Zyxel NR5103 Antennas

Have you purchased the Zyxel NR5103 or got an EE 5G Home Broadband that came with the EE 5G Router?

The 5GEE Router (Zyxel NR5103) uses a 5G SIM card and provides superfast 5G mobile broadband Internet.  It delivers this super fast Internet to wired users via high speed Gigabit Ethernet ports.   For wireless devices this router has a built-in, high speed 802.11AC WiFi hotspot.

However, this router is usually used indoors and the router might not be getting the best 5G network signal.  If you were to take your NR5103 router outdoors and test the download and upload speeds and you get much better performance it may be worthwhile installing a 5G antenna outdoors and running the antenna cables to your router.

However, if you find you get similar performance when your router is indoors (in it’s usual or preferred position) and when it is being tested outdoors there probably isn’t a need for an outdoor 5G Antenna.

View of Zyxel NR5103 Antenna Ports

Do you want to add an external 5G Antenna to get the optimum performance from your 5G router?

Did you perform the simple speed test above?  Did you get much better performance with the NR5103 router tested outdoors?  If so, then buying and installing an external antenna would be a great solution for optimising your 5GEE Router performance.  The main factor to consider is the distance between your proposed antenna installation point and the router.  Many external 5G antennas will be pre-terminated with 5m long cables.  In the case of a 4×4 MiMo 5G Antenna you will get 4 x 5m long cables.  You can extend the length of the antenna cable using extension cables.  Try to keep the cable length as short as possible.  The longer the antenna cables, the more signal loss you will get and degrading of the 5G signal.

Do you need a Directional or Omni-Directional 5G Antenna?

If you have taken your router outdoors to test the performance of the 5G connection then you are using the equivalent of an omni-directional antenna.   If you purchase an omni-directional 5G antenna and keep the cables as short as possible then you should get similar performance.

For more rural locations, and those and further away from the 5G basestation and only just getting a 5G signal, then you may want to consider a directional 5G antenna.  There is not a simple way of testing the enhanced performance that you will get from a directional antenna.  We would suggest buying a pair of Fullband FB5GD11 low cost directional 5G antennas.  These are supplied with 10m of cable and using this outdoors and pointing it at the 5G cell tower you want to connect to.  Connect these antennas to CELL 1 and CELL 2 antenna ports of the Zyxel NR5103 router.  Once they have been directed to the 5G tower then this should then give you an small indication of the enhanced performance offered by directional antennas for a 5G router.

You could then purchase another pair of antennas or choose a 4×4 MiMo 5G Antenna such as the Panorama WMM4G-6-60-5SP.  This is a high gain, directional antenna which is pre-terminated with 4 x 5m long antenna cables with SMA Male connections.  This single antenna solution provides a good looking outdoor antenna solution where aesthetics are important compared to 4 of the FB5GD11 antennas.

Read about ZYXEL ROUTERS Here.