Which MiFi device?

[Guigsy]

I'm going to put a MiFi device in the van. I want to get one with external antenna ports so I can wire it up to something that'll replace my external TV aerial. Hopefully that'll get me a better signal in poor coverage areas instead of my current shonky method of putting my phone in hotspot mode and leaving it on the roof!

(For those that don't know, a MiFi uses a mobile phone connection to connect to the internet. It then broadcasts that via WiFi. So you have your own personal and mobile WiFi hotspot that you can connect your tablet, laptop, etc to. No site WiFi issues, but you are paying for mobile data instead.)

I'm currently looking at the Huawei e5577 or e5785 costing about £60 or £100 respectively. They've both got the external antenna ports. I also like the WiFi repeating function as it means some of the gadgets I'm putting in the van won't eat mobile data while the van is on the driveway as it can feed off of my home WiFi. The e5785 costs about £40 more, is there any real benefit? Will the 'category 6' modem mean I'll get better bandwidth in poor coverage areas, or will the lower priced e5577 match it for speed until signal is pretty strong? Are there any other factors to consider?

Are there any other MiFis that are similar that I should be looking at?

 

[Manic]

I’ve got a e5577, works well, I’ve Velcro’d it on the internal wall and hard wired it. Not got an antenna but it seems to work well with out it.

 

[DBK]

The WiFi repeating function is a bit of a chocolate teapot - it might sound like a good idea but in practice is useless except in some very limited circumstances and even then I'm doubtful.

It isn't an amplifier and won't use any external antenna you have. All it does is picks up a WiFi signal then rebroadcasts it on its own WiFi channel. The point is if it can pick up the WiFi signal in your house from the drive (very doubtful anyway) so could any device you might have in the van so they might as well log into the home WiFi signal directly.

I've got the 5577 and it works well for me. The 5785 has a higher theoretical speed (300mbps) but I doubt you will get anywhere near that in the real world.

 

[tacr2man]

I bought a system from these people , they are very knowledgeable and also very helpful , and IMHO good VFM
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4G-Wifi-...421749?hash=item44288291b5:g:jhcAAOSw8HBZMuou

I had this type of antenna , and it works really well even when traveling

I have it mounted high up on front of RV you can see here

 

[MyrtleGuru]

I agree with @DBK that it's not worth spending extra on the e5785.

Basically, as well as well as bog-standard 4G, the e5785 supports 4G+ (LTE Advanced) which gives increased speed and reduced latency compared with 4G (exactly how much in real life is another discussion entirely). However, only certain operators provide 4G+ anyway and even then only in big cities generally, so it is not much use for the average motorhomer.

Also, in two or three years' time, when 5G gets rolled out (hopefully), you might want to buy a new one anyway.

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[Flamenca]

Blimey, I have an 'old' 4g Huaweii mifi but the main issue for me is still whose SIM to use for low cost data and not how quickly I can use it.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have a 5577 as well it does the job well.
An external aerial will often get you signal in poor signal areas but unless you are a net addict like us probably not worth the expense.
I fitted the same Poynting aerial as John @DBK, works well, most notable is the increase in upload speed probably won't worry most people.

 

[MyrtleGuru]

We have a 5577 as well it does the job well.
An external aerial will often get you signal in poor signal areas but unless you are a net addict like us probably not worth the expense.
I fitted the same Poynting aerial as John @DBK, works well, most notable is the increase in upload speed probably won't worry most people.

Yes, they are great little devices. We found the 5577 is very good at getting a signal without an aerial in most places, as long as you place it somewhere sensible. It worked well for us without an aerial in most places in Spain/Portugal.

After fitting an external aerial, the major improvements for us were places in the UK with notoriously poor service: for us specifically Norfolk and the Lake District.

 

[Guigsy]

We normally find that in the van, we can just about get by using my phone as a hotspot... until I put on the thermal (foil laminated) cover over the front screen and lower the blinds (which also have foil backing). So in a metal box with metal over all the windows. It tends to degrade the signal quite a bit. Hence putting the phone on the roof...

I've ordered a Huawei e5577 and then burn the money saved by getting @DBK 's Poynting antenna.

 

[Lenny HB]

Our van is double skin aluminium so if in a week signal area no chance with the phone.

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[RFS]

I've just bought a new Huawai E5770. Cost me £73.

I like the additional facility of being able to use it as a power bank (to charge a phone or iPad if away from power source) as it has a 5200mAh battery. It can also give 20 hours of working or 500 hours standby according to the manual.

Comes with mains and USB charging cables.

Not tried it yet but I think it looks a robust piece of kit.

 

[Guigsy]

I used my e5577 in the Lake District last weekend. My phone with Three claimed to have 4G, but it was 1 bar and most of the time web pages were timing out. The e5577 MiFi has a Vodafone PAYG SIM in it to test it out. Just sitting in its mount on the wall, I was getting a slow but stable connection of about 2mbits up and down. Plugging in the Poynting roof mounted antenna took me up to 5mbit each way, which was enough to watch YouTube and burn through the 2GB of data I had on the SIM over one weekend.

