Which 4G/LTE usb Modem to buy?

I use the B818-263 which is very high spec and works well. It has proved a very popular device especially in Poland - hundreds of posts on a Polish forum (although I use it in the UK).

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isn't really a USB modem though ...

Which one do you recommend?

I'm sure the one @Lynx recommended is superior, but the question is, if it's what you want(ed).

If you really want a stick, Huawei E3372, the newer E4372 should probably also work,
there are other modems from D-Link and ZTE.

Or use an old cell phone, connect it to the router using a USB cable.

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Yeah so what do you want here? If it's to be something portable and/or temporary then why not just tether phone, or there's the USB stick option. If you care about max performance and things like carrier aggregation working well to secure the most bandwidth from cell tower then you want something high spec (high CAT). For best performance you may want an external directional antenna that points to the cell tower and to optimise signal indicators for that. So yeah it all depends really.

In my case we use B818-263 in its bridge mode (perhaps not truly a bridge but it acts like this) and have OpenWrt router (RT3200) connect to that over wan port. OpenWrt router gets a WAN IP from my ISP and all works well. Get excellent signal stats to cell tower but spent ages optimising positioning and location.

With variable bandwidth connection if you want SQM you may like to look at the CAKE autorate threads on this forum.

i am using for more than 2 years now the Huawei 3372, in Europe. I got to say that it serves its purpose without any issues. I got an analysis over here https://forum.openwrt.org/t/rock-solid-24-7-lte-stick/125083/2?u=atux_null

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Hello everyone,
Thanks for your help! Unfortunately today I got an update that we have to go with DSL instead of LTE

That's not very mobile though :slight_smile:

Btw I have an other question: If I plug a TAE-F Plug to RJ45 cable to the WAN port of our asus RT-AC85P than will it work or we need an other router for that?

you'll need a DSL router for it to work, and I don't think the AC85P is one of those.

Thanks for your help!

I use E3372h-320 and I'm happy with it for basic needs. I also had older HiLink version (lower than 320) but its web UI was slow.

For USB, there is no more fast(est). USB mobile sticks are a dying market, newer better ones arent developed anymore, I think you cant find faster ones than 4g 150mbit.

Manufacturers have switched to mobile Wifi all-in-ones routers instead.

Lots of forums claim the issue that there are often 5-6 minor variants on many Huaway USB sticks, some of which have firmware issues and no firmware updates available. Often the good variants are rare to find. So if going Huawai, because you read recommendation, try to get precisely the same variant.

Due to that selection difficulty (and because I ran into a cheap offer), I went for Alcatel last year, as there was just a single variant of that stick:

You can get a mpcie cat6 em7455 in an USB enclosure.

cool idea.
Do you have an example of a matching csse with USB port?

Something like this https://www.cartft.com/en/catalog/il/2116

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I second that recommendation, Huawei B818's are very good and bridge mode works great (not all variants supports this mode though).

If you're dead set on a USB variant Huawei E3372h-153 "works" and flashable to stick mode (NCM). It's seems to top out at ~40mbit and I don't think it's that stable long term but I haven't used any in such a way.

Edit: Correct model nr

That does sound a bit low, assuming you meant a cat4 E3372h-153. Pretty sure I got much more than that out of an E392 10 years ago. I didn't test that one now, but I tried the old E3372h-153 I have:

Test environment is my Linux laptop on the kitchen table, using only the built in antennas in the USB stick.

To have something to relate that to, this is the result from the built-in (cat6) EM7455 modem in that laptop in the same spot: The internal laptop bus connecttion is USB2 only, although the modem does support USB3. But that's not the limiting factor here:


And finally, an cat12 EM7565 in an external USB3 attached "enclosure", using same laptop and location:

FWIW, all three modems were configured for MBIM so they were using the same driver. And not that it matters, but I used ModemManager to make the connection.

As expected, the EM7565 wins by a lot. Note though that the EM7455 also does much better than the USB stick. Not surprisingly, since it should have twice the DL bandwidth. But the point is that you the USB adapter + m.2 modem is way better than any USB stick ever made.

For inspiration wrt "enclosures", here's mine (a bit dusty, but that's authentic):

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Yes, I meant E3372h-153

I agree with @bmork, I've been able to push it to the low 90ies or high 80ies.