Best Wi-Fi roof antenna

[Shrosie]

I have a satellite dome on my roof which I don’t use and wish to get it removed and use the cable hole to route to a Wi-Fi roof mount antenna/ aerial. I am looking for advise on the best one to get , probably 5g ready as I only want to do it once , and what router is the best for inside the Motorhome.
I find myself using Firesticks for watching TV now and my wife needs good Wi-Fi to be able to work when we are away in the van . Any recommendations greatly appreciated.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

AND, when you go abroad, I think you only hve a limit of 20GB even if you are unlimited in the UK

We to have EE phone contracts and I have an unlimited sim in my Netgear N2 that’s fixed in the van.
Our trip last May took us to 8 different countries in just under 4 weeks all in the one month and I used 79GB of data in the Netgear.
This was mostly streaming Netflix in 4K
Never had anything from EE to say I had exceeded their EU limit, we did nearly the same last September and again nothing from them.

 

[Orion]

Almost ditto here but with the Teltonika RUTX12 and the Poynting MIMO-3-17 waiting to be connected to it as the router has all the matching inputs. Pending delivery of the MoHo (hopefully later this month) I’m using it standalone in the house with its included rubber duck antennas as a supplement for our BT Wi-Fi, which it blows away in terms of performance and features. I’m also looking at the Teltonika Coin movement sensors being linked to it as added security for a trailer and quad.

Update to the above as I’ve now installed the Teltonika RUTX12 router into the new Adria - I had the dealer fit the Poynting MIMO-3-17 to the location I specified - and have been running it with cheapo Lebara and Giffgaff SIMs in the dual slots and equal load balancing as a trial. Performance is excellent, in fact so good with the 2G & 5G Wi-Fi that I’m not going to bother with a direct Ethernet cable connection to the LG TV in the van. I can also use the 2G connection from the house and better our BT landline internet speeds! The Teltonika is also loaded with my Nord VPN negating the need to have it running on separate devices. Very pleased with the signal quality when out and about, which has been better than that received on our phones in some locations.

 

[John Russell]

At the end of 2020 we got a Panorama LGMDM4-7-38-24-58 with MiFi, GPS and WiFi as that had the best performance at the time, and hooked it up to a Huawei MiFi router.

The tails on the Panorama aren't long and it's important to keep the connection to the router short so that may affect choice of location.

 

[dpsuk999]

I have the Poynting MIMO-3-12 v2 mated to a Teltonika RUT955 dual sim’s EE with 200GB and Tiekom with 300GB with load balancing and find this set up perfect in over 8 different countries we have visited

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[DaveFromBarrow]

I bought a Netgear 5G router (£600 ish) and have an unlimited data plan (£30/m). The battery lasts for about 8 hours, so you can stick it somewhere high if needed. Even over 4G it will happily stream Netflix and allow me to work.

When we go abroad I'll buy a suitable SIM and stick that into it.

It suits us because we tend to use CL's which rarely have WiFi. If WiFi's available the MacBook will generally pick that up without any assistance.

Just a thought.

d

 

[bubble63]

I have an Maxview Roam with a narrow black aerial, perfect

 

[Lenny HB]

So for someone who doent understand the MHz bands would I notice a massive improvement buying the antenna above over a Poynting puck for 4G?
Ta
Howard

In rural areas yes, in rural they use the 800mhz band the Pucks have negligible gain in the 800 mhz band the MIMO will perform much better. The difference in suburban areas won't be as noticeable at the higher bandwidths they tend to use.

 

[Ridgeway]

Update to the above as I’ve now installed the Teltonika RUTX12 router into the new Adria - I had the dealer fit the Poynting MIMO-3-17 to the location I specified - and have been running it with cheapo Lebara and Giffgaff SIMs in the dual slots and equal load balancing as a trial. Performance is excellent, in fact so good with the 2G & 5G Wi-Fi that I’m not going to bother with a direct Ethernet cable connection to the LG TV in the van. I can also use the 2G connection from the house and better our BT landline internet speeds! The Teltonika is also loaded with my Nord VPN negating the need to have it running on separate devices. Very pleased with the signal quality when out and about, which has been better than that received on our phones in some locations.

This is good feedback. Going for an almost identical set up (just debating between the RUTX 12 vs 14). Happy to hear this is performing well

 

[Orion]

This is good feedback. Going for an almost identical set up (just debating between the RUTX 12 vs 14). Happy to hear this is performing well

I had a look at the RUTX14 when it was announced and my first thought was that the single modem, albeit a faster CAT12 unit, might not offer any real world advantage over the twin CAT6 ones in the RUTX12 as they would provide some degree of redundancy in the event of one failing - although that would hopefully be unlikely! I’d already purchased the 12 at a very good price from an eBay seller in Latvia, so it was all a pretty much decided anyway.

