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Ok, I can confirm the configuration you use worked better for me. I attached the QuadPro antenna to the Sagemcom gateway and was able to pick up a tower about 3 miles away that I previously was unable to get, and now I get N41 and before with the closer tower, I was getting N71, and slower speeds. Additionally, my pings were around 40-70 at the close tower and now in the 20's. Also, I have turned the antenna with the cables pointing to the left and not straight down. This helped too. I tried with the cable pointing down, to the right, straight up, and to the left. For some reason pointing leftward got a better signal. The antenna is inside against the window.
Nater Tater, you have literally saved my life with posting this video! I live in a rural area and even though spectrum and quantam fiber service less than a mile up my road, they refused to service down to my house. No other internet provider was available. The only 1 that I had was tmobile home internet. It was great for about a month or 2 and then the speeds went severely low. I was getting 14.1 mbps download and literally .08 upload speed. It was terrible! I had tried everything, from moving my modem all over the house, buying different routers and wifi extenders yet nothing worked. I literally couldnt use my internet for most of the day. I even became so frustrated that I emailed my Mayor and County Commissioners begging for help with the lack of internet service providers but no one answered my pleas. I took the risk and bought the 4×4 panel. Had to hire someone to wire it to the modem since im not at all tech savy and omg what a difference it has made!!! My download speed is 240 mbps and upload speed is around 14.2 mbps. And thats with the antenna inside my home. I have to schedule another appointment for the tech guy to come back out and mount it outside which im betting ill get even better speeds. Something id recommended telling others is to get a wifi extender after setting up the antenna because I noticed the further I walked away from the antenna, the slower my speeds got on my phone. So I connected my tp link wifi extender and it fixed that problem! Thank you so much for what you do!! ❤️❤️❤️
This video is gold information! Thank you. I took mine apart and removed the cover without breaking the warranty seal. I followed your video using a flat screw driver. I started from the base and continued to side panel to pop out the small tabs. Then I just wiggled the entire side walls and slide the body off. You don't need to puncture warranty seal to remove the screw.
Thanks for your tips. I just got mine and was concerned to have to break the seal. I will follow your suggestion. Did you place your antena outside the roof or inside like in the video?
Unfortunately I damaged my warranty sticker before reading your comment. The device costs around $250.00 per a t-mobile technician. That's what I was told when they sent my replacement. I also didn't need a pry tool as you can push the clips in on the sides through the vent holes. And use a long needle or something pointy up through the bottom holes to get under the front clip and pry it up away from the locking clip.
@@gugumach I have my set-up inside facing toward a bedroom window. It's a temporary location and receives a decent signal. I did climb onto the roof and found I can get a much stronger signal. The nearest tower is about 30 miles.
I slipped on the ice on day one, it went flying and the clips popped right off. Warranty seal is broken.It still works, not sure if/when I'll be charged for the unit, because they just gave it to me and I'm still using it.
Thank you so much Nater Tater, I followed your steps exactly to setup a gateway at my house and the speeds are far beyond faster than I originally was getting on my rural internet service. YOU ARE A LEGEND!!!!
THANK YOU FOR THE TRAIL BLAZING LEVERAGE AND TACTICAL KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL MAKE MY LIFE SO MUCH LESS COMPLICATED AND SAVE ME TIME AND MONEY WILL SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL THANKS AGAIN
I'm using a poynting xpol-24 4x4 MIMO antenna and the green,red,blue,orange antenna pattern is basically what I landed on as fastest too. Cell 1 Main -> Green Cell 1 Aux -> Red Cell2 Main -> Blue Cell2 Aux -> Orange
I'm using LTE-D/5G and LTE-M/MIMO and am getting decent speeds for us, 22 down and 42 up. This is on B2 and N71 in the middle of the day. We'll see how it is from 4 PM til 10 PM, that's the real test. As always, many thanks for all your efforts.
Swapped my Arcydan out today for a Sagemcom at one of their corporate stores. All I can say is wow, speeds are on average 150 to 200Mbps higher. It's a relief to finally have the speeds the old Nokia gave me, but this one is handling jitter better than the Nokia ever did in my area. Also my SINR on N41 is an insane 40 on the Sage. With the Ark and Nokia, the best I hit was 29.
@@NaterTater I need some input on an issue I'm having with Nokia 5g21 router when hooked to external antenna. I've been hoping to reach you but no luck yet
@@NaterTater yes, sorry to hijack a comment by another. I've had reboot issues lately and last night I finally broke down and unhooked external antenna after my newest 5g21 repeated reboot issue. Once I removed external and reconnected on board antenna I don't have the soft reboot.
@@NaterTater is there any way to test the coax and mimo to see if there is a particular issue with the hardware causing the soft reset? Can the antenna/coax develop a short or issue that would allow better signal but cause a bad impedance or other issue that might reset connectivity?
I would love to see you do a similar test in a different location like a fringe area 3-4 miles from a tower to see what difference the mimo antenna does.
About 4 months ago I got that gateway. And most of the time, it worked pretty well. But about a week ago, 2-22-2023, it started slowing down and having intermittent drop outs. I noticed the slower band speed was way slowed down but the 5 ghz band was ok. I called TM and they said there was some construction going on that was impacting it. But 5 days later, still no joy. I called again, and now they are replacing my gateway with an Arcadyan KVD21. I don't know what the difference is but I think I heard the hard to understand lady say that it would be configured to a different antenna source (or something to that effect). At least I should be able to compare the two. And this suggests maybe that it wasn't a construction issue after all and maybe issues they are seeing with the original gateway.
Really appreciate this in-depth review. My wife hates our cable monopoly with the heat of a thousand suns and wants anything but, however she works remotely and needs rock-solid internet. The first few weeks it was great and we didn't even notice that we'd switched to a 5g gateway, but about 3 weeks in, the weather got bad (there is supposedly rain and fog-based signal degradation) and also our gateway started restarting frequently, knocking out our internet. We got another gateway, fair weather, and so far it's not restarting, and I have found the optimal location / angle placement of our gateway, which is better, 5G on N41 band, SINR ~-4 to 12, RSRP ~-102-97. We live in an apt and aren't able to install a 4x4 external antenna outside the building, so if all other things are equal (the ~exact same antenna placement inside the apt), approximately how big of an increase in SINR and RSRP did you observe / estimate for the 4x4 external antenna? Is the external antenna's physical size helpful in boosting signal? Thanks!
You need to place the antenna outside for the best improvement. There are certainly ways to achieve that without violating apt rules but you'll have to decide how much effort to exert in your wife's hatred of the cable companies. Weather should have minimal affect on signal.
Great info, just picked up my modem for at my dad's place. I'm just outside of the 5g coverage according to TMobile map online. I'm looking forward to doing some testing tomorrow when I get it installed.
Will report back from Ohio backwoods next weekend! Thanks for your help. I’ll be using a 2x directional from waveform. Currently getting 20/4mbs through a Mofi4500 and a tablet SIM card. Any thoughts?
I finished hooking up my Waveform 4x4 with your configuration Nate and averaged 200Mbps higher and now my speeds are around 400Mbps. My upload is also around 30-40Mbps. Waveforms cable configuration did not yield good results. I mounted it to a tv stand in an upstairs bedroom. Mounting on my house is not an option. Also, prior to using the Waveform I tried the Parsec Akita Omni directional antenna. It gave very poor performance and for those looking at this antenna as a possible option go with the Waveform instead.
Very nice report! I was just able to get the Sagemcom after exchanging my Arc gateway. The Arc was dropping signal every week, I was able to bring it into my local T-Mobile and insist on getting the new Sagemcom. I hooked up my 4x4 both ways (your way and waveforms way) My speeds were better with the waveform configuration. It is about 100Mbps faster than the Arc. HOWEVER, that could be due to the face that its a new line of service so they're giving me better speeds. Time will tell...
Took my Arc in today, the employee had no issues in the slightest getting me a Sage. Ironically, customer support online told me I couldn't replace it in store because I ordered the service online. Very annoyed being told that not realizing I could have been working with the store all this time when I needed to replace my gateway. Would have saved me a headache when I was fighting over the phone to get the Arc because every Nokia gateway they sent me constantly overheated. Ah well, at least I know for the future.
@@vaxick Our Arc drops signal 2-4 times per day, forcing a hard reboot. It's annoying. I've been through the customer service reset procedure and no improvement, even though speeds are actually fantastic (300+ down and 25up). SINR is also great. It's the RSRP that's poor when connecting to N41...at least it says "poor" in the advanced metrics (< -100) even though it shows 3-4 bars on the screen. So I'd like to try the Sage before I start modifying it with an external antenna. Any tips on how to ask?
ust signed up for T Mobile Home Internet. A lucky shot I would say. Got it connected and started monitoring speed, the results: some good ones and some very bad ones. But the bad ones over passed the good ones (speeds around 1 or 2 Mbps). After calling CS three times I realized that they had no answer to such erratic behavior. They sound nice over the phone, interested in resolving the issue, but not solid recommendation beyond "did you try different spots in the house?" A ticket was created but... no answer given... To what I completely found unacceptable and decided to return the equipment. Btw, I have seen a lot of videos here and I find interesting the fact of several of them addressing issues like : add an antenna, a router, change this and that, go to a website and do... etc. Who is to do that? I find those videos irrelevant for what they implied. The customer simply wants a product that works closed enough to what it is advertised... simple...
You left out the most important test: from the basement with the antennas hooked up in the attic. Would have better simulated rural settings where we only get 0.5 mps. That way we could see if an antenna properly positioned could solve the issue. You already had speeds 100 x faster than some of us before you hooked up the antennas.
Love your channel. Huge help! I'm in an RV and already have an external antenna installed by the previous owner. The cables already run to where the T-Mobile Sagemcom & my home router are. Question: Before I order the wiring kit, will the antenna I have perform well with the Sagemcom being it's an older model? The antenna is the (Poynting 7-in-1 Roof Antenna with 4x4 Cell 2x2 WiFi and 1x GPS) Thanks in advance for any help on this.
We get over 500mbps with proof and screenshots about 1 mile from the tower with no antenna using the 5GHZ function on the modem paired with to link decos. Went from around 100Mbps download to averageing 300 to 500Mbps. Just ordered the new Sagemcom modem. For the life of me I don’t understand why these things have an unnecessary battery(take it out!) and do NOT COME with a DAMN built in FAN!!!! It’s nuts! I am grabbing a new modem due to the fact the Nokia is so hot it’s a fire hazard now.
Since my last question, I cancelled the HiBooster order and been watching more about WaveForm Antennas.. I have the Sagemcom Fast 5688W T-Mobile which gets around 20Mb-120Mb/s down but the Up is really bad, the ping around 38 - 46 - on testing, on gaming the ping runs around 80-90ms.. Sometimes when the modem starts acting up it's higher. My question on this post is; You mentioned 30 feet and the signal loss.. Is 50 feet of cable to far or should I make a shorter path from modem to the outside roof with a 30 feet cable.
@Foxxie55 you want to keep the antenna cable as short as possible. Much better off adding a wifi mesh extender if moving the gateway for antenna cable hurts your wifi signal in the house somewhere.
