Forum Discussion
Trouble with 5g Internet in Metal Buildings
We have 5G hooked up for our business. It is housed in a metal building. I get great service outside but inside the metal building the service is not so great. Is there an easy way to connect an ante...
Your best option is to get an external antenna. There are solutions and you should check out the video that Nater Tater has done on YouTube. Nate has reviews and informative videos on each of the T-Mobile gateways. He has even gone into the Sagemcon. Waveform.com has antenna solutions and guides for the connection of external antennas. The connectors in the gateway are delicate and very fragile.
Nota: Attempting to obtain a signal in a metal build building is like being in a big Faraday cage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
At Aruba Networking we had multiple Faraday cages for isolating APs and scores of clients for controlled testing. The signals don't get in or out of a properly constructed Faraday cage.
If you go the external antenna route you need to know the frequency you receive your 5G signal upon. If you are on an n71 signal a 2x2 MIMO would be sufficient but for n41 a 4x4 MIMO antenna would be required to take full advantage of the signal. External antennas are not cheap. A 2x2 MIMO would cost $200-$300 whereas a 4x4 MIMO is more around the $400-$500 range. I am also allowing some consideration for lightning arrestors and possible cable length adaptation. Every installation is a little different so requirements vary. You don't want to run more cable than is needed or there is additional attenuation of the signal.
