4G connection, Netgear Nighthawk m1/m2

omgitsdavie · 30 Jun 2020 at 00:39

I am going to be moving into the attic room of a 5 person house share this week for a year long work contract. All 5 of us have access to the 80mbit broadband via wifii. The combination of being on the 3rd floor and everybody else beating the **** out of the connection for Netflix, xbox, etc means i can potentially/probably look forward to less than awesome performance from the service.
I've had a search around the forums for some 4G solutions but most of the chatter is geared towards providing connectivity to full households using routers with multiple Ethernet ports and extra functionality that i probably wont use.

Ive watched a few videos of people using the Netgear Nighthawk m1/m2 series of devices and they appear to offer a good level of performance. Had anybody got experience with these, and are they as good as they appear to be? Are there any better alternatives? Its not an area i know a great deal about.

Thanks.

GTiPUG · 30 Jun 2020 at 19:02

I was set on the Netgear M1 but was put off by the high price and diminishing returns. I've now settled on a Huawei B535 which arrives tomorrow. My new place has ADSL broadband only, so 4G was the only viable alternative. Will let you know how it is...

gpuerrilla · 2 Jul 2020 at 14:03

I used one of them in our sites so we could test 4g video conferencing off the regular connection. It was pretty good but that was with only a couple of devices on it for bursts.

Im not sure how the portable boxes fair up over persistent use but my guess would be not good over the long term. It is very pricey so maybe it is robust.

Im looking myself at options to go 4G permanently as the landline contract is nearly up and the BT copper wire is not an option any more (max 6mb download speeds).

Too Tall · 3 Jul 2020 at 00:14

My Internet is via 4g, we don't have access to fibre broadband as its a new build.

Depending on location and signal strength you can get a connection that is cheaper and faster than most fibre products.

I pay 27 a month for an EE unlimited data sim in my Huawei B818 and get around 240mb down and 80mb upload via an external antenna. Pings are usually around 30 which is decent too.

We're limited by the local mast, if you're in a more urban location you could expect faster again.

The best advice I can give is to get a router that allows you to alter and fix which band the router uses. Most have an auto mode which is decent but selecting them manually yields better results from my experience.

Too Tall · 3 Jul 2020 at 00:16

In addition the b535 is the newer version of the b525, this should allow you to select bands manually and also to select custom APN profiles in case you encounter any issues with your carriers CGNAT, (IPV4 is less troublesome).

alexakasloth · 3 Jul 2020 at 13:13

GTiPUG said:
I was set on the Netgear M1 but was put off by the high price and diminishing returns. I've now settled on a Huawei B535 which arrives tomorrow. My new place has ADSL broadband only, so 4G was the only viable alternative. Will let you know how it is...

I'd recommend downloading the Huawei app (Hilink), it will show you the signal strength which will help with setting up and takes out a lot of guess work.

gpuerrilla · 3 Jul 2020 at 22:11

Too Tall said:
The best advice I can give is to get a router that allows you to alter and fix which band the router uses. Most have an auto mode which is decent but selecting them manually yields better results from my experience.

Thanks for your input so far buddy. I also plan to use an older machine as the pfsense box, and I am currently testing using a TP-Link MR6400. This does not have bridging capability, so I am looking now for routers that offer external aeirals in case I want to mount an outside receiver but would like them to be flexible enough to offer bridging if you wanted to use something as purely the modem.

Too Tall · 3 Jul 2020 at 22:52

I belive the b535 supports an external antenna, Poyning make some good antennas and are readily available both in omni and directional design.

Its important to find the best network in your area, borrow a sim from friends to test if you can.

I spent a fortune trying to improve the speeds of my three sim, it maxed out at around 38mb, as soon as I put an EE sim in it made a significant improvement.

gpuerrilla · 4 Jul 2020 at 19:55

Too Tall said:
I belive the b535 supports an external antenna, Poyning make some good antennas and are readily available both in omni and directional design.

Its important to find the best network in your area, borrow a sim from friends to test if you can.

I spent a fortune trying to improve the speeds of my three sim, it maxed out at around 38mb, as soon as I put an EE sim in it made a significant improvement.

EE I am told are the better, I am on 3 as their prices are way lower. The EE unlimited cant be had much under £30pm but they are getting tight on equipment too wanting you to pay for the hardware or an external fitting for up front fee. Not sure if the Huawei can do bridging, I am surprised you cant get an unbranded modem for the connection but there might be a reason for it.

Too Tall · 4 Jul 2020 at 20:06

EE do an NHS friends and family discount if you know any health workers?

You can put ANY sim you want into any router. You can buy a regular pay monthly or pay as you go sim and used that, which is what I've done. Then buy your own router and antenna.

I think i pay £26 a Month for my unlimited data sim with EE, there was quidco cashback on top.

gpuerrilla · 4 Jul 2020 at 22:40

I was going to do my own antenna but was waiting to see if anything came up with regard to routers and the aerial manufacturers. Some of them huawei boxes have been out for ages. I dont need it to be cutting edge as the speeds where I am will only get to 50mbs max download anyway. Upload is about the same but if I am paying for the hardware myself I dont want to snooker myself. If you read the reviews for example on the rain forest you get a mixed bag of information like the signal did not improve with external antenna - so that would be about £80 for not much gain (pardon the pun).