Don't worry about the "Warranty label" over any screw labels. Under the "1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act" these stickers are actually *ILLEGAL*. This Federal law mandates that you can open your electronics without voiding the warranty, regardless of what the language of your warranty says. It does tell them you they opened it maybe, although I'll try to take mine off without breaking it using alcohol anyhow when I get my antenna in a few days. I do see in the refund within 14 days thing the terms "..all contents, undamaged and in good working damage, with no material alterations.." If you do open it and return all the antenna wires back in working order then it's not a "material alteration". If you remove the sticker and on return they bring it up, just say something like: "If you put a warranty void sticker on it, it's actually illegal under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act" and don't say anything else, don't admit anything. They can't legally charge you for allegedly removing a sticker that is against the law to begin with. Plus there is no mention of the sticker in the contract (which would be admission of their illegality). I'm not part of the ABA monopoly, I'm not licensed to give legal advice, I'm just a bit learned in some subjects. Also FYI, I would use an Electrostatic discharge (ESD) setup like I have while doing any of this. I use an ESD grounded desk mat, floor mat, and wrist strap. At least least use a grounded ESD wrist strap to reduce the chance of zapping the electronics.
Edit: I found mounting the U.Fl PCB SMA cables the worst thing to install, especially if you are feeding the cables up from the bottom as per the Waveform help page. The wires want to go where they want too, they will bend, the connector will rotate, etc. And since these are microwave wires we don't want to put 90° bends in them, don't want to damage the shield, etc. After playing around I found the trick was instead of trying to mount them from the top down (where you mostly see just the top of the connector) is to angle the modem PCB so you can see the little tube on the connector to the tube on the PCB. And using a lot of light. Then you can align the two tubes up. Otherwise you are trying to push the connector in at an angle, which was really the problem. Nate: Maybe you could make a video on this alone, or rather some sort of step by step on some of the finer details.
Nater tater have you done signal checks after a heavy snow? Does your signal turn to crap or still work with the external antenna in the attic? I am trying to decide...mount antenna on my ham radio mast or just in the attic. Personally my attic is just a crawl space so I would rather put it on the mast. :)
Hi Nater Tater I just got the T-Moble internet for my RV and am going to the Dekota's for a vacation. From what I hear that is noman land out there but there is phone service out there. I am thinking of putting a external waveform 4x4 on a 30 ft. pole on the back of the rv and turn it to the cell towers. What is you take on this? Would this the best antenna for the T-moble setup or is there one for better for a RV? Great videos btw thanks so much for doing them.
Hi Harold, yes this is a good antenna for that use. And a 30ft pole is a great idea. The only downside to this is since it's directional you have to aim it towards the tower. If you relocate often or don't want to aim it then you should go for an omnidirectional antenna.
Thanks for your great videos. Two questions. 1) I just got the Fast 5688W, and I'm getting around 200Mbps DL ± 50MBps, and around 40Mbps UL. Does that seem typical? 2) Is there any advantage of disabling the WiFi, i.e, improved performance, etc.? I have a seperate TP Link AX3000 router which I'm very happy with. Thanks.
1) that's probably above average, very good speeds. Especially UL. 2) yes i think so, i like the extra settings a personal router has personally, especially if you already have it.
Thank you for sharing so much information with your videos. I recently got Tmobile Home Internet, and had planned for it to be used by our Airbnb guests instead of our Xfinity Busines Internet which (and be a backup for when Comcast goes down). I decided to get a Tmobile Business 5g, and cut Xfinity altogether. There are a lot of trees where I live, and will need an atenna to strengthen the signal. Is it possible to configure a Waveform 4x4 to two gateways?
Nate: your channel is a wealth of incredibly useful and authoritative information that really helps people like me that have limited options to access the Internet. I recently trialed T-Mobile's Home Internet service using their Sagemcom gateway. I returned it because the signal kept dropping. Apparently, this is a common problem. Have you heard of this and have any theories about solving it? Some say that connecting an external router fixes the problem (somehow) and I've wondered if connecting my external Waveform antenna might help (somehow). I'm reluctant to modify a trial unit unless I'm pretty sure it will help because I may not be able to return it.
It depends what you mean by dropping signal. If your devices think they go offline but the gateway reports it has signal that could be a flakey DNS server and can be addressed with your own router and manual DNS server to say google or cloudfare. If your cellular connection to the gateway is dropping then an outdoor waveform antenna will likely fix that.
@@NaterTater Thank You, Nate. I've been using Google DNS as my default and Cloudflare as a secondary. I may have to take the risk and connect my WaveForm external antenna to the T-Mobile gateway following your instructions to make the modification. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
OK, so here's the issue that we are having. We have the Gateway and we are fairly satisfied with it...We are not gamers, we just watch TV and movies and use a tablet for IG etc...the issue we have is I'm guessing it's buffering ( I think). It's worse when we have wind. We are about 2 miles from the tower and have fairly good line of sight. We have a cell phone booster antenna on top of the roof. The gateway is in a window in our closet with almost a direct line of sight to the tower...there is no other good place to put it cause it wouldn't be pointed at the tower at all or it would be in a window that's much lower to the ground. We also are in a metal framed house with rock and metal sides and a metal roof. Would adding an external antenna help our issue? And could we put it inside the attic space with the metal roof? Not sure we would feel at all comfortable taking the Gateway apart to add the connections but maybe some clarity as to why the wind would create this issue if you have any insight. I'm 68 and my husband is 73.
First, make sure your gateway isn't connecting to the booster. Unplug the booster and see how your home internet is. You would not want to add an antenna in the attic if it has to go through the metal roof, maybe it can point through a gabled end and avoid the metal? If not outdoors is where it should go.
Thank you for answering. No Gateway is not connecting to booster because the service remains the same either way. Worse when the wind blows. Which to my uneducated mind means an obstruction is moving in and out of the way but there's nothing there so I'm left guessing. I called T Mobile and their answer was that it's traffic on the one tower but service gets better with no wind and seems to me it would be bad especially at night with LOTS more people at home using it. I will remain hopeful another tower gets added so it isn't so crowded. I'm the more tech savvy between my husband and myself but do not feel at all comfortable opening up the gateway to add an external antenna. Thank you again for answering I do appreciate the insight.
Nate, how'd you get them to let you have a Sagecomm? My Arcadyan is working better with the 4x4, , but still have to reset it once in a while cause it'll be a 0.5mbps up/down sometimes.
hi. nice work, and great videos. i have one question. what is that app you're using to get the wifi speeds? it looks way more advanced than the ookla one.
We have foil-backed OSB roof decking. I suspect that will that interfer with any signal we, so we may need to use an outdoor mounted external antenna. Additionally, I would like to place our T-Mobile unit somewhere more central in our house, with a bias toward the home office. I'm wondering if it were placed in the attic-side of the ceiling if there would be too much interference from the drywall. Right now we have "transmitted" internet access from CirraNet which is line of sight to a tower approx. 24 miles away; our current dish-style antenna is on top of the house. We average about 14Gb/6.1Mb speeds - woohoo! If we stop that service and go T-Mobile I would like to attach a 2x2 MIMO outdoor antenna and aim in in the direction of the T-Mobile tower which is 5.25 miles (line of sight), hoping the antenna will reduce the effect of trees between us and the tower thus gathering more signal and improing our streaming and internet access speeds. Would you mind commenting on that please.
Wifi can travel thru drywall OK but I dont recommend putting the gateway in a non climate controlled space, especially one that gets hot. If you have trees between you and the tower its not "line of sight". A 2x2 or 4x4 would certainly help and could be placed outside.
Thanks, Nater Tater. I am looking at the Waveform 2x2 to mount outside. There will be some vegetation in the line-of-sight, but less so for the roof mounted antenna. We currently have issues with our phones because of our "messy" line-of-sight at ground level. We have good/not great WiFi from modem/router coverage over our 2,400 sqft one-story, but current placement is more oriented in one end of the house for the office. We would try to find a more central to the devices location. One other question, does T-Mobile's Gateway work with 4LTE signal? We are in the fringe just outside the 5G signal which goes in and out as we use it at our house.
Regarding defacing the sticker to access the case screw - Will that void the warranty and result in being charged for the device when it is returned in the future?
I have two of the 2x2 one and would like what is the best way too hook up it up I have it this way now L4+ L1- for one 2x2 too the left on the right L3+ L2- and are 6 ft apart this has work the best for me. What would you recommend? And my antennas are waveform to
Nate...In one of your videos (TMobile external antenna videos??) you mentioned a waterproof way of running the RS240 cable from the outside of the house to the inside. I can't find the video to see what parts you used. Can you help me out?
I'm not sure what you are referring to specifically. The cable that waveform provides is waterproof including the connectors. I additionally recommend self fusing silicone tape on the connectors to further weatherproof. You can use standard electrical conduit and junctions if desired for a cleaner install that would also be waterproof.
I’m about to buy one of these. My home is JUST outside of Fiber Area, and T-Mobile’s 5G reaches us, but my home (apartment, only house for miles.) was constructed out of metal… this is going on my roof. Our speeds average (T-Mobile, outside) 110d, 15u without the antenna, but alas, metal roof. - I’m tired of paying an arm and a leg for satellite. It’s time to kick it up a notch. Great video, you’ve earned a sub!
@xXTGameplayBadgerXx sounds like you're on the right track. The standard antenna cable length in the waveform kit is 30ft but you can call and ask for a custom length.
Thanks for the super helpful videos. Question regarding SINR. I’m pretty ignorant on the metrics. I’m getting a SINR of 40 for 5g n71 band which I think is pretty good? But speeds are still pretty low, so was considering the antenna. But if SINR is pretty decent, Does that mean an external antenna won’t help much or not necessarily?
+40 is very good! (-40 is very bad). What are your 4G metrics like? If its good to then your issue might be congestion, is the speed much better say between midnight and 6am? What is "pretty low" speeds?
@@NaterTater gotcha. yeah it's def 40 and not -40; RSRP -10; 4G metrics: SINR -7 / RSRP -115 Actually, download has been nice ave ~ 150Mbps (although yesterday afternoon/eve it seemed to really drop I assume because of congestion. was getting 10-20Mbps). Upload is where it seems to always struggle ave ~4 Mbps I'm probably going to keep it either way as long as it's decently stable, cause overall it's an improvement from my current and it's a little cheaper. I'm mainly trying to get a feel for if an antenna would help. But I guess it's a no brainer to give it a try since have 90 day return period. Thanks for any input!
Hey Nate, is the order important (polarity) for the Nokia? I watched all your past videos but I am not sure if you recently found any new info about this with the Nokia. Thanks!
@@NaterTater My case is different... I have a waveform 2x2 MIMO and 1 Proxicast directional antenna (single cable/connector). I was having a lot of issues connecting with the 5G network until I finally connected the Proxicast to L1, then L2 to the Internal Nokia Antenna 2, and L3 and L4 to the 2x2 MIMO. I am finally connected to the 5G and getting 200+ Mbps.
@@NaterTater Yeah, the directional antenna is making a huge difference and I am getting a SINR of 20 on N41. My tower is far from my farm with a lot of trees in between.
Have any links to extended rs240 n-male to sma-male cables that work really well? the 30ft that come with the kit are too short from where I need to run to and from.
@Natertater Question for you. I have the arcadyan and 2x2 mimo and I used to consistently get about 300 down and around 15-17 up. The last week or so I get around 3mbps down and 6 up. Nothing has changed with my setup and my cell metrics haven't changed. The strangest part is that if I connect to my VPN (express VPN). My speeds return almost to what they were previously, around 200 mbps down and 15 mbps up. I can't wrap my head around why this would be. Any ideas?
