Thunderbolt connectors need to be in close physical proximity due to the very high speed board layout requirements. Sonnet thought it important to put the connectors outside to give rear panel access to connect additional Thunderbolt devices.
The steel mounting case effectively shields the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna from effective use. For Wi-Fi, some customers have used the Edimax EW-7822ULC external USB 2.0 wi-fi adapter, or the faster Edimax EW-7822UTC external USB 3.0 wi-fi adapter. Sonnet does not have a recommendation for Blutooth.