Nighthawk m1 (MR1100) extending range of wifi

[AndyR71]

I know the Nighthawk m1 is a mobile hotspot but I would like to leave it centred in the house with ethernet to my AppleTV. Problem is the range is not as great as the Telstra salesperson led me to believe. I was about to purchase a TS-9 MiMo antenna but don't need better 4G/4GX signal just better wifi range in the house. Would a TS-9 MiMo antenna do both? Any suggestion? Thanks.

[michaelkenward]

---

wrote:

Any suggestion?

---

Wifi extender?

WiFi Range Extenders: Boost Your WiFi Range | NETGEAR

[AndyR71]

Yep thanks. Have been looking into these but just wondering if the MiMo antenna idea would solve the wifi range as well as boost the 4G signal strength? I have a landline (ADSL) connection also at the house that the kids use so an extender would need to be smart enough to be able to pick which wifi network to join. Any particular model with the lowest price?

[AndyR71]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. With regards to the AppleTV I connect it via the Ethernet port at back of Nighthawk to ensure good connectivity when streaming stuff. I also sometimes switch the Apple TV to the kids ADSL modem via Ethernet so they don’t chew up all my data. Lol.

[AndyR71]

Yeh, we have really slow line speed. 5-7Mbps on a good day and with 4 kids all competing for a piece it's not real good. So my wife and I have the Nighthawk hotspot just for us. But I do reconnect the Apple TV back to the ADSL router before I go to work in case the kids jump on the Apple TV. Don't want them using up the expensive mobile broadband data. If it runs slow for them they can argue and work it out between themselves. 😜

[Umberto2]

What was the outcome Andy?  Have you connected the M1 to a wifi range extender and how did you do it?

[UK-based]

@AndyR71 @Umberto2: Here's a comprehensive article that explains various methods to improve wifi reception around a building. You'll see that wifi range extenders probably aren't the best solution because they reduce available bandwidth.

The solution I chose was to connect a cheap unmanaged Ethernet switch to the M1 and then wire 2 access points into the switch. I put the access points at opposite extremes of the building with the M1 in the middle. In your case AndyR71, you could also connect your AppleTV to the switch. Here are more details of how I converted second-hand routers into the access points. And here's another discussion on the same theme, also touching on mesh networks.

I hope these pointers help solve your issues.

[Umberto2]

That is very helpful indeed, UK.  I will let you know what worked in the case I have - a friend with 2 x MR1100, and so 2 wifi networks that still fail to cover the entire home.  That is quite an invetment in gear that is not really designed for the home set up but he is keen to make it work.  We shall see.

[UK-based]

You're welcome @Umberto2. The investment I made was very low - the unmanaged switch was £13 and the 2 second-hand routers that I converted to access points were purchased on ebay. The total cost was about £25 or about $33 at current rates. When you only have to pay this sort of money, it makes experimentation more acceptable - if it doesn't work out, there's no great loss

[UK-based]

@Umberto2: I forgot to mention that the MR1100 has a relatively limited WiFi signal range, even when the range is set to Long in its settings. This is understandable because of its size and hence small internal WiFi antennas - its primary function is a mobile hotspot not a high-strength household router.

If I had 2 MR1100s like your friend, I would use one of them purely as a mobile hotspot and have the other one set up as a fixed household router, running without battery on an upgraded QC 2.0 or QC 3.0 mains charger (not the supplied 2A charger), connected to a switch and access points as I explained in my previous post. This would also have the advantage of allowing your friend to have 2 MR1100 batteries for his mobile unit - it seems that replacements for these batteries are hard to obtain.

In my case, I've kept the MR1100 dual band WiFi active in my fixed configuration to give a small boost between the 2 access points, but you could even switch off the WiFi on the MR1100 to avoid crowding the frequencies. When I need to use my MR1100 as a mobile hotspot, I have to disconnect my 2 external antenna connections, the Ethernet cable and the USB C power cable, which is a bit of a hassle due to the location of the MR1100. The luxury of having 2 MR1100 units would avoid this

[Umberto2]

I thought you might like to know the outcome, UK.  Along the lines you suggested I connected the first MR1100 [M1] to a TP-Link N300 wireless range extender I had in my kit.  That was enough to extend one wifi network to cover most of the house using the 2.4Ghz band.  M2 is in the den just out of range of M1, connected to a Netgear ethernet switch that also connects a Foxtel STB and Apple TV, and though I have not switched off its wifi, M2 is now functionally a modem.  It all worked well in tests today.  We shall see how the setup works when the family all connect at once.

[UK-based]

Thanks for letting me know how you solved your range issues. I must say that I was always under the impression that WiFi extenders caused slower internet access because there is some added communication back and forth between the router and the extender. However, this video appears to disprove that misconception.

Good luck with your testing.