I was skeptical, but a fan does seem to help

I bought this $17 UBS fan on Amazon.  It's totally silent and I'd estimate the Gateway top went from 110 to 120 degrees to below room temp.  It's cool to the touch now.   My device drop outs so far have stopped.

In Florida it rains SO much it's hard to measure speeds. All over the map from 23 mbps to 85.   It's not fast but so far meets my needs.  Wi fi disconnections was the #1 problem with this Gateway and the new fan seems to have solved that.

So thanks for the great fan tip.  The easy solution is usually the best solution.

Dave H.

richjd wrote:

I seem to have a new router mode that's square instead of round.  Has anyone tried a fan with this unit or found that it needed one? Mine is sitting on a top shelf near a skylight.  I actually got a faster signal with it in the attic without any windows, but if they already have heat issues, the attic is out of the question.  Also now that a number of people are using a fan for months, has any one noticed a lot of dust accumulating?  I am thinking a fan without any filtering at all might make things worse eventually. The vary porous low back pressure  filterer material  used in window AC units between the fan and the router may work well enough if it is cleaned every few months.

 

As you can see in the Nokia gateway it is a cylinder design where 100% of air has to flow bottom to top. On the Arcadyan "box", there are vents on the bottom and top, but the entire back and about 80% of the side covers are perforated. I don't see how a fan can do much. I've only had the Arcadyan for about 2 months and so far no heat issues. However, I am not using the built in wifi router so that may be a factor as well.

I seem to have a new router mode that's square instead of round.  Has anyone tried a fan with this unit or found that it needed one? Mine is sitting on a top shelf near a skylight.  I actually got a faster signal with it in the attic without any windows, but if they already have heat issues, the attic is out of the question.  Also now that a number of people are using a fan for months, has any one noticed a lot of dust accumulating?  I am thinking a fan without any filtering at all might make things worse eventually. The vary porous low back pressure  filterer material  used in window AC units between the fan and the router may work well enough if it is cleaned every few months.

I agree with the shelf and the restriction upon the location of the router you have little to no wiggle room. That is one of my bigger disappointments with the solution is that the location of the router is so critical for reception of signal. Heat can be an issue where optimal location results in conflict with the ambient temperature. I still have to wonder if there are some of the Nokia routers that are more prone to over temp issues due to hardware and a manufacturing anomaly. I have an early revision of the router from when I joined the BETA program. (3TG00739AAAA)  When there was a good bit of conversations about temperature and the router operations I did put my router out on the back porch on a 90 degree day and it kept on working and threw no alarms. Maybe I just am fortunate to have one that does not have heat issues.  If people with temperature issues contributed hardware revision information and other factors and a relationship could be identified that could make a difference. The fact that they did not incorporate a fan into the design where heat is generated seems to be a mistake to me. Passive cooling appears to be insufficient for some users. I am fortunate to have been able to get an improved traffic flow with a window on the NE wall where it is a cooler location. Not everyone has the luxury with the Nokia router to be able to avoid heat issues due to the imposed "location" of the router for optimal cellular signal strength and quality. 

Also, there’s some folks who designed a “Lid” for the trashcan that has a built in USB fan that helps a lot.

They even include the USB-C adapter with their lid:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1087066451/t-mobile-trashcan-lid?click_key=e21c58e6be00ae317afbed39752cb2599906d32a%3A1087066451&click_sum=75d83ad4&ref=hp_rv-1&frs=1&sts=1

This Lid will pull the air up and out, which I personally think is more effective in cooling - like how your PC fans would pull the air out of the box vs pushing air in.

I just ordered a tiny 40mm unit and a converter since my situation is with the KVD and it's on a shelving system.  The fan will be mounted to bottom of the shelf above the KVD to pull air from the shelf.

As you can see, I don’t have really any extra “room” to put anything on top of or below the gateway here - but how it sits right now is the “optimum” position for signal and speeds in my apartment.

