I was skeptical a fan would help anything but now I'm not. I installed an 80mm one and it does seem to increase speeds once the lower temperature stabilizes (a few hours after install).
I only have the fan on low and I have it plugged in to the USB-C on the back of the gateway with a USB-C to USB adapter.
Note, the 80mm fan size seems to work best as the air goes in to the gateway better versus 120mm, where some air goes outside of it.
I got this fan, only about $11: https://amzn.to/3mFqaKo
Hi just wondering how the can sits on top of the 80 vs the 120.
Would you have a pic?
Just want to see if it is stable.
They probably should have built a fan in to the router for a $300.00+ unit cost device with overheating issues.
I ordered this cooling stand because I was afraid the router might get knocked over on a smaller base. My cylinder is perched up on a high shelf.
Hi just wondering how the can sits on top of the 80 vs the 120.
Would you have a pic?
Just want to see if it is stable.
It’s quite stable, here is a picture:
Thanks for the post. I have the 120 but I do feel it is too big and airflow gets wasted. I like that the 80 fits right into the bottom. What I would do is put some tape around the bottom where you have that gap so that all air got into the can. I used painters tape it worked just fine. I think I am going to order the 80 to test it out I can always put the 120 on the top or use it elsewhere.
Thanks for the post. I have the 120 but I do feel it is too big and airflow gets wasted. I like that the 80 fits right into the bottom. What I would do is put some tape around the bottom where you have that gap so that all air got into the can. I used painters tape it worked just fine. I think I am going to order the 80 to test it out I can always put the 120 on the top or use it elsewhere.
I don’t feel that tape is needed. It’s still cooling 20° lower on low, and could cool more on medium or high.
I am just trying to direct as much air in as possible.
This is what I did with the 120mm I even taped the sides of the fan as without this tape most of the air from the 120 goes out the sides and the top and side of the can still feel warm.
I do think the 80 will give more direct airflow as the blades are similar in width to the can vents on the bottom.
You know everyone here is going above and beyond to circumvent design issues with the can.
Ok so my 80mm fan came and I went a bit farther. I do like the 80 as it fits better but I decided to modify it to fit inside.
I basically took off the 4 rubber feet, cut the corners off and put the fan up inside the cans bottom. All I can say is wow wow the hot air all comes out and becomes cool this setup really works. With this setup you can actually feel the air coming out the top that never happen with the 120mm fan on any speed.
Ok so my 80mm fan came and I went a bit farther. I do like the 80 as it fits better but I decided to modify it to fit inside.
I basically took off the 4 rubber feet, cut the corners off and put the fan up inside the cans bottom. All I can say is wow wow the hot air all comes out and becomes cool this setup really works. With this setup you can actually feel the air coming out the top that never happen with the 120mm fan on any speed.
Cool mod. Do you get any rattling or vibrations from the fan being plastic on plastic to the gateway?
I sort of like that the fan has vibration dampening feet both the top and the bottom that the gateway can rest on.
Cool mod. Do you get any rattling or vibrations from the fan being plastic on plastic to the gateway?
I sort of like that the fan has vibration dampening feet both the top and the bottom that the gateway can rest on.
No noise at all just the air sound. I guess you could pad it if you wanted but the can is heavy enough it does not seem to need it.
But I keep going back to feel the air blowing out the top that just never happen with the 120 so I am sure this is a more efficient setup.
+8
007BondMI6 I just have to ask. In your picture is that a nylon screen or aluminum screen over that window or is that one of those sun shades?
That is a pretty neat mod to the router. The shelf is also pretty rad! Spare no expense! My sister might have put it in a macramé hanger. She has made some great ones.
Not going to show you my fan as it is pretty funky. No where near as impressive.
On mine I didn’t modify the fan however I did make a little strip that goes in the gap of the gateway base. Made out of tool chest liner that I cut a strip of. Kind of a light foam material, works pretty well, it helps all the air go up into the gateway, here’s a picture.
+8
It looks good. It’s a router/gateway so it just has a job to do. I didn’t do much but put a small laptop fan under mine. It never exhibited any heat related issue so I just had the spare fan I was not using and decided to use it. It will not hurt anything so good enough. Since mine is in the basement on a cheap metal file cabinet and an empty exercise ball box there is no aesthetic emphasis. It is just a fixture in a temporary location and convenient.
007BondMI6 I just have to ask. In your picture is that a nylon screen or aluminum screen over that window or is that one of those sun shades?
That is a pretty neat mod to the router. The shelf is also pretty rad! Spare no expense! My sister might have put it in a macramé hanger. She has made some great ones.