My gateway leads are labeled D M M1 and M2. I’m confused as how to attach it the way you recommended. I bought the waveform 4x4 per your recommendation
@@NaterTater Thanks. Only link was back to YT. Of course no four letter word in it. Not sure what the YT censor bot thought was wrong with it. I sent my comment to you via your website contact system.
have you ever done a dual 2x2 setup? would be curious to know right now my sagecom is 4g to a tower to the southeast and the 5g is a tower to the northeast according to the id numbers and the fact that n41 is only in one spot
I am in my trial period with T Mobile and am able to get a weak 5G connection that will yield about 200Mbs download and 15Mbs upload. I have the 5688W gateway. The issue is, every day around noon I loose the 5G connection and it switches to a 4G tower. When this happens, my speed drops to about 35Mbs. Will a 4x4 Waveform antenna help keep the 5G connection from dropping if I can improve the signal strength with the antenna? I don't have a direct line of sight to the tower, but know it is about 3 miles away. I am new to this, so be gentle please LOL Thank you!
Question. Have you taken the gateway into the exact same location as the antenna and compared the signal. Curious if its just the location or if the antenna is superior to the stock one.
Yes, i think one of my earlier videos shows that but basically the antenna does help vs stock. However placement is still critical. So an antenna in a poor location can easily do worse than a gateway in a good one.
@@NaterTater thankyou sir. I am building a house and the cell service there is poor. We aren't to far from towers just in a valley. I have always been able to find certain areas to make it work. I recently got the T-Mobile gateway for my current location and have no issues. Hoping to make it work at our new house. I am going to do some tests, but I'm almost thinking that an old fashioned antenna pole placed strategically at the corner of my upstairs might be my answer. Is 30ft as long of a cable as needs to be run??
Hi Nate. Thanks for all the info you put out there, especially for TMHI. I just ordered mine. I get 250/20 from the cable company, but I couldn’t pass up the $25/month deal. The issue is they’re shipping me the Arcadyan gateway. I was just wondering your thoughts on the Arcadyan vs the Sagemcom after you’ve used them side by side for a few months. Should I send the Arcadyan back? Thanks! (P.S. I’m in an area that is going to get the n77 band eventually.)
Thanks for the quick reply! I have watched that one too. It seemed like you were getting better speeds on the Sagemcom. But based on your recommendation, I’ll give the Arcadyan a try. Thanks!
I'm looking at the Waveform Mimo 4x4 kit, which comes with RS240 N-Male to SMA Cable. If I have a longer run, like 100 ft, is it worth getting the RS400 or RS600 cable instead. The listings say they have lower loss. This is new territory for me, so I'm not sure. Thanks.
In general you want/need to have as short of an antenna lead as possible as you will quickly have more loss in the cable then the antenna adds. So yes I'd go higher quality but I'd also go shorter length. You can place the gateway closer and run ethernet to get the signal farther. You can easily run ethernet 300ft without issue.
Hey Nate @NaterTater, I have the Nokia Trash Can with T-Mobile, not this Sagemcom, but I have a question for you. I know you've done this same external antenna with the Trash Can. I just installed the Waveform 4x4 MIMO Saturday morning and saw some amazing speed increase! From an average of 45 mbps to and average of 300 mbps. Way more than I was expecting. I'm curious if yo've noticed issues with any of the devices after adding the external Antenna? My Trash Can has been rebooting itself periodically since I added the external antenna. After about the first 30-45 minutes it rebooted itself. Then it kept rebooting every 5 to 7 minutes for a few hours.Then it stopped for about an hour. Now it has been doing that non-stop for the last 28 - 30 hours. It's been about 48 hours since install. Any suggestions?
Sounds like its overheating and needs a fan, perhaps turn off the wifi on the unit too and use another wifi router for signal. Or give up on tmobile gateways and get a 3rd party one.
@@NaterTater Yeah, I turned off WiFi on day one of having it and am using my own router. I'll put a fan on it to see if that helps. I thought about 3rd party, but they are waaaay too expensive for me. Thanks for the reply.
@Nater Tater is there warranty good stickers or anything in the modem for them to tell I have done this to my router, I really want the ChesterCheetah but can't afford it right now. We love out in a real rural area but the sage come is finally signal aggregating compared to the Trashcan. So I would like to do this mod to improve our signal but don't want to get stuck with a couple hundred dollar fee for opening it up. I hope you see this but if not, thanks anyway for all this great information sincerely appreciate it!!
When you have the external antennas connected to 4x4 MIMO, during the peak hours, how much is the download and upload speed? And, how far are you from the cell tower?
@@eddygt61 the waveform 2x2 panel performed better than the proxicast 2x2 panel I tested. By the time you add all the other components to the poxicast panel the cost isnt that different.
Lol.... even with the waveform, my SINR never get above 1. It's usually -0.2, yes, minus... lol. My internet is working a bit better with the waveform 4x4, but still pretty rough pings.
We have the Nokia Cylinder and get 50-70Mbps during the day. 150-350 after Midnight when T-Mobile unlocks the service..or whatever they do. Would we benefit from an antennae? Seems not since we can access all the bandwidth we can get...when it's available. Thanks anyone for helpful answers. Best Regards and Best Wishes!
Yes it might still benefit you, there are lots of variables at play here. You can do a easy test by driving your gateway closer to your tower (assuming you know where it is) during the day and see if you speed significantly improves over the 50-70mbps. If it does then an external antenna at home will help despite the depriotization.
Internal to Sagemcom are there directional send and receive antenna ? and which side to point towards the towers if i dont have an external antenna yet... Thanks in advance
Nater so you have been lucky enough to not have the gateway constantly rebooting? I’m on my second one that does the same thing. First one was stock and the second is on the waveform external 4x4. It never seems to stop rebooting. At a lose what to think.
I am dealing with this now… I have tried some of the “tips” - changed the plug - reseat sim - cooling fan - factory reset - and I would say power cycle.. but it’s doing that on its own. I can’t seem to figure out what is causing it. Some say a firmware thing. That it gets stuck in a loop .. but I have had the latest firmware installed for weeks before this started happening. There is no “update” for it to go into a loop for restarting.
@@mitch6w9w So I had to send back my second Sagemcom and as soon as I turned the new one on it did the same thing. I called T-Mobile and we figured out that my device for some reason is trying to ONLY connect to a tower under going maint currently and is 3.5 miles away. The tech couldn't answer the why on this since we have a new 5g tower about 1.5 miles away. He was able to get it to connect to the closer tower and I got 4 bars of 5g then the damn thing did the software update and rebooted. We could never get it to connect again to the closer tower. They submitted a different ticket to some engineers to see why it wont connect to the closer tower all of the time. So the drama continues.
I'm in a rv and getting internet 20s download. I took mine on top of my rv and did see a gain so my question is, is the 4x4 MIMO better than the Gateway? The antenna would be 4 to 8 feet above the Gateway now.
@@NaterTater my rsrp and rsrq are poor on 4g and 5g with all my others being good to excellent with moving the Gateway at all can have big effects. Around 10pm downloads Around 30 and 5am 167 downloads. And ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.
My rsrp and rsrq and always poor on both 4g and 5g but 5g having the better overall stats and the Gateway very sensitive and slightly moving it changes down and up speeds. I'm in a little bit of a valley and a bit of trees. The 4x4 should still boost my speeds and make my rsrp and rsrq better correct? Thank you for taking the time to respond.
I solved this by adding pigtail extensions for the internal antennas, and ran them out the back of the base/fan that is 3e printed. I also have the pigtails from the board to the connectors mounted in the base. Now, I can choose to hook up the Waveform 4x4 (RV), or use the internal antennas (boat),
Is it possible to just put an antenna near the device itself without it being connected to see if that may pull a better connection? This seems like an expensive boost
Sooo i just got this new gateway because after the last week I have been getting abysmal numbers from my connection. Almost all of December, with the old gateway I had no issues and could stream on twitch. This last week between the older gateway and the new gateway I am seeing numbers bouncing all over the place and even dropping out completely and then bouncing back. Obviously this is not acceptable. I am in Oregon and it seems to me that there must be an issue with on the T-Mobile side of things between the tower and or the amount of people they may be servicing, being more and more and not having enough service to provide at all times. Or could there be a throttle issue happening randomly? Customer service is zero help and they dance around the issue not able to fix anything at all. If there is anything you can think of that may help, please enlighten me. I have tried all manner of positions of gateway and restarting, powering down and waiting. Sometimes it shows a good connection for a while and sometimes after a restart its actually far worse than what it was showing before had. I am at my wits end over here.
They don't throttle TMHI. Could be network issue but more likely could be youe gateway jumping bands or towers. An external antenna like shown or a 3rd party modem and/or router may fix the issue.
@@NaterTater do you mean third party modem or router to replace the gateway? If so I thought I read that wouldn’t work. Or do you mean go from that gateway into a router/modem then to my pc?
Getting 110 MBPS DL and 25 MBPS UL prior to installing the Waveform 4x4 MIMO panel on my Sagecom 5688W. Now I am getting 18 MBPS DL and 60 MBPS upload. Same tower in use. Any ideas?
check the antenna connection order/matching to the gateway. check you signal metrics, I'd bet you went from n41 to n71. no reason you cant make the antenna out perform stock,
check the antenna connection order/matching to the gateway. check you signal metrics, I'd bet you went from n41 to n71. no reason you cant make the antenna out perform stock,
@@NaterTater Maybe that is it. I shoulda paid more attention to n41 vs n71....I think it was always n71 though. I wonder if it being the holiday weekend with that Canadian smoke is messing things up. I followed waveforms conections. I am 1000 percent sure the connections are right. The SINR on the LTE is below 0 but is 40 on the 5g. 5g is being used. Does the poor SINR on the 4g LTE matter? Thanks.
Hey Nate, any plans to update your script to turn off WiFi for the Sagemcom Fast 5688W? I tried the script for the Arcadyan but it didn't seem to work to turn off WiFi. Interestingly it did allow me to download my config file so I know it's somewhat working.
T-Mobile announced that "this year" they will be rolling out their three-channel carrier aggregation, which promise speeds "up to" 3 GBPS. Do you know if the existing T-Mobile Home Internet modems support three-channel carrier aggregation? Or would this require a gateway upgrade? I currently have the Nokia, which if Im not mistaken has the Qualcomm X55 modem. Any thoughts on this?
A t-mobile rep told me the reason they came out with the new 3rd one. Is because the other companies couldn't provide what they needed. The new one supports the new band t-mobile is going to come out with. But the Nokia and Arcadyan does not.
@@peacekeeper4528 What I think, but im not 100% certain, is that the newer Qualcomm modems (The X60 and X65) support more bands (some of which T-mobile isnt actively using - like N77) and it can aggregate millimeter wave AND sub-6GHz bands. That means insane speeds like 5, 6, or 7Gbps downloads. The X55 on the other hand (which is in the Nokia) is only capable of aggregating LTE bands like B66 and (I think/hope) multiple sub-6GHz bands like N71 and N41. If my assumptions are correct, and I hope they are, I'm fine with sticking with the Nokia. If for example B66, N41 (my two bands I aggregate now with my Nokia) are able to be aggregated a third band on say N71, it would dramatically increase my already excellent speeds. By aggregating N41 and B66, I'm getting 400 to 700mbps downloads - depending on the time of day. If I can add N71 as an additional third band, which I already know is in my area,, I estimate I'd be getting a gigabit download speeds. It would be even better if I could aggregate B66, N41, and N77 though, because N41 and N77 are FAST. But the Nokia cant get N77, only the newest gateway can. If I can aggregate B66, N41, and N77, I bet I'd get about 2 or more gbps.. As Spaceballs said, that's ludicrous speed. Anyway, I think im correct but im not 100% sure. Can the Nokia gateway aggregate three bands, or are we limited to only two?
@@nojobinc I took mine back to T-Mobile yesterday and they determined that it was a faulty unit. It even rebooted itself several times while they were working on it. They gave me a new unit. So far, it's working like a champ!
