Proxicast 6.5~8 dBi Gain External Magnetic Loaded Coil 4G Antenna AT&T Nighthawk M5 / MR5100, M1 / MR1100, Velocity 2, Verizon Jetpack 8800L & Others MiFi Hotspots w/ TS9 Connectors (ANT-124-TS9-2PK)

Important note: I use these mounted outside - to The roof of whatever (always parked) vehicle I am in or carried with me if I am hiking out to a spot to work. Pros: I am often in a remote forest with one bar of LTE on my phone - messages had to be sent as texts, not able to get photos, certainly no able to browse the web. The Verizon MiFi alone was a bit of an improvement, but it was slow & a disappointment. These antenna really made a huge difference for me & made the MiFi a workable solution to being able to work from here - it wasn’t before. I can stream YouTube vids, I’m in that remote locale right now writing this using the Amazon app, I can check email with attachments and download documents from the cloud. I just tried to FaceTime, and it was not a problem, which was a bit of a surprise. Haven’t tried to Zoom, not sure how that would go. Magnets work for me, I don’t keep them installed permanently, I move them around depending on where I am in the forest where I am working, so I haven’t subjected them to staying on under any extreme conditions. I just put them on the roof of the vehicle I am in, don’t have to fuss much to get them to do their thing. Con: the only con for me is the connections to the MiFi ports are not at all secure. They seemed okay at first, but after a month or so, they just fall right out from the slightest movement. It’s a huge PITA, and managing the long cords is also a pain - I also realize that a lot of folks probably set this up and leave it, so my usage might be atypical since I am taking the antenna out a lot. It’s annoying they fall out so easily, but the reception I get is such a huge improvement that I would purchase it again without hesitation.

We use our RV more now because the pandemic has taken over our home (it's home and work). When traveling and because I am in tech, I have to stay connected using a Verizon MiFi. I generally get a pretty great reception and remarkable speeds, but there are times when we are off of the beaten path boondocking, where the signal can be a little spotty. While sitting at my desk at home, I spun up the MiFi with the antenna connected and hit up speedof.me to test it out. After having an antenna baseline, I removed and it and immediately reran the speedtest. It worked like a charm. In the pictures, the first one is without an antenna. The second picture is with the antenna. I have validated nothing more than the gain accomplished and expect that further validation in the field will show similar results.

Positives: Cheap, light, it works. Negatives: There is another product by the same manufacturer that is much more expensive and which works better, but it is heavier. Whether it works and how well it works, is for me the most important. I tested the antennas in a very poor signal situation and compared it to the no antenna results and to the more expensive antennas results. Here is what I found. The number of bars shown on my M5 didn't change at all, but the speed tests that I ran DID change. I used the ORKA speedtest app on my iPhone 12 pro max with my phone wirelessly connected to my M5 using the 5G wifi and my phone close to the M5 so as not to lose throughput because of distance. I also put my phone in airplane mode, because when I use the M5 with cellular service enabled, I get disastrous results! Averaging over a small number of trials, here are the results that I obtained: M5 without antennas Download: 3.87Mbps, Upload 0.24Mbps, Ping: 42ms, Loss: 14% M5 WITH these antennas (proxicast ANT-124-TSç-2PK) Download: 6.98Mbps, Upload: 0.52Mbps, Ping: 108ms, Loss: 18% M5 with other antennas (proxicastProxicast 8 dBi High Gain External Magnetic Antenna Compatible with AT&T Nighthawk M5, ...) Download: 8.44Mbps, Upload: 0.51Mbps, Ping: 61.5ms, Loss: 0% The VERY poor signal case is important to me, but the antennas are important to me, and hence my test in a signal-deprived Location. In the tested scenario, the antennas made a very real difference to the usability of the connection. The more expensive antennas, nearly 4x more expensive, provided better results, and are more physically stable, but they are also heavier. These antennas easily fall over, whereas their expensive and heavier big brother does not. I decided to keep both pairs because sometimes the lightness of this pair will make a difference. When I want to be really sure, I will use the more expensive ones, and the cost of lugging around heavy antennas.

So I purchased these Proxicast 6.5-8 dbi Gain Antennas to use with my Netgear Nighthawk MR1100 LTE Hotspot. I'm in a very rural East Alabama town and there isn't fiber internet, cable internet, DSL, etc. Our options are Satellite or Hotspots. Anyways. My Netgear device doesn't do very well without external Antennas so I purchased these and they definitely help the signal and speeds.(40 Mbps down and 12 Mbps up average). My issue is with the Ts9 connectors. Specifically the copper coaxial strand in the center that slides in and completes the connection. They're very fragile and break easily so be careful when you're connecting to your device. Other than that they work well and would purchase again.

Easy install, cable length is good, seems durable - however, while testing these on a Netgear LM1200, despite of multiple locations, different heights, testing one/the other/both: TX Power was up 33% Quality was up 15% Bandwidth speeds were half. :(