How to get good wifi in our motorhome ?

[Fatmrsgeorge]

We like to watch TV and films. How do we get good or at least not terrible wifi ? Please bear in mind that if you talk about the matter anti matter reactor valve , that I'm not as smart as Scotty from Star Trek.
Just want something easy. Ta

 

[CA]

I need to add - my friend is very happy with his MotorhomeWifi setup. He might get peeved that my M6 router can download at 300Mbps at a particular location whilst he gets 70Mbps - but in reality to watch TV or browse the internet then 70Mbps is plenty fast!
I use my connection for high speed uploads (TB at a time); so purchased a router for business application....but both systems work!

 

[starquake]

In truth I do not know enough to agree or disagree on this - only real world experience is my friend has a MotorhomeWifi package 5g setup (full install with antenna). We have often park next to each other somewhere, and then test our download and upload speeds. Every time my Netgear m6 pro is faster; and often significantly. We both have Three unlimited sims. My van is an A class. His a panel van. But he has the a

It's probably just the 5ghz signal spacing thing I mentioned Netgears have more sensiuble defaults on their wifi, if you advised him to switch to 20/40ghz 5g mode and channel 149 or 152 instead of default auto (which sticks to 44 in reality which is almost always congested) it's likely work better for him. Motorhomewifi (and all ZTE's which they typcially use) are not great in the default 80 wide channel spacing that I saw on a unit that I helped fix.

The difference is usually not the 5g ironically as the antenna on both ZTE and Netgears are broadly similar, it's usually the 5g wifi settings.

The mad thing is the default on the ZTE is also long-reach wifi, when it should also be set to short -> this again reduces interference as a motorhome also only needs a small amount of signal, and if you are blasting out at max power, you are more subject to interference from a neighbouring hotspot (a particular issue on some CACC sites, as they also use 5ghz to move signal around their sites)..

Getting optimal performance from 5g these days is sadly beyond most of the vendors, and I agree with you for a simple one box oslution thats got decent defaults, the Netgear is great, but a roof antennaed motorhomewifi or ZTE perform identically if configured right, and SHOULD outperform it due to the higher gain, especially on band n78 (3500mhz) which can't go through fibreglass walls well. On n1 (2100mhz) which is same frequency as old 3g used on Three, it does pass through the walls well, so would likely peform better on the netgear as it has more antennas in that device tuned for that frequency. YOu can check which type of 5g (and the band) in the advanced settings/network information tab on a motorhomewifi setting, and if you getting n78 you can literally see the difference a roof antenna makes in the signal meter (a lot better than the broad bars showing in the UI).

The router used (the 5g) one by motorhomewifi is about £300 new RRP approx (ZTE MU5001), but you can get a as-new one from Ebay for £160. It is the cheapest 5g device, but it can outperform most other devices on a price/performance basis, and it does have a simple to use interface for most users -> but it unfortuantly does have limitations in the wifi settings in my opinion at least (as someone who has consulted in wifi design for large installs) as the defaults are not that sensible for a congested campsite today. Will it work yes, will it perform optimally with those defauts on a CACC/CAMC site with congested 5ghz bands, nope. It will perform fine in a rural aire with no other 5ghz signals around, but on a campsite, it really needs a tweak from those defaults.

I don't think we can blame motorhomewifi for any of this, it's ZTE (who provide the software) with settings ideal for areas with no-signal around from neighboruing vans and campsites. Even your netgear may benefit from tuning the 5ghz wifi settings, as this has a larger impact than anything on performance (you should be set to 20 or 20/40 at most in spacing). 20/40/80 or 80 alone should be avoided (80 spacing means in laymans terms you are getting interfered with by potentially 4 nearby frequencies at once if your neighbouring vans are using 20 spacing).

 

[DBK]

In truth I do not know enough to agree or disagree on this - only real world experience is my friend has a MotorhomeWifi package 5g setup (full install with antenna). We have often park next to each other somewhere, and then test our download and upload speeds. Every time my Netgear m6 pro is faster; and often significantly. We both have Three unlimited sims. My van is an A class. His a panel van. But he has the antenna, I do not.

However, in my own house I can walk from the front to back and get a speed of 100Mbps difference - so even moving the router (or in his case his whole van) 10 feet could provide different speeds. I have on occasion just moved my router from the back to the front of the van and gotten different speeds. Again, other peoples mileage may vary.....

