ZTE MF 253, improve signal?

ZSOneMe said:
I live in a very remote area and have to make use of an external antenna and I was glad to see that the router has two external antenna ports. I have however since discovered that these ports are useless as there is no difference in signal strength with or without an external antenna.

Normally router software allows one to select either the Internal or External antenna, however the ZTE software does not have this option leading me to believe that the SMA connectors are bogus. I have written to ZTE support and after 3 months have still not received any conclusive answer from them.
Click to expand...
Is it antenna with a low DC resistance (close to zero)? It could be the same problem as with Huawei B593 antenna selection.
Contact Poynting, the last time I visited the office, they had this router in stock, so they must know this product.

//delete duplicate posts. :)
 
Since my last input here, I have discovered the solution to my external antenna problem. There are two external antenna ports meant for an LTE antenna. Only one of the ports is required for 3G use BUT the correct port needs to be selected. Only ONE of the two ports is 3G compatible! This was a discovery I made while studying the schematic diagram of the router. On my router it is the port on the right hand side while viewing the back of the router. Placing the external antenna on the correct port has really improved my signal greatly; from -105db to -64db
 
Not only in 3G mode, also in LTE Cat3/4. Only one port is used to transmit signal, so if you connect external antenna to the receiving-only port, tower will not hear you. 2x2MIMO is only for receiving, so there is no reason to route transmit signal to both ports. Didn't I write it in the B593 or in the antenna thread?

Nice finding, on B593 it was on the left-hand side. Dare to share schematics? Public or PM? :)
 
sajunky said:
Not only in 3G mode, also in LTE Cat3/4. Only one port is used to transmit signal, so if you connect external antenna to the receiving-only port, tower will not hear you. 2x2MIMO is only for receiving, so there is no reason to route transmit signal to both ports. Didn't I write it in the B593 or in the antenna thread?

Nice finding, on B593 it was on the left-hand side. Dare to share schematics? Public or PM? :)
Click to expand...

I was so immersed in my own ZTE issue that I did not think to follow any other threads (You can see I am a Junior Forum User :D) I unfortunately do not have the schematics, I was visiting Poynting and was paging through their ZTE router schematics when I picked up this gem of information. Thank you also for sharing.
 
You are more clever I must say. They visit this forum frequently, but they didn't come with this idea. However i will change my mind of course if they send me more schematics. MD of Poyinting, Frank knows my Email address, he was helping me with MF283, I do appreciate. ;)
 
Hi guys,

So it's been 10 days since I have received my Telkom sim (60GB Day/60GB Night) package @ R399/month from VOX with a ZTE MF253 on rental @ R51/month.

Since day 1, I have never had above 1mbps or a stable connection, however the upload speed is always 10x greater... When I login to the router, the signal bars are full however my signal strength sits between -95 to -110. I have contacted VOX multiple times every day for the last 10 days and I am getting no joy out of them. I investigated this issue by myself and it seems like the router is the issue??

Firstly, this router has come with a Vodacom SA apn on the manual settings. When I factory reset it, same story. I had to manually add the VOX APN as advised by the VOX "TECH"... Guess what, nothing changed... Still max 1mbps download...

The strange part is, when I set the Network Selection to 3G only.. I get speeds of upto 5mbps download and a stable connection? But when I set it back to 4G/LTE only, BOOM... 1mbps if not 0.15mbps

Could anyone tell me if this router is definitely the issue? This is very disappointing from VOX. They even want me to pay R300 to return the router for COURIER FEE.. what nonsense... I didn't even get to use this service properly.

Atm, I am using a prepaid Telkom sim card in my pocket router and I get speeds of upto 20mbps at least sigh.... I wonder when VOX will wake up.

Router model: ZTE MF253

Please let me know if there is any way to fix this issue....? If not, I will have to cancel this crappy service and probably order an LTE service through mweb/webafrica where they provide a Huawei router instead of this terrible ZTE MF253

Thank you
 
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