Mifi with openwrt support

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hey guys,

Are there any good openwrt mifi units on the market today except for the GL-Inet MIFI ..?
Been testing with the GL-inet for a while, but was wondering if there are any good alternatives to compare with..

2

What does that unit not provide that you're looking for?

(It's a pretty broad question to which "yes" is perhaps the best match of an answer.)

Here's a list of those supported (meaning at one point someone had a running image) with a "Mobile" modem. Be aware that anything with less than 8 MB of flash and/or less than 64 MB of RAM is not a wise choice at this time and is likely to be crippled in functionality as a result. For this class of device, at least 16 MB of flash and 128 MB of RAM should be a minimum for purchase, in my opinion.

https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_extended_all?dataflt[Modem*~]=Mobile

Of those units, I would look at the GL.iNet X750.

3

Hello,

I looked at the table and there's a dearth of devices that do what I want. I'd like a device that

  1. Is portable/pocketable and battery powered (but it shouldn't break if permanently connected to power)
  2. Can be connected to external antennas (I'm referring to LTE/4G, not wifi)
  3. Is available and relatively cheap

In the table I see that there's only the GL-Mifi (but it doesn't seem that it has connectors for external antennas and it's bulkier than the various mifis from huawei/zte), the GL-X750 (not portable and it isn't clear if the detachable antennas are for 4G or wifi) and the tektonika units (but they are not portable and they're not exactly cheap).

I want to use it in a campervan (hence the need for external antennas since the van metallic structure attenuates the cellular signal a great deal) but use it outside if the need arise.

4

You could get a power bank to solve that issue.

5

but that wouldn't help on the "pocketability" front :wink:

6

44 battery powered devices listed in the Table of Hardware (sorted by availability).

1 Like
7

Thank you, but removing from that table the devices that

  1. are discontinued
  2. do not have a 4g modem
  3. have only 32 Mb of memory
  4. are not travel routers

it remains just one device: the hnet hw-c108, but it has no connectors for external antennas, and it's not clear if it runs openwrt proper or some vendor fork.
Nice device though.

8

Since what I want doesn't appear to exist, maybe the next best option is a travel router (e.g. tp-link wr902ac v3) with an usb 4g modem.
I'd sacrifice the portability (though I could use it in a pinch with an usb battery) but still have very low power consumption.
Opinions?
Would that tp-link be enough to maintain a wireguard tunnel (at 4g speed)?