320MKS MIMO Antenna Mounting Location

[EddieK82]

We currently have the Winegard setup with the router int he ceiling running off a 4G T-Mobile sim card. It's very slow but it works some things like the TV. We also have 2 Tmobile InseeGo Boxes with separate data plans. Let's just say we have a lot of things that use internet and I need a dedicated box for my work computer alone.

Here is what I'd like to do and would like advice if this is the best method before I go running all the wires.

I'd like to remove the router from the ceiling and put a nighthawk 5G router in its place, mounted in the same place, run the wire though the same hole in the rv and mount the antenna on the roof above it. Would this be feasable, or is there another method to use. I know there's a million posts on this, but I couldn't find one that describes the way I'd like to do it.

It's a shame winegard doesn't have any 5g in the near future. I sent them an email and they said no time soon.

[MoonShadow_1911]

We currently have the Winegard setup with the router int he ceiling running off a 4G T-Mobile sim card. It's very slow but it works some things like the TV. We also have 2 Tmobile InseeGo Boxes with separate data plans. Let's just say we have a lot of things that use internet and I need a dedicated box for my work computer alone.

Here is what I'd like to do and would like advice if this is the best method before I go running all the wires.

I'd like to remove the router from the ceiling and put a nighthawk 5G router in its place, mounted in the same place, run the wire though the same hole in the rv and mount the antenna on the roof above it. Would this be feasable, or is there another method to use. I know there's a million posts on this, but I couldn't find one that describes the way I'd like to do it.

It's a shame winegard doesn't have any 5g in the near future. I sent them an email and they said no time soon.

I don't know about putting the Nighthawk in the ceiling, it's kind of big.

What I am doing is a commboard on the top shelf, above the control panel. On that commboard, I will be mounting my firewall, managed 10 port switch, wireless access point (actually this will be mounted on the ceiling of the cabinet), my FTP server, and the external 4TB drive that is attached to the FTP server.

For internet access, I will be going with the Nomad Internet AT&T unlimited plan, and their cellular router. In the future, I might upgrade that to the PepWave router.

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[EddieK82]

I don't know about putting the Nighthawk in the ceiling, it's kind of big.

What I am doing is a commboard on the top shelf, above the control panel. On that commboard, I will be mounting my firewall, managed 10 port switch, wireless access point (actually this will be mounted on the ceiling of the cabinet), my FTP server, and the external 4TB drive that is attached to the FTP server.

For internet access, I will be going with the Nomad Internet AT&T unlimited plan, and their cellular router. In the future, I might upgrade that to the PepWave router.

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So what exactly are you needing all that for? Sounds like a lot of tech to run internet?

Right now I have the Gateway router mounted to the ceiling, which is kinda big, it has a 4g tmobile phone sim in it using that phones 100GB hotspot. I have my 2 Tmobile 5g 100GB hotspots in the left cabinet above the tv, where the electrical outlet is. They're mounted in there in 2 inseego plastic fabricated cases. They're actually doing pretty well for being in the cabinet, over 300mbs download speed on both.

I have the 4g gateway running both TV's, the Alexa and 3 wireless plugs and the printer. I have one tmobile hotspot running 3 YI home security cameras, soon to be 5 as I'm adding 2 more outside. Then I have the last 5g hotspot running my workstation.

It all seams to be working great but I'd like to have a 5g hotspot with an antenna mounted on the roof for places that are tough on signal and it looks like the nighthawk with the mimo is the best way to go, but I'm still researching. I just don't want to have to run a whole lot of wires all over.

[MoonShadow_1911]

So what exactly are you needing all that for? Sounds like a lot of tech to run internet?

It might be, but as an IT security admin, I prefer to keep my network secure. What I was referring to is putting you comm stuff in the cabinet since there is power in the lower shelf and would be easy to cut a couple of holes in the cabinet to run a power strip to the outlet.

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[EddieK82]

It might be, but as an IT security admin, I prefer to keep my network secure. What I was referring to is putting you comm stuff in the cabinet since there is power in the lower shelf and would be easy to cut a couple of holes in the cabinet to run a power strip to the outlet.

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I have a few questions about your setup, I have a degree in comp sci but know enough about networks to be dangerous. What is your firewall and 10 port switch accomplishing? Also, what is the ftp server and the 4tb drive doing? I'm really curious about that setup. Also, are you mounting anything outside your rv for reception?

Also, is this all going in the front middle doors, and your cutting through to the bottom shelf with the outlet already installed to plug right in?

