Question Netgear M1/MR1100 ATT UNLOCKED 4G Dual Band 2.4/5Ghz wireless router wanting to implement Wi-Fi 6. Is it possible or do I need to pitch everything?

[Ubernet]

I would like to move up to Wi-Fi 6, but due to my current location (in the middle of rural America), no network infrastructure is available. Cellular is my only option so that is what I have been using for the last 2 years. Now that Wi-Fi 6 is fully standardized and Wi-Fi 7 just around the corner, its time to find a strategic path for an upgrade. Something that won't force me to empty my piggy bank or beg for change while cleaning their windshield.
My cell signal strength is poor but I have a MIMO antenna solution just about figured out. It includes doing a mod on the NETGEAR Nighthawk M1/MR1100's two internal antennas for the lower bands and giving them a connection to external MIMO antennas. The lower bands are where a majority of your send/receive cellular data is handled. But this still doesn't get me to Wi-Fi 6! So if anyone has gone before me with this type of network implementation, please share your experience with me. I am open to all advice and if this is a waste of my time and resources, please tell me!
Ubernet

 

[kanewolf]

I would like to move up to Wi-Fi 6, but due to my current location (in the middle of rural America), no network infrastructure is available. Cellular is my only option so that is what I have been using for the last 2 years. Now that Wi-Fi 6 is fully standardized and Wi-Fi 7 just around the corner, its time to find a strategic path for an upgrade. Something that won't force me to empty my piggy bank or beg for change while cleaning their windshield.
My cell signal strength is poor but I have a MIMO antenna solution just about figured out. It includes doing a mod on the NETGEAR Nighthawk M1/MR1100's two internal antennas for the lower bands and giving them a connection to external MIMO antennas. The lower bands are where a majority of your send/receive cellular data is handled. But this still doesn't get me to Wi-Fi 6! So if anyone has gone before me with this type of network implementation, please share your experience with me. I am open to all advice and if this is a waste of my time and resources, please tell me!
Ubernet

WIFI6 would only be relevant if your WAN speed exceeded 500Mbit with whatever hacks you are implementing. Less than 500Mbit WAN, and WIFI5 with 80Mhz channel width on 5Ghz will be fine.
You might have FOMO on WIFI6, but since you live in the middle of nowhere it probably doesn't matter because your external connectivity will be your limiting factor.

 

[Ubernet]

You know something, you may be right. As of now 4G is roughly about 3 times faster than Gigabit fiber simply because the channel dispersion. It's like your driving down a 16 lane Super Highway and your the only vehicle on it. When it comes to 5G, it's about 7 to 9 times faster than gigabit fiber. Again it's channel dispersion that affords us this luxury. Hardwired infrastructure is reaching it's maximum potential. Wireless is still in it infancy and is growing bigger better faster everyday!
Wi-Fi 6 uses 8 channels on it's 5Ghz band compared to Wi-Fi 5 which only uses 4 channels on it's 5Ghz band. Mo channels, Mo thru put.
Ubernet

 

[kanewolf]

You know something, you may be right. As of now 4G is roughly about 3 times faster than Gigabit fiber simply because the channel dispersion. It's like your driving down a 16 lane Super Highway and your the only vehicle on it. When it comes to 5G, it's about 7 to 9 times faster than gigabit fiber. Again it's channel dispersion that affords us this luxury. Hardwired infrastructure is reaching it's maximum potential. Wireless is still in it infancy and is growing bigger better faster everyday!
Ubernet

It seems like you are mixing cellular standards (4G, 5G) with WIFI standards WIFI5, WIFI6.
5G cellular has the POSSIBILITY to be faster than gigabit ethernet. Most cellular implementations do not do that. Data bandwidth to mobile devices greater than 100Mbit is only useful for cellular modems feeding multiple devices. Single device 100Mbit service will handle most situations. SO, cellular providers don't provision ultra highspeed service for most situations. RF bandwidth is limited, and the providers are trying to balance serving the most subscribers vs providing the highest bandwidth to individuals.

 

[kanewolf]

You know something, you may be right. As of now 4G is roughly about 3 times faster than Gigabit fiber simply because the channel dispersion. It's like your driving down a 16 lane Super Highway and your the only vehicle on it. When it comes to 5G, it's about 7 to 9 times faster than gigabit fiber. Again it's channel dispersion that affords us this luxury. Hardwired infrastructure is reaching it's maximum potential. Wireless is still in it infancy and is growing bigger better faster everyday!
Wi-Fi 6 uses 8 channels on it's 5Ghz band compared to Wi-Fi 5 which only uses 4 channels on it's 5Ghz band. Mo channels, Mo thru put.
Ubernet

WIFI6 can use more channel width 160Mhz vs 80Mhz for WIFI5. That can improve your throughput to your router. You are still limited for most things by your WAN bandwidth. Backups to a local NAS are one of the few things that are improved by WIFI6 over WIFI5. I switched my APs around in my house when the wife got a new laptop. It supports WIFI6 and I already had a WIFI6 AP. Her backups are faster. Otherwise, no difference.

