Which 5G router should i choose? FWA510, FWA515, FWA70 or else?

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Knutifrutti
Knutifrutti Posts: 3 image  Freshman Member
First Comment
in Mobile Broadband

Hi all,

i plan to switch my internet connection from DSL to 5G.
I live in Germany and far away from any fiber-optic connections, but near a Telekom cell tower 300m line of sight.

With my iPhone and outside my house i will get 450 MBit Download and 150 MBit Upload. Much better than DSL (100/40).
So, i decided to use 5G using an external antenna.
I already own a Maswell 4G 5G LTE MIMO Antenna with 700-3800 MHz.

Looking for 5G routers with external antenna connectors i found a Zyxel FWA510, FWA515 and the outdoor model FWA70 (sometimes also named FWA710).

FWA70 has no external Antenna connectors and a more or less unprotected SIM Card Slot (bad solution?).
FWA510 has four connectors for external antennas, WiFi 6 (or 7?), 2xRJ45 (2.5 Gbps) and a USB3 port for storage devices. Looks nice.
FWA515 has only two connectors for external antennas (but my external antenna also has only two cables), WiFi 7, only 1xRJ45 (2.5 Gbps) and no USB3 port. It looks good too, but maybe not perfect.

I would mount the router (if i do not decide for the FWA70) on the wooden roof beams under the roof tiles and attach the external antenna to an antenna mast.
It’s important to me to have the fastest possible 5G connection but also need to bring the speed into my LAN.
I’d like to connect the router to my home network switch via a CAT7 RJ45 cable(s?) with a minimum speed of 2.5 Gbps, but preferably 10 Gbps. (my LAN is: 2x PC, NAS-Box)
I also have some WiFi devices inside (iPhone, radio, TV), but also my car with navigation outside the house.

My questions are:
Do I need to connect an antenna to all 4 ports on the FWA510?
Will my signal quality suffer if I connect only two external antennas instead of using the 4 internal antennas?
How do I even align four antennas? Horizontally, vertically, ..., ??? and how is the alignment of the 4 internal antennas in all devices?
Is the FWA515 the successor to the FWA510 and therefore better (with except of the missing USB port)?
If the FWA515 is the successor to the FWA510, are there any other disadvantages compared to the FWA510?
Is the "open" SIM card slot on the FWA70 a problem that could lead to contact issues later on?
Remember: I want to mount it on a roof mast above the roof, where it rains and snows.
Is there any way I can bundle the two 2.5 Gbps RJ45 ports on the FWA510 to get a faster connection to the LAN?

Which router should I choose?

Regards,
Knutifrutti

All Replies

  • Zyxel_Tina
    Zyxel_Tina Posts: 729 image  Zyxel Employee
    Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Security Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Switch 100 Answers 500 Comments

    Hi @Knutifrutti,

    Welcome to the Zyxel Community!

    Please allow me to clarify first:

    • We have two different outdoor models: FWA70 and FWA710. The SIM slot design is located at the bottom, which helps reduce exposure to weather effects. Although we have not received reports of issues in normal use so far, we appreciate your feedback as it helps us continue improving our products.
    • Both the Zyxel FWA510 and Zyxel FWA515 come with a USB port and two 2.5GbE RJ45 ports (1× 2.5GbE LAN + 1× 2.5GbE LAN/WAN).
    • Neither the FWA510 nor the FWA515 supports Link Aggregation (LAG) to combine the RJ45 ports into a single higher-bandwidth link. This feature is not available on our mobile router series. For NAS or intranet traffic, achieving higher throughput mainly depends on whether your switch and PCs support 10G, which is the key factor.

    On the other hand, based on your use case, we recommend the FWA515. Here are some advantages for your reference:

    • It is a WiFi 7 (BE7200) indoor router. Compared to the WiFi 6 (AX3600) FWA510, it uses a newer generation of technology.
    • The FWA515 features dual-band concurrent 4x4 + 4x4 internal WiFi antennas, which should be sufficient for your WiFi and LAN client usage. Therefore, using your external Maswell MIMO antenna is not necessary. In addition, the internal antennas are omni-directional, so no specific alignment is required. We recommend placing the device near a window with a clear line of sight to the cellular tower.

    Overall, the FWA515 can provide better performance (such as speed/throughput), so we suggest considering this model.

    Hope this helps :)

    Zyxel Tina

  • Knutifrutti
    Knutifrutti Posts: 3 image  Freshman Member
    First Comment

    Hi Tina,

    thanks for your quick and comprehensive response.

    So I guess I'll go with an FWA515.

    Unfortunately, I don't have a window facing the cell tower. So I'd have to mount the router under the roof. The roof tiles would then be between the router and the cell tower. Would an external antenna on top of the roof be preferable to the internal antenna in that case? The roof tiles are made of clay.

    Knut

  • Zyxel_Tina
    Zyxel_Tina Posts: 729 image  Zyxel Employee
    Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Security Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Switch 100 Answers 500 Comments

    Hi @Knutifrutti,

    Thanks for your feedback!

    For your installation scenario, we suggest starting with the built-in antennas on the FWA515 first to evaluate actual performance, such as signal quality and throughput, before adding an external antenna.

    In addition, you may use this guideline to evaluate your 5G signal quality:

    https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/26632/what-is-a-good-5g-cellular-signal-of-mobile-router

    If the performance is not as expected, you can then consider adding your external antenna to further improve reception.

    Zyxel Tina

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