 

[GWAYGWAY]

I bought a Huawei E5785 modem and a Poynting puck 2 aerial. However on doing a series of speed check the aerial was sometime half the down loading speed but twice the uploading speed of the bare modem inside the van, I cannot understand this as it should be better . I reconnected the aerials to the connectors and it was a bit better but I am sorely disappointed that it was not better than just the modem by itself, I spoke to poynting and they said it gets a better signal but the speed depends on the mast??????
I Have not checked the Ipad by itself with the sim card in it direct but in the past found that it was unable to get a signal that was adequate in some places, (New Forest) I have looked on line to find some details of the modem to find if there needs an IP change but no mentions anywhere, All I got with the box was a quickstart strip of paper, no details or real manual. I would have thought that sitting in a double skinned alluminium box would have made the outside aerial vital, but it seems I have wasted £200. As we a not going anywhere again maybe it is not necessary anyway but the signal inside my house with 18inch walls is abysmal but I wish to dump the virgin TV package at £56 and go with the EE 100gb per month sim.
I do need to find WHERE the EE mast actually is but never seen any masts at all around here, the EE maps show one where there is nothing at all unless it is hidden up inside somewhere.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have the. more expensive Poynting MIMO-1 and a 5577C. Very pleased with the performance at home where we have a good signal not much change to the download speed only a slight increase but the upload speed is doubled.
In areas where a phone or the Mifi on its own can't get a single with aerial very seldom ever fail to get a good signal.

I thought you had an ML Graham that is only an aluminium outer skin the internal wall is timber. My van has a double aluminium skin, mobile signals inside are hardly any different to our last van but it really drops WiFi signals.

 

[Itsmcb]

Be aware if you do go for a 5577 there are various models, not all of them have connections for the external antenna. The black one does, the white one doesn't. Colour is irrelevant, but you need to check for the little cover next to the power inlet

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[JockandRita]

I bought a Huawei E5785 modem and a Poynting puck 2 aerial. However on doing a series of speed check the aerial was sometime half the down loading speed but twice the uploading speed of the bare modem inside the van, I cannot understand this as it should be better . I reconnected the aerials to the connectors and it was a bit better but I am sorely disappointed that it was not better than just the modem by itself, I spoke to poynting and they said it gets a better signal but the speed depends on the mast??????
I Have not checked the Ipad by itself with the sim card in it direct but in the past found that it was unable to get a signal that was adequate in some places, (New Forest) I have looked on line to find some details of the modem to find if there needs an IP change but no mentions anywhere, All I got with the box was a quickstart strip of paper, no details or real manual. I would have thought that sitting in a double skinned alluminium box would have made the outside aerial vital, but it seems I have wasted £200. As we a not going anywhere again maybe it is not necessary anyway but the signal inside my house with 18inch walls is abysmal but I wish to dump the virgin TV package at £56 and go with the EE 100gb per month sim.
I do need to find WHERE the EE mast actually is but never seen any masts at all around here, the EE maps show one where there is nothing at all unless it is hidden up inside somewhere.

Hi Graham.

I have very recently installed a Poynting Puck 2 Antenna, as I have the choice of connecting either a Huawei E5776 or an E5573 which I have had for a few years now, using a Vodafone 100Gb sim card.
Using https://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ the download and upload speeds with the Puck connected, were only slightly better, to those without the antenna.

However, when I used Vodafone's speed checker via their app on my phone, the figures more than doubled on most tests, with the upload speeds almost identical to the download speeds. There is a slight variation in performance between the 2 x MiFis, with the E5776 taking the lead. They are both 4G LTE capable.
With the current set up in the MH, (at our home location), I was able to use an Amazon Firestick 4K (with side loaded Apps), to stream various TV shows, films, YouTube, and music, etc, without any buffering, although the true test will be in a low signal area, which we won't be able to suss out anytime soon, being under Tier 3 restrictions.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Itsmcb]

I tested my 5577 for the first time last weekend at the Brecon CaMC site. I was achieving around 9 mps download on my android phone but barely 1 MPs on the Huawei. Connecting or disconnecting the PUC made almost no difference. I felt quite disappointed at the time. Streaming from the Huawei via a firestick was absolutely fine though.

 

[Lenny HB]

These are my test results, mine is the full size MIMO not a Puck.


Ran a few tests before installing, my house gets a very good 4G signal so had a play by a window did a few speed tests and the average was:
Without Aerial Download 50Mb/s, Upload 11Mb/s
With Aerial Download 50Mb/s, Upload 29Mb/s

Then went down to my daughters a few 100 yds down the road where it is a signal black spot.
Without Aerial Download 8Mb/s, Upload 2Mb/s
With Aerial (outside on window sill) Download 15Mb/s, Upload 7Mb/s

Now with it fitted on the van tested with door closed.
Without Aerial Download 24Mb/s, Upload 13Mb/s
With Aerial Download 40Mb/s, Upload 37Mb/s

What was noticeable when I compared it to my phone, phone speeds (phone inside the van) were about half of the MiFi with aerial and they are both on the same network.