4g router with external antenna set up question
4g router with external antenna set up question
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brums evil twin

Original Poster:

391 posts

252 months

Thursday
quotequote all
So we have a TP link 4g SIM card router that I use with a smarty SIM card while we are away in our caravan. But sometimes the signal is not great and having the router inside a 'box' might not be the best signal.
I have got myself a 4g external antenna that plugs in to the back of the router replacing the whisker ones that came originally. My question is, do I need to change any settings on the router itself? I know I am a tech numpty and after advice to set it up properly
Thanks

NDA

23,304 posts

241 months

Thursday
quotequote all
brums evil twin said:
I have got myself a 4g external antenna that plugs in to the back of the router replacing the whisker ones that came originally. My question is, do I need to change any settings on the router itself? I know I am a tech numpty and after advice to set it up properly
Thanks
On the 4G router I had, yes, there's a setting on the setup/admin page for an external antenna. Not tricky.

An external antenna, at least in my case, made a huge difference. If you have a very patchy signal, knowing where the tower is might be handy - to point the aerial in that direction.

brums evil twin

Original Poster:

391 posts

252 months

Thursday
quotequote all
Brilliant thanks

Will get the router out and connect to it and see the settings - The antenna is a round multi directional one so that will help. And I will mount it on the roof of the caravan too

geeks

10,544 posts

155 months

Thursday
quotequote all
If the router already has external antenna then you shouldn't need to change anything on it. It would still be worth logging in and making sure they are enabled. Do some proper testing before you use it though (there should be a signal indicator in the interface that will show the strength) as a lot of external antenna are st and actually make the signal worse that the inbuilt ones. Try not to position the router inside any cupboards etc as that will dampen the signal if using the existing antenna.

biggiles

1,937 posts

241 months

Thursday
quotequote all
My TP-link 4g routers have a setting for "use external antennae" which needs to be switched on.

brums evil twin

Original Poster:

391 posts

252 months

Thursday
quotequote all
geeks said:
If the router already has external antenna then you shouldn't need to change anything on it. It would still be worth logging in and making sure they are enabled. Do some proper testing before you use it though (there should be a signal indicator in the interface that will show the strength) as a lot of external antenna are st and actually make the signal worse that the inbuilt ones. Try not to position the router inside any cupboards etc as that will dampen the signal if using the existing antenna.
thanks - so how would I know a good antenna from a bad one? what do I need to look for?

Inbox

194 posts

2 months

Thursday
quotequote all
You also need to make sure that all antenna ports on the router are connected to the external antennas.

This matters as the router may not transmit signals to the network using all of the antenna ports, i.e. port A transmits and receives but port B only receives. If it doesn't work properly with the external antenna try swapping the connections over.

Reading your 1st post, it seems you are replacing the antennas but using the same antenna connections so I do not believe there will be a switch over in the settings.

Edited by Inbox on Thursday 14th August 21:28