007BondMI6 - I had a support call with T-Mobile and they confirmed the location of the tower my router links into. I went to Google Earth and confirmed what I suspected and then used my T-Mobile iPhone 12 in field test mode to confirm the PCI reporting. Both the router and the phone did agree on the 4G LTE and 5G NR PCI reporting. I tried the OpenSignal application on the phone due to a suggestion but found it to be 4G only and a 4 year old application. There are also some cellular locator apps for Android and I believe the Samsung phones in effect can provide the same sort of information. For me I was determined to nail down the tower location as I have been considering a 2x2 MIMO external YAGI antenna to make the solution better. With at least a $300-350 investment I will take the time to get it right. If I can place the T-Mobile router better for improved WIFI spread and get cellular signals better without having to invest on both sides that will be a win. So far the WIFI here has been good. OK, so my MacBook Pro antenna sort of stinks but a 50 foot CAT 6 cable has solved that issue. Trying to monitor the router with the web UI over the wireless with the MacBook was frustrating. On the wire, good. I just go with the flow and bend in the wind.

iTinkeralot wrote:

I believe you might be correct that they are working on the towers and maybe brought up some n41 equipment. It does not have the reach or the penetration of the n71 given the frequency but yep the bandwidth would be awesome. The fact that cellmapper.net does not report all the various radio frequencies on the 5G is probably due to the database not being up to date. I found using my iPhone 12in field test mode was quite helpful. I used it with the router and confirmed the PCIs and radio signals it reported. Here the only 5G tower is like 5.3 miles direct line of sight or there is another over the hills and dales and through the trees off to the West NW but that one the router never sees. Living in the country or out close does have its limitations. I am pretty sure the router must respond to reflected signals in the house. Any other explanation just does not make sense to me.

Well in this south room the tower is direct line of site from the one window that I have at random times had crazy fast speed. And like I was saying the tower had n41 antennas on it but this is a shared tower with other carriers so it could be not TM. Anyways that tower I can see it with just my eyes so if they were to put it up there I would get it.

What I find odd is on the TM 5G map my home shows Ultra 5G. And odder it is just for my home not either of my neighbors or any to the rear of this tower. So not sure how to read this as my home is the only home with line of sight of that particular tower. This makes me think I should have speeds of 500 down as the map says I should. If I look at the way the ultra 5G area is shaped it makes sense that it would come from that tower. This is confirmed by the fact that the other towers to the west and north west do not show Ultra 5G at all even under and around them. This whole thing is a crazy guessing game.

I believe you might be correct that they are working on the towers and maybe brought up some n41 equipment. It does not have the reach or the penetration of the n71 given the frequency but yep the bandwidth would be awesome. The fact that cellmapper.net does not report all the various radio frequencies on the 5G is probably due to the database not being up to date. I found using my iPhone 12in field test mode was quite helpful. I used it with the router and confirmed the PCIs and radio signals it reported. Here the only 5G tower is like 5.3 miles direct line of sight or there is another over the hills and dales and through the trees off to the West NW but that one the router never sees. Living in the country or out close does have its limitations. I am pretty sure the router must respond to reflected signals in the house. Any other explanation just does not make sense to me.

Yes I agree cellmapper.net is not current and there are more unverified towers than verified it seems. The 4G LTE towers and cell info is a bit better than the 5G but given 5G is new tech that doesn't surprise me. Give it 5-10 years and it will probably catch up. 

The router behavior with or without the screen makes no sense. Pretty crazy. I just have to wonder at times about how the Nokia router does handle the cellular signals. I had mine in the upstairs kitchen window with line of sight to the tower and it would at best get a weak signal. I moved it to the left side of the window vs the right side without line of sight and it receives a stronger signal. It is as if a reflected signal off the cabinets to the right hand side is better. At times I agree there doesn't appear to be any reasoning behind the location in other than trial and error. I have been thinking of buying an external MIMO yagi antenna since I have line of sight to the tower 5.3 miles away. None of the places where it tends to work are very desirable. I wish they had an interior antenna array on a 20-30 foot cable so the placement of the router could be optimized for wireless delivery on the local LAN. The attempt to fold both the cellular and WIFI into a tiny single package compromises both solutions or at best one or the other. With the 802.11ax radios they do appear to get pretty good coverage here in our 3300 sq ft two story home. I was skeptical of it at first but gave it time to prove itself and so far it has. It is much better than the unit the service provider in CA provisioned us with. That one really was a hard reboot often like every few days or weekly at best just to have a pitiful 15-18 Mbs down on DSL and for more cost than here. The T-Mobile solution is commonly 10x the up/down speeds so I don't have anything to complain about. This was our only real option and it works pretty well. Most of the time.