Please recommended a budget (Less than £100) 4G Router.

Spooter · 12 Sep 2019 at 08:25

Hi all,

My parents can only get ADSL but my EE mobile can get 30Mbps so its makes sense for them to use the 4G network for faster internet.

Please recommended a budget (Less than £100) 4G Router.

Any cheap sim card recommendations would also be good.

ANDARIAL · 12 Sep 2019 at 15:37

I am also after a 4 g router
Am also interested in any replies

Rroff · 12 Sep 2019 at 15:41

I've been using a TP-Link TL-MR6400 for almost a year:

+ Good range of basic features
+ For the most part plug and play with minimal configuration
+ 4G reception is good for a consumer level off the shelf device

- Lacks some more advanced/flashier features
- Fixed antennas so a limitation if you need to tweak things to get the best signal (EDIT: Latest version has detachable ones again).
- Occasionally (once every 1-2 months) locks up requiring the power to be cycled. (EDIT: Though I don't think it has done that at all so far since the latest firmware update).

ANDARIAL · 12 Sep 2019 at 15:44

You sure about the antennas?
The rain forest states `removable :confused:

`

Rroff · 12 Sep 2019 at 15:53

ANDARIAL said:
You sure about the antennas?
The rain forest states `removable`

The original version had removable, the updated version on sale now doesn't unless they've changed that again since I bought mine.

There is the Archer MR200 that has removable but again some people saying the latest version they've changed to fixed so not 100% that one is still removable either.

EDIT: The product pictures are now different to when I bought on the MR6400 page on Amazon showing the original removable antenna so not sure what is going on there whether they've gone back to removable or someone has got the info wrong dunno.

Steveocee · 12 Sep 2019 at 15:54

Rroff said:
I've been using a TP-Link TL-MR6400 for almost a year:

+ Good range of basic features
+ For the most part plug and play with minimal configuration
+ 4G reception is good for a consumer level off the shelf device

- Lacks some more advanced/flashier features
- Fixed antennas so a limitation if you need to tweak things to get the best signal
- Occasionally (once every 1-2 months) locks up requiring the power to be cycled. (EDIT: Though I don't think it has done that at all so far since the latest firmware update).

This ^^^^ Budget friendly are pretty good at what it does.

Rroff · 12 Sep 2019 at 15:58

Edit well that is annoying but also a positive for those who buy now - they re-released the MR6400 as version 4 in August with detachable antennas.

https://static.tp-link.com/2019/201903/20190313/TL-MR6400(EU) 4.0_Datasheet.pdf

Looks like they updated things to fix two of my negatives some time around August.

Philyaris · 12 Sep 2019 at 19:04

I am using the TP link Archer MR200 AC750 dual band router, the sim card is from Smarty, unlimited data £18.75 a month but the sim offer is not on for long.
This is my 3rd week using these and don't miss my old virgin connection.
(edited model number)

ANDARIAL · 13 Sep 2019 at 08:57

Philyaris said:
I am using the TP link Archer MR200 AC750 dual band router, the sim card is from Smarty, unlimited data £18.75 a month but the sim offer is not on for long.
This is my 3rd week using these and don't miss my old virgin connection.
(edited model number)

How are you finding Smarty?
I have just ordered an unlimited sim and am looking at routers to pop it into (Got a 3G router out of the spares box atm )

Philyaris · 13 Sep 2019 at 16:29

Hi Andarial,
I have had no issues over the 3 weeks I have used the sim. Speeds are quick enough for playing Freeview Play with only odd few seconds of buffering, perhaps 4 times in 3 weeks which lasted about 1 second each time.
I can put up with that for £18.75 per month compared to Virgin £41 per month.

WJA96 · 13 Sep 2019 at 23:39

I’m going to do my usual thing and recommend Mikrotik. If you’re doing it, do it properly. I started out with TP-Link MR400 units and they’re fine as far as they go, but if it’s your only broadband, I would strongly suggest an external mounted Mikrotik SXT LTE or LHG LTE. If you need an interval unit the the wAP LTE is also very good. All are £100-ish.

And Huawei also do an excellent range of 4G routers but I don’t think you’ll get one for less than £100.

rangor gubbins · 14 Sep 2019 at 00:44

I've been using a teltonika rut950 4g router for a year and it's been rock solid. Combined with an external 4g antenna we get very stable connectivity.

Alpherah · 14 Sep 2019 at 08:41

Homefi from three if you get good signal? Some people have negotiated the monthly fee down to £16 a month

ANDARIAL · 14 Sep 2019 at 11:30

Well been using the sim in a samsung j3 tethered to my pc this morning achieved 4MB dl from my SB
Looks like there is a `quite good` signal here (although the bars only show about 3 ) main bb from Plusnet only gets 300 Kbs and sky was not much better at 400 Kbs
Will be using this phone for tethering until i decide which router to finally get
Thanks or all the suggestions so far....and sorry to partly hijack your thread Spooter

ANDARIAL · 14 Sep 2019 at 13:55

Been looking,as you do
and POE question re SXT 4G KIT or SKT LTE kit
is it mount `box`outside,run cat cable to inside of house.Plug end into poe injector cable,power plug into cable and cat to switch?

As in there is only 1 cat cable going to outside?

Am i reading this correctly?

WJA96 · 14 Sep 2019 at 16:51

ANDARIAL said:
Been looking,as you do
and POE question re SXT 4G KIT or SKT LTE kit
is it mount `box`outside,run cat cable to inside of house.Plug end into poe injector cable,power plug into cable and cat to switch?

As in there is only 1 cat cable going to outside?

Am i reading this correctly?

Yes, just 1 cable goes outside.

ANDARIAL · 15 Sep 2019 at 10:45

More questions

Is the cable going to the SXT special?
as in it is POE.Is this wired differently to a standard cat 5E/6 etc cable?
The SXT is looking favorite atm
oh and about grounding the SXT is this necessary if the box is mounted to a block gable end of a house?

WJA96 · 15 Sep 2019 at 12:54

ANDARIAL said:
More questions
Is the cable going to the SXT special?
as in it is POE.Is this wired differently to a standard cat 5E/6 etc cable?
The SXT is looking favorite atm
oh and about grounding the SXT is this necessary if the box is mounted to a block gable end of a house?

The cable is standard CAT5e or better. You do need all 8 pins connected but you need that for Gigabit anyway.

And no, you don’t have to pass the connection through an earthing decoupler, although it is recommended. If you have a £750 48-port PoE switch on the other end then it’s a cheap insurance policy to fit one. On the other hand, if it’s a £50 TP-Link then it’s probably an acceptable risk.

ANDARIAL · 15 Sep 2019 at 12:58

Thanks for the reply
It is a cheap gigabit hp procurve i think from the bay only £30
Think i might just try ( if i can decide to click buy

) putting it in the attic pointing out of a 9x9 vent that is in there first
Did another speed test with the phone on that side of the house upstairs and got a dl of 48.Not too shabby for the phone signal

Steveocee · 16 Sep 2019 at 01:16

@ANDARIAL
A chap I've been doing some consultation work for has just installed an SXT LTE Kit as his home. He's copperless anyway but took his 10/1 WISP connection into a 70/33!

They are seriously good pieces of kit and we're yet to tweak it properly! You could jack it straight into a PoE switch and it would happily take over duties as your router.

The only issue we've come across is that as he's on EE they use a CG-NAT so remote access in for him for further tweaking was a bit of a problem, solved by a VPN tunnel to my AWS hosted CHR.