Need wifi router for airtel 4G dongle

prasadldba

prasadldba

Disciple
I am planning to purchase airtel 4g dongle , please advise a good wifi router for this.
i am not considering wifi router from airtel because of cost .
 
You might not have a choice as the USB dongle might not be compatible (as of yet) with other routers.

What is the brand & model number of the dongle you want to get. Find this out before you shell out for it ;)
 
that does not tell you anything. You need to know WHO makes that dongle and the model# then see if routers will support it. At this point i'm thinking nobody supports it.

You will probably have to a wait a few months for that info to come out to have compatibility given that 4G is still pilot in very few cities in India.

Installing dongles on routers is not the same as on a PC where you can install any drivers. For routers those drivers need to be provided in the firmware by somebody else. The user CANNOT install dongle drivers on routers by point & click.
 
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Unfortunately that means you are stuck with getting an an avg mifi router from airtel if you want 4G today. And that airtel router will most likely be useless with any other dongles. So its a waste.

Why you want 4G anyway ? no handsets support it as yet since it operates on a different band to other countries.

So 4G is to replace wired connections for now only.

Why can't get a decent wired connection in your area which will be cheaper and much better than this flaky & expensive over the air nonsense ?
 
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Is 4G better than 3G options in your area ?

At least 3G you can use on your handset as well not restricted only at home.
 
Don't get the Routers from Airtel, they are just ****. The previous Huweai and ZTE modems were good, but the newer ATEL (Asia Teleco) Models are just ****. Simply doesn't work.

I thought of getting TP-Link TL-MR3020, but they have no idea whether the dongle will be supported because they couldn't test it due to limited service availability from Airtel.

I guess the dongles are of Huweai, but I don't know how can I check the dongle's model no.
 
krishnandu said:
I thought of getting TP-Link TL-MR3020, but they have no idea whether the dongle will be supported because they couldn't test it due to limited service availability from Airtel.
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Apparently its a Huawei E392 dongle. Can somebody confirm this here ?

Some people report success with the MR3020 model but the compatibility list does not indicate such support.

However there is this interesting 3rd party fw called ROOTer that supports the 3020 AND the E392

Wanna play ?
 
ASUS RT N10U B1 Router is a 3G/4G Router which works well with many 3G Dongles including that of Airtel.

You could download the Router manual and see. The ASUS site also gives a list of compatible Dongles.

Now I have been trying to get an answer to two questions.

1. Can we use a 4G Sim card on a 3G dongle?

2. If that can be done may be we could get a compatible 3G Dongle, slip your 4G Sim card into that and use it with ASUS router.

Theoretically it is possible.

But then you have to experiment with a old 3G Dongle and the Asus Router.
 
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^^Yeah theoretically it's possible. But you'll get 3G Speed of course and in Kolkata 2G speed, as Airtel doesn't have 3G here.[DOUBLEPOST=1376359545][/DOUBLEPOST]TP Link also have a portable 3G/4G router TL-MR3020. I have TP Link W8968, it's a ADSL + 3G Modem. But it'll move down to 2G here in Kolkata, so never felt to do a test :p
 
sankar_45 said:
ASUS RT N10U B1 Router is a 3G/4G Router which works well with many 3G Dongles including that of Airtel.

You could download the Router manual and see. The ASUS site also gives a list of compatible Dongles.

Now I have been trying to get an answer to two questions.

1. Can we use a 4G Sim card on a 3G dongle?

2. If that can be done may be we could get a compatible 3G Dongle, slip your 4G Sim card into that and use it with ASUS router.

Theoretically it is possible.

But then you have to experiment with a old 3G Dongle and the Asus Router.
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I have same plans but not able to test
 
prasadldba said:
4g plans are quiet affordable compare to 3G in airtel .
ex: 10 GB 999
i want to use this for wfh
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Are you sure you get good 4G coverage in your room?
First get info/demo from Airtel at your home. Find out where is the nearest 4G enabled tower.

Also as of now Airtel provides only 4G devices. Not the individual 4G sims. Reason being since there is no voice call support and only data services enabled right now they dont want to sell only SIMS. and open the market to 3rd party devices. They want to earn more by selling it as a package.
 
sankar_45 said:
ASUS RT N10U B1 Router is a 3G/4G Router which works well with many 3G Dongles including that of Airtel.
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Since you have the 4G connection, can you confirm which dongle is used by Airtel ?

As for whether a router is 3g or 4g, its all depends on whether it supports the dongle. Or whether you can get an unlocked dongle that will work with network.
 
onlyravi said:
Also as of now Airtel provides only 4G devices. Not the individual 4G sims. Reason being since there is no voice call support and only data services enabled right now they dont want to sell only SIMS. and open the market to 3rd party devices. They want to earn more by selling it as a package.
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An interesting point, ipads don't have voice either but still work with sims for data. So the no voice argument for lack of sims argument does not fly with me.

That airtel is doing this means the dongle is a waste and is only good for airtels network. If they are going to lock it like this i'd expect the price to be a lot lower 50% of an open dongle. Its a multi-mode dongle which means it automatically switches between 2/3 or 4G. But no sim is a downer. Prevents the user from choosing his own open dongle and pairing it with a router of his choice.
 
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