I don't have anything else to back this up however - just my own real world experience. The cost of a Netgear is slightly more than the whole router, antenna, and installation provided by MotorhomeWifi. So surely their router is not worth as much (did read they use a £60 router - but cannot find the link again)....and that is the crucial bit in my mind.

The Netgear M6 Pro is a premium router costing several times (x4?) whatever MotorhomeWiFi use. I would expect that explains the speed difference you have seen.

 

[starquake]

Should add the reasons why channel spacing in laymans terms (I pinched this off reddit, but it's broadly correct).

1. Your AP and your clients cannot transmit until the entire channel bandwidth is silent. When you make a channel 2x wider, you are now getting interference from ~ 2x more neighboring networks/clients and are ~ 2x more likely to have to wait for silence every time you transmit. That's latency.
2. 5GHz transmit power is limited by the total transmit power across the entire channel bandwidth. If you are transmitting at maximum power already, then you increase channel width by 2x, your peak transmit power at each frequency is now 1/2.

Given ^ happens, 40 width channels are the widest you really should use,.
If you use 80, in effect you have to wait whilst a neighbouring van transmits until it's silent, and as 80 uses 4 20mhz channels, you have to wait for 4 adjacent channels to ALL be silent, where 40 uses 2... NEVER use 80mhz or 160mhz spacing on 5ghz, as thats just crazy when you think about the above interference.

Equally you can get away with low-power output with smaller spacing,a s all that small power on transmit is limited to a realitively small sapcing.

This is as said PARTICULARLY important at CACC/CAMC sites as many use 5ghz extensively now. So in effect running at 80mhz means 1/4 the transmit peak power, meaning your devices actually although could have higher peak speeds if nothing else is in area, if there IS congestion, it means waiting longer.

Sorry for making this technical, but there are reasons I reccomend 40 spacing at most on 5ghz -> and the higher (non-DFS) band of 149-154 as these typcially have no radar inteference causing the wifi to be interfered with but also have less congestion. The last 2 CACC sites I went to used the middle frequency band of channels 132-144 for their service to customers. So avoiding those given CACC is using them seems sensible.

In effect unless you on a Aire in scottish highlands with no nearby wifi/towns you should avoid 80 or 160mhz channel width as it'll most likely kill your wifi performance to less than the 5g signal can in reality provide.

The above interference issues start to be fixed with wifi 6 access points (on 5ghz) providing ALL devices connected are wifi 6 compatible, which is something I doubt will be the case for several years given the fact we all have old TV's and stuff with wifi chips that are "older".

And yes, it's nuts that most manufacturers hide channel spacing behind "advanced settings" and default to using the widest channels typically, meaning everyone who doesn't fix this slows down anyone nearby using the same freqency range -> meaning they think their 4g router is junk when in reality it's interference from the neighbouring van watching Netflix.

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[Gaston aires]

So he was successful in his quest then! "to seek out new life and new civilizations"

A dear friend, now deceased, was his next door neighbour in Laurel canyon LA
Phil

 

[CA]

Cannot seem to find an awful lot about channel spacing in regards to my Netgear M6 pro - except they appear to talk about it as channel width (which I assume is ‘spacing’?) The manual mentions nothing and on the Netgear forums I don’t seem to be getting much joy either. Someone mentions that the M6 auto selects the best channel; but odd this isn’t discussed at all in the manual. Or either to manually override it. Have seen instructions to do so online but maybe isn’t as crucial as for the ZTE. Am going to investigate further….

 

[fishplug]

starquake has outlined it all pretty well I'd say!

Having been down the rabbit hole myself starting from a really terrible setup to having a pretty decent one now I'd add a couple of bits of 'real world' experience.

My old setup was a Poynting antenna with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 hotspot. It was absolutely fine for watching Netflix in 98.5% of places I went - including Europe.

5G (which I now have) is great, but to be honest the physical network infrastructure is still pretty limited so overall you pay quite a big premium to add it to LTE routers still and it's probably not worth it in a lot of cases.

I'm guessing that as the network coverage expands the cost of the devices will go down but it doesn't sound to me like you really need it Fatmrsgeorge (and I know all about want and need because I don't need it either, but I still bought it! )

My best advice is to set yourself a budget of how much you want to spend on buying / installing the hardware and then choose your router and antenna based on that.

As already mentioned the LTE Category of a router makes a big difference to the speed it can get. Generally, the bigger the number the better the performance. The other thing that helps is the number of MIMO connections. Again, the more it has, the better your chances of picking up a signal - however this will also influence your choice of antenna.

