Question Alternatives to Nighthawk M6 Mobile Hotspot Router ? (Australia, urgent)

brockdragon

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Aug 10, 2012
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Hey all,

We have a NightHawk M1 that just died, so what's a good replacement that's an improvement ?
Otherwise were looking at the NightHawk M6
Any cheaper alternatives to the Nighthawk M6?

Preferably 5g mobile network, similar speeds etc

Thanks
 
So what feature on the m6 makes it better for you than the m1. Without detailed reading from what I can tell the main thing is the m6 supports 5G networks......not that 5G has a exact meaning anymore.

Does your ISP support the 5G option where you live. If not you are spending extra money for something you can't use. Be very careful if it is like in the USA they have just renamed some of the LTE versions 5G and they only offer the real 5G that can do over 1gbit in very small areas of very large cities.

The other feature it has is wifi6 but on a mobile hotspot that likely makes no difference since most end devices do not support the 160mhz version of wifi6. It doesn't really matter because even basic wifi5 is going to be massively faster than any signal you get in from the internet.
 

brockdragon

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Aug 10, 2012
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Thanks for the quick reply, our providers are less restrictive than the times I spent in the USA. Urgently the m1 was used for streaming Netflix etc on 2 tvs and Xbox the switch and a phone.

the hard part is the m1 and above until the m6 are widely out of stock and I’m having difficulty finding any alternatives.

thanks again
 
I guess it depends on what you get for speedtest on your phone if it is from the same provider to determine if 5g is going to benefit.

You have the same issue as getting a so called universal cell phone that will run on any provider. Although it is getting better it still is a massive pain to find device that will really function. This is why you tend to only buy devices the ISP lists on their site as compatible. You also have to worry that the ISP refuses to activate devices, things like huawei technically will work in the USA but most ISP will not activate the devices because of the history of security breaches by huawei.

Making this even worse when you want to run 5G. Because the vendors are using a very broad term to cover a large number of data encoding and transmission methods you can be sure a device that claims to work with one vendors 5g will work on another vendors version of 5G. If you dig really hard you will find all the radio bands and data encodings listed. You would then need to determine which your ISP is using....the can vary from cell tower to cell tower so you need to see what they are using on the tower you will use. There are apps that will let your phone show you the information from your cell tower.

This still is a massive pain. Your best option is still to go the ISP web site and get lists of things they support. In some cases you just pay the extra costs and buy directly from the ISP because you are then 100% sure it will function. I know lately some of the home internet plans from tmobile and verizon in the USA you have to use the ISP router and nothing else. They have other plans that allow you to use other hotspot devices but they cost almost double per month.