Depends on your need but typically for improving home internet gateway performance an antenna is better than a booster ruclips.net/video/bboYE4qcfDM/видео.html
I have a cell antenna that works good where im out but its just a cage type with preamp, and only has one sma lead. If im connecting to an LTE band, do i use lte m or lte d? Anyone else try with using just one antenna?
Is there any reason we can't buy our own router like the arcadyan or sagemcon and put our sim card into it? I did this and get no signal for some reason?
For all you gamer's out there... Don't let these carriers or providers tell you that the network card is not good enough for speeds up to 1 Gbps...they are great network cards but Sony Networks and Microsoft Networks cap your speeds so there won't be a huge advantage in online game play. 300 to 400 Mbps is about what you are going to get.
I have Sagemcom from T-Mobile, on firestick, Mac or iPhone it will stream Prime, youtube tv but not netflix or hulu, not hulu live just hulu. They sent me a new unit exact same thing and I am connected to 5G running around 350mbps so plenty of speed. Just curious if anyone has had this issue or do you have a solution that I am missing. TY
It has to do with the ip address tmobile or Verizon home internet is not available with Hulu plus live because of how picky Hulu is. RUclips tv or sling would work
@@NaterTater Thank you. For me, the 4x4 antenna works better on my tmobile gateway than in the verizon gateway. I didn't notice much improvement for verizon. I'm going to try pointing the antenna at a different tower
@@NaterTater Have you tested T-Mobile business internet? I’m going to sign up for it next week. I heard they offer static ip, port forwarding, and external antenna support using a different gateway. It does come with a productivity filter that blocks access to websites like Netflix’s but I hear you can request to have it turned off
I for the life of me am in mental agony trying to get the pigtails on. Is there a general kind of people you could recommend me to take this to have the pigtails installed? Shaky hands makes this feel impossible 😢
My dilemma is when I first signed up for TMHI, I was getting speeds of 500+mbps downloads. 2 weeks later it was less than 150mbps downloads. It's getting worse by the day. I've had the service now for about a year and I now have the mimo 4x4 connected. The tower is, connected to is about 400-80l yes from my house. But it seems the fastes speed I can get is 150mbps. Is there any help for increasing speeds? I switched from the trashcan to the Arcadian gateway.
they start to throttle you because they know people are going to hammer it at the beginning doing tests and they want to look good. nater tater is getting terrible results before using these antennas. i'm a 10 day owner and i'm getting 350 down/90 up right now. i live 700 ft from the tower. no external antennas
@fjleon I don't agree that they throttle based on time in service (other than the first several minutes of activating prior to the deprioritization kicking in) nor do I agree that I get "terrible results" without the antennas.
With Verizon I am able to get up to 400Mbps down 20-25 up putting the box upstairs near the window but my ping is in the mid to high 30's. Would my ping benefit from running an external antenna or and I pretty much tapped out?
adding an external antenna outdoors can sometimes improve ping but honestly 30's is reasonable for cellular. But unloaded ping might not be your issue, what's your loaded ping like?
about 300. In the ideal world both pings would drop in half but they aren't bad. I have found that the most stable connection comes from finding the place in the house that gets the best upload speed. Sort of a silly measurement but any upload speed over 30 is a strong spot
Yo I know I can do the same thing with straight talk internet but I get full max speed 98 percent of the time but if I do this will this lower my ping ?
I have the new The Sagemcom FAST 5688W and it's defective and no longer gets a signal. Evidentially they were not taking the upgrade to the software so theyThey are sending me the other brand previous to this one as a replacement.
Friend of mine has this gateway and he hasn't been able to get more than 100 mbps out of the ethernet port. He has to use wifi to get faster than that. Is the ethernet limited to 100 mbps or is it something in the settings?
Btw, for anyone suspecting he's got it hooked up to something that can't do more than 100 mbps that isn't the case as I've had him try it on multiple devices that we know for sure can do much faster than that, one of which being nvidia shield tv. But no matter what he connects to he gets limited to 100 mbps on ethernet. I don't know if it's his cable, he's tried a couple of them, or a setting in the gateway or what but if anyone knows what could be causing it woud appreciate the info.
@@Wickerman1972 there are no settings in the gateway to limit the ethernet speed. It's likely the cable, need CAT5e (not CAT5) or higher to fully support faster than 100Mbps.
Ok, thanks again. First he hooked up with a cat6 he had laying around for a while then he ordered another cat6 and that didn't work either. But it was a brand I never heard of so I suggested to him that he order another of the brand I use and haven't had problems with but he didn't do it. Gonna tell him again he should probably do that then.
24:12 I have the new Nokia get away T-Mobile 5 g I got the 4 x 4 signal booster they follow your steps and the signal did not improve. What do you think is the problem
@@NaterTater on the side of the house I tried to Amy and all the direction and I tried to switch the cables in different orders like you did and the signal improves by 5 to 10% only I tried to aim it towards the tower, and between the towers to try to get the best results but still, I feel like the router was working better without the signal booster not sure why
@@0my I did I have three towers around me. I am dead towards the towers and between the towers to get the best results but improvement was only 5 to 10% and I change the cable orders, and that did not help much
I have one of these and I get like 12 mbs up and 2 at most download, I play a lot of fornite and a lot of that game is based on ping some players have 0 ping and they usually win the fights but basically I ping at like 80-150 and I really just wanna get my ping down to a solid like 40 and I’ll be so happy, please man if you got any idea on how to help with this let me know
Wow, I just hooked up my T-mobile kvd21 modem /router and I am blown away with the speeds. I tried this before when I was in the 5g extended area coverage and it was not very good. They upgraded my tower which is about 300 yards away and I now have 5g ultra and I'm on wifi - 6. Download speeds are running in the high 200's to the 300's and the upload speeds are amazing and anywhere from 60 to over 100!!! I am going to try it out for the 15 days but if this continues its bye bye Comcast!!!! By the way my upload speeds with X-finity were in the 10-15 range. They also just went up on my bill from 75 to 105 a month... See ya later!!!
@@NaterTater Thank you for all your tips and tricks with the T-mobile internet but I do have one problem I am hoping you can solve. Since the kvd21 is 5g I cannot hook up and run my devices on Alexa to turn the lights on and off because It will only work with 2.4g...is there anyway to separate the 5g and 2.4g...thanks again
@@dorriesmith2177 hi Dorrie, its a common mistake to relate "5G" cellular to "5Ghz" wifi but they are in fact completely independent. The gateway puts out a wifi 6 signal that emits both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels but some devices get "confused" and cant figure out how to connect so the solution is to give a different wifi SSID name to 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels. You can do that in the t-mobile home internet app, see this video for how to do it (not the powershell script part) ruclips.net/video/7NJ7TJ_1VZk/видео.html
The store won't give me one because I'm outside their 15 day remorse period and support can't send me one because they don't have it listed in their system yet? I guess all I can do is try to wait them out and keep calling and bitching?
@@Marks-World if the store has it in stock you can open a new line and cancel the old line. No contracts. On the phone it is labelled as the "S1" gateway (not A2 or N2).
Why does T-Mobile deprioritize during the day for? I was getting 700 download in the mornings, once noon comes, it crashes down to 300 download and about 50 on the upload. I don’t get it!
when I 1st got t mobile just off of 2 bars I was getting 60 download, now about 8 months later I'm lucky to even get 20, sometimes it gets so slow it becomes unresponsive n have to turn it off n back on, I hate this internet, I'd rather have starlink or verizon
@@PitBullet That's what I'm getting...2 bars. I need to send it back. As for my DSL, att tells me I'm grandfathered in and they wanna do away with it. It was a pain when my modem went out. Hopefully Starlink will work out for both of us!
Get 5% off Waveform antenna and signal booster products with this link: www.waveform.com/natertater or just use code "NATERTATER" at checkout. www.waveform.com/products/4x4-mimo-panel-kit
Do you have a video showing how you connect a 4x4 waveform antenna to a Sagemcom. I can’t find it.
ruclips.net/video/z-v6PajM4Js/видео.html
Ok, I can confirm the configuration you use worked better for me. I attached the QuadPro antenna to the Sagemcom gateway and was able to pick up a tower about 3 miles away that I previously was unable to get, and now I get N41 and before with the closer tower, I was getting N71, and slower speeds. Additionally, my pings were around 40-70 at the close tower and now in the 20's.
Also, I have turned the antenna with the cables pointing to the left and not straight down. This helped too. I tried with the cable pointing down, to the right, straight up, and to the left. For some reason pointing leftward got a better signal.
The antenna is inside against the window.
Nater Tater, you have literally saved my life with posting this video! I live in a rural area and even though spectrum and quantam fiber service less than a mile up my road, they refused to service down to my house. No other internet provider was available. The only 1 that I had was tmobile home internet. It was great for about a month or 2 and then the speeds went severely low. I was getting 14.1 mbps download and literally .08 upload speed. It was terrible! I had tried everything, from moving my modem all over the house, buying different routers and wifi extenders yet nothing worked. I literally couldnt use my internet for most of the day. I even became so frustrated that I emailed my Mayor and County Commissioners begging for help with the lack of internet service providers but no one answered my pleas. I took the risk and bought the 4×4 panel. Had to hire someone to wire it to the modem since im not at all tech savy and omg what a difference it has made!!! My download speed is 240 mbps and upload speed is around 14.2 mbps. And thats with the antenna inside my home. I have to schedule another appointment for the tech guy to come back out and mount it outside which im betting ill get even better speeds. Something id recommended telling others is to get a wifi extender after setting up the antenna because I noticed the further I walked away from the antenna, the slower my speeds got on my phone. So I connected my tp link wifi extender and it fixed that problem! Thank you so much for what you do!! ❤️❤️❤️
happy its working well for you now!
This video is gold information! Thank you. I took mine apart and removed the cover without breaking the warranty seal. I followed your video using a flat screw driver. I started from the base and continued to side panel to pop out the small tabs. Then I just wiggled the entire side walls and slide the body off. You don't need to puncture warranty seal to remove the screw.
Thanks for your tips. I just got mine and was concerned to have to break the seal. I will follow your suggestion. Did you place your antena outside the roof or inside like in the video?
Unfortunately I damaged my warranty sticker before reading your comment. The device costs around $250.00 per a t-mobile technician. That's what I was told when they sent my replacement. I also didn't need a pry tool as you can push the clips in on the sides through the vent holes. And use a long needle or something pointy up through the bottom holes to get under the front clip and pry it up away from the locking clip.
@@gugumach I have my set-up inside facing toward a bedroom window. It's a temporary location and receives a decent signal. I did climb onto the roof and found I can get a much stronger signal. The nearest tower is about 30 miles.
I slipped on the ice on day one, it went flying and the clips popped right off. Warranty seal is broken.It still works, not sure if/when I'll be charged for the unit, because they just gave it to me and I'm still using it.
Thank you so much Nater Tater, I followed your steps exactly to setup a gateway at my house and the speeds are far beyond faster than I originally was getting on my rural internet service. YOU ARE A LEGEND!!!!
Glad it helped
THANK YOU FOR THE TRAIL BLAZING LEVERAGE AND TACTICAL KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL MAKE MY LIFE SO MUCH LESS COMPLICATED AND SAVE ME TIME AND MONEY WILL SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL THANKS AGAIN
You're welcome, glad it helps!
I'm using a poynting xpol-24 4x4 MIMO antenna and the green,red,blue,orange antenna pattern is basically what I landed on as fastest too.
