4G Dongle with LAN socket

[Tyre Smoke]

I'm looking for an emergency back up for my office when the internet crashes.

I am looking to buy a dongle/router that will have at least one LAN socket so I can plug a VOIP phone into it when my internet goes down. The thinking being that this can have a PAYG sim card in it and it's simply a case of plug in the LAN cable and away we go.

Short of spending £80+ on a TP-Link type router (not really wanting to spend that for a back up plan) is there anything else that would do the job?

[Trustmeimadoctor]

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-4g-r... may work

[Trustmeimadoctor]

But you would be better off with a router thats designed to have a 4g device plugged in as a backup

[jackofall84]

If it's solely for phone calls, just temporarily forward all voice calls from the VOIP number to your mobile number - I'm sure there'll be a charge but probably cheaper then the setup route your initially planning on going down?

[Tyre Smoke]

jackofall84 said:

If it's solely for phone calls, just temporarily forward all voice calls from the VOIP number to your mobile number - I'm sure there'll be a charge but probably cheaper then the setup route your initially planning on going down?

There is that, yes. But there might also be the need to run a PC. Currently diverting the phone is what happens, I'm just looking to improve the functionality some.

[Tyre Smoke]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-4g-r... may work

Is probably what I'm after.

This looks cheaper though

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1Pcs-5-in-1-TP-Link-TL-...

[Merry]

Tyre Smoke said:

Is probably what I'm after.

This looks cheaper though

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1Pcs-5-in-1-TP-Link-TL-...

Neither of those have a 4g modem, you can't put a sim in them. They're both small WiFi Access points.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Yes but you can plug the dongle into them. I used to have a 46 mobile hotspot ee one but no ethernet

[jackofall84]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Yes but you can plug the dongle into them. I used to have a 46 mobile hotspot ee one but no ethernet

I did also think if you can get one of those 4G wifi hotspots you could connect it to one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Wi-Fi-Range-Exten...

OP - it's also very easy to use your phone as a router via USB (on my Sony android at least it is anyway)

[Mr Pointy]

Have a look at Draytek router/modems on ebay. Here's an 2860Ln which has an internal 4G modem & slot for a SIM card for £100:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DrayTek-Vigor-2860Ln-LT...

It's n type wi-fi not ac but you can configure it to auto-failover to the 4G connection if your ADSL/VDSL goes down. Draytek are very good devices.
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-...

[BigTZ4M]

Do you have a mobile phone with decent signal in the office?

If so could you configure a soft phone app like zoiper with your voip credentials? Then when the internet goes down use the app instead of your hard phone and tether you’re PC to your phone? That could potentially cost you nothing in up front costs nor additional subscriptions.

[hutchst]

Plug a USB 4g modem into a free USB socket on your existing router, if it supports dual WAN? Then it can be set up for automatic failover.

[Tyre Smoke]

We are using a TP-Link 4G router in the office already with a EE data sim. Reason for this is the landline internet was so slow (circa 2mpbs) so we ditched it for EE which gives us around 14mbps down. Easily enough to run four voip phones and a PC despatch system.

The problem happens when EE goes down. Not often, admittedly but it does. The plan was to get a PAYG o2/Tesco sim to slot into an alternative set up for ease of switch over.

Just swap the sim over in the TP-Link you say, well yes, but I'm happy enough to do that, but wouldn't trust some of my staff not lose the EE sim or mess up the router somehow.