Not going to show you my fan as it is pretty funky. No where near as impressive.
So here is the funny part that screen is metal and should act as a Faraday cage but that’s debatable.
The window sills are narrow and also I wanted the can on the upper part to avoid damage from little visitors and the like, so I made a quick shelf.
So back to the screen I was of course removing the screen as I have been testing the can in many windows. The can is funny it works just as good in this room on the pool table but obviously it cannot stay there. The can is very weird it can get good signal in the oddest places. I have been sticking to windows as well I have the fancy shelf and there are plugs on the wall so they work out. So I put the can on a ext cord and been moving it around and testing. I do some pelemery testing in rooms and windows I have weeks of time invested at this point. So the can was upstairs in a bedroom just to the south of this current room. It was ok there and stable with 50 ish down 10 ish up but wife was not liking the hum of the fan. So I had done some testing in this conservatory and got good speeds in the past but it is not wired for ethernet so I skipped it. So yesterday I came back to this room and speeds were good actually better than the upper bedroom so I did some testing. So most windows here seemed the same but this window is never in the sun and was kinda in a corner also had plug under it. So I did some testing here and averaged 75ish down 25 up so decided to stick it here for a bit. Then I removed the screen and put everything back and speed went down. Wait what that does not make sense since the screen blocks the direction to the towers. Moved it in my hands to the window next that still had the screen and speed when up. Hmm ok put the screen back in and put it all back back up to 75 hmm odd. Maybe somehow the screen is acting as some type of catch and helping the can. No idea but I know what I am seeing.
So some info on my towers.
I have 2 4G towers one is .5 miles on the west the other is 2 miles direct line of site no obstruction to the south. I have only one 5G tower in range 1.5 miles to the north west. So I don't have a single tower that has both 4 and 5 G on the same tower. I have found at least in my area Cellmapper is out of date and even the towers are not in the right place. Close but up to a half a mile off on the map. I just drive to the towers for testing near the tower to verify what is what.
So can seemed ok in this room late yesterday afternoon so I drilled a hole and ran some cable from my Google Wifi to the conservatory. I was a bit nervous went to get my crimp tool and ends and oh man only 2 ends left and I haven't made a cable in a few years. I did good though got the ends on and the cable rang out ok but I did order more ends.
It looks good. It’s a router/gateway so it just has a job to do. I didn’t do much but put a small laptop fan under mine. It never exhibited any heat related issue so I just had the spare fan I was not using and decided to use it. It will not hurt anything so good enough. Since mine is in the basement on a cheap metal file cabinet and an empty exercise ball box there is no aesthetic emphasis. It is just a fixture in a temporary location and convenient.
As for the fan later yesterday I just removed all 4 of the tabs from the top of the fan. This allows the can to rotate freely on top of the fan as we all know minor change in rotation can make a big diff in speed.
So BTW I get a B66 and N71 and here is the current data.
I just got 75 down and 25 up.
Also I need the mesh of the Google Wifi but it does seem to slow things down. For instance if I turn on the can wifi that will be a bit faster like 90ish vs 75 ish. Same goes for wired most of my rooms are wired for ethernet (previous owner put 2 in every room except for the room the can is in now) so if I take a wired connection it will also be 90 ish. So it should not really matter but the Google Wifi does seem to add a performance hit. I am just noting this as when I test I always test on the same setup so I am getting consistent results.
I was really thinking of getting that external ant not sure if it is worth it as if this can stay stable at these speeds it will run my home as is.
iTinkeralot
What are your thoughts on this.
During all my testing here over the past month+ I have at times very odd in this room on the south side gotten sick fast speeds on both the can and my phone when testing. I am taking 500+ down so real fast and this is just in one spot of one room and it comes and goes. Normally in this room phone is ok and can is not good as it cannot see the n71 tower to the NW from this room well and that drops. But once in a while and I don't know what it is locking on to as I have never check at the time it is real fast for a bit. I was thinking maybe they are testing n41 on the tower to the south as it had n41 antennas on it. But cellmapper does not show any n41 there in fact it shows the only n41 tower in the whole area for miles and miles is 5 miles to the NW so you know I am not ever going to get that especially on the opposite side of my home.
So not sure what to think normally this room is really bad for the can. I cannot ever leave it there I tried for a few days but could not conduct business so I had to move it. My thoughts were to catch a time when it got the fast speed and see what on earth it was locking on to. But like I said I just can’t leave it there speeds are to slow. So another crazy can story a room that at times speeds are half a gigabit but most of the time they are 5 or less megabits.
Thoughts?
+8
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.
+8
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.
+8
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.
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.
+8
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.
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:
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.
+8
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.
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.
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