Cell 1 Main -> Green
Cell 1 Aux -> Red
Cell2 Main -> Blue
Cell2 Aux -> Orange
I'm using LTE-D/5G and LTE-M/MIMO and am getting decent speeds for us, 22 down and
42 up. This is on B2 and N71 in the middle of the day. We'll see how it is from 4 PM til 10 PM, that's the real test. As always, many thanks for all your efforts.
did it help your bandwidth and ping? I'm only getting 5mb bandwidth because I only get 2 bars and that's almost unusable for me
Swapped my Arcydan out today for a Sagemcom at one of their corporate stores. All I can say is wow, speeds are on average 150 to 200Mbps higher. It's a relief to finally have the speeds the old Nokia gave me, but this one is handling jitter better than the Nokia ever did in my area. Also my SINR on N41 is an insane 40 on the Sage. With the Ark and Nokia, the best I hit was 29.
Good to hear.
@@NaterTater I need some input on an issue I'm having with Nokia 5g21 router when hooked to external antenna. I've been hoping to reach you but no luck yet
@@BM-ik7mj your rebooting issue?
@@NaterTater yes, sorry to hijack a comment by another. I've had reboot issues lately and last night I finally broke down and unhooked external antenna after my newest 5g21 repeated reboot issue. Once I removed external and reconnected on board antenna I don't have the soft reboot.
@@NaterTater is there any way to test the coax and mimo to see if there is a particular issue with the hardware causing the soft reset? Can the antenna/coax develop a short or issue that would allow better signal but cause a bad impedance or other issue that might reset connectivity?
I would love to see you do a similar test in a different location like a fringe area 3-4 miles from a tower to see what difference the mimo antenna does.
About 4 months ago I got that gateway. And most of the time, it worked pretty well. But about a week ago, 2-22-2023, it started slowing down and having intermittent drop outs. I noticed the slower band speed was way slowed down but the 5 ghz band was ok. I called TM and they said there was some construction going on that was impacting it. But 5 days later, still no joy. I called again, and now they are replacing my gateway with an Arcadyan KVD21. I don't know what the difference is but I think I heard the hard to understand lady say that it would be configured to a different antenna source (or something to that effect). At least I should be able to compare the two. And this suggests maybe that it wasn't a construction issue after all and maybe issues they are seeing with the original gateway.
Really appreciate this in-depth review. My wife hates our cable monopoly with the heat of a thousand suns and wants anything but, however she works remotely and needs rock-solid internet.
The first few weeks it was great and we didn't even notice that we'd switched to a 5g gateway, but about 3 weeks in, the weather got bad (there is supposedly rain and fog-based signal degradation) and also our gateway started restarting frequently, knocking out our internet.
We got another gateway, fair weather, and so far it's not restarting, and I have found the optimal location / angle placement of our gateway, which is better, 5G on N41 band, SINR ~-4 to 12, RSRP ~-102-97.
We live in an apt and aren't able to install a 4x4 external antenna outside the building, so if all other things are equal (the ~exact same antenna placement inside the apt), approximately how big of an increase in SINR and RSRP did you observe / estimate for the 4x4 external antenna? Is the external antenna's physical size helpful in boosting signal? Thanks!
You need to place the antenna outside for the best improvement. There are certainly ways to achieve that without violating apt rules but you'll have to decide how much effort to exert in your wife's hatred of the cable companies. Weather should have minimal affect on signal.
Great info, just picked up my modem for at my dad's place. I'm just outside of the 5g coverage according to TMobile map online. I'm looking forward to doing some testing tomorrow when I get it installed.
Perfect timing. Should be getting the antenna tomorrow.
Will report back from Ohio backwoods next weekend! Thanks for your help. I’ll be using a 2x directional from waveform. Currently getting 20/4mbs through a Mofi4500 and a tablet SIM card. Any thoughts?
10.28.22 Very good Nate. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
I finished hooking up my Waveform 4x4 with your configuration Nate and averaged 200Mbps higher and now my speeds are around 400Mbps. My upload is also around 30-40Mbps. Waveforms cable configuration did not yield good results. I mounted it to a tv stand in an upstairs bedroom. Mounting on my house is not an option. Also, prior to using the Waveform I tried the Parsec Akita Omni directional antenna. It gave very poor performance and for those looking at this antenna as a possible option go with the Waveform instead.
Glad you got some great speeds now!
Very nice report! I was just able to get the Sagemcom after exchanging my Arc gateway. The Arc was dropping signal every week, I was able to bring it into my local T-Mobile and insist on getting the new Sagemcom. I hooked up my 4x4 both ways (your way and waveforms way) My speeds were better with the waveform configuration. It is about 100Mbps faster than the Arc. HOWEVER, that could be due to the face that its a new line of service so they're giving me better speeds. Time will tell...
Took my Arc in today, the employee had no issues in the slightest getting me a Sage. Ironically, customer support online told me I couldn't replace it in store because I ordered the service online. Very annoyed being told that not realizing I could have been working with the store all this time when I needed to replace my gateway. Would have saved me a headache when I was fighting over the phone to get the Arc because every Nokia gateway they sent me constantly overheated. Ah well, at least I know for the future.
@@vaxick Our Arc drops signal 2-4 times per day, forcing a hard reboot. It's annoying. I've been through the customer service reset procedure and no improvement, even though speeds are actually fantastic (300+ down and 25up). SINR is also great. It's the RSRP that's poor when connecting to N41...at least it says "poor" in the advanced metrics (< -100) even though it shows 3-4 bars on the screen. So I'd like to try the Sage before I start modifying it with an external antenna. Any tips on how to ask?
ust signed up for T Mobile Home Internet. A lucky shot I would say.
Got it connected and started monitoring speed, the results: some good ones and some very bad ones. But the bad ones over passed the good ones (speeds around 1 or 2 Mbps).
After calling CS three times I realized that they had no answer to such erratic behavior. They sound nice over the phone, interested in resolving the issue, but not solid recommendation beyond "did you try different spots in the house?" A ticket was created but... no answer given... To what I completely found unacceptable and decided to return the equipment.
Btw, I have seen a lot of videos here and I find interesting the fact of several of them addressing issues like : add an antenna, a router, change this and that, go to a website and do... etc.
Who is to do that? I find those videos irrelevant for what they implied.
The customer simply wants a product that works closed enough to what it is advertised... simple...
Thanks for watching
Good details and step by step progress and advancement of connections with results at each stage.
Glad you liked it
You left out the most important test: from the basement with the antennas hooked up in the attic. Would have better simulated rural settings where we only get 0.5 mps. That way we could see if an antenna properly positioned could solve the issue. You already had speeds 100 x faster than some of us before you hooked up the antennas.
It doesnt matter where the gateway is placed when you have the 4x4 hooked up other than the wifi strength.
Love your channel. Huge help! I'm in an RV and already have an external antenna installed by the previous owner. The cables already run to where the T-Mobile Sagemcom & my home router are. Question: Before I order the wiring kit, will the antenna I have perform well with the Sagemcom being it's an older model? The antenna is the (Poynting 7-in-1 Roof Antenna with 4x4 Cell 2x2 WiFi and 1x GPS) Thanks in advance for any help on this.
Should work fine!
Love your work. I have the nokia trash can hooked up to the 2x2. Which of the 3 gateway models do you prefer? Thanks.
Sagemcom but now I like the 3rd party routers the best like Chester Cheetah
We get over 500mbps with proof and screenshots about 1 mile from the tower with no antenna using the 5GHZ function on the modem paired with to link decos. Went from around 100Mbps download to averageing 300 to 500Mbps. Just ordered the new Sagemcom modem. For the life of me I don’t understand why these things have an unnecessary battery(take it out!) and do NOT COME with a DAMN built in FAN!!!! It’s nuts! I am grabbing a new modem due to the fact the Nokia is so hot it’s a fire hazard now.
Since my last question, I cancelled the HiBooster order and been watching more about WaveForm Antennas.. I have the Sagemcom Fast 5688W T-Mobile which gets around 20Mb-120Mb/s down but the Up is really bad, the ping around 38 - 46 - on testing, on gaming the ping runs around 80-90ms.. Sometimes when the modem starts acting up it's higher.
My question on this post is; You mentioned 30 feet and the signal loss.. Is 50 feet of cable to far or should I make a shorter path from modem to the outside roof with a 30 feet cable.
@Foxxie55 you want to keep the antenna cable as short as possible. Much better off adding a wifi mesh extender if moving the gateway for antenna cable hurts your wifi signal in the house somewhere.
Don't worry about the "Warranty label" over any screw labels.
Under the "1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act" these stickers are actually *ILLEGAL*. This Federal law mandates that you can open your electronics without voiding the warranty, regardless of what the language of your warranty says. It does tell them you they opened it maybe, although I'll try to take mine off without breaking it using alcohol anyhow when I get my antenna in a few days.
I do see in the refund within 14 days thing the terms "..all contents, undamaged and in good working damage, with no material alterations.."
If you do open it and return all the antenna wires back in working order then it's not a "material alteration".
If you remove the sticker and on return they bring it up, just say something like: "If you put a warranty void sticker on it, it's actually illegal under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act" and don't say anything else, don't admit anything. They can't legally charge you for allegedly removing a sticker that is against the law to begin with. Plus there is no mention of the sticker in the contract (which would be admission of their illegality).
I'm not part of the ABA monopoly, I'm not licensed to give legal advice, I'm just a bit learned in some subjects.
Also FYI, I would use an Electrostatic discharge (ESD) setup like I have while doing any of this. I use an ESD grounded desk mat, floor mat, and wrist strap.
At least least use a grounded ESD wrist strap to reduce the chance of zapping the electronics.
Thanks neighbor.
Edit:
I found mounting the U.Fl PCB SMA cables the worst thing to install, especially if you are feeding the cables up from the bottom as per the Waveform help page.
The wires want to go where they want too, they will bend, the connector will rotate, etc. And since these are microwave wires we don't want to put 90° bends in them, don't want to damage the shield, etc.
After playing around I found the trick was instead of trying to mount them from the top down (where you mostly see just the top of the connector) is to angle the modem PCB so you can see the little tube on the connector to the tube on the PCB. And using a lot of light. Then you can align the two tubes up.
Otherwise you are trying to push the connector in at an angle, which was really the problem.
Nate: Maybe you could make a video on this alone, or rather some sort of step by step on some of the finer details.
I got the waveform 4x4 log antenna with the sagemcom and I'm getting 846 mbps download!!!!
Wow! 👍
Nater tater have you done signal checks after a heavy snow? Does your signal turn to crap or still work with the external antenna in the attic? I am trying to decide...mount antenna on my ham radio mast or just in the attic. Personally my attic is just a crawl space so I would rather put it on the mast. :)
i havent really noticed but also not paid attention. ast is best either way!
We need more competition in the 2x and 4x mimo flat panel market. The panels themselves are cheap to produce. Good coax is the real expense.
Hi Nater Tater I just got the T-Moble internet for my RV and am going to the Dekota's for a vacation. From what I hear that is noman land out there but there is phone service out there. I am thinking of putting a external waveform 4x4 on a 30 ft. pole on the back of the rv and turn it to the cell towers. What is you take on this? Would this the best antenna for the T-moble setup or is there one for better for a RV? Great videos btw thanks so much for doing them.
Hi Harold, yes this is a good antenna for that use. And a 30ft pole is a great idea. The only downside to this is since it's directional you have to aim it towards the tower. If you relocate often or don't want to aim it then you should go for an omnidirectional antenna.
Thanks for your great videos. Two questions. 1) I just got the Fast 5688W, and I'm getting around 200Mbps DL ± 50MBps, and around 40Mbps UL. Does that seem typical? 2) Is there any advantage of disabling the WiFi, i.e, improved performance, etc.? I have a seperate TP Link AX3000 router which I'm very happy with. Thanks.
