Using a MIMO antenna outside your building, pointed at the nearest tower, can help you get the fastest 4G LTE data rates possible.

The default Peplink Balance 20X has two cellular SMA ports on the back to allow for a 2x2 MIMO antenna array to be connected to the device. With a 5G FlexModule Mini connected, four additional cellular SMA ports become available and they can be used for their very own 4x4 MIMO antenna array.

We recommend two different MIMO antenna options for the Peplink Balance 20X, dependant on the presence of the 5G FlexModule Mini:

The easiest antenna choice for the Balance 20X is our QuadMini Antenna Kit. With up to 5.2 dBi of omnidirectional gain and multiple mounting options, it is designed to be extremely simple to install outdoors or indoors, at home or in an RV.

However, if you're willing to spend a little bit of time aiming, our QuadPro Antenna Kit will generally get you the fastest data speeds, thanks to its 9.1 dBi of directional gain. This is particularly important if you're on the edge of coverage, or have very weak signal.

However, for users with the stand-alone Peplink Balance 20X, we recommend using a 2x2 MIMO Panel Antenna kit instead. This antenna doesn’t require line-of-sight to the tower and utilizes both of the Peplink Balance 20X's cellular antenna ports to provide it with better cell service.

Most people think that external antennas primarily help you increase your data rates by increasing the signal strength. But that's not the case.

An increase in signal strength is often less important than other ways that external antennas help.

Here are the three main ways that external antennas help you increase your data rates:

The standalone Peplink Balance 20X and the 5G FlexModule Mini have many available ports and some of these ports can be used for external cellular antennas. More specifically,

On the Peplink Balance 20X,

• The two RP-SMA ports grouped on the back edge labeled Wi-Fi Antenna A and B are used for WiFi antennas.

• The single SMA port on the back edge labeled GPS is used for a GPS antenna.

• The two SMA ports grouped on the front edge, labeled Cellular Main and Cellular Diversity / Aux are for cellular antennas. If you do not have the 5G FlexModule Mini, these ports are will be used for by the 2x2 MIMO External Antenna kit.

• The single SIM slot (not pictured) located on the bottom of the device can contain up to one SIM card for the embedded LTE Modem (CAT-7).

On the Peplink 5G FlexModule Mini,

• The four SMA ports labeled Cellular A, Cellular B, Cellular C, and Cellular D are used for cellular antennas. If you have the 5G FlexModule Mini, these ports will be used by the 4x4 MIMO External Antenna kit.

• The two SIM Slots located beneath the unscrewable cover, can contain up to two different SIM cards for the embedded 5G Modem (CAT-20). Note: The 5G FlexModule Mini can only use one SIM card at a time. If another SIM card is placed into the 5G FlexModule Mini, it is treated as "redundant" back-up SIM card.

Now, before installing adapters for external antennas, it's always a good idea to run a couple of speed tests indoors from a device connected to your Peplink's WiFi. The results will fluctuate a little, but this is the baseline you're trying to improve.

Once you've tested your baseline internet speeds, you're ready to install external antennas.

In the next section of this guide, we'll show you how to connect adapters for external antennas to your Peplink.

Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Adapters for External Antennas

Step 1: Disconnect the stock antennas connected to the devices' cellular antenna ports:

• Without a Peplink 5G FlexModule Mini: Disconnect the stock paddle antennas for the Balance 20X's "Cellular Main" and "Cellular Div / Aux" ports.

• With the Peplink 5G FlexModule Mini: Disconnect the stock antennas connected to the 5G FlexModule Mini's "Cellular Main A", "Cellular Main B", "Cellular Aux A", and "Cellular Aux B" ports.

  Note: Keep all the ports not used by a 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO External Antenna kit connected to their stock antennas.

Step 2: Connect the cables to the newly available cellular SMA ports for use with your external MIMO antennas:

• Peplink Balance 20X: Connect the cables from your 2x2 MIMO Antenna kit to the Balance 20X's ports labeled "Cellular Main" and "Cellular Div / Aux" ports, the order does not matter.
• Peplink 5G FlexModule Mini: Connect the cables adapters from your 4x4 MIMO Antenna kit to the 5G FlexModule Mini's ports in the order shown below:

Note: For our 4x4 MIMO Antenna Kit, the cable jackets of the Quad-RS240 cable are labeled 1 through 4 to match the cable connectors on each end of the cable.

Congrats! Your Peplink Max Balance 20X is now connected to your powerful MIMO External Antennas.

Correctly positioning and aiming MIMO antennas is crucial to getting the best performance to your Peplink, or indeed any other router.

