I live in a semi-rural community with few internet options.

T-mobile become an option so I decided to give it a shot. It’s a decent price/performance option between DSL and cable internet.

As you can see I’ve made a fully custom hanging shelf with a piece of scrap 1/4" plywood and twine for optimal placement.

I then cracked open the unit and installed external antenna adapters. I placed a directional antenna on the roof.

I kept experiencing complete connection dropouts which became worse over time. After some research I found that other users said that the problem was the unit overheating.

I placed a 120mm fan on top. I wired up a barrel jack so it can be plugged into a normal 12v adapter and it just stays on all the time. I might clean this up and use a temperature controller in the future. It’s currently held to the unit with scotch tape.

Everything has been stable for now. Maybe I’ll find some more ways to tweak it to get better performance.

  • aard@kyu.de
    2·
    2 years ago

    I assume it’s a 5G unit? If so, are you locked to that thing, or can you buy your own?

    Around here I’ve mostly seen outdoor mountable units - 5G does best with short to no external antennas, so it is sensible to keep the router on the roof or balcony pointing the right direction.

    I have an older 4G installation as backup link here with external antennas, plus a 5G backup link with the router mounted next to the 4G antenna.