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[jlevo]

Hi everyone this thread has been super useful, thanks! It prompted me to join

I have ordered a Poynting mimo-3-15 v2 for the roof of my van conversion based on the guidance in this thread (needs to get fitted this weekend) and am now considering the best (/value) router to purchase.

The antenna was a bit more expensive than I had in mind so looking for a router option that I can go with for now and maybe upgrade in the future if needed (easier to swap a router than an antenna).

Lots of comments in here for the RUTX11, 12 etc but I'm wondering if the RUT360 might suit for now. Basically, I need to be able to do some work/video calls from the van and figure that this, combined with the Mimo-3-15 should allow that.

As I see it, I'm missing out on:

• faster wifi (n vs ac)
• 1000 ethernet (not needed),
• Bluetooth is this for set up? Assume I can set up via wifi (after a reset) / ethernet?
• GNSS - not needed

I did consider the RUT950 but I think CAT4 4G might be a hinderance? That said the router is available for £100 which is appealing

Thanks in advance if anyone has any experience in the tradeoffs between these models!

 

[DaveFromBarrow]

Just back from another week or so away, working from the van. I run a digital agency. We were in Nottingham, Lancashire and Devon. The Netgear Nighthawk never missed a beat including lots of Zooming. 4G is very good, 5G excellent. Streamed Netflix etc. No external gubbins required. Charged it over night and it lasted all day with two MacBooks and 2 iPads hanging off it.

Nighthawk M5 5G WiFi 6 Mobile Router - MR5200 | NETGEAR

Discover the Nighthawk M5 Mobile Router, powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X55 Mobile Platform, delivering ground-breaking speeds up to 7Gbps. Buy now!

www.netgear.com

d

 

[Hettie's Crew]

I did consider the RUT950 but I think CAT4 4G might be a hinderance? That said the router is available for £100 which is appealing

We’ve used ours, together with an EE sim and our Panorama mimo to hold Teams and Zoom calls on a MacBook with no issues.

 

[Lee Rasberry]

Maxview use the RUT241, RUTX11 and RUTX50 in our Roam Wifi kits, and we've tested pretty much every Teltonika router. We found the RUT360 to be really disappointing and in most cases performance was the same as the RUT240. Which was totally unexpected considering it is CAT6 vs. CAT4. If price is key, go for a RUT241, you should still get 10-25mb depending on network provider. If you feel you need more sim slots/Ethernet, go for the RUT951.

On the other hand, the RUTX11 is a really good router, and I often see speeds between 50mb-90mb, plus its got the 2 SIM Slots and more Ethernet if you need it. Don't worry about the RUTX12 unless you really want dual modems.

All the setup can be done via wired or WiFi connection by logging into the WebUI (192.168.1.1), so no need for Bluetooth.

 

[MisterB]

Just back from another week or so away, working from the van. I run a digital agency. We were in Nottingham, Lancashire and Devon. The Netgear Nighthawk never missed a beat including lots of Zooming. 4G is very good, 5G excellent. Streamed Netflix etc. No external gubbins required. Charged it over night and it lasted all day with two MacBooks and 2 iPads hanging off it.

Nighthawk M5 5G WiFi 6 Mobile Router - MR5200 | NETGEAR

Discover the Nighthawk M5 Mobile Router, powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X55 Mobile Platform, delivering ground-breaking speeds up to 7Gbps. Buy now!

www.netgear.com

d

I've been using my Netgear Nighthawk M2 for a few years and it's never let me down !

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[Orion]

Hi everyone this thread has been super useful, thanks! It prompted me to join

I have ordered a Poynting mimo-3-15 v2 for the roof of my van conversion based on the guidance in this thread (needs to get fitted this weekend) and am now considering the best (/value) router to purchase.

The antenna was a bit more expensive than I had in mind so looking for a router option that I can go with for now and maybe upgrade in the future if needed (easier to swap a router than an antenna).

Lots of comments in here for the RUTX11, 12 etc but I'm wondering if the RUT360 might suit for now. Basically, I need to be able to do some work/video calls from the van and figure that this, combined with the Mimo-3-15 should allow that.

As I see it, I'm missing out on:

• faster wifi (n vs ac)
• 1000 ethernet (not needed),
• Bluetooth is this for set up? Assume I can set up via wifi (after a reset) / ethernet?
• GNSS - not needed

I did consider the RUT950 but I think CAT4 4G might be a hinderance? That said the router is available for £100 which is appealing

Thanks in advance if anyone has any experience in the tradeoffs between these models!

