Works with EE – up to 123mbs!
I work in IT remotely in the Scottish Highlands with local BT broadband delivering insufficient speeds for both download and (increasingly important for zoom/teams calls) upload. Hence the need for a 4G router.This unit, in conjunction with a Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 directional antenna is making the most of the two bar signal from the nearest mast on the EE network. Typical download speed is 70 mbs but I’ve seen 123 recently! Upload is consistent at about 10mbs. My work colleagues in different cities/towns in the UK can’t believe it when I screenshare the results of a speedtest (and neither can I).Like some other reviewers it did seem to take a lot more fiddling (and frustration) to setup than I’d expect. It really ought to just be a case of popping in the SIM and away you go, but for some reason it wasn’t straightforward. My top tip, if you’ve just got yourself a new SIM is to put it in your phone and do the initial activation & top up there FIRST to ensure the SIM is fully working. Only once you’re 100% sure that the SIM is working should you then proceed to use that SIM in this device. It’s only a hunch but I think that may have been the cause of some of my initial setup trauma.The unit itself feels really solid & well made. Being battery powered means it will keep working for a number of hours (I think the claim is 7?) without mains power- handy if used at home with possible power cuts. The app that comes with it (or the website used for config) has all of the features you’d expect.I use the unit as effectively our full time home router and have it plugged into the mains at all times, without the battery in place. (The battery is fully charged and just left to one side in case of power cuts – pop it in and within a couple of minutes the router is back up again). Batteries are not meant to have power flowing through them constantly and some users have reported the battery getting too hot (causing the device to shut down) and even becoming misshapen/leaking under prolonged constant charging. So if you’re planning on leaving it on all the time, I’d strongly suggest leaving out the battery.It’s important to realise that the supplied USB charger does NOT provide sufficient power to charge the unit if it is also under heavy active use at the same time. This can lead to the device powering off randomly and I suspect is the cause of some of the dissatisfaction from some users. Simply purchase a decent charger (for about £15) to solve that problem. I bought a “Quick Charge 3.0, Anker 18W 3Amp USB Wall Charger (Quick Charge 2.0 Compatible) Powerport+ 1” device from Amazon.So, ensure you use a SIM that’s already setup, buy a decent charger, and don’t leave the battery in (if you’re leaving it on constantly as a home router) and my experience has been that it’s a cracking little device and worth the extra money over cheaper devices.

A neat little unit
So, I wanted datq but needed it to be provided into a cat5 plug.Not many choices.I went with the 4G version, yep, more than enough speed for what I needed, but future proofing its usage would have been nice, but the price on a 5G, again, with the cat5 was way above what I could justify spending.So, this was almost a compromise, whilst not being so…bare that in mind.So, how does it do?the prima5use for this is to provide data out in a fairly remote location.It’s also in and or around trees….. So yep, great for signal. (There is the ability to add antennas onto this unit, to help with weak signals)I did tests with my phone SIM in a couple of locations….so so results, then I tried with a different network, and yep, 4 bars signal mostly where I was going to use this.Not that it matters, but I ended up using Smarty, and now my phone is with them too. I am only mentioning this so you could choose a low cost with no contract, so if your network 8snt good with this you have an alternative to try, and can easily get out of it if things do t work out. The other network good like this is Giffgaff, so you have a couple of networks you can try out to see what works.And remember if all of them are a bit weak, you can always get better antennas that have better gain, that you can mount higher, outside, if you are inside, and generally improve things.The performance of this unit I would class as good. It has done everything I have asked if it.Yes, primary use is limited and sparadic, but when I moved I ran the house from it for a good chunk of time and yep, all was good. Again, it was handy it had cat5 as I could just plug into my switches and didn’t need everything trying to use the WiFi.I didn’t hook up everything, but it ran enough things to make things livable.So yeah, once you accept the price, I think you will be happy.It’s Netgear, so expect Netgear quality and reliability.This doesn’t use an app, almost sadly, but you hook into a web interface and can have a bit of a fiddle with some settings.There isn’t so much you need to do in there really, so having an app on the phone now would seem a waste, since it was all at up, I probably haven’t looked at it, unlike say the house network, where you are often poking around.If you are going to be moving this around there are some cheap cases you can get for rhese, which I would recommend getting. Do t run it in the case 4goufg, let it have good airflow, especially if planning to run long term.When I did the prolonged use of this I put it on one of those defrost plates, basically a metal plate that helps move the heat away and out of the battery.I had zero issues, but I read some people had, and it sounds like it was due to 5y3 battery becoming hot.I also ran it with the usb connected, so that too probably meant the battery did not see any or not much use, and again that would help with any heat build up.HTH.

Excellent routeur 4G et 5G.Temps de réponse (latence) efficace et très bon débit conforme à la description.Si votre budget vous le permet, n’hésitez pas à améliorer la réception avec l’achat de l’antenne en option, le gain est évident surtout pour vous permettre de passer de la 4G à la 5G, cette dernière ayant une portée moins importante.Bien que cette antenne soit omnidirectionnelle, je vous conseille d’utiliser une application pour localiser les bornes émettrices de votre opérateur et orientez le côté plat de l’antenne vers la borne la plus proche.

Direi ottimo apparato. Impostazioni relativamente semplici e, soprattutto, molto potente…avevo iniziato a collegarmi al pc utilizzando lo smartphone come router…adesso…be, non c’è paragone…Lo sto utilizzando da soli due giorni ma, se tanto mi da tanto…L’unica nota negativa (se si può dire così)…Con router già acceso e funzionante, avvio il pc e solo dopo circa una trentina di secondi, o poco più, “trova” e quindi si connette alla rete…Vedremo in seguito. Per ora comunque ottimo.