Huawei E585 Mobile Wifi (Mifi)
 

Bought this off eBay, there are a bunch of sellers who've unlocked the "3" branded devices.

So I don't really have a prepaid SIM right now. Plan is to use one for trips in Europe.

But I powered it up and connected to the Wifi network. First of all, poor latency to the device, just pinging 192.168.1.1, getting 5-10 ms.

So the admin page loads very slowly and then stops loading after a few pages. Had to power it off and, turn it back on, reconnect, to load those pages.

Has anyone used this model before (hoping some members in the UK might have)?

Is this performance typical or do I have a lemon? Can't imagine putting in a SIM would make a difference in the performance between the device and the Wifi clients I'd connect to it. Guess I could put in my iPhone 3GS SIM and see.

Had a little better luck, managed to save a profile and change the SSID and passwords.

Latency still seems higher than it should be. Maybe the processor isn't worth anything on these things. Maybe an unlocked Android or Symbian phone would have provided better performance running hotspot software.

Or maybe Novatel would have been worth paying $100-120 more.

I tried putting the AT&T iPhone SIM and it kept trying to connect and disconnected. Probably needed to change the APN but it defaulted to "dynamic" so probably need to change it to manual with an APN value that I know works.

Also not sure about login password and possibly changing the dial string.

But in any event, the AT&T signal is only 2G because this device probably doesn't support the right band for US.

Will have to wait until I get to Italy next month to try my Wind SIM.

I bought one from 3 a couple of trips to the UK back. It seems to work reasonably well for a cellular internet connection. Latency in the UK is a bit high, but probably to be expected for that sort of connection.

I was able to change the access password and SSID relatively easily following the including instructions (but mine isn't hacked).

For 120 UKP with 12 GB/12 mos of included prepaid data, I'm pretty happy.

OK to answer my own questions, it's working out great in Italy. I purchased a TIM SIM at FCO along with the unlimited data monthly plan for 39 Euro total.

Configuring it was a bit of a problem. There is an auto-config default which doesn't let you set the APN. My guess is, since these devices were intended for "3" in the UK and uses software with "3" branding (you reach the admin page either by loading 192.168.1.1 or 3.home), the auto-config was setting it to the APN for "3" in the UK.

So you have to go through the advanced settings and find the mobile profile and there, you can enter the APN and save the profile.

So in most places, I'm getting 3G, good signal, sometimes it goes to "H" for HSDPA. Highest speed I've measured, using speedtest.net, which has some servers near Sicily, is about 2.65 Mbps down and 1.35 Mbps up.

Sometimes, the indicator drops to 2G, such as in the Taormina hotel room that I stayed in.

When I took it out during the day, the OLED display is very hard to read. It's also got a reflective cover over it so you have to shield it from light to make out the display.

Battery life I'd estimate at 3 hours give or take another 30-60 minutes. I didn't keep it on battery most of the time, just turned it on and off as needed. I did have a second battery, which goes for about $8 on eBay delivered.

It gets hot but the documentation says it's normal. One time, it showed good signal strength but the MacBook Pro wouldn't get email or load any pages. I just power cycled it and waited for the MBP to re-connect to the Wifi network and it worked again.

Can't beat the price. I tried the iPhone SIM and it was only getting 2G back home so I'm guessing that it doesn't support the 3G frequencies used by AT&T. But I got it for use overseas, since the prepaid data products are non-existent in the US.

The Novatel products go for about twice as much on eBay. They're probably fine products but I'm happy for the price I paid.

Looks like tepwireless.com, which is a UK-based service like iPhonetrip.com or Xcomglobal, are also using this model, just cosmetically altered to cover up the "3" logo.

Huawei E585 + aBroadband SIM = great solution
 

Bought a Huawei E585 Mifi in August 2010. Next I canceled my Data Roaming Plans with my domestic provider for both my PC and my Cell Phone and bought a local Datasim for each country I visited.

Then, a few months ago, I bought a Datasim from aBroadband.com, which is the first Dataroaming Plan that I know of is straightforward and very reasonable priced. I use it on short trips to a country (but continue buying a local Datasim for extended stays in a country).

So far the combination of the Huawei E585 Mifi (or a Novatel Mifi for that matter) and the aBroadband SIM is the perfect combination of cost and convenience. For me.

What sort of prices are generally charged for unlimited use data SIMs? The OP mentioned above that a monthly plan in Italy costs €39, which seems to be a very good deal so long as you don't have to commit to paying it for 12 months or something like that.

I was in Germany last month and could not find anything remotely close to that price!

Rates vary by country.

Here's an option for Germany.

http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...ermany+-+Fonic

There are other vendors listed on that site that you can browse too.