Does anyone have a new Telstra 4G wifi modem? I have some questions please.

[beach_and_home]

Hi, I am trying out a new Telstra 4G wifi mobile broadband set up. The 4G modem has a battery as it is supposed to be mobile. But I am mainly using it at home.  I have been told not to leave it plugged into the power. But it is inconvenient to have another thing that I now have to check the power level of all the time so I know whether it needs charging. Is it possible to take out the battery and just leave it plugged in? Does anyone here do that? The girl in the shop said NO but if it works I don't see why not?

Does anyone have any experiences to share here? Good or Bad? I really need some feedback on this because I am not sure if I will keep it at home and cut off the home phone/net, or take it to my shop.

Does anyone have problems with drop outs? Or with connecting to it?

Does anyone have a mobile broadband plan with a modem that actually can be left plugged into the power? My current moden is just plugged in all the time so I can forget about it. This new mobile one is a pain because I have to first push the button on the modem before I can use my computer. Then I have to check when it needs charging, which differs depending on how much it's used.

Please can someone with experience give me some information and tips on how to get the most out of mobile broadband at home?

[nellie-t]

Hi  I have had that modem Telstra 4G  ,,and I was hopeless!!  It kept falling out  ,, when it worked,, it did work well but that was for only a few mins,  I have spent  over 15 hours  talking  to Telstra bigpond  to get it to work  ,, what a pain,,  I bought a cradle $200 to plug in an external antenna  but I had to keep turning it off to reboot it,,  they did send me a  4G advanced,, but I had to buy another cradle and an adapted for the antenna,   It is better  but the wifi  is not good and still needs to be rebooted  at least 3 times in the hour

My old one  was better than either of these new ones,, I only used it at home

[bsal6160]

Yes the battery can be removed and it will still power, I have mine plugged in all the time. Your Mobile speed will depend on signal coverage. Remember if your WiFi modem cant find the 4G network it will then look for the 3G network. I use one and its great.

[beach_and_home]

Thanks for the replies.

bsal, I might try taking out the battery. I did contact telstra on facebook and asked the question and they told me it wouldn't work without the battery and that I couldn't use it that way. I guess they just haven't thought about it that way seeing as it is designed to be mobile, not to be used at home all the time. I don't have any problem at all receving the signal, we must be in a good coverage area. At least that is one thing I don't have to worry about.

bsal, so if you take out the battery and leave it plugged in, do you still need to push the button to wake it up when you want to use it? Or does it keep transmitting all the time? And how long have you had it? I'm pretty sure the only reason they say don't leave it plugged in is because the battery gets too hot, so if there's no battery and it works you would think it is safe. I might try it.

If anyone else has any experiences or tips please add them here.

[bsal6160]

I had the one a while ago and left the battery in and plugged in all the time. The battery swelled and pushed the back cover off. Rang Telstra and they sent me a brand new one. Mine is plugged in all the time and NO i dont need to push the button every time. Have you got your computer set to log on to the your home network automatically?

Is yours one with the touch screen display?

[beach_and_home]

Mine is the 4G advanced. Yes it's got a touch screen. um, yep I've got the computer set to connect automatically. It doesn't seem to do it though unless I've pushed the button and woken the device up. I'm persevering with it and it's going ok for now, but I'm not as happy with it as I thought I would be. But as it's a new mobile internet contract I'm stuck with it for a while.

[rogespeed]

Hi, I rent the 4G advanced , single connected computer works well.... , I connect directly to the laptop via the "power" ac adapter cable , so the following may be of interest

This "power cable" can be disconnected from the ac adapter which is a usb plug and so connected into a computer usb port - this cable is power and signal , so the modem has support for cable connected modem , as well as directly powering and recharging

This connection is more secure than wireless LAN - local area network ie computer to modem/router

You just turn on the modem and manually connect to the WAN via settings > network > status using battery power

then with the cable already connected at the modem end just plug in the other end into a spare usb port

Wait for software to install, then click on network icon on the task tray and click connect on supported network and enter the wifi password - this presumes prior rego via browser

First time connected you might have to open the network centre and configure from there ie new wifi network

Once configured will connect unattended upon computer bootup, but for fastest connection always first connect or confirm connected via modem to the wide area network

As advised keep modem 20cms+ away from yourself during use

[rogespeed]

btw - if you connect another device to your LAN - speed might be low "super dialup" for awhile until (I think) the modem figures out the connection is authorised

You can defeat stodgy download networkspeed to what it should be (meaning what it usual is) by installing a download manager app , these interlace the download from several source servers and splice the downloaded file together, however my favourite download manager app upon installation on a recently clean reinstalled machine seems to be suffering a targeted parasitic attack,  the setup file seemingly hosting the parasite, and so was corrupted badly - for those users who have noticed this and can not uninstall , try Windows safe mode , worked for me

Running SpyHunter seems a good indicator tool of an infection of this mentioned issue 

[beach_and_home]

thanks rogespeed. I think what you have described is definitely the best way to use it if it is just for one a single user. But we have two users in the house so it is easier and more practical to leave the device in a central place. I'm getting used to it but still not totally loving it.

[rogespeed]

Hi , does seem to have more configuration options than previous models - I can not keep but wonder whether wifi LAN is compromisable , so I usually use usb cable connect option 

For those that select this you need to disable wifi device via device manager or hardware switch, as this is default connection.

Cable connection will not indicate "number of connected devices" on the default display , wifi connections will be numbered.

You can still connect via wifi from other computers - up to 5 I recall

If ones connects via cable connect , try to use the same computer for this config as connection can be problematic if using this config on other computers - it does initially install some software as part of the process of connecting

btw beach* - you are probably aware but unit can be configured signal strength , 

wifi > options > wifi range :  short / medium / long 

no need to broadcast all over the neigbourhood......

This modem will connect if using Linux such as Ubuntu in try mode , maybe a good idea for a computer used for general browsing and one wishes to access banking accounts, ie input account number and password, yes really bright on a relatively easily compromisable system, but then again you should use a dedicated computer for accessing banks accounts (but I digress)