Huawei E5577 with antenna ports required

[The Raptor]

I am trying to purchase a Huawei E5577 MiFi unit that has the 2 ports to connect an external antenna to. Unfortunately both times on buying online including Amazon seem to send the version with no ports and have been returned for refund even though the description said they had ports! If anyone has one lying around or know of a confirmed recent link, let me know MotorhomeWiFi now only sell complete setups not individual bits. Thanks if you can help

 

[Lee]

Hi
Are you at Stratford if so come over and see me.
I may be able to help.

 

[The Raptor]

Hi
Are you at Stratford if so come over and see me.
I may be able to help.

Unfortunately not, I’m next at Orkney. I’ve sent a pm.

 

[mblinko]

I am trying to purchase a Huawei E5577 MiFi unit that has the 2 ports to connect an external antenna to. Unfortunately both times on buying online including Amazon seem to send the version with no ports and have been returned for refund even though the description said they had ports! If anyone has one lying around or know of a confirmed recent link, let me know MotorhomeWiFi now only sell complete setups not individual bits. Thanks if you can help

I feel your pain. The exact same happened to me. I just gave up but I'd be interested in hearing how to ID one properly as I thought I had by the serial and model code. There must be more to it.

 

[snapster]

I have a spare one, but I’m in France!
Ive used it for a year or so all over France and the U.K. Mine has the antenna ports, but I found it very slow and was always disappointed in its performance. My iPhone achieved 4g download speeds of over 100mbps, my e5577, in the same location, with a reasonable 4g signal only managed between 0.9 and 25mbps, usually, the lower figure. I looked at getting the antennas, but read that Cat6 mifi units are much faster ( there’s a technical reason) So, I bought an E5785 ( cat 6) and get speeds of up to 90 mbps.
No antenna inputs, but seems to pull signals in very well.
Might be worth considering if you can’t locate an E5577

 

[mblinko]

It's all complicated and goes way over my head but at the beginning of the year I contacted motorhomewifi about speeds etc of these devices -v- phones and I got this reply. Like I said, I gave up .......

If you are using the system in a built up area / town / city as you clearly are to achieve 76Mbps on a handset then an E5577 is a CAT3 device whereas an iPhone 7 is a Category 6 modem. This means when you are in an area where an antenna isn't required and you are able to receive the long range and short range signals from a network the iPhone 7 can combine them to give a faster speed.

This is of no significance in a remote or rural area because you will be connecting to a single LTE band and so performance would likely be more comparable / in favour of the 4G antenna.

There is however a good reason why EE charges £35/mth on a 18mth contract for Unlimited Data and Smarty can 'give it away' for £20 on a non-contract basis. By comparison EE offer 60GB for £30 PAYG and this is limited to ~60Mbps.

 

[snapster]

It started to make sense, then slowly went downhill till it didn’t!

 

[mblinko]

I know what you mean. It sounds like he was saying mobile phone masts send out long and short range signals. Phones pick both up and combine them hence the speed increase. HUAWEI devices connected to the roof antenna with the cables pick up the long range (LTE) signals only. HUAWEI devices not connected to the roof antenna do not combine long and short range signals but only pick up short range ones (4G). This appears to be why HUAWEI devices however they are connected always seem to be slower than our phones, unless of course signals are piggybacking on a bigger network which raises different questions. But of course this could all be the ravings of a madman. whatever, I'm off to get a tablet now, my head hurts

 

[snapster]

I think the Cat 6 mifi units work similar to phones where they combine both signals, hence the similar speeds that I am seeing with my mifi.
This is a speed test I did just now on my Mifi. You can see the 4g signal on my phone is just 2 bars.

 

[The Raptor]

I have a spare one, but I’m in France!
Ive used it for a year or so all over France and the U.K. Mine has the antenna ports, but I found it very slow and was always disappointed in its performance. My iPhone achieved 4g download speeds of over 100mbps, my e5577, in the same location, with a reasonable 4g signal only managed between 0.9 and 25mbps, usually, the lower figure. I looked at getting the antennas, but read that Cat6 mifi units are much faster ( there’s a technical reason) So, I bought an E5785 ( cat 6) and get speeds of up to 90 mbps.
No antenna inputs, but seems to pull signals in very well.
Might be worth considering if you can’t locate an E5577

Thank you for your replies I have now sourced a E5785 on fleabay and the seller confirmed it has ports and it is cat6 300 Mbs so better than my original idea of a E5577

 

[snapster]

That’s great. My 5785 doesn’t have the antenna ports so you got a good deal there. It has a Best Position tool so you can see which position picks up the best signal.

 

[dilbert99]

What antenna‘s are you using? I have a net gear mifi with ports but just use it without any at the minute.

 

[The Raptor]

What antenna‘s are you using? I have a net gear mifi with ports but just use it without any at the minute.

From a different thread the Poynting Puck-2 was recommended so I purchased that , await the arrival of the E5785 to be delivered to try it out, so will report hopefully later this week

 

[The Raptor]

I’ve posted an update in a new thread…..

My MiFi (Huawei E5785) arrived today and the Poynting Puck-2 is installed (I drilled a 20mm hole through my Autotrail Roof ). It worked with my phones Sim on Three but I didn’t want the Faff of taking my SIM out of phone and putting in MiFi…,,,,,Looking at Data Sims, I followed Geeky Phillip’s...
https://motorhomer.com/threads/mifi-update-choices-of-sim-cards-for-mifi’s.43853/