Nighthawk M5 (MR5200) 5G slow

[ewok79]

I replaced my old Huawei LTE router with a new Netgear Nighthawk M5 mobile router, hoping to get faster bandwidth with the upgraded 5G signal. Unfortunately, the previous download speed of the Huawei router did not improve with the new Nighthawk M5, despite full 5G signal with 5 bars, the download is only a maximum of 60mbit/s according to Ookla Speedtest. The M5 is connected to an external MIMO Panorama outdoor antenna. If I run a speed test with my Iphone SE (2022) in the 5G network at the same location as the MIMO antenna, I get a maximum download of over 300mbit/s.

I have already reset the device to factory settings and installed the latest firmware.
Network is same APN as Iphone (Vodafone germany), bandwidth set to LTE+MR5G, WLan set to dual band 2,4+5GHZ, VHT80 MHZ. Also tried speedtest with plugged ethernet cable, same speed.

What else can be done to get the M5 to a similar 5G bandwidth value as my Iphone SE?

[ewok79 · Accepted solution]

Hey John,

Thx for your reply and your suggestions. Today I had more time to check my system setup, and I finally figured out what was the bottleneck. After putting in the battery in the router, I hold the M5 outside the window near the place where my MIMO antenna is, and made a speedtest simultaneously.... and gues what, BAM, I finally get the same 5G bandwith speed as my iphone SE 🙂

So after that, I checked my MIMO antenna and I saw that it was covered with lots of dust and dirt, what is normal from outdoor conditions. So cleaned it up, plugged my router in and put it indoor again, and yeah, speedtest still shows the speed of 300-350 mbit/s.

Sometimes, the solution is so easy to be seen ^^

[JohnPeng]

Could you please capture a model.json file and send the PM to me?

- Logon to the webui (http://192.168.1.1 ) as an administrator
- Navigate to URL http://192.168.1.1/model.json via the same browser window
- Capture the results (by selecting all + copy) and send it back

Do you know how to check the bands used on Iphone when you see the higher TP on the phone?

Thanks

John

[ewok79 · Accepted solution]

Hey John,

Thx for your reply and your suggestions. Today I had more time to check my system setup, and I finally figured out what was the bottleneck. After putting in the battery in the router, I hold the M5 outside the window near the place where my MIMO antenna is, and made a speedtest simultaneously.... and gues what, BAM, I finally get the same 5G bandwith speed as my iphone SE 🙂

So after that, I checked my MIMO antenna and I saw that it was covered with lots of dust and dirt, what is normal from outdoor conditions. So cleaned it up, plugged my router in and put it indoor again, and yeah, speedtest still shows the speed of 300-350 mbit/s.

Sometimes, the solution is so easy to be seen ^^

[JohnPeng]

Thanks for the quick check and confirmation!

I hope all the issues reported in the community can be fixed in this way.🤣

Enjoy and let me know if you have any issues or questions.

Regards