Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I live in a very rural area where high speed internet is still not an option. The nearest Walmart is in the next state and the nearest hospital is about 25 minutes away. After a few years in the city, the only thing I left to return to a country life that I missed was high speed internet and the ability to work from home. This device changed that. Yes, it is a little pricey. I searched around and purchased this elsewhere for about $100 less than the advertised price here, but I would have gladly paid it if I had to. I see people that live in or near larger cities reviewing this with speeds around 60 to 80 Mbps. Not at all the fastest internet in the world, but our other options where I live are satellite and dialup. Dialup... just no, and satellite is best described only as "better than nothing". I've had satellite twice out here with speeds between 6 Mbps and 20 Mbps. However, satellite internet is not considered live internet. It relies on the slow travel of large packets of data. Because of this, you cannot stream anything live, you can't chat online, it doesn't support gaming, and it's limited to only so much data per month. Trying to use the "bonus" data between 2 am and 6 am is a joke, and it's still not enough to do much more than pull up several sites or wait patiently for a 5 or 6 high def YouTube videos to load. Before you buy this device, find a cellular broadband reseller. Make sure you're purchasing a plan that runs on whatever network you can receive in your area. For me, AT&T and Verizon are the only two that exist here (besides the small companies that run on their networks). AT&T has far more coverage and speed between the two, so I went with an unlimited plan through a reseller that was powered by AT&T. With a reseller, unlimited is truly unlimited; no throttling, no data caps, no slowing of any kind. If you need help finding a plan, just contact me and I'll gladly help you out. There were many devices I could have purchased, but I needed something that was portable and powerful at the same time. This was the only puck style device that had an Ethernet port, something well needed to work from home. This device does a great job turning cellular internet into something that operates just like cable internet. I just sat it near a window to make sure I can get a good signal (most days just 2 to 3 bars) and I can enjoy speeds around 30 Mbps. Not super fast, but where I live, it's far faster than anything else. Unlike satellite, though, this speed is constant. No lag, absolutely NO lost data packets, no buffering, no issues. THIS IS NOT YOU PHONE'S HOTSPOT; this is a great substitute for home internet. It is far more capable than what your phone's hotspot can do. Most people reading this, even those living in other rural areas, will see speeds of over 75 Mbps (when I travel 12 miles into town, the speed is around 80 Mbps). To use as home internet, you have to consider a few things. First of all, the battery CAN and SHOULD be removed if you're doing more than just browsing and shopping online. I connected my system to a PowerLine adapter. From there, an Xbox, 3 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 phones, and 2 tablets were all hooked up at once along with my new Ooma phones (2 of them). All of the computers and tablets had tons of updates from about a year to do. It took about 5 hours for all of the computers, tablets, and the Xbox to do about 120 GB worth of updates all at once, but the battery on this NightHawk LTE Router kept overheating and it would stop the charging. I knew I was pushing this device with all the connected devices and the heavy use, so I took the battery out and powered it back on and it works just fine without the battery in, and because it's not charging, it stays cool to the touch under heavy load. Just leave it somewhere it won't get moved or bumped and you're good to go. No restarting, no powering down, no issues at all. Like a regular router, you don't need a battery in this device for it to function. I've also had my nephew here streaming on the Xbox while I streamed some tv shows through Amazon while someone else was in another room streaming videos. No lag, no mic lag, no buffering, no issues at all. I can finally stream my Xbox on my computers, broadcast the screen from my computers, phones, or tablets through my Amazon FireStick flawlessly, my Ooma service sounds better than any home phone service I've ever had (home phone is needed to work from home, and Ooma is the only VOIP service that passes as a substitute for a POTS or POTS through cable), and best of all, I can work from home again all thanks to this little Netgear NightHawk LTE Router. Update: After this review, I had to move the router to move some stuff around in the living room. I put it in a different window and noticed it got a better signal there. I tried downloading some games on Xbox... noticed it seemed to be faster, so I did multiple speedtests and now my average speed went from 20 Mbps to 41 Mbps. Again, not the 1 Gbps fiber I'm used to from living in the city, but out here, anything faster than dialup is a big deal. January 2019 update... This thing is still amazing. I just want to point out a few