4G Mifi for car and office

[Canute]

Hi

I am looking for a Mifi device that will allow my daughter to watch her tablet and stream stuff in the car and whilst we are on holiday.

It would also be used a back-up should we lose our main internet connection in the office or at home.

This is one option, https://www.netgear.com/uk/home/mobile-wifi/hotspo...

But maybe a little more money than I wanted to spend, so was wondering if anyone had a device they could recommend that was less than say £175?

Thanks

[BigTZ4M]

My first thought was why not get a cheap second hand phone that can support tethering. Or one step further, presumably the driver of the car and someone at home/office has a mobile phone so why not tether to those and spend nothing?

Certainly in the car this seems easiest but I can understand that while tethering as an emergency backup at home might be fine for one device, if you want 4/5G as a proper backup for your entire home network it would be less than ideal. Thing is, so might a MiFi device. For the car it would need to probably be powered by USB and compact but at home you'd want it to be able to make use of external antennae, have ethernet ports and maybe be a little more robust - at odds typically with low powered and very portable as the car would require.

In fairness the one you've linked to is unusual in that it appears to be able to be powered by USB and has ethernet ports - unusual in my experience. You can get a lot cheaper MiFi devices that work plenty well enough for £50 but not with the sophistication and flexibility it looks like that Netgear offers. You're also paying for 4x4 MIMO (means a mix of sophistication of WiFi clients won't bring speeds down to the lowest common denominator) and Cat16 carrier link aggregation which can really boost internet speeds if the conditions and mobile provider are right. Only you know if these features are worth it to you. I've no experience of it but on paper at least it looks very capable.

[sgrimshaw]

TP-Link M7350 cracking piece of kit

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-M7350-Portable-Un...

If you want to spend more then the TP-Link M7650 is great (have both):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Mobile-Router-bla...

If you don't already have a DATA SIM in mind, I can highly recommend these too:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-Pay-Broadban...

[Canute]

Thanks all.

I have ended-up ordering the one I pointed to in my original email as I can expense it through my business I get the VAT off and I want something reliable when I'm remote working or internet goes down at the wrong time.

[APontus]

I got an EE branded 4g one 3 or 4 years ago and it worked fine in the car. Cost bugger all with a sim only contract.

[bristolracer]

APontus said:

I got an EE branded 4g one 3 or 4 years ago and it worked fine in the car. Cost bugger all with a sim only contract.

Same here, got an unlock code for £2 on ebay and have used it in Vietnam and more recently with a 3 simcard when they had an offer on of really cheap data

[APontus]

EE will give you the unlock code for free now (they have to).

[Bacon Is Proof]

Just bought a Huawei 4g hotspot to replace our 3g one. £40 and instantly gone from 2.5mbps to about 10x that so very happy. Power it using a portable Anker solar panel so I don't have to use the inverter so takes some stress off the main batteries (narrowboat). It's on EE wheras my mobile is 02 (giffgaff) which is handy as out in the sticks the signal does vary.