1) that's probably above average, very good speeds. Especially UL. 2) yes i think so, i like the extra settings a personal router has personally, especially if you already have it.
Thank you for sharing so much information with your videos. I recently got Tmobile Home Internet, and had planned for it to be used by our Airbnb guests instead of our Xfinity Busines Internet which (and be a backup for when Comcast goes down). I decided to get a Tmobile Business 5g, and cut Xfinity altogether. There are a lot of trees where I live, and will need an atenna to strengthen the signal. Is it possible to configure a Waveform 4x4 to two gateways?
I have the waveform 4x4 and the sagemcom. My bands are N71, 2,66. Any suggestions on the best order to hook them up? Thanks
Nate: your channel is a wealth of incredibly useful and authoritative information that really helps people like me that have limited options to access the Internet. I recently trialed T-Mobile's Home Internet service using their Sagemcom gateway. I returned it because the signal kept dropping. Apparently, this is a common problem. Have you heard of this and have any theories about solving it? Some say that connecting an external router fixes the problem (somehow) and I've wondered if connecting my external Waveform antenna might help (somehow). I'm reluctant to modify a trial unit unless I'm pretty sure it will help because I may not be able to return it.
It depends what you mean by dropping signal. If your devices think they go offline but the gateway reports it has signal that could be a flakey DNS server and can be addressed with your own router and manual DNS server to say google or cloudfare. If your cellular connection to the gateway is dropping then an outdoor waveform antenna will likely fix that.
@@NaterTater Thank You, Nate. I've been using Google DNS as my default and Cloudflare as a secondary. I may have to take the risk and connect my WaveForm external antenna to the T-Mobile gateway following your instructions to make the modification. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
OK, so here's the issue that we are having. We have the Gateway and we are fairly satisfied with it...We are not gamers, we just watch TV and movies and use a tablet for IG etc...the issue we have is I'm guessing it's buffering ( I think). It's worse when we have wind. We are about 2 miles from the tower and have fairly good line of sight. We have a cell phone booster antenna on top of the roof. The gateway is in a window in our closet with almost a direct line of sight to the tower...there is no other good place to put it cause it wouldn't be pointed at the tower at all or it would be in a window that's much lower to the ground. We also are in a metal framed house with rock and metal sides and a metal roof. Would adding an external antenna help our issue? And could we put it inside the attic space with the metal roof? Not sure we would feel at all comfortable taking the Gateway apart to add the connections but maybe some clarity as to why the wind would create this issue if you have any insight. I'm 68 and my husband is 73.
First, make sure your gateway isn't connecting to the booster. Unplug the booster and see how your home internet is. You would not want to add an antenna in the attic if it has to go through the metal roof, maybe it can point through a gabled end and avoid the metal? If not outdoors is where it should go.
Thank you for answering. No Gateway is not connecting to booster because the service remains the same either way. Worse when the wind blows. Which to my uneducated mind means an obstruction is moving in and out of the way but there's nothing there so I'm left guessing. I called T Mobile and their answer was that it's traffic on the one tower but service gets better with no wind and seems to me it would be bad especially at night with LOTS more people at home using it. I will remain hopeful another tower gets added so it isn't so crowded. I'm the more tech savvy between my husband and myself but do not feel at all comfortable opening up the gateway to add an external antenna. Thank you again for answering I do appreciate the insight.
Nate, how'd you get them to let you have a Sagecomm? My Arcadyan is working better with the 4x4, , but still have to reset it once in a while cause it'll be a 0.5mbps up/down sometimes.
I ordered it on a new line
hi. nice work, and great videos. i have one question. what is that app you're using to get the wifi speeds? it looks way more advanced than the ookla one.
I think in this video I only use the ookla speedtest app.
@@NaterTater you must have the pro version. the free online one doesn't have that much info.
thanks, and kudos on all the work you do.
Great video! Thank you for detailed video on this project. Much appreciated. Keep up the great work.
We have foil-backed OSB roof decking. I suspect that will that interfer with any signal we, so we may need to use an outdoor mounted external antenna. Additionally, I would like to place our T-Mobile unit somewhere more central in our house, with a bias toward the home office. I'm wondering if it were placed in the attic-side of the ceiling if there would be too much interference from the drywall.
Right now we have "transmitted" internet access from CirraNet which is line of sight to a tower approx. 24 miles away; our current dish-style antenna is on top of the house. We average about 14Gb/6.1Mb speeds - woohoo! If we stop that service and go T-Mobile I would like to attach a 2x2 MIMO outdoor antenna and aim in in the direction of the T-Mobile tower which is 5.25 miles (line of sight), hoping the antenna will reduce the effect of trees between us and the tower thus gathering more signal and improing our streaming and internet access speeds. Would you mind commenting on that please.
Wifi can travel thru drywall OK but I dont recommend putting the gateway in a non climate controlled space, especially one that gets hot. If you have trees between you and the tower its not "line of sight". A 2x2 or 4x4 would certainly help and could be placed outside.
Thanks, Nater Tater. I am looking at the Waveform 2x2 to mount outside. There will be some vegetation in the line-of-sight, but less so for the roof mounted antenna. We currently have issues with our phones because of our "messy" line-of-sight at ground level. We have good/not great WiFi from modem/router coverage over our 2,400 sqft one-story, but current placement is more oriented in one end of the house for the office. We would try to find a more central to the devices location. One other question, does T-Mobile's Gateway work with 4LTE signal? We are in the fringe just outside the 5G signal which goes in and out as we use it at our house.
@@genic-pu8ef yes it uses pretty much any 4G LTE or 5G tmobile signal.
@@NaterTater Thanks again. I'll be talking to T-Mobile.
Regarding defacing the sticker to access the case screw - Will that void the warranty and result in being charged for the device when it is returned in the future?
I have two of the 2x2 one and would like what is the best way too hook up it up I have it this way now L4+ L1- for one 2x2 too the left on the right L3+ L2- and are 6 ft apart this has work the best for me. What would you recommend? And my antennas are waveform to
Nate...In one of your videos (TMobile external antenna videos??) you mentioned a waterproof way of running the RS240 cable from the outside of the house to the inside. I can't find the video to see what parts you used. Can you help me out?
I'm not sure what you are referring to specifically. The cable that waveform provides is waterproof including the connectors. I additionally recommend self fusing silicone tape on the connectors to further weatherproof. You can use standard electrical conduit and junctions if desired for a cleaner install that would also be waterproof.
I’m about to buy one of these. My home is JUST outside of Fiber Area, and T-Mobile’s 5G reaches us, but my home (apartment, only house for miles.)
was constructed out of metal… this is going on my roof.
Our speeds average (T-Mobile, outside) 110d, 15u without the antenna, but alas, metal roof. - I’m tired of paying an arm and a leg for satellite. It’s time to kick it up a notch.
Great video, you’ve earned a sub!
Also, how long are these cables? I need to put one out my window and onto my roof, which will be about a 20-30ft stretch.
@xXTGameplayBadgerXx sounds like you're on the right track. The standard antenna cable length in the waveform kit is 30ft but you can call and ask for a custom length.
@@NaterTater Great, thank you! I’ll make sure to use your code upon checkout.
Thanks for the super helpful videos. Question regarding SINR. I’m pretty ignorant on the metrics. I’m getting a SINR of 40 for 5g n71 band which I think is pretty good? But speeds are still pretty low, so was considering the antenna. But if SINR is pretty decent, Does that mean an external antenna won’t help much or not necessarily?
+40 is very good! (-40 is very bad). What are your 4G metrics like? If its good to then your issue might be congestion, is the speed much better say between midnight and 6am? What is "pretty low" speeds?
@@NaterTater gotcha. yeah it's def 40 and not -40; RSRP -10;
4G metrics: SINR -7 / RSRP -115
Actually, download has been nice ave ~ 150Mbps (although yesterday afternoon/eve it seemed to really drop I assume because of congestion. was getting 10-20Mbps). Upload is where it seems to always struggle ave ~4 Mbps
I'm probably going to keep it either way as long as it's decently stable, cause overall it's an improvement from my current and it's a little cheaper. I'm mainly trying to get a feel for if an antenna would help. But I guess it's a no brainer to give it a try since have 90 day return period.
Thanks for any input!
also it's a Sagemcom
Hey Nate, is the order important (polarity) for the Nokia? I watched all your past videos but I am not sure if you recently found any new info about this with the Nokia. Thanks!
Yeah, just keep them in order L1,2,3,4 hooked to 1,2,3,4 on antenna
@@NaterTater My case is different... I have a waveform 2x2 MIMO and 1 Proxicast directional antenna (single cable/connector). I was having a lot of issues connecting with the 5G network until I finally connected the Proxicast to L1, then L2 to the Internal Nokia Antenna 2, and L3 and L4 to the 2x2 MIMO. I am finally connected to the 5G and getting 200+ Mbps.
@@NaturebyGus i'm surprised adding the non-MIMO antenna is better than just leaving L1 and L2 as stock with the 2x2 on L3/4.
@@NaterTater Yeah, the directional antenna is making a huge difference and I am getting a SINR of 20 on N41. My tower is far from my farm with a lot of trees in between.
Have any links to extended rs240 n-male to sma-male cables that work really well? the 30ft that come with the kit are too short from where I need to run to and from.
@Natertater
Question for you. I have the arcadyan and 2x2 mimo and I used to consistently get about 300 down and around 15-17 up.
The last week or so I get around 3mbps down and 6 up. Nothing has changed with my setup and my cell metrics haven't changed.
The strangest part is that if I connect to my VPN (express VPN). My speeds return almost to what they were previously, around 200 mbps down and 15 mbps up. I can't wrap my head around why this would be. Any ideas?
My gateway leads are labeled D M M1 and M2. I’m confused as how to attach it the way you recommended. I bought the waveform 4x4 per your recommendation
That means you have the KVD21 gateway: ruclips.net/video/tqyGXm3yASc/видео.html
I don’t know how to do any of this. How do I search for someone in my area I can pay to assist?
Not sure what happened to my big post about needed to build a test rig. Maybe YT deleted it because I referred to another TY video?
Yes, comments with URL's or text that YT thinks are spam/inappropriate are auto blocked.
@@NaterTater Thanks. Only link was back to YT. Of course no four letter word in it. Not sure what the YT censor bot thought was wrong with it.
I sent my comment to you via your website contact system.
have you ever done a dual 2x2 setup? would be curious to know right now my sagecom is 4g to a tower to the southeast and the 5g is a tower to the northeast according to the id numbers and the fact that n41 is only in one spot
I have not but aiming towards the 5G tower would be best. It would have 4G as well.
Can I use USB C PD or QC 3.0 charger to power Sagemcom Fast 5688W Gateway?
I am in my trial period with T Mobile and am able to get a weak 5G connection that will yield about 200Mbs download and 15Mbs upload. I have the 5688W gateway. The issue is, every day around noon I loose the 5G connection and it switches to a 4G tower. When this happens, my speed drops to about 35Mbs. Will a 4x4 Waveform antenna help keep the 5G connection from dropping if I can improve the signal strength with the antenna? I don't have a direct line of sight to the tower, but know it is about 3 miles away. I am new to this, so be gentle please LOL Thank you!
Yes it will help keep you connected and improve your speeds.
Question. Have you taken the gateway into the exact same location as the antenna and compared the signal. Curious if its just the location or if the antenna is superior to the stock one.
Yes, i think one of my earlier videos shows that but basically the antenna does help vs stock. However placement is still critical. So an antenna in a poor location can easily do worse than a gateway in a good one.
