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Huawei H112-372 with an external antenna

colibri

Member
I'm looking for a 4G/5G router that would work in France (on the Free network specifically). This is a rural location with a very poor mobile reception, so I'm pretty sure that means external antennas. Top-notch mobile/WiFi speeds don't concern me too much as I don't expect miracles in terms of speed either way 😅.

I'm looking at Huawei 5G CPE Pro H112-372 (the multi-band variant) as it is relatively affordable and supports external antennas. The only information I could find was about the H112-370 variant though, which apparently doesn't support external 4G antennas.

This is a bit of a chicken and egg problem as I don't know if this location can get a decent enough 5G signal with an antenna until I tried, so I'd like a router that is prepared to accept a 4G/5G antenna and then use whatever works best.

If someone could advise please:
- is H112-372 a decent option if I want 4G/5G external antenna support?
- if not, what else would you recommend (ideally not costing £950 😉 but to be honest I'll pay what I have to to get this working) Robust and decent-speed connectivity is the primary concern, don't need fancy features, lots of ethernet connectors etc.

Also -- is there an external outdoor antenna that is an easy recommendation? There is so much choice and price ranges it's next to impossible to meaningfully pick by a non-expert. I don't care if it's small, pretty or anything, as long as it works well.
I'm thinking a directional would be best for boosting the signal? But it's just what I read online, so I'm happy to hear about any options.
 
I wouldn't recommend this router if external antenna is a must.
You'd be better served by a ZTE MC7010 external router or even a Huawei CPE Win although the latter can only do 5G N78.

To be honest, if you are rural, I'd look at a Mikrotik parabolic all-in-one router+antenna products, but alas they don't have 5G variants, only 4G, eg.

 
I'm looking at Huawei 5G CPE Pro H112-372 (the multi-band variant) as it is relatively affordable and supports external antennas. The only information I could find was about the H112-370 variant though, which apparently doesn't support external 4G antennas.
The 370 and 372 are pretty much the same Devices and Both support External 5G Antennas, the biggest difference is that the 370 supports 5G n78 Only but does have WiFi6, the 372, supports n41, n78, and (n77, n79) which the latter 2 Bands are a bit of a Red Herring, the the extra n41 Bands mainly Asia and China Regions, and No WiFi6 just standard 2.4 and 5Ghz.

For UK and most of Europe I would aways suggest go for the 370, ie WiFi6 and n78 Band is the one to go for best WiFi and 5G Speeds.

The External Antennas on the Back are 5G Bands Only n77,n78,n79 and do not support n41 or any 4G Bands, so best case the Combo is going to be 4G Internal Antennas are used and a 5G n78,n79 (3200 to 4200) External 5G Antenna, the Router work well in this combo in the right Coverage Areas.

This is a bit of a chicken and egg problem as I don't know if this location can get a decent enough 5G signal with an antenna until I tried, so I'd like a router that is prepared to accept a 4G/5G antenna and then use whatever works best.

Waste of time putting a Wide Band 4 and 5G Antenna on these, you need a decent 5G n78 (see above), Huawei do an Small External Antenna for these Devices, from Memory called an AF9, they are a small, very Directional and work really well for pulling in 5G n78 but are rare and not cheap.

On current 5G NSA Networks you need to be connected to a 4G Signal first in order to get a 5G Signal, try and do a bit more homework on your proposed location.

these Huawei Devices are getting on a bit now, but they are good performers and are pretty much bullet proof when installed correctly and for the right Coverage Areas, Really do try and get an original Huawei Network Free version over a Branded one if your going down this route.

Despite having access to many 5G Routers I still use a 4 year old 370 with and directionally 5G n78 Antenna as my permeant fixture, for years I used the 370 one with the AF9 Antenna, even now with EE Covering 5G n28, n1 and n7 in my Area (no n78), ive gone back to this old set up for the 4G + 5G n78 set up with some Band Locking as the best for DL Speeds. Only difference now is I modded the 370 for 4x4 Mimo 5G wise and now use my own n78 4x4 Directional Antennas.

Ive got a hunch that these Devices, although older, will be back in demand again when 5G Networks go 5G SA
 
Last edited:
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Does anyone know which wires or Identifiers are the 4g internal antennas, I wandt to mod mine but it's difficult to guage which ones they are from the You Tube videos.
 
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