No point spending the extra money on a 4 x 4 MIMO router if you've only got a 2 x 2 MIMO antenna (and vice versa...)

Have a shop around, see what looks good and ask us if you're unsure. There's some very knowledgeable people on here who will gladly steer you to a choice you'll be happy with.

 

[stevewagner]

We do much the same. Our last DVD binge was Boston legal, funny take on American law starring William Shatner (who I met at a barbecue some years ago).
Phil

Brilliant series. Have a look at ‘The Practise’ which was the predecessor to Boston Legal. Not as funny but great legal cases.

 

[Fatmrsgeorge]

Thanks very much. We are skint so have bought a router on the classifieds here and will get an antenna to make do until we have a budget. Will go 4g tho, until 5g is more established.

starquake has outlined it all pretty well I'd say!

Having been down the rabbit hole myself starting from a really terrible setup to having a pretty decent one now I'd add a couple of bits of 'real world' experience.

My old setup was a Poynting antenna with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 hotspot. It was absolutely fine for watching Netflix in 98.5% of places I went - including Europe.

5G (which I now have) is great, but to be honest the physical network infrastructure is still pretty limited so overall you pay quite a big premium to add it to LTE routers still and it's probably not worth it in a lot of cases.

I'm guessing that as the network coverage expands the cost of the devices will go down but it doesn't sound to me like you really need it Fatmrsgeorge (and I know all about want and need because I don't need it either, but I still bought it! )

My best advice is to set yourself a budget of how much you want to spend on buying / installing the hardware and then choose your router and antenna based on that.

As already mentioned the LTE Category of a router makes a big difference to the speed it can get. Generally, the bigger the number the better the performance. The other thing that helps is the number of MIMO connections. Again, the more it has, the better your chances of picking up a signal - however this will also influence your choice of antenna.

No point spending the extra money on a 4 x 4 MIMO router if you've only got a 2 x 2 MIMO antenna (and vice versa...)

Have a shop around, see what looks good and ask us if you're unsure. There's some very knowledgeable people on here who will gladly steer you to a choice you'll be happy with.

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[fishplug]

Sounds like a sensible way to start.

Your needs are pretty modest from what you've described so I really don't see the point in you spending a lot of money on a system you don't really need.

Do you mind me asking what router you bought (just being nosey!)

 

[mikash]

Only downside is on 1-2 bar 5g, the device I have (a zte mu5001) absolutely sucked power this winter, using up to 15W (just over 1.2A on the leisure battery). We actually turned the 5g off (and stuck to 4g) when we ran low on the leisure battery when offgrid for 3 nights. 4g uses a lot less power, around 4-5W max.

That's a good point about the power use. I'd also like to add that in my experience disabling 5G in favor of 4G sometimes also improves the performance if you're at the outskirts of 5G coverage or on the move. I think the short range of 5G causes too much cell handovers at high speeds so the connection slows down to a crawl or becomes unstable. This is rarely an issue for me since I tend to be behind the wheel , but was very evident on the last train trip I took. Netflix was unwatchable on 5G except when we stopped at a station, but worked like a charm once I forced 4G, even though the whole route and not just stations has good 5G coverage.

 

[Manic]

Thanks very much. We are skint so have bought a router on the classifieds here and will get an antenna to make do until we have a budget. Will go 4g tho, until 5g is more established.

When you get the router, try it without antenna.

 

[interbear]

We use a Netgear Nighthawk M2 mobile router with a data SIM from EE. The Netgear routers are a pricy initial investment but work very well and are considerably better (faster and more reliable) than hotspot from a mobile phone and/or campsite provided Wi-Fi. We use a mobile phone hotspot as a back up using my mobile with a 3 SIM. Good to have a couple of network options in terms of coverage.

The Netgear M2 is 4G only but offers good speeds and in most of the places we camp, 4G coverage is good, certainly better than 5G. Considering an upgrade to their brand new M3 model which supports both 4G and 5G, at a better price than their previous 5G models.

Anyway, I’d highly recommend the Netgear mobile routers twinned with a data SIM. You can also connect an antenna to them if needed, we have one but never found the need to use it yet.

 

[Manic]

Thanks very much. We are skint so have bought a router on the classifieds here and will get an antenna to make do until we have a budget. Will go 4g tho, until 5g is more established.

Could you please check your pm’s

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[Fatmrsgeorge]

Sounds like a sensible way to start.

