Mobile WiFi Recommendations

[interbear]

You might find this interesting...

Van WIFI & Mobile Data -- How I Done It --

Van WIFI & Mobile Data -- How I Done It -- I keep on meaning to get this thread started . . . . Today is the Day. this all started from having to share my data with the kids on long drives so they could you there Tablets whilst on the move, or remote from our Home WIFI. We also used this...

www.t6forum.com

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Thanks, Very interesting indeed.

 

[Bav]

You’re on mute!

 

[Bav]

You’re on mute!

Best place for me tbh - was once on an "all-hands call" [] where they were announcing yet another round of redundancies. Presuming all but the chair were muted, I proceeded to vent my spleen loudly and colourfully. It was only when the CEO asked who was shouting obscenities that I realised all the lines were open!

Oh how I miss the corporate world - those Septics really knew how maintain employee morale.

 

[JOG]

Best place for me tbh - was once on an "all-hands call" [] where they were announcing yet another round of redundancies. Presuming all but the chair were muted, I proceeded to vent my spleen loudly and colourfully. It was only when the CEO asked who was shouting obscenities that I realised all the lines were open!

Oh how I miss the corporate world - those Septics really knew how maintain employee morale.

Ah, the joys of an “All Hands” call! The collective term is “gang w@nk” - even worse with septics. There’s always some knob ass-kissing shouting “awesome”

 

[Bav]

Ah, the joys of an “All Hands” call! The collective term is “gang w@nk” - even worse with septics. There’s always some knob ass-kissing shouting “awesome”

Yup - their stock response to anything and everything...

Boss: "You're shit and we're firing you with immediate effect"
Septic: "Awesome!"

 

[interbear]

The joys of corporate America. Only interested in quarterly numbers and share price. Tortuous all-hands meetings (sometimes called town hall meetings for some reason). Out of place “awesome” positivity, always. Politics galore. Oh..and an annual request that us Brits collected ourselves outside the office late in December to record a “Happy Holidays” greeting to send to our US colleagues. This was never complied with of course, they only ever got a “Happy Christmas” from us or we just ignored it and went for a lunchtime pint of three instead I vowed never to work for a US company after several years of doing so and so far, I’ve kept that promise to myself. I actually enjoyed working with my US colleagues, generally decent folk, but I was very glad to eventually escape from corporate America.

Anyway, I’m still no closer to making my selection on MiFi. Netgear M2 the current contender. This will be for Teams calls with my very non-corporate America current colleagues

 

[Bav]

...

Anyway, I’m still no closer to making my selection on MiFi. Netgear M2 the current contender. This will be for Teams calls with my very non-corporate America current colleagues

Apologies for hijacking your thread.

 

[Samro]

I have two of these:

HUAWEI B311, CAT 4, 2020-4G/ LTE 150 Mbps Mobile Wi-Fi Router, Unlocked to All Networks- Genuine UK Warranty STOCK (Non Network Logo)- Black,B311-221 https://amzn.eu/d/9K8oSN7

One with a 4G all you can use (sim only) data package from "Three", which gives fairly decent coverage. Costs about £18 pcm.

A second router with a Reglomobile pay as you go SIM card which tops up monthly at a cost of £17pcm. I'd imagine this would run out of data pretty quickly in the uk, as I think it was set up to only allow 2GB of data a month. I have as it roams all uk mobile networks and rarely loses connection. It is also great in France as I seem to recall the 2GB data cap significantly increases.

I've been using these for several years now, but they suit my requirements very well. I'm sure that this is old tech now!

 

[interbear]

So after much research I decided to go for a Netgear Nighthawk M2 mobile router - seems to get good reviews for 4G connectivity. I decided 5G was unnecessary and largely unavailable in the places we will typically go camping. The M2 has ports for external antenna if needed but the internal antenna seem well regarded. I opted for a BT Mobile SIM, £20 per month for unlimited data and inclusive of EU roaming. That should do me. BT Mobile uses the EE network and EE roaming in France uses Orange and Bouygues, so should cover us well enough in most cases. Look forward to testing it out over coming months.

 

[JOG]

So after much research I decided to go for a Netgear Nighthawk M2 mobile router - seems to get good reviews for 4G connectivity. I decided 5G was unnecessary and largely unavailable in the places we will typically go camping. The M2 has ports for external antenna if needed but the internal antenna seem well regarded. I opted for a BT Mobile SIM, £20 per month for unlimited data and inclusive of EU roaming. That should do me. BT Mobile uses the EE network and EE roaming in France uses Orange and Bouygues, so should cover us well enough in most cases. Look forward to testing it out over coming months.

That net gear kit is pricy!

 

[Samro]

What is it about the expensive Netgear router that makes it superior to the cheapo offerings from Huawei and the like?

I am just about to press go on a third Huawei B311 and thought I'd ask the question before doing so.