The Teltonika 955 will be a good match for the Poynting 3-15 antenna as it has 2xLTE, 2xWifi and the GLONASS/GPS connections. In addition the twin SIM slots with auto failover will allow you to swap out local for overseas ones very easily and should give you a rock solid connection in most instances. The unit is coming to the end of its production run in December this year, (replacement is the 956), so you might find some deals around.

 

[Orion]

Too late to edit the above but to add to the case for the twin SIMs, here are the switching situations the router can cope with:

“2 SIM cards, auto-switch cases: weak signal, data limit, SMS limit, roaming, no network, network denied, data connection fail, SIM idle protection”

 

[Manic]

I use one of these with my Poynting antenna and it works well and can be bought cheaply as the f/b add shows

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

I've been using my Netgear Nighthawk M2 for a few years and it's never let me down !

Ditto

 

[GMLS]

So when the new van arrives, I only want to fit an antenna once so thinking the Poynting Mimo 17 is the most future proof.Rather than using my Huawei E5577 cat 4, I'd trade up to something like the Rutx11 so I can use my spare EEsim and add a local sim when in Europe.Only need it for email, Web, and streaming TV but need a reliable connection as using Teams for work as well.Does this sound like a sensible plan or is the 17 over kill? I don't need to broadcast my signal externally.

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[Manic]

So when the new van arrives, I only want to fit an antenna once so thinking the Poynting Mimo 17 is the most future proof.Rather than using my Huawei E5577 cat 4, I'd trade up to something like the Rutx11 so I can use my spare EEsim and add a local sim when in Europe.Only need it for email, Web, and streaming TV but need a reliable connection as using Teams for work as well.Does this sound like a sensible plan or is the 17 over kill? I don't need to broadcast my signal externally.

What’s the difference between that and the cheaper version , both 5g compatible

 

[autorouter]

There's three versions, the 12, 15 and 17.
The 12 has 2 mobile phone aerials, so it can work in MIMO (Multiple in Multiple Out) mode.
The 15 has 5 aerials: 2 mobile phone, 2 wifi and 1 GPS.
The 17 has 7 aerials: 4 mobile phone, 2 wifi and 1 GPS.

So it depends on whether your router has 2 or 4 aerial inputs.

 

[JMHerts]

I installed a Poynting A-MIMO-3-V2-17 7 in 1. Very easy, and super happy with the performance.

that's good to hear as I have the same going on my campervan, along with a decent teltonika router.

 

[Hettie's Crew]

So when the new van arrives, I only want to fit an antenna once so thinking the Poynting Mimo 17 is the most future proof.Rather than using my Huawei E5577 cat 4, I'd trade up to something like the Rutx11 so I can use my spare EEsim and add a local sim when in Europe.Only need it for email, Web, and streaming TV but need a reliable connection as using Teams for work as well.Does this sound like a sensible plan or is the 17 over kill? I don't need to broadcast my signal externally.

The RUTX11 has x2 mobile, x2 WiFi and x1 gps so you only need the appropriate aerial to match. The 17 has 2 too many mobile leads.
When I chose Panorama I ordered the LDMDM-6-60-24-58 because it matched our Teltonika RUT950 with 2 mobile and 2 wifi connections.
The 15 would be the better choice for a RUTX11.

 

[Orion]

As above, the MIMO 17 has 4x4 LTE aerials/connectors, so either get the MIMO 15 to match the connections on the RUTX11, or go for the RUTX12 which has the extra 2xLTE. I know what I’d do - too late, already got it!

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[John Russell]

Check the gain information on the data sheets for the Poynting and Panorama models.

That's why you're fitting an external aerial after all.

 

[GMLS]

This seems a pretty good deal compared to prices elsewhere

Teltonika RUTX11 Industrie 4G LTE Cat 6 Router 2 SIM Gigabit WiFi 5 > Camper | eBay

In dem Fall empfehle wir die Verwendung von WAN Failover. Sollte der Internetzugang über das Kabel (WAN Anschluß) ausfallen, wird das WAN-Failover sofort aktiviert und das Gerät nutzt das Internet über die LTE Verbindung.

www.ebay.co.uk

Was just about to get me an RUT955 at a very similar price

 

[jlevo]

This seems a pretty good deal compared to prices elsewhere

Teltonika RUTX11 Industrie 4G LTE Cat 6 Router 2 SIM Gigabit WiFi 5 > Camper | eBay

In dem Fall empfehle wir die Verwendung von WAN Failover. Sollte der Internetzugang über das Kabel (WAN Anschluß) ausfallen, wird das WAN-Failover sofort aktiviert und das Gerät nutzt das Internet über die LTE Verbindung.

www.ebay.co.uk

Was just about to get me an RUT955 at a very similar price

I managed to get a 2nd hand one off eBay for 175, but that does look like a good price for a new one!