Your needs are pretty modest from what you've described so I really don't see the point in you spending a lot of money on a system you don't really need.

Do you mind me asking what router you bought (just being nosey!)

It's a Huawei B535-232 4g router.

 

[fishplug]

It's a Huawei B535-232 4g router.

Thank you!

So it's a CAT 7 router which is theoretically capable of 300Mbps download and 100Mbps upload.

In the real world and without an external antenna I would guess you'll probably be expecting something more like 20-30Mbps - depending on where you are / signal strength etc etc...

Sounds like it should do what you want it to do without too much difficulty.

Bear in mind that 1080p streaming for Netflix, Prime, YouTube etc needs about 5Mbps and if you really wanted to go to 2160p (4K) then you're looking at 15Mbps for Netflix and I think 20-25 for Prime and YouTube.

If you do ever decide to try antennas with it then you'll want to look for one with SMA connectors (as opposed to TS9) but they're pretty much standard and (IMO) the better of the two types.

Sounds like a good starting point and I hope it works well for you

 

[Manic]

Thank you!

So it's a CAT 7 router which is theoretically capable of 300Mbps download and 100Mbps upload.

In the real world and without an external antenna I would guess you'll probably be expecting something more like 20-30Mbps - depending on where you are / signal strength etc etc...

Sounds like it should do what you want it to do without too much difficulty.

Bear in mind that 1080p streaming for Netflix, Prime, YouTube etc needs about 5Mbps and if you really wanted to go to 2160p (4K) then you're looking at 15Mbps for Netflix and I think 20-25 for Prime and YouTube.

If you do ever decide to try antennas with it then you'll want to look for one with SMA connectors (as opposed to TS9) but they're pretty much standard and (IMO) the better of the two types.

Sounds like a good starting point and I hope it works well for you

Their router is good for streaming and it’s coming with 90’ sma connectors to help when connecting antenna leads and a stabilised 12 volt supply.

 

[fishplug]

I've heard a few people using a stabilised supply for routers. Must say that I've never tried it, but I'm going to when I do a final install on mine.

Just goes to show though - a well chosen second hand router and some honesty about what you need from the router can save £100s.

I bought my old M1 second hand and sold it on last year as a complete kit with external antenna. It was a brilliant little thing and I only upgraded it to a Teltonika because I needed to do some more advanced network configuration than the Netgear allowed (multiple VLANs etc).

It amuses me that even with home connections people seem to think that they need at least several hundred Mbps if not a Gig when in reality, with a few exceptions, most of us would do just fine with 50Mbps

 

[Fatmrsgeorge]

Thank you!

So it's a CAT 7 router which is theoretically capable of 300Mbps download and 100Mbps upload.

In the real world and without an external antenna I would guess you'll probably be expecting something more like 20-30Mbps - depending on where you are / signal strength etc etc...

Sounds like it should do what you want it to do without too much difficulty.

Bear in mind that 1080p streaming for Netflix, Prime, YouTube etc needs about 5Mbps and if you really wanted to go to 2160p (4K) then you're looking at 15Mbps for Netflix and I think 20-25 for Prime and YouTube.

If you do ever decide to try antennas with it then you'll want to look for one with SMA connectors (as opposed to TS9) but they're pretty much standard and (IMO) the better of the two types.

Sounds like a good starting point and I hope it works well for you

Thanks very much. We are planning on an antenna so the SMA advice is great ! Most appreciated.

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[fishplug]

Thanks very much. We are planning on an antenna so the SMA advice is great ! Most appreciated.

No problem at all.

When choosing one then you'll get best results from an omni-directional antenna and there's no point you buying anything that's more than 2 x 2 MIMO because that's as much as the router will support (two single ones would work too)

I tried quite a few antennas over the years and haven't found a cheap one that's been any good so unless you have one recommended to you then I really wouldn't bother.

The ones I've found that have been good for me are the Poynting antennas. I've had a couple of them myself and have installed a few more on other people's vans and they've always been really good and reliable. A Puck 2 v2 is about £50

Of course, that's assuming you're going to mount it permanently and externally.

I've heard good things about the Bingfu antenna which is smaller and you could probably more easily find a spot for it indoors, but it's also waterproof so you could leave it outside when it's raining if you're getting a better signal by popping it on the roof or whatever. You can also mount it permanently outdoors.

As I say, I've never used the Bingfu but I know a full time vanlifer YouTuber who uses one and rates it highly.