[MoonShadow_1911]

I have a few questions about your setup, I have a degree in comp sci but know enough about networks to be dangerous. What is your firewall and 10 port switch accomplishing? Also, what is the ftp server and the 4tb drive doing? I'm really curious about that setup. Also, are you mounting anything outside your rv for reception?

Okay, wow, to answer this comprehensively, it will be a long(er) post and so far off the forum it might as well be considered on Pluto.

The firewall is a pfSense firewall that is built on a fanless computer platform. I wanted/needed to learn more about firewalls and how they worked and didn't want to spend the money for a Cisco appliance, so pfSense was the perfect fit. It is an open source and free (as in beer) firewall. It is well maintained and updated regularly and highly configurable.

The main purpose of a firewall is to keep outsiders out and the data within the network secure. For example, I have ad blocking incorporated into the firewall so that a large majority of ads don't even show up when you are browsing the internet, I also have rejection rules that reject traffic coming from Russia, China, and North Korea; this is done with IP geolocation. What amazed me was the number of times my IP gets hit each minute, even when it was brand new. My firewall logs are filled with rejected packets from 10s of thousand IP addresses and hundreds of network protocols. 99.999% of these are probably basic hacking attacks to see if they can gain a toe hold on a computer within the network. Once that has occurred, then the bad actor can use that as a launching point to attack other computers within the network or as part of a botnet, or as part of a DDOS attack.

The switch is a POE (power over ethernet) switch which provides power to the WiFi access point so I don't have to run another power block to power it. As well as being a managed switch, it allows me to hard wire something into the network that is behind the firewall, or into the DMZ of the network. The DMZ is external facing and externally accessible devices, such as my sftp server. I've toyed with the thought of running ethernet cable to the desk in the back of the 320MKS but, that's too much work right now.

The FTP (or in my case sftp, secure ftp) server is my personal cloud. The 4 TB HDD connected to it is where everything is stored. The server is also partitioned so that data that might be publically accessible is in one location and private data is in amother location, both are password protected and encrypted with LUKS encryption.

Both the firewall and the sftp server are linux variants. pfSense is built on Debian linux and the sftp server is a Fedora Server 35 OS.

I have hardend both devices as much as I can and have done a lot of PenTesting (penetration testing, or White-Hat hacking) of the devices. I also keep both of them updated with patches.

The pfSense firewall also provides me with a secure VPN so, where ever I am at, it will appear that my browsing originates from the coach (as long as I have AC power and a good cell signal).

Hopefully that answered your basic questions.

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[EddieK82]

Okay, wow, to answer this comprehensively, it will be a long(er) post and so far off the forum it might as well be considered on Pluto.

The firewall is a pfSense firewall that is built on a fanless computer platform. I wanted/needed to learn more about firewalls and how they worked and didn't want to spend the money for a Cisco appliance, so pfSense was the perfect fit. It is an open source and free (as in beer) firewall. It is well maintained and updated regularly and highly configurable.

The main purpose of a firewall is to keep outsiders out and the data within the network secure. For example, I have ad blocking incorporated into the firewall so that a large majority of ads don't even show up when you are browsing the internet, I also have rejection rules that reject traffic coming from Russia, China, and North Korea; this is done with IP geolocation. What amazed me was the number of times my IP gets hit each minute, even when it was brand new. My firewall logs are filled with rejected packets from 10s of thousand IP addresses and hundreds of network protocols. 99.999% of these are probably basic hacking attacks to see if they can gain a toe hold on a computer within the network. Once that has occurred, then the bad actor can use that as a launching point to attack other computers within the network or as part of a botnet, or as part of a DDOS attack.

The switch is a POE (power over ethernet) switch which provides power to the WiFi access point so I don't have to run another power block to power it. As well as being a managed switch, it allows me to hard wire something into the network that is behind the firewall, or into the DMZ of the network. The DMZ is external facing and externally accessible devices, such as my sftp server. I've toyed with the thought of running ethernet cable to the desk in the back of the 320MKS but, that's too much work right now.

The FTP (or in my case sftp, secure ftp) server is my personal cloud. The 4 TB HDD connected to it is where everything is stored. The server is also partitioned so that data that might be publically accessible is in one location and private data is in amother location, both are password protected and encrypted with LUKS encryption.

Both the firewall and the sftp server are linux variants. pfSense is built on Debian linux and the sftp server is a Fedora Server 35 OS.

