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ZTE MC801A Indoor Antenna?

scoobydooby

ULTIMATE Member
Newbie to mobile broadband here.

A question for you tech dudes. Is there an indoor antenna I could plug into the back of my 3 network, ZTE MC801A just to improve reception a little on my window sill? Would that help my wifi output or would it just work for the inbound signal...or not at all? I notice there are 2 little sockets on the back? I don't want to drill holes to the outside wall..

If I stand on one leg in my upstairs bedroom I can get around 900 meg dload speeds, via a network cable straight into a laptop. When I put the box downstairs (where I need it) the signal is only slightly lower...still high 800s, I guess I must be pretty near to a 3 mast? Is there a map online of their masts because I can't seem to find one? When I use wifi I can get 5-600 on my Samsung phone...only 250-260 on the laptop...still a lot better than my old landline internet!

I'm impressed with it so far but worried that speeds may drop mysteriously when my 14 day cooling off period ends! ;-) (Call me cynical!).
Thanks in advance for any tips or general advice.

 
Yes plenty. I have used a Panorama directional one. But of course any external antenna would work better placed outside your house as the worst part for the signal is penetrating the walls / roof etc. But yeah no reason you can't plug an antenna in and keep it inside. I tried it once before mounting it externally and it worked fine.

Grab yourself an omni directional cross-polarised one. My personal favourite is Taoglas.

Map of masts? Try cellmapper.net
 
Yes plenty. I have used a Panorama directional one. But of course any external antenna would work better placed outside your house as the worst part for the signal is penetrating the walls / roof etc. But yeah no reason you can't plug an antenna in and keep it inside. I tried it once before mounting it externally and it worked fine.

Grab yourself an omni directional cross-polarised one. My personal favourite is Taoglas.

Map of masts? Try cellmapper.net
Is there anyway to find out which way 5G sectors are facing because there have been no 5G cell towers mapped out in my town.
 
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as far as I know, cellmapper does not map 5G NSA. There was a reason for it, I just don't recall what it is. So no, not really. You can take an educated guess from the bearing of the 4G antennas though (they should be same/similar)
 
cellmapper seem way out of date as far as 5G, at least where I live anyway.
Because it relies on Android users with 5g devices collecting and uploading data.

I don't have the time to go around updating my local area, as I have to take my 3 SIM out of my iPhone, put it in the only 5g android I own, walk around as you can't drive and use cellmapper, upload and wait for the data to be processed.
 
Because it relies on Android users with 5g devices collecting and uploading data.

I don't have the time to go around updating my local area, as I have to take my 3 SIM out of my iPhone, put it in the only 5g android I own, walk around as you can't drive and use cellmapper, upload and wait for the data to be processed.

Check this out


"Currently tower mapping is not possible 5G Non-Standalone network."
 
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Right...so as I thought, cellmapper is not much help in showing up new 5G towers.
So...has anyone used an indoor antenna with this ZTE router? Did it help?
 
There's a huge thread on this modem, people discussing antenna use in there.


and my original review, which turned into a huge discussion on the modem (including antennas) but is now like 37 pages long so can be a bit hard to find the bits you want

 
There's a huge thread on this modem, people discussing antenna use in there.


and my original review, which turned into a huge discussion on the modem (including antennas) but is now like 37 pages long so can be a bit hard to find the bits you want

Thanks, I read that....there are people saying they use external antennas...I was wondering if anyone found a nice internal antenna...to go on your window sill type of thing?
 
Ah I see, sorry I totally missed the whole "indoor" bit there (problem with reading a lot all day, you skim things). I have played about a lot with antennae but not so much indoor ones. You will want a good wideband one and unless you can actually see the tower then an omnidirectional one cross polarised will be your best bet ....but... Given the speeds you have already I wouldn't expect much from an external (to the modem) but indoor antenna.

The major thing that signal has to overcome is penetrating the walls/ceilings/roof tiles etc of your home. Therefore external antennae work best on the outside of the building. Not sure if people here can tell of your their experiences with that too, as most people who have external antennae on here have them placed on the outside of their homes, as do I.

I wouldn't like to say hey try this one, but look for one that covers as wide a band as possible (my external ones do 450MHz - 6GHz covering all UK bands, you can even use them as wifi antennas) but you could give these a try, they come with suction cups for mounting on a window as well as pole-mounting if you ever decide to go external.

 
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I'm not at all convinced that connecting an indoor antenna will do much good. Knowing mobile signals, it's possible that it may even do a worse job than the router itself, and you'd then have wasted your money. But such things do depend somewhat on the specifics of each individual and their environment, so it's always hard to judge from the text box of a discussion forum.
 
I'm not at all convinced that connecting an indoor antenna will do much good. Knowing mobile signals, it's possible that it may even do a worse job than the router itself, and you'd then have wasted your money. But such things do depend somewhat on the specifics of each individual and their environment, so it's always hard to judge from the text box of a discussion forum.

Depends on the design of the router hardware as far as I can tell, some in housing antennas are really good, other designs like the MikroTik Chateau 5G have no internal antennas for 5G and request you attach the indoor bunny ear antennas before switching the unit on to not damage the modem.
 
depends on the PCB antenna yep. Some of them are just baaaaad. Some are great. They come in all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes too. But yeah I did mention to OP that it might not be any good. I also wouldn't bother if I got speeds like OP does. I get 600 with an antenna and like half that without it so for me it was a good investment.
 
Having logged into the working modem / router then that allows you to see the signal strength more accurately as you move it around. I am now getting -75 downstairs...it would probably be even better upstairs....so I will just use it as is...no need for an antenna especially as some users have stated how fragile the connectors are. The wifi signal it puts out seems ok upstairs even in the back bedroom, which doubles as an office sometimes. I guess I could add a wifi repeater but so far that is not required either. It's a pretty good little box so long as you get a half decent 5G signal in your area...which we now do.
Thanks all....issue solved!
 
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