 

[Manic]

Most antennas come with SMA and will go straight on the router, the 90’ sma I’ve included helps with wire route if it’s close to wall

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Thanks to starquake and others for the really interesting discussion, perhaps now the OP Fatmrsgeorge is sorted they won’t mind me jumping on and asking some related questions.
I have at home a Huawei B535-232 4g router and in the Motorhome a Huawei B535-333 4g router both of which I think are Cat-7. On the Motorhome I have a Pointing sharks fin antenna, at home I have a flat directional 4g antenna, I can’t remember the make. I have an £15 pm unlimited “3” sim on the old contract which I swap between the house and the Motorhome using one of the cheap “3” sims recommended by Starquake some time ago just to run the house while we are away, solar panel reporting and heating management etc.
Generally we are happy with the Motorhome setup rarely unable to stream Prime, iPlayer etc. even while we are abroad as now. At home however whereas we used to have rock solid good speeds and bandwidth just recently since “3” turned over to 5G on my local mast I think I have had quite variable and slow internet. I intend to swap the flat directional 4g antenna for a Pointing omnidirectional one when we get home which will have 5G capability. My nearest “3” mast is about 500 mtr away then 1km then about 3km I think. Firstly which Pointing antenna would you recommend for home and should I change the router to a 5G one. Which is a reasonably priced mains one I should go for or would just adjusting the settings of the Huawei 4g routers as you suggest above be worth it, if it is possible with these Huawei B535-xxx routers.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[starquake]

Generally we are happy with the Motorhome setup rarely unable to stream Prime, iPlayer etc. even while we are abroad as now. At home however whereas we used to have rock solid good speeds and bandwidth just recently since “3” turned over to 5G on my local mast I think I have had quite variable and slow internet. I intend to swap the flat directional 4g antenna for a Pointing omnidirectional one when we get home which will have 5G capability. My nearest “3” mast is about 500 mtr away then 1km then about 3km I think. Firstly which Pointing antenna would you recommend for home and should I change the router to a 5G one. Which is a reasonably priced mains one I should go for or would just adjusting the settings of the Huawei 4g routers as you suggest above be worth it, if it is possible with these Huawei B535-xxx routers.
Thanks for any suggestions.

For home and semi-permanent use it really depends on the signal levels you see. Personally I would swap for a 5g model, but I'd actually also consider doing a fully external antenna (Mikrotik ATL series) in mid-signal areas on a pole pointed at the tower. This maximises the chances of getting decent performance. It's not simple to setup and you will need an internal router to pair it with typically to offer wifi inside (the ATL just grabs the signal and puts it on a cat5 cable and appears like a normal home (external cable) to the house) (basically looks like a Fibre connection to your internal router). Would cost around £200-250 for the antenna + £40 for an internal router suitable, plus about £10 in external grade cat5 cable between them.

If you want cheap all in one solution that doesn't sit on end of pole, I'd use a Cat12 ZTE MF286 series (designed for fixed home use), if you want one device you can move between the home and motorhome, I'd go with a Netgear or Huawei (or ZTE, but the ZTE). Why the ZTE, as it's super cheap (£40 or so) on ebay these days and it did have extrenal antenna ports last time I checked, but it's cat12 is usually an improvement on most cat6/7 devices.

For home use I'd personally NOT use a Poynting antenna, and there is a very good reason (why I reccomend a antenna that uses a cat5 ethernet feed instead of a aerial), and that is because to get decent mobile signal for a router at home the antenna ideally needs to be at the roofline. That usually means 4-7 meters of antenna feed (assuming router on ground floor), and on a Poynting, the loss you would get on that would be roughly equivalent to the gain you got from the antenna, making it ... welll, a bit pointless. A antenna/router combo device up on a pole however converts the signal to normal ethernet (which runs 100m lossless) up at the pole, meaning you get a far better expereince that is several times better than an at ground level router can provide. (Remember this is for HOME use, you wouldn't do this in a van!). If however you place the Router + Poynting up in loft, and the wifi can reach, it MAY be fine as it's shorter cables.

In a van teh antennas work well mostly because 1/ the cable length is short, under 3m, so cable losses are a smaller factor, which overcomes the loss from the signal by the (good) gain from the roof antenna, making it net positive not negative.

Mikrotik and another brand are updaing their roof antennas to support 5g early 2025, their range was "limited" on that before, and the ATL series only does cat18 4g now. However, they are VERY good at it, with a 60 degree beam width meaning you don't need perfect aim. The LHG series is more expensive (and sky dish sized) but can pull signal in in literal zero signal environments, but needs a near perfect aim at a cell tower where even 1mm off aim can lower signal by half). We get > 100Mbit into a area with 0 signal on handsets or even ZTE devices using a pair of LHG's.