 

[Ubernet]

I'm going to do the antenna implementation along with the mod for the internal antennas getting connected to external antennas. By the way, the antennas that the internals are connecting to are tuned for the lower band channels. Using a regular MIMO would not do anything for me. I doubt that they would even get a signal. I got the mod from a guy who works for Telstra in Aussi land. He showed it to me over a video call. All I could say was WOW! I WANT ONE!
If I can get 633 to 720 Mbps link speed out of it, I'll be doing good! I just got to work on opening the choke point in my network!
Ubernet

 

[bill001g]

Do you actually know if your ISP has implemented the type of 4G or 5G you are attempting. These terms do not actually mean anything the cell companies for example just renamged what was called 4G -LTE-advanced 5G.

True 5G where they showed rates above 1gbit use a extremely high frequiency, 60ghz if I remember. This does not go much distance and does not pass though even windows well. You need external antenna. This was implemented only in some very small areas in very dense cites. New York city for example has one of these nodes.

Everything else is some kind of renamed mobile broadband protocol that vary greatly from vendor to vendor.

Again the 4G and 5G names have nothing to do with wifi5 or wifi6. You have to be very careful to connect to the proper antennas there are both wifi and mobile broadband antenna.

I can't say about where you live but modifying antenna on cellular devices is technically against the law in the USA and is part of the reason they make it so difficult.

 

[lantis3]

Wifi speed is somehow related to ISP wireless?

As of now 4G is roughly about 3 times faster than Gigabit fiber simply because the channel dispersion. When it comes to 5G, it's about 7 to 9 times faster than gigabit fiber.

Never heard of that.

==

If you want fast wifi LAN speed (not internet speed! your MR1100 tops out at 1Gbps down/150Mbps up) between your own devices you can get this, running in extender mode or WISP mode, which connects to MR1100 using wifi.

https://www.amazon.com/Cudy-802-11ax-Internet-Beamforming-WR3000/dp/B0BRK3CYY3

==

Oops, did not notice that MR1100 has a gigabit port, then you can connect it with any generic wired Wifi 6 router.

 

[lantis3]

This is probably the antenna mod OP referred to. It likely will improve reception & internet speed, not broadcasting, so I think it's not against FCC rules.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMa0cd87r6Y

 

[bill001g]

I have not looked at this but are the receive antenna different than the transmit antenna. Antenna are basically pieces of wire designed to increase signal levels at a particular frequency. If there is only 1 set of antenna it will increase both the transmit and receive signal levels.

Now what makes this even more messy is the ISP will adjust he transmit power but they adjust this based on the assumption that it is running standard antenna.

The fallacy with just putting bigger antenna on both wifi and cell is that it only improves the signal you want. Since it is dumb piece of wire it actually increases all signals. What can happen is the total energy you put into the amplifiers on the chip is too much and it actually degrades the performance. If there was a way to only increase the signals you want and not the other garbage in the same frequency range you would always get better performance by putting on bigger antenna. There tends to be some optimum antenna size that matches the amplifier and most times this is very close to the one they install in the unit by default.

I used to work with engineers who whole career is just antenna design. It is a extremely complex topic that I wish I knew more about the pay and demand for a RF engineer is massive.

 

[lantis3]

Found MR1100 has add-on antenna, seems no need to mod the antenna yourself. But not sure it's for wireless ISP or for LAN wifi devices or both as suggested by @bill001g

3G/4G/5G - Omnidirectional MIMO Antenna | NETGEAR

Omni-directional Antenna - Boost the network performance of indoors or in fringe areas by plugging this antenna into your 3G/4G/5G modem or mobile hotspot. Simple installation, no software required. Shop Now!

www.netgear.com

 

[bill001g]

Generally if the device allows external mobile broadband antenna it has what is called TS9 connectors. Although you can then cheat and use even a bigger antenna the ones they include are generally allowed to be used in most countries.

That is a expensive box.
It seems it supports even what is called mmwave which is the really fast 5G. Problem is the ISP has to actually offer that.

Many ISP pretend they offer 5g well outside major cities but that is far different than the so called 5G you get in a more metro area. The MMwave ones are even more rare.

This is nothing new they did the same thing when 4G came out. Took customers many years to learn that what they really needed was 4G-LTE and not the other things they were calling 4G.