I have a Vigor 2860Ln and 2862Ln both with the same issue that one of the wireless aerial connections has broken off. I can glue an aerial onto the back but the outer screw part wont be connected which I would assume will be an issue. Has anyone got any bright ideas on how to get round the problem or fix it?

I'd love to know how you've managed that ... twice :lol:

Maybe rescue some connectors from something old on eBay...

One of many 2820n's for £20 (or best offer) :-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174420194951?hash=item289c40f687:g:tW4AAOSwVDdfUMGM

I can't remember how they connect to the main board ... short fly-lead and a connector from memory, but otherwise a spot of soldering may be required :wink:

Actual new sockets might be quite hard to come across - the vast majority of SMA, Panel-mount sockets are female - and you need male.

I thought I'd found the ideal product: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08FX3QXRQ . The SMA end is the right gender (despite the description to the contrary!), but I think the other end of the cable needs to be MCX, not "U.FL IPX IPEX MHF4" (whatever that is). I wouldn't swear to that though - maybe you can dismantle what you've got and compare with those Amazon photos?

hornbyp wrote:
I'd love to know how you've managed that ... twice :lol:

Maybe rescue some connectors from something old on eBay...

One of many 2820n's for £20 (or best offer) :-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174420194951?hash=item289c40f687:g:tW4AAOSwVDdfUMGM

I can't remember how they connect to the main board ... short fly-lead and a connector from memory, but otherwise a spot of soldering may be required :wink:

I have no idea either and one is only a few months old as it was given to us by Draytek as part of course one of my team did.

I did however find one of the missing bits - it appears they just push into the socket inside (no screw thread) and if they come off then they don't secure properly. I have pushed mine back in with the aerial attached and then used some no more nails to glue it in place, hopefully that will work.

For future reference I discovered yesterday you can actually disable one aerial and use only a single aerial - however it just so happens the only aerial it uses is the one I have missing.

To resolve that, the routers can be set to use a single antenna which may give a reduction in speed potentially but can improve range over allowing it to use all three antennas.
Access the router’s telnet interface and enter “wl ht antenna 3” followed by “wl restart” and the router will then use only antenna number 1 (refer to the earlier antenna image).
It can be put back to its original state by entering “wl ht antenna 0” followed by “wl restart”.

That's good you found the other part of it. I've seen this happen before and it's usually caused by the antenna pushing the connector at an angle with some force. The outer barrel of the connector is usually mechanically joined with the base part - that will push back into the grooves in the base, but should be glued to hold it together reliably.

That type of antenna isn't easy to replace, depending on the design of the router they could be connected through traces on the PCB or connected with a small antenna connector. Potentially you'd need to get a replacement connector, desolder the original and solder that on, but that's tough to do. You couldn't fit a replacement RP-SMA in that space without removing the PCB antenna mount first, which I don't recommend doing because it could damage traces on the board.
It would potentially be best to see if you can get warranty help with the router.