Personally though given you already have a setup I'd be tempted to play with band lock and cell lock settings for your individual router now (which is a zero cost option) -> which could allow you to lockon to a further away but better performing cell for you. Network and device behaviour is to always use the nearest cell as default, even if it is congested/busy. Quite often forcing a lockon to a further cell and disabling the roaming behaviour between cells can majorly improve things in a home setup (especially on Three - as Three does not reboot its cell towers every day (which EE seems to), meanign you get a stable connection for weeks/months doing so. EE cell-lock is to be avoided as the daily reboots of towers means you need to reset the cell lock sometimes twice daily.
Note, I'm not super familar doing this on Huawei devices, but I have done it succesfully on both Mikrotik, ZTE devices -> it's usually complex and "not" exactly in the gui. Top tip is find the Huawei's connection diagnostics display screen, find out your band and signal levels in real time, and first see if moving around helps you improve it. If not, then try disabling the band you are using at that time, to see what is available nearby on other bands. If that doesn't improve it, then finally start looking at antennas.

Hope that helps, but I wouldn't think about spending money on antenna as my first option for sure. I'd first see what I'm getting in Signal/RSSI actual scores, and see what towers around are like when forced onto those towers then work a plan on improving those numbers. Chances are Three moved b1 from 3/4g mode (2100mhz) to also being 5g only at time they upgraded your local tower, and I would wager this kileld your performance as this is one of the frequencies that best passes through walls.

 

[starquake]

OldAgeTravellers I woudl definitely start with your wifi setting though as it could be your 4/5g is fine (mobile signal I mean) and it's actually congestion from 5ghz from neighbouts houses running the (very annoying) Sky Q systems (Sky Q and their latest over Internet delivery have a tendancy to congest many 5g frequencies).

If you lower your potential peak performance by limiting channel width, and switch to the higher non-radar bands (usually 149-153 channels) for 5ghz this can remove a lot of the impact of the neighbours wifi being able to interfere with yours. I would avoid channels 44-52 fullstop as both Sky and BT routers default to this range typically. Please note thought that some devices, particualry roku streaming sticks REQUIRE 44-52 due to how their remotes work, so if you have one of those, you need to pick a skinny channel width (ideally 20mhz, 40 max) with one fixed channel ideally.

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[OldAgeTravellers]

For home and semi-permanent use it really depends on the signal levels you see. Personally I would swap for a 5g model, but I'd actually also consider doing a fully external antenna (Mikrotik ATL series) in mid-signal areas on a pole pointed at the tower. This maximises the chances of getting decent performance. It's not simple to setup and you will need an internal router to pair it with typically to offer wifi inside (the ATL just grabs the signal and puts it on a cat5 cable and appears like a normal home (external cable) to the house) (basically looks like a Fibre connection to your internal router). Would cost around £200-250 for the antenna + £40 for an internal router suitable, plus about £10 in external grade cat5 cable between them.

If you want cheap all in one solution that doesn't sit on end of pole, I'd use a Cat12 ZTE MF286 series (designed for fixed home use), if you want one device you can move between the home and motorhome, I'd go with a Netgear or Huawei (or ZTE, but the ZTE). Why the ZTE, as it's super cheap (£40 or so) on ebay these days and it did have extrenal antenna ports last time I checked, but it's cat12 is usually an improvement on most cat6/7 devices.

For home use I'd personally NOT use a Poynting antenna, and there is a very good reason (why I reccomend a antenna that uses a cat5 ethernet feed instead of a aerial), and that is because to get decent mobile signal for a router at home the antenna ideally needs to be at the roofline. That usually means 4-7 meters of antenna feed (assuming router on ground floor), and on a Poynting, the loss you would get on that would be roughly equivalent to the gain you got from the antenna, making it ... welll, a bit pointless. A antenna/router combo device up on a pole however converts the signal to normal ethernet (which runs 100m lossless) up at the pole, meaning you get a far better expereince that is several times better than an at ground level router can provide. (Remember this is for HOME use, you wouldn't do this in a van!). If however you place the Router + Poynting up in loft, and the wifi can reach, it MAY be fine as it's shorter cables.