@@NaterTater thankyou sir. I am building a house and the cell service there is poor. We aren't to far from towers just in a valley. I have always been able to find certain areas to make it work. I recently got the T-Mobile gateway for my current location and have no issues. Hoping to make it work at our new house. I am going to do some tests, but I'm almost thinking that an old fashioned antenna pole placed strategically at the corner of my upstairs might be my answer. Is 30ft as long of a cable as needs to be run??
Hi Nate. Thanks for all the info you put out there, especially for TMHI. I just ordered mine. I get 250/20 from the cable company, but I couldn’t pass up the $25/month deal. The issue is they’re shipping me the Arcadyan gateway. I was just wondering your thoughts on the Arcadyan vs the Sagemcom after you’ve used them side by side for a few months. Should I send the Arcadyan back? Thanks! (P.S. I’m in an area that is going to get the n77 band eventually.)
Hey Ryan, check out this video. Either way not worth sending back. ruclips.net/video/Sp0ReGuUnI0/видео.html
Thanks for the quick reply! I have watched that one too. It seemed like you were getting better speeds on the Sagemcom. But based on your recommendation, I’ll give the Arcadyan a try. Thanks!
I'm looking at the Waveform Mimo 4x4 kit, which comes with RS240 N-Male to SMA Cable. If I have a longer run, like 100 ft, is it worth getting the RS400 or RS600 cable instead. The listings say they have lower loss. This is new territory for me, so I'm not sure. Thanks.
In general you want/need to have as short of an antenna lead as possible as you will quickly have more loss in the cable then the antenna adds. So yes I'd go higher quality but I'd also go shorter length. You can place the gateway closer and run ethernet to get the signal farther. You can easily run ethernet 300ft without issue.
@@NaterTater Thanks! I wasn't sure if it was better to have the longer antenna cable or ethernet.
Hey Nate @NaterTater, I have the Nokia Trash Can with T-Mobile, not this Sagemcom, but I have a question for you. I know you've done this same external antenna with the Trash Can. I just installed the Waveform 4x4 MIMO Saturday morning and saw some amazing speed increase! From an average of 45 mbps to and average of 300 mbps. Way more than I was expecting.
I'm curious if yo've noticed issues with any of the devices after adding the external Antenna? My Trash Can has been rebooting itself periodically since I added the external antenna. After about the first 30-45 minutes it rebooted itself. Then it kept rebooting every 5 to 7 minutes for a few hours.Then it stopped for about an hour. Now it has been doing that non-stop for the last 28 - 30 hours. It's been about 48 hours since install.
Any suggestions?
Sounds like its overheating and needs a fan, perhaps turn off the wifi on the unit too and use another wifi router for signal. Or give up on tmobile gateways and get a 3rd party one.
@@NaterTater Yeah, I turned off WiFi on day one of having it and am using my own router. I'll put a fan on it to see if that helps.
I thought about 3rd party, but they are waaaay too expensive for me.
Thanks for the reply.
@Nater Tater is there warranty good stickers or anything in the modem for them to tell I have done this to my router, I really want the ChesterCheetah but can't afford it right now. We love out in a real rural area but the sage come is finally signal aggregating compared to the Trashcan. So I would like to do this mod to improve our signal but don't want to get stuck with a couple hundred dollar fee for opening it up. I hope you see this but if not, thanks anyway for all this great information sincerely appreciate it!!
I am not aware of anyone being charged for taking it apart carefully and returning it "undamaged".
When you have the external antennas connected to 4x4 MIMO, during the peak hours, how much is the download and upload speed? And, how far are you from the cell tower?
Same, 1 mile
@@NaterTater Nice, I am within 1 mile also But, my speeds are slower.
I received mine today
Sagemcom or external antenna? Or both!?
@@NaterTater The new external antenna. I didn’t even know about the Sagecom. Is that the newest gateway? I guess I’ll find out in tomorrow’s video
@@PepperAddict i've done a couple videos on the Sagemcom itself: ruclips.net/video/7b76GBJtzr0/видео.html
Whats your opinion on the proxycast antenna is the wave form better ??
@@eddygt61 the waveform 2x2 panel performed better than the proxicast 2x2 panel I tested. By the time you add all the other components to the poxicast panel the cost isnt that different.
Lol.... even with the waveform, my SINR never get above 1. It's usually -0.2, yes, minus... lol.
My internet is working a bit better with the waveform 4x4, but still pretty rough pings.
We have the Nokia Cylinder and get 50-70Mbps during the day. 150-350 after Midnight when T-Mobile unlocks the service..or whatever they do. Would we benefit from an antennae? Seems not since we can access all the bandwidth we can get...when it's available. Thanks anyone for helpful answers. Best Regards and Best Wishes!
Yes it might still benefit you, there are lots of variables at play here. You can do a easy test by driving your gateway closer to your tower (assuming you know where it is) during the day and see if you speed significantly improves over the 50-70mbps. If it does then an external antenna at home will help despite the depriotization.
@@NaterTater Thanks. Yeah it's a Kilometer away quasi LOS. Appreciate the feedback, am a subscriber and Best Regards/Best Wishes!
Internal to Sagemcom are there directional send and receive antenna ? and which side to point towards the towers if i dont have an external antenna yet... Thanks in advance
The antennas are divided by band (freq). Direction to point varies by situation, just rotate it til you get the best cell metrics/speed.
Nater so you have been lucky enough to not have the gateway constantly rebooting? I’m on my second one that does the same thing. First one was stock and the second is on the waveform external 4x4. It never seems to stop rebooting. At a lose what to think.
I have heard of a few others (not common) have that issue but I have not had it myself.
I am dealing with this now… I have tried some of the “tips”
- changed the plug
- reseat sim
- cooling fan
- factory reset
- and I would say power cycle.. but it’s doing that on its own.
I can’t seem to figure out what is causing it. Some say a firmware thing. That it gets stuck in a loop .. but I have had the latest firmware installed for weeks before this started happening. There is no “update” for it to go into a loop for restarting.
@@mitch6w9w So I had to send back my second Sagemcom and as soon as I turned the new one on it did the same thing. I called T-Mobile and we figured out that my device for some reason is trying to ONLY connect to a tower under going maint currently and is 3.5 miles away. The tech couldn't answer the why on this since we have a new 5g tower about 1.5 miles away. He was able to get it to connect to the closer tower and I got 4 bars of 5g then the damn thing did the software update and rebooted. We could never get it to connect again to the closer tower. They submitted a different ticket to some engineers to see why it wont connect to the closer tower all of the time. So the drama continues.
I'm in a rv and getting internet 20s download. I took mine on top of my rv and did see a gain so my question is, is the 4x4 MIMO better than the Gateway? The antenna would be 4 to 8 feet above the Gateway now.
Yes especially since the 4x4 is directional
@@NaterTater my rsrp and rsrq are poor on 4g and 5g with all my others being good to excellent with moving the Gateway at all can have big effects. Around 10pm downloads Around 30 and 5am 167 downloads. And ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sounds like tower congestion. TMHI gets the lowest priority so slows down during congestion
My rsrp and rsrq and always poor on both 4g and 5g but 5g having the better overall stats and the Gateway very sensitive and slightly moving it changes down and up speeds. I'm in a little bit of a valley and a bit of trees. The 4x4 should still boost my speeds and make my rsrp and rsrq better correct? Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Nate, do you know if there a way to make a switch for us nomads, so that we can switch between internal and external antennas?
The easiest is probably just get another gateway (used or 3rd party). You could swap the sim card to which ever you want to use.
I solved this by adding pigtail extensions for the internal antennas, and ran them out the back of the base/fan that is 3e printed. I also have the pigtails from the board to the connectors mounted in the base. Now, I can choose to hook up the Waveform 4x4 (RV), or use the internal antennas (boat),
Is it possible to just put an antenna near the device itself without it being connected to see if that may pull a better connection? This seems like an expensive boost
Antennas don't work like that and that would not improve the signal. You could technically try to reflect/focus the signal similar to a satellite dish
Sooo i just got this new gateway because after the last week I have been getting abysmal numbers from my connection. Almost all of December, with the old gateway I had no issues and could stream on twitch. This last week between the older gateway and the new gateway I am seeing numbers bouncing all over the place and even dropping out completely and then bouncing back. Obviously this is not acceptable. I am in Oregon and it seems to me that there must be an issue with on the T-Mobile side of things between the tower and or the amount of people they may be servicing, being more and more and not having enough service to provide at all times. Or could there be a throttle issue happening randomly? Customer service is zero help and they dance around the issue not able to fix anything at all. If there is anything you can think of that may help, please enlighten me. I have tried all manner of positions of gateway and restarting, powering down and waiting. Sometimes it shows a good connection for a while and sometimes after a restart its actually far worse than what it was showing before had. I am at my wits end over here.
They don't throttle TMHI. Could be network issue but more likely could be youe gateway jumping bands or towers. An external antenna like shown or a 3rd party modem and/or router may fix the issue.
@@NaterTater do you mean third party modem or router to replace the gateway? If so I thought I read that wouldn’t work. Or do you mean go from that gateway into a router/modem then to my pc?
@@cameronroot the former. See ruclips.net/video/TeyMAGqRaSI/видео.html or other recent videos on my channel.
Getting 110 MBPS DL and 25 MBPS UL prior to installing the Waveform 4x4 MIMO panel on my Sagecom 5688W. Now I am getting 18 MBPS DL and 60 MBPS upload. Same tower in use. Any ideas?
check the antenna connection order/matching to the gateway. check you signal metrics, I'd bet you went from n41 to n71. no reason you cant make the antenna out perform stock,
check the antenna connection order/matching to the gateway. check you signal metrics, I'd bet you went from n41 to n71. no reason you cant make the antenna out perform stock,
@@NaterTater Maybe that is it. I shoulda paid more attention to n41 vs n71....I think it was always n71 though. I wonder if it being the holiday weekend with that Canadian smoke is messing things up. I followed waveforms conections. I am 1000 percent sure the connections are right. The SINR on the LTE is below 0 but is 40 on the 5g. 5g is being used. Does the poor SINR on the 4g LTE matter? Thanks.
you should try using a 30watt charger with the gateway
A watt meter shows it pulls about 8 watts after startup.
Hey Nate, any plans to update your script to turn off WiFi for the Sagemcom Fast 5688W? I tried the script for the Arcadyan but it didn't seem to work to turn off WiFi. Interestingly it did allow me to download my config file so I know it's somewhat working.
ruclips.net/video/7NJ7TJ_1VZk/видео.html
Discount link to code for the 4x4 kit only worked for me if I ordered thru website. Amazon would not accept the code.
correct, probably because Amazon takes a cut of their profits.
T-Mobile announced that "this year" they will be rolling out their three-channel carrier aggregation, which promise speeds "up to" 3 GBPS. Do you know if the existing T-Mobile Home Internet modems support three-channel carrier aggregation? Or would this require a gateway upgrade? I currently have the Nokia, which if Im not mistaken has the Qualcomm X55 modem. Any thoughts on this?
A t-mobile rep told me the reason they came out with the new 3rd one. Is because the other companies couldn't provide what they needed. The new one supports the new band t-mobile is going to come out with. But the Nokia and Arcadyan does not.
@@peacekeeper4528 What I think, but im not 100% certain, is that the newer Qualcomm modems (The X60 and X65) support more bands (some of which T-mobile isnt actively using - like N77) and it can aggregate millimeter wave AND sub-6GHz bands. That means insane speeds like 5, 6, or 7Gbps downloads.
The X55 on the other hand (which is in the Nokia) is only capable of aggregating LTE bands like B66 and (I think/hope) multiple sub-6GHz bands like N71 and N41.