 

[interbear]

I went with the Netgear mainly based on the positive reviews, specifically on its ability to get a strong signal and fast data on 4G. Which I assume is due to it having decent internal antenna but it also has the option to connect an external antenna when needed. And connect a laptop via Ethernet. I’ll possibly use it for work also, either when out in the van or at events. It was indeed pricy, £329 direct from Netgear UK in their sale, reduced from £429. I’ve seen them sold on eBay for more than I paid new though, so they must be highly regarded. The latest 5G version, the M5, is currently £779, no way was I paying that

 

[Samro]

I went with the Netgear mainly based on the positive reviews, specifically on its ability to get a strong signal and fast data on 4G. Which I assume is due to it having decent internal antenna but it also has the option to connect an external antenna when needed. And connect a laptop via Ethernet. I’ll possibly use it for work also, either when out in the van or at events. It was indeed pricy, £329 direct from Netgear UK in their sale, reduced from £429. I’ve seen them sold on eBay for more than I paid new though, so they must be highly regarded. The latest 5G version, the M5, is currently £779, no way was I paying that

It would be great if someone on this forum could compare the cheap kit with the posh kit, as I just don't get it!

For less than £60, I have an external aerial port, (that I've never used as not found it necessary), Wi-Fi up to 32 devices, Single ethernet port, built in VPN tk automatically jump onto my work
Network.

I am no expert but it seems that Netgear must have some clever tech for the extra cost...... I just don't know what it is!

 

[interbear]

It would be great if someone on this forum could compare the cheap kit with the posh kit, as I just don't get it!

For less than £60, I have an external aerial port, (that I've never used as not found it necessary), Wi-Fi up to 32 devices, Single ethernet port, built in VPN tk automatically jump onto my work
Network.

I am no expert but it seems that Netgear must have some clever tech for the extra cost...... I just don't know what it is!

Nor do I I read / watched several reviews which said that the Netgear had better download / upload speeds vs other devices though, including in areas with a weaker mobile signal. That was enough for me to decide to buy one. As long as I end up with a reasonably reliable device to provide Wi-Fi in the van, I’ll be happy enough. And with a different mobile network so I have options (3 on my phone, EE via BT mobile on the Netgear). I know it’ll always be at the whim of the mobile network but I’m confident it’ll give me a better solution than using hotspot / tethering on my phone. I did look at the Huawei MiFi with external antenna connectors (E5577 I think ), it seems difficult to get hold of now, around £130 if you can which is decent value. It would probably be fine for what I need but my research led me to the Netgear, so will see how it goes. If it doesn’t work for me I’ll sell it on and probably get most of my money back anyway.

 

[Jupact583]

Would be interested also to see how the more expensive options work out compared to the cheaper versions. I say this because regardless of how much you spend on the hardware it still requires a signal from the mast. If your SIM card provider doesn’t have a great signal in the area then surely the hardware is irrelevant?

 

[interbear]

Would be interested also to see how the more expensive options work out compared to the cheaper versions. I say this because regardless of how much you spend on the hardware it still requires a signal from the mast. If your SIM card provider doesn’t have a great signal in the area then surely the hardware is irrelevant?

You are right, a mobile signal is obviously the starting point for a good mobile Wi-Fi experience. But I do think the hardware can make a difference in terms of the internal antenna / processing power when it comes to connecting to that mobile signal and then converting it to Wi-Fi.

I can’t compare to cheaper MiFi units as I don’t have one of the more recent versions, but the Netgear M2 with a BT Mobile / EE SIM card performed really well for me on a recent trip to France. We stopped in rural Normandy (Orne) to visit family. The Netgear provided a better Wi-Fi signal than both the home Wi-Fi (Orange) in the farmhouse and my mobile phone hotspot. We then went down to a campsite in Gers in the south west of France and again the Netgear M2 provided better Wi-Fi than my mobile phone hotspot. I had my work laptop with me and had no issues working from the van or outside the van. It connected to the Free 4G network in France. No stuttering, buffering or dropped connections at all. I was more impressed than I thought I would be, to be honest.

 

[t6blo]

Been running one of these for about a month to provide access to my CCTV camera from my iPhone - I paired it with a Three data only sim that came with 12Gb and lasts 12 months.

Had no issues with signal and being able to access the camera.

There is an internal battery that lasts about 6-8 hours but I’ve got it permanently plugged into the USB on my battery bank.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XC16QC1/

 

[Ayjay]

By coincidence, I took delivery of a little 4G Huawei E5783 MiFi router earlier this week and have bought a Three prepaid data sim card for it. The Huawei doesn't have any external antennae and nor does it have the facility to take one but I did a quick test to compare it to my mobile phone hotspot speed. I'm on BT/EE and the Samsung S9 mobile hotspot gave 53.1 MBps, I popped the same sim card into an older Motorola G6 and got almost the same result (52.6 MBps). Finally, I put the same sim card into the Huawei which delivered 78MBps which I considered to be a win. Both mobiles and the Huawei were set to broadcast on 2.4 and 5Ghz. I repeated the tests about 10 minutes later with more or less the same results. It's also worth noting that my home broadband supplied by BT via the phone line delivers a pretty consistent 70 MBps which is generally plenty fast enough for me and well within the promised speed range. We're driving to Croatia next month and will be away for about 4 weeks which is why I wanted to up the mobile data capability. I'll report back as and when...