In a van teh antennas work well mostly because 1/ the cable length is short, under 3m, so cable losses are a smaller factor, which overcomes the loss from the signal by the (good) gain from the roof antenna, making it net positive not negative.

Mikrotik and another brand are updaing their roof antennas to support 5g early 2025, their range was "limited" on that before, and the ATL series only does cat18 4g now. However, they are VERY good at it, with a 60 degree beam width meaning you don't need perfect aim. The LHG series is more expensive (and sky dish sized) but can pull signal in in literal zero signal environments, but needs a near perfect aim at a cell tower where even 1mm off aim can lower signal by half). We get > 100Mbit into a area with 0 signal on handsets or even ZTE devices using a pair of LHG's.

Personally though given you already have a setup I'd be tempted to play with band lock and cell lock settings for your individual router now (which is a zero cost option) -> which could allow you to lockon to a further away but better performing cell for you. Network and device behaviour is to always use the nearest cell as default, even if it is congested/busy. Quite often forcing a lockon to a further cell and disabling the roaming behaviour between cells can majorly improve things in a home setup (especially on Three - as Three does not reboot its cell towers every day (which EE seems to), meanign you get a stable connection for weeks/months doing so. EE cell-lock is to be avoided as the daily reboots of towers means you need to reset the cell lock sometimes twice daily.
Note, I'm not super familar doing this on Huawei devices, but I have done it succesfully on both Mikrotik, ZTE devices -> it's usually complex and "not" exactly in the gui. Top tip is find the Huawei's connection diagnostics display screen, find out your band and signal levels in real time, and first see if moving around helps you improve it. If not, then try disabling the band you are using at that time, to see what is available nearby on other bands. If that doesn't improve it, then finally start looking at antennas.

Hope that helps, but I wouldn't think about spending money on antenna as my first option for sure. I'd first see what I'm getting in Signal/RSSI actual scores, and see what towers around are like when forced onto those towers then work a plan on improving those numbers. Chances are Three moved b1 from 3/4g mode (2100mhz) to also being 5g only at time they upgraded your local tower, and I would wager this kileld your performance as this is one of the frequencies that best passes through walls.

That’s fantastic, thanks Starquake, I am not back for another month or so but will have to do a bit of reading to properly understand your last two paragraphs. My home router is on the first floor just under the mast for my 4G antenna so the attached 5mtr cables were adequate. The external antenna you suggest sounds interesting but would it then have the sim in the antenna box which would not be good for swapping sims if I have to get a long ladder out each time.
Great info though, I will work my way through it when I get home.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

OldAgeTravellers I woudl definitely start with your wifi setting though as it could be your 4/5g is fine (mobile signal I mean) and it's actually congestion from 5ghz from neighbouts houses running the (very annoying) Sky Q systems (Sky Q and their latest over Internet delivery have a tendancy to congest many 5g frequencies).

If you lower your potential peak performance by limiting channel width, and switch to the higher non-radar bands (usually 149-153 channels) for 5ghz this can remove a lot of the impact of the neighbours wifi being able to interfere with yours. I would avoid channels 44-52 fullstop as both Sky and BT routers default to this range typically. Please note thought that some devices, particualry roku streaming sticks REQUIRE 44-52 due to how their remotes work, so if you have one of those, you need to pick a skinny channel width (ideally 20mhz, 40 max) with one fixed channel ideally.

That’s interesting, my neighbour got a Sky Glass TV about the time I started getting problems. My Huawei B535-232 router always had 4 bars signal but now always only 3. I thought it was the “3” mast changing to 5G and have had a few moans to ID-mobile about it but they say it shouldn’t have affected my 4G signal?
If I can’t find the configuration pages to do the changes you recommend on the Huawei router do you know if it can be done on the Cat12 ZTE MF286. About £40 sounds a good price.

 

[starquake]

That’s interesting, my neighbour got a Sky Glass TV about the time I started getting problems. My Huawei B535-232 router always had 4 bars signal but now always only 3. I thought it was the “3” mast changing to 5G and have had a few moans to ID-mobile about it but they say it shouldn’t have affected my 4G signal?
If I can’t find the configuration pages to do the changes you recommend on the Huawei router do you know if it can be done on the Cat12 ZTE MF286. About £40 sounds a good price.

Should be able to on the ZTE286 -> band lock at least works on my 986 (similar firmware), but you need a laptop to do it on the MU5001 as you have to patch in a piece of code to your browser to unlock some hidden screens. (ie, you can't use a phone or ipad to do a band lock). The 286 is a great piece of kit for home routing given the cheap price (but it doesn't have a battery, it's a home perm install router). Band lock is hidden under debug/network settings, and allows you to toggle on/off each signal band by number (on the firmware on my 986, which is simialr to the 286).

