. All was working well ~24MBps average, able to have two people online on Zoom calls, no issues.
Three weeks ago - everything stopped working. Lots of troubleshooting seemed to indicate Home Base hardware issue, or R7000P.
New set up - we now have 5G in our area so I saw ATT now offers 5G hotspot so I "upgraded" the ATT Home Base to the Netgear Nighthawk MR5000 5G mobile hotspot. At least I was hoping it was an upgrade, now I'm not sure this is the right device for us. Got the new device. Tried to configure the same with the above but I still had speed issues (1MBps, not consistent speeds, drop outs, etc). I noticed the new hotspot signal strength sucks, i.e you must have it right next to your comptuer to get the best speeds. Not really an option for being our whole home internet source. So I have to have it connect to the R7000P to pipe that signal through the house. Read up and thought reconfiguring to Access Point might be the better option. So I now have it as an Access Point but I get constant drop outs, it can not handle two people on the network at the same time.
What am I doing wrong? Is there a recommended configuration to get the best stable and fast connections from a mobile hotspot to a regular router? Could my R7000P truly be the source of the issues? It's less than 1 year old, I upgraded the firmware to the latest downloaded from support V1.3.2.126_10.1.66 version.
I am so frustrated I want to chuck it all out the window!
9 Replies
If 1 device has an issue, if more than 1 device has a problem, I'd be looking at what could cause 2 devices to have slowed speeds.
With the old hot spot and the new one but having slow connection speeds, it makes me suspicious of the coverage in that area or the sim card.
Mabye there was a hardware failure on the antenna that covers your area. Did you try taking the hotspot somewhere else and trying it?
Or maybe its a bad sim card (rare but does happen).
The MR5000 is quite capable. I've never used one but it should at least let you connect a phone/tablet to it and give you reasonable speeds if its getting full speeds from cellular. Again, thats what I'd check on. Get the hotspot up to full speed before trying to troubleshoot a router. It'd be pointless to put a bunch of time/effort into the R7000P and the root cause be the hotspot/cellular signal/sim card.
Thanks plemans I have full bars for AT&T signal and when I direct connect to the hotspot when it's sitting close to my laptop I get great speeds 60-70MBps, although I don't know if it drops out. I can try to connect for hours and see if it drops off. The issue is the signal strength doesn't reach very far, so if I'm in my home office direct connected to the hotspot I'm good, but my kids upstairs have 1 bar of signal and slow speeds. That's why I was hoping to connect it to my R7000P for better signal thoughout the house. That was the set up we had with the older ATT Home Base and it worked well for at least 2 years but then all of a sudden 3 weeks ago it all went to crud.
Justt to confirm, the hostpot stays stable? You aren't getting drops on it?
If that's the case, then we can focus on the r7000P
I'd start with simply factory resetting in and reinstalling it. don't install using a backup configuration. also put in in access point mode for connecting to the hotspot.
If that doesn't help, we can try a different firmwar.e