We've actually compiled a detailed 4x4 MIMO instruction manual to accompany our own 4x4 MIMO Antenna Kits, where we go into depth on the best ways to aim the antennas.

The goal is to find the best location and direction for the antenna(s) to maximize data rates to the hotspot. It can take a little patience, but can have a huge impact – it’s worth a bit of extra effort!

Once you've got your external MIMO antennas connected, you're ready to go outside with your "test-rig".

With each location and direction you try, run a couple speed tests, and make a note of the results. Here are all the locations and directions where we recommend testing your MIMO antenna:

Pro tip: Don’t just go to the highest point of the roof! While signal is generally stronger the higher you go, there’s also often more interference. We’ve found it’s often better to mount the antenna(s) on the side of the building where the structure can shield the antennas from interference.

Once you've found the position which gets you the highest data rates to the Peplink router, that's where you'll want to install the MIMO antenna. Go ahead and mount the antenna, run cables inside, connect everything up, and enjoy superior data rates!

If you've gone through the trouble of installing and accurately aiming a MIMO Antenna Kit, you're likely already getting excellent data rates from your Peplink Balance 20X.

That said, there's always more that can be done!

Band locking is a great way to optimize data rates through an LTE router or hotspot. The idea is that you test every different frequency band being received by your device, and lock it onto the band that results in the best data rates.

The Peplink Balance 20X is one of few lines of routers that allow manual band locking in their web interface - here's a step by step guide of how to do it.

Band Locking the Peplink Balance 20X

The reason this works so well, is because different frequency bands transmit with different bandwidths.

Generally speaking, higher frequency bands (like 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz) offer more bandwidth but travel less far and penetrate building materials less well than lower frequency bands (like 700 MHz and 800 MHz).

As a result of travelling less far, higher frequency bands tend to be less “congested” - they have fewer users connected to them, and data rates are often faster.

This isn’t always the case though, sometimes a lower frequency band may have better data rates, depending on your location.

This can be quite time consuming, but often results in significant improvements to data rates.

We'll keep the steps below as simple and concise as possible! If you need a little more guidance, you can find a video about this here.

Step 1: Access the Peplink's web interface

• Use a computer to connect to your Peplink's LAN network via ethernet, and open a web browser.
• Enter "192.168.50.1" into the URL bar to log into the Peplink web interface.
• Login to the interface with your username and password - default username is "admin" and the password is "admin".
• You will be required to change the password on the first logon.

Step 2: Navigate to the cellular settings

• On the main dashboard, you will see a number of fields under "WAN Connection Status".
• Find the cellular option with a SIM card detected, and click on "Details". There's a fair amount of useful and interesting information to be found in this section of the web interface. For now, we're only interested in the band locking feature.
• Scroll down past "Cellular Status" and "WAN Connection Settings", until you see "Cellular Settings".

Step 3: Activate manual band selection on the Peplink Balance 20X

• Expand the dropdown under the active SIM card slot, and change "Band Selection" mode to "Manual".

Step 4: Lock the Peplink Balance 20X to a frequency band

From the list of bands that appears, select only the band(s) to which you'd like to lock the Peplink router. Note: Since most carriers are currently in the processes of decommissioning their 3G networks, we recommend unselecting all bands listed as "WCDMA / ...".

• In the example below we've selected all of the bands that are available, you will likely only want to select a subset of the available LTE bands.

Once you've selected the bands you'd like to use, reboot the router for the changes to take effect.

Now, lets test each available band in your area, to determine which will result in the best data rates.

Step 5: Test and select the best tower and frequency band.

Perform the following set of steps to find which cell tower is the best to optimize your system towards:

1. Look up your nearby towers. This can be time consuming and accuracy is often questionable - we've listed our suggestions in an article on the Best Ways to Locate Nearby Cell Towers.
2. Aim your external MIMO antenna(s) at each nearby tower and band lock the Peplink Balance 20X to each band that the tower transmits.
3. Run 3 to 4 speed tests on each band to find the fastest bands. Speedtest.net is a great tool for this.
4. Repeat this for every tower in your area, and make notes of the speed test results you get from each band and tower combination.

Once you've identified the best tower and band combination, lock your Peplink to that band, and make sure your outdoor antenna is secured so that it doesn't move in the wind.

Peplink Balance 20X

• Product Page
• User Manual (Peplink Balance-Series)
• Data Sheet

Peplink 5G FlexModule Mini (Optional)

• Product Page
• User Guide
• Data Sheet