All devices should be able to do the wifi settings change without any need for even a laptop though, it's standard in all brands for this to be changable, but usually requires you to go to 5ghz advanced settings on most brands. And I agree if neighbours got Sky Glass same time, almost certain it's the (bad 160mhz) wifi from the Sky network, which is their default, causing interference into your house. Our (new) neighbours moved in with a Glass + Q setup and then our TV couldn't stream at 4k purely down to channel interference on the 40-49 band, which is how I found out about this in the first place. Reconfiguring all my devices purely down to Sky's defaults left me not amused. BT broadband also use stupidly wide channels by default.

The issue with Sky is they basically have their own Mesh network for the TV with Q/Glass as I understand it, and they use really wide (160mhz) channels. As mentioned above this causes interference if you in range of a neighbour with it (5ghz doesn't go well through walls so thats Sky's "defence"), and basically can stop 4k streaming working in my case when the neighbour had their TV on. Doesn't help my TV is on the wall facing their TV back to back in effect so both of us trying to get signal onto the party wall area.

My home wifi can basically detect 5ghz signals from up to 2 doors down the street, (and be interfered from those). I've now learnt just to stick to the 149-154 ish range of channels as the other houses around here never touch those bands as they are far from default of the commonly used kit in UK (and also the auto mode doens't ever go near that).

 

[starquake]

Ref; Huawei OldAgeTravellers you should be able to find the answer on band locking here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/th...t-5g-modem-router-for-band-locking-etc.39481/

Looks like the app HuaCtrl on an android/pc unlocks some hidden elements to allow this on many Huawei hotspots.

 

[Mart 63]

We use a netgear nighthawk m1, with a Lobster sim around Spain, France and in the UK. It works great with no external antenna. In our new van, we have a maxview 5g external antenna, connected to a milesight UR32 router. We haven't used the milesight yet as at the back of the wardrobe and is difficult to get at to put a sim in. Also we use the nighthawk with a short ethernet cable to our dodgy box.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Should be able to on the ZTE286 -> band lock at least works on my 986 (similar firmware), but you need a laptop to do it on the MU5001 as you have to patch in a piece of code to your browser to unlock some hidden screens. (ie, you can't use a phone or ipad to do a band lock). The 286 is a great piece of kit for home routing given the cheap price (but it doesn't have a battery, it's a home perm install router). Band lock is hidden under debug/network settings, and allows you to toggle on/off each signal band by number (on the firmware on my 986, which is simialr to the 286).

All devices should be able to do the wifi settings change without any need for even a laptop though, it's standard in all brands for this to be changable, but usually requires you to go to 5ghz advanced settings on most brands. And I agree if neighbours got Sky Glass same time, almost certain it's the (bad 160mhz) wifi from the Sky network, which is their default, causing interference into your house. Our (new) neighbours moved in with a Glass + Q setup and then our TV couldn't stream at 4k purely down to channel interference on the 40-49 band, which is how I found out about this in the first place. Reconfiguring all my devices purely down to Sky's defaults left me not amused. BT broadband also use stupidly wide channels by default.

The issue with Sky is they basically have their own Mesh network for the TV with Q/Glass as I understand it, and they use really wide (160mhz) channels. As mentioned above this causes interference if you in range of a neighbour with it (5ghz doesn't go well through walls so thats Sky's "defence"), and basically can stop 4k streaming working in my case when the neighbour had their TV on. Doesn't help my TV is on the wall facing their TV back to back in effect so both of us trying to get signal onto the party wall area.

My home wifi can basically detect 5ghz signals from up to 2 doors down the street, (and be interfered from those). I've now learnt just to stick to the 149-154 ish range of channels as the other houses around here never touch those bands as they are far from default of the commonly used kit in UK (and also the auto mode doens't ever go near that).

Couldn’t get to the settings of the Huawei 333 on the tablet but got in with the Laptop. The highest 5GHz Chanel available is 140 so set it to that and reduced the bandwidth to 20MHz.
It is a bit, just for fun here as I am not having problems here wild camping in Spain in the middle of a field Beside the sea. But I couldn’t stream iPlayer last night beside the Marina which could have been the radar.
I will order the ZTE when I get home though so as to move to the higher channel before playing with the antenna.