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Forum Discussion
DM999
Jun 30, 2023Aspirant
6000451 Antenna reduces my Speed.
I have the MR6500 Modem. I also bought the Mesh System, AX1800 to improve Wifi coverage in my home. Seems to work well. Getting about 25MB download and 4-5MB upload speeds using speedtest in the Mesh...
JT240Z
Jun 30, 2023Luminary
Actually, I'm saying that the device with NO external antenna connections made has a 4x4 MIMO bandwidth internal antenna. If you use the TWO external antennas ports, then you will be disabling the 4x4 MIMO internal antenna and limiting your reception to only the two external antenna you have plugged in and creating a 2x2 MIMO connection. This will effectively reduce the receiver's ability to capture all signal paths by reducing total bandwidth by 1/2. The only time you should need to use the external ports is when you are in such a weak signal area that you can't get a good signal. By using the external antenna ports, you will gain a higher signal but the total data that can pass through those will be less than if you have a good signal using only the internal antenna. It's a compromise that should be understood. More signal doesn't always mean more data. Think of it as a pipe. You double the size of the pipe (4x4 MIMO) and you increase the amount of flow. If your pipe is so long that it restricts your flow (weak signal) then making a shorter (stronger signal) but reducing the pipe size will give you some data but better than nothing.
Does the external antenna you're using have two TS-9 connectors coming out of it? Are you plugging both into the bottom of the device? If this is the case, then you will be in a 2x2 MIMO environment. If you're only plugging in one TS-9 connection, then that is even worse.
DM999
Jul 01, 2023Aspirant
Ahhh! I didn’t understand that! That makes sense. So I don’t have a defective antenna- I’m just actually reducing my signal reception from four internal to two external when I plug the new external antenna in. I should probably just keep it for travel as I do get to some remote places, and it may actually help in those situations. Thanks for this insight. I would not have guessed that the modem had 4 receptors.
- JT240ZJul 01, 2023Luminary
Here's an interesting article to help clarify what MIMO means and how it relates to your hotspot.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/MIMO