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I'm torn on 5G router

SteveM1978

Casual Member
Hi All.

So as i have posted previously, i recently bought a Netgear Nighthawk M6. I got bluespot antenna with it and i use a Smarty sim. I have a few complaints about the device in general and im not really feeling it. When i plug it in to my home Netgear ORBI mesh the speed drops from 500meg to 130. thats my biggest issue with it. cant seem to get any support from Netgear. So do i send it back and throw the dice with something different?

I originally chose the M6 because it had the battery and allowed me to go offgrid with it in my caravan, however as discovered, it doesnt seem to be able to hang on to a signal. My phoine will have a 3g service on smarty but the M6 will just say searching. effectivly useless. The battery lasts about 30 minutes too.

Options.
mikrotik chateau 5g - Cheaper, well thought of but not really something i could go off grid on my 12v battery with.
Zyxol NR7101 - Cheaper again, I see lots of reviews but i dont know much about this device.
Teltonika RUTX5G - Same kind of price point as the 2 above, runs on opensource OS. performance looks good and it can run on leaisure batter 9v.

Any thoughts on this kit gents? I am bit lost as to which way to go.
 
Hi,

Mikrotik and Zyxel work on 12v which your car battery can supply, no? Perhaps add a low dropout regulator in the mix to make sure the electricity stays nice and clean at 12v. Watch out to get the polarity right!

Also check the ZYXEL NR5103E which can be had for £150 and you can connect an external antenna to them, better than putting the whole router on the caravan. Simple and fast devices with little to go wrong with.

The Teltonika is a bit more resilient and from what I read it does seem to be a sort of darling with the camper community, but is also considerably more expensive.
 
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Anyone have any experience or thoughts on this
Puli AX (GL-XE3000)
There's this thread here from August SteveM1978.
Might be something in there for you. :)
 
I’ve just bought this model without the battery, mainly because it’s amazon and the other version would need to be shipped from USA, if I don’t like it at these prices they go straight back! Thanks for the pointer
 
Anyone have any experience or thoughts on this
Puli AX (GL-XE3000)
I have never evaluated the 5G Puli myself but a friend of mine tried it and had some real issues picking up a 5G Signal above 3Ghz, ie, n78 3500mhz Band., which is the UK Band for High Speed Data.

Where or what Country or Region did you get the M6 from, as they do differ in Band specs and some only support n77,n78, n79 Bands over the TS9 External Antenna Ports (again over 3Ghz).

One Device option you may want to consider or add to your list is the ZTE M5001 series Devices, these are 4/5G Battery operated and are Powered / Charged over USB (note: you cannot use these devices without the Internal Battery, unlike the Nighthawk Devices) but I have tested this Device prior to an Installation on a Boat and I was quiet impressed with its performance for such a small portable Device, it features Cell and Band Locking as a bonus over the Netgear and again the 2 x TS9 Ports on this Device will only support Bands above 3Ghz (5G n78 UK), for this reason I enclosed the M5001 as an External Weather proof housing with external 5G Antennas and run the Device with USB Power and RJ45 Ethernet Downlink to inside the Boat to an Internal WiFi Point / Router, Results where very acceptable and worked well over both 4 and 5G Networks.

The Zyxel NR7101 and the ZTE 7010 are also very good External Routers but both rely on Power Over Ethernet (POE) so you would be limited to Mains driven power for these Devices.
 
So I discovered today a couple of things…

1) The Gl-x3000 spitz is simply not as fast as the nighthawk m6 in raw speed. Nighthawk on three gets consistently over 500/50 meg. The spitz is more like 400/40
2) the nighthawk is nearly twice the price
3) most importantly… the reason I was getting crap speeds is because I had set a bandwidth limit on my meraki. Doh!

so the night Hawk goes back in the morning. I will keep the spitz for 30 days then either twist again or stick!
 
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Ok so after a little bit of time with the GL-x3000Spitz I am really liking it. love the band locking although it doesnt seem to make much sense to me. I have a question though, hoping someone can help. The 4 antennas that are for external reception (not internal wifi) are marked
Main
Mimo 1
Mimo 2
Div/GNSS

I have a bluespot external antenna thats 4g/5G, it only has 2 connection ports though. My 5G RSRP is -98 and fluctuates downwards. I would like to use the bluespot to increase the potential here. Which 2 ports would i plug the blue spot in to?
 
I have a bluespot external antenna thats 4g/5G, it only has 2 connection ports though. My 5G RSRP is -98 and fluctuates downwards. I would like to use the bluespot to increase the potential here. Which 2 ports would i plug the blue spot in to?
So having a quick look a the info page posted by @Meatball looks like the Router has 4x4 Mimo available for external Antennas, so assuming the info page is correct then as follows -

Main. 2X2 Pair 1, +45
Div/GNSS. 2X2 Pair 1, - 45

Mimo. 1. 2X2 Pair 2, +45
Mimo 2. 2X2 Pair 2, - 45

So, Main and Div are Pair 1 2x2 MiMo, that makes sense, and MiMo 1 and 2 are Pair 2 2x2 MiMo (or the 3 and 4th Pair for 4x4 Mimo in conjuction with Pair 1) which also makes sense but makes no sense at All the way it's been labbled.

So connect you 2x2 MiMo Antenna to Pair 1 (Main and Div / or +45 and - 45) and leave the Paddle Antennas on for the remaining.

If it was me, and would also try your 2x2 MiMo Antenna on Pair 2 (MiMo 1 and 2), as well as trying the Antenna on Main and MiMo 2 and then MiMo 1 and Div and Test for Speeds during quiet Traffic times in order to prove the MiMo config is correct for each Port. Do a Re Boot after each Antenna Install or Swop.
 
A lot to do but I will give it a try. I seem to max out at zap it 600meg on my local ms Steven when signal says poor I’m consistently getting around 450. Might have a look for a 4x4 antenna today! Lol
 
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Just to mention that anyone thinking of purchasing this router (GL.iNet GL-X3000 (Spitz AX)) from Amazon.. it's down to £391 now (Prime day 10th and 11th) plus there's also a free travel router thrown in as well (the GL.iNet GL-SFT1200).

I've just taken the plunge! I'll sell my other 3 5g sim routers to hopefully cover the cost haha.. that's my plan :D
 
just read my last message back and it makes no sense. apologies!

i sent the spitz back and bought the Puli direct from the manufacturer. I paid about 380 for it and got hit with an import charge of 80. Still, made up with the device though, how are you finding yours @DanManchester ?

how does it compare to your others?
 
just read my last message back and it makes no sense. apologies!

i sent the spitz back and bought the Puli direct from the manufacturer. I paid about 380 for it and got hit with an import charge of 80. Still, made up with the device though, how are you finding yours @DanManchester ?

how does it compare to your others?
I also sent mine back. Spent a day with it trying to get it to pick up 5G.. it just would not, 4G yes.. but 5G nope. Placed the spitz in exactly the same spot that all my other routers get 5g too.. so not sure if a faulty unit but I didn't want to waste any more time trying. Back to using my Zyxel again :)
 
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