If my assumptions are correct, and I hope they are, I'm fine with sticking with the Nokia. If for example B66, N41 (my two bands I aggregate now with my Nokia) are able to be aggregated a third band on say N71, it would dramatically increase my already excellent speeds.
By aggregating N41 and B66, I'm getting 400 to 700mbps downloads - depending on the time of day. If I can add N71 as an additional third band, which I already know is in my area,, I estimate I'd be getting a gigabit download speeds.
It would be even better if I could aggregate B66, N41, and N77 though, because N41 and N77 are FAST. But the Nokia cant get N77, only the newest gateway can.
If I can aggregate B66, N41, and N77, I bet I'd get about 2 or more gbps.. As Spaceballs said, that's ludicrous speed.
Anyway, I think im correct but im not 100% sure. Can the Nokia gateway aggregate three bands, or are we limited to only two?
I'd like it if my Sagemcom Gateway would just work! It's constantly restarting. I can't even use it.
Same with mine and I have two that do the same thing
@@nojobinc I took mine back to T-Mobile yesterday and they determined that it was a faulty unit. It even rebooted itself several times while they were working on it. They gave me a new unit. So far, it's working like a champ!
I’m on my second one and they both have done the reboot stuff not sure what’s going on.
Is it not better to install a whole house signal booster?
Depends on your need but typically for improving home internet gateway performance an antenna is better than a booster ruclips.net/video/bboYE4qcfDM/видео.html
I have a cell antenna that works good where im out but its just a cage type with preamp, and only has one sma lead. If im connecting to an LTE band, do i use lte m or lte d? Anyone else try with using just one antenna?
How much download speeds and upload speeds were you getting right now?
I'm not sure I follow. I show my speeds with various configurations in this video.
Is there any reason we can't buy our own router like the arcadyan or sagemcon and put our sim card into it? I did this and get no signal for some reason?
Yes you should be able to. It would need to be unlocked. You could try calling tmobile and giving them the IMEI of your purchased gateway.
For all you gamer's out there... Don't let these carriers or providers tell you that the network card is not good enough for speeds up to 1 Gbps...they are great network cards but Sony Networks and Microsoft Networks cap your speeds so there won't be a huge advantage in online game play. 300 to 400 Mbps is about what you are going to get.
Any recommendations to lower loaded ping/latency?
ruclips.net/video/RAb1AWVFu3A/видео.html
I have Sagemcom from T-Mobile, on firestick, Mac or iPhone it will stream Prime, youtube tv but not netflix or hulu, not hulu live just hulu. They sent me a new unit exact same thing and I am connected to 5G running around 350mbps so plenty of speed. Just curious if anyone has had this issue or do you have a solution that I am missing. TY
It has to do with the ip address tmobile or Verizon home internet is not available with Hulu plus live because of how picky Hulu is. RUclips tv or sling would work
Do you have a recommended way of installing the 4x4 antenna to verizon's 5g home gateway?
ruclips.net/video/5CvY7iZ_fj8/видео.html
@@NaterTater at 7:22 you had a screenshot up that shows cable 1 twice. That confused me. I wasn’t sure where cables 1-4 should go to
@@PepperAddict good catch. One of the 1s should be a 3.
@@NaterTater Thank you. For me, the 4x4 antenna works better on my tmobile gateway than in the verizon gateway. I didn't notice much improvement for verizon. I'm going to try pointing the antenna at a different tower
@@NaterTater Have you tested T-Mobile business internet? I’m going to sign up for it next week. I heard they offer static ip, port forwarding, and external antenna support using a different gateway. It does come with a productivity filter that blocks access to websites like Netflix’s but I hear you can request to have it turned off
I for the life of me am in mental agony trying to get the pigtails on. Is there a general kind of people you could recommend me to take this to have the pigtails installed? Shaky hands makes this feel impossible 😢
an electronics repair store/computer repair/cell phone repair store
My dilemma is when I first signed up for TMHI, I was getting speeds of 500+mbps downloads. 2 weeks later it was less than 150mbps downloads. It's getting worse by the day. I've had the service now for about a year and I now have the mimo 4x4 connected. The tower is, connected to is about 400-80l yes from my house. But it seems the fastes speed I can get is 150mbps. Is there any help for increasing speeds? I switched from the trashcan to the Arcadian gateway.
they start to throttle you because they know people are going to hammer it at the beginning doing tests and they want to look good. nater tater is getting terrible results before using these antennas. i'm a 10 day owner and i'm getting 350 down/90 up right now. i live 700 ft from the tower. no external antennas
@fjleon I don't agree that they throttle based on time in service (other than the first several minutes of activating prior to the deprioritization kicking in) nor do I agree that I get "terrible results" without the antennas.
@kabarrion washington 150mbps is good speed, what is the driver for needing more?
@nater tater. It’s not so much the speed. It’s more of stability and consistency. Sometimes it’s good. Other times it crawls.
I noticed the same when I got my new Tmo gateway a couple of days ago. Screaming speeds the first day, then slowed almost by half.
With Verizon I am able to get up to 400Mbps down 20-25 up putting the box upstairs near the window but my ping is in the mid to high 30's. Would my ping benefit from running an external antenna or and I pretty much tapped out?
adding an external antenna outdoors can sometimes improve ping but honestly 30's is reasonable for cellular. But unloaded ping might not be your issue, what's your loaded ping like?
about 300. In the ideal world both pings would drop in half but they aren't bad. I have found that the most stable connection comes from finding the place in the house that gets the best upload speed. Sort of a silly measurement but any upload speed over 30 is a strong spot
Moved the box to a better spot and now I'm seeing ping around 30-35 and loaded ping rarely testing over double the unloaded ping. Nice! thank you
@@BonanzaPilot very good 👍
The waveform is 1,2,3,4 which connectors are these hooking into on the sagecom
I go thru that in the video.
@@NaterTater you are the best for going to this
Yo I know I can do the same thing with straight talk internet but I get full max speed 98 percent of the time but if I do this will this lower my ping ?
yes, typically one of these antennas outdoors will improve your ping
@NaterTater ok thanks you
I have the new The Sagemcom FAST 5688W and it's defective and no longer gets a signal. Evidentially they were not taking the upgrade to the software so theyThey are sending me the other brand previous to this one as a replacement.
That was due to a botched software update. Tmobile's fault.
is a shame that my landlord dont let me do holes at the walls i canot put a external antenna
Friend of mine has this gateway and he hasn't been able to get more than 100 mbps out of the ethernet port. He has to use wifi to get faster than that. Is the ethernet limited to 100 mbps or is it something in the settings?
The Ethernet ports are 1 Gbps
Ok, thanks. Gotta be something weird going on with the settings in his gateway.
Btw, for anyone suspecting he's got it hooked up to something that can't do more than 100 mbps that isn't the case as I've had him try it on multiple devices that we know for sure can do much faster than that, one of which being nvidia shield tv. But no matter what he connects to he gets limited to 100 mbps on ethernet. I don't know if it's his cable, he's tried a couple of them, or a setting in the gateway or what but if anyone knows what could be causing it woud appreciate the info.
@@Wickerman1972 there are no settings in the gateway to limit the ethernet speed. It's likely the cable, need CAT5e (not CAT5) or higher to fully support faster than 100Mbps.
Ok, thanks again. First he hooked up with a cat6 he had laying around for a while then he ordered another cat6 and that didn't work either. But it was a brand I never heard of so I suggested to him that he order another of the brand I use and haven't had problems with but he didn't do it. Gonna tell him again he should probably do that then.
24:12 I have the new Nokia get away T-Mobile 5 g I got the 4 x 4 signal booster they follow your steps and the signal did not improve. What do you think is the problem
Where is your antenna mounted?
If I'm only using band n41, do I need a 4x4 antenna? Or will a 2x2 do the same thing?
To the original comment, I think you need to research the tower location(s) and aim them at the tower
@@NaterTater on the side of the house I tried to Amy and all the direction and I tried to switch the cables in different orders like you did and the signal improves by 5 to 10% only I tried to aim it towards the tower, and between the towers to try to get the best results but still, I feel like the router was working better without the signal booster not sure why
@@0my I did I have three towers around me. I am dead towards the towers and between the towers to get the best results but improvement was only 5 to 10% and I change the cable orders, and that did not help much
Will the external antanna help with the ping?
Yes
I have one of these and I get like 12 mbs up and 2 at most download, I play a lot of fornite and a lot of that game is based on ping some players have 0 ping and they usually win the fights but basically I ping at like 80-150 and I really just wanna get my ping down to a solid like 40 and I’ll be so happy, please man if you got any idea on how to help with this let me know
to help with ping (and speed) try to tune the antenna to get the best SINR on the cell metrics
@@NaterTater appreciate it man even tho I don’t know how to do that I’ll figure it out
Wow, I just hooked up my T-mobile kvd21 modem /router and I am blown away with the speeds. I tried this before when I was in the 5g extended area coverage and it was not very good. They upgraded my tower which is about 300 yards away and I now have 5g ultra and I'm on wifi - 6. Download speeds are running in the high 200's to the 300's and the upload speeds are amazing and anywhere from 60 to over 100!!! I am going to try it out for the 15 days but if this continues its bye bye Comcast!!!! By the way my upload speeds with X-finity were in the 10-15 range. They also just went up on my bill from 75 to 105 a month... See ya later!!!
Awesome!
@@NaterTater Thank you for all your tips and tricks with the T-mobile internet but I do have one problem I am hoping you can solve. Since the kvd21 is 5g I cannot hook up and run my devices on Alexa to turn the lights on and off because It will only work with 2.4g...is there anyway to separate the 5g and 2.4g...thanks again
@@dorriesmith2177 hi Dorrie, its a common mistake to relate "5G" cellular to "5Ghz" wifi but they are in fact completely independent. The gateway puts out a wifi 6 signal that emits both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels but some devices get "confused" and cant figure out how to connect so the solution is to give a different wifi SSID name to 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels. You can do that in the t-mobile home internet app, see this video for how to do it (not the powershell script part) ruclips.net/video/7NJ7TJ_1VZk/видео.html
I still can't get it to work for me
I'm having issues on and off with the Arcadian. Have do I trade it in for a Sagemcon?
Call or visit corporate store
The store won't give me one because I'm outside their 15 day remorse period and support can't send me one because they don't have it listed in their system yet? I guess all I can do is try to wait them out and keep calling and bitching?
@@Marks-World if the store has it in stock you can open a new line and cancel the old line. No contracts. On the phone it is labelled as the "S1" gateway (not A2 or N2).
Why do they call the grey one the trash can?
looks similar
Why does T-Mobile deprioritize during the day for? I was getting 700 download in the mornings, once noon comes, it crashes down to 300 download and about 50 on the upload. I don’t get it!
They have 5 total gateways
Three residential 5G ones for home internet.
I get 444 download and 70 upload on my sag fast without adding an antenna.
T mobile gave me great speeds the first month. Then it became unusable...worse than dial-up. It's the Arcadian. Not happy at all.
I too have this problem
when I 1st got t mobile just off of 2 bars I was getting 60 download, now about 8 months later I'm lucky to even get 20, sometimes it gets so slow it becomes unresponsive n have to turn it off n back on, I hate this internet, I'd rather have starlink or verizon
@@PitBullet I want to try Starlink. I'm glad I kept my att DSL cuz I had to go back to it. It sucks also but it's better than t-mobile.
@@Leslie537 I'd rather have att dsl than t mobile lol I only get 2 bars on t mobile and it's trash lol I wana try starlink as well
@@PitBullet That's what I'm getting...2 bars. I need to send it back. As for my DSL, att tells me I'm grandfathered in and they wanna do away with it. It was a pain when my modem went out. Hopefully Starlink will work out for both of us!