I have hardend both devices as much as I can and have done a lot of PenTesting (penetration testing, or White-Hat hacking) of the devices. I also keep both of them updated with patches.

The pfSense firewall also provides me with a secure VPN so, where ever I am at, it will appear that my browsing originates from the coach (as long as I have AC power and a good cell signal).

Hopefully that answered your basic questions.

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Yes, that did. Thanks! I was wondering how all that fit together and explaining it that way helps. I'm sure nobody is going to get through that as they'll probably skip to the next one after they see how it's secured. I have another thought for the mounting locations of all my hardware, what about above the desk in the cabinet? Maybe I can mount the Nighthawk in there, with any other tech stuff, and drill a hole right though to the bottom power plug on the right hand side? I may even be able to run the cable out the back of the RV to the ladder, mount the pole extension for the mimo permanently and not have to mess with it again.

I could then run an ethernet cable out the bottom of the cabinet, directly into the laptop? What do you think about that setup? I'd also like an external HDD for backups, I'm sure my iDrive is killing my data each month. I'd have to figure a way to get the external SSD or HDD into the cabinet connected to the computer.

[MoonShadow_1911]

Yes, that did. Thanks! I was wondering how all that fit together and explaining it that way helps. I'm sure nobody is going to get through that as they'll probably skip to the next one after they see how it's secured. I have another thought for the mounting locations of all my hardware, what about above the desk in the cabinet? Maybe I can mount the Nighthawk in there, with any other tech stuff, and drill a hole right though to the bottom power plug on the right hand side? I may even be able to run the cable out the back of the RV to the ladder, mount the pole extension for the mimo permanently and not have to mess with it again.

I could then run an ethernet cable out the bottom of the cabinet, directly into the laptop? What do you think about that setup? I'd also like an external HDD for backups, I'm sure my iDrive is killing my data each month. I'd have to figure a way to get the external SSD or HDD into the cabinet connected to the computer.

Well, not really. My sftp server gets hit, hundreds of times a day from the same group of IP addresses. It changes by the day, but they know something is there and they want access to it. I've seriously considered deploying a tracer and let them in, but that's too much trouble for a little bit of knowledge.

You could do that, I would recommend a piece of plywood cut to fit a portion of that shelf so you can secure everything to it, then figure out how to secure the plywood in the cabinet. That way it's doesn't bounce all around and possibly break the glass. I selected the cabinet above the control panel because it was close to the axles and didn't have glass in the doors.

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[EddieK82]

Well, not really. My sftp server gets hit, hundreds of times a day from the same group of IP addresses. It changes by the day, but they know something is there and they want access to it. I've seriously considered deploying a tracer and let them in, but that's too much trouble for a little bit of knowledge.

You could do that, I would recommend a piece of plywood cut to fit a portion of that shelf so you can secure everything to it, then figure out how to secure the plywood in the cabinet. That way it's doesn't bounce all around and possibly break the glass. I selected the cabinet above the control panel because it was close to the axles and didn't have glass in the doors.

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Moon, I just purchased the Tmobile home internet for $50 month unlimited. Awesome deal and everyone I talk to says it works anywhere you take it as long as there's 5g. (it doesn't lock you into an address). I'll let you know how it works out when I get it. It also has a spot to put a mimo as well as ethernet directly to computer. They give you the router for free and a free month to try it. My 2 inseego boxes have been working great so far in south jersey, no complaints there.

[EddieK82]

Well, not really. My sftp server gets hit, hundreds of times a day from the same group of IP addresses. It changes by the day, but they know something is there and they want access to it. I've seriously considered deploying a tracer and let them in, but that's too much trouble for a little bit of knowledge.

You could do that, I would recommend a piece of plywood cut to fit a portion of that shelf so you can secure everything to it, then figure out how to secure the plywood in the cabinet. That way it's doesn't bounce all around and possibly break the glass. I selected the cabinet above the control panel because it was close to the axles and didn't have glass in the doors.

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Moon, I have to bug you again. I'm thinking of ordering a 2x2 mimo, maybe a 4x4, not sure yet. I can connect it to the Tmobile home internet router. I see most people mount their antenna on the ladder way up high. I'd like to have the shortest run possible from the modem to the antenna. Do you have any recommendations where/how to cut a hole out the back of the RV to run these wires? I'm just starting my research on this now. Otherwise, I know you said you're putting yours in the cabinet above to the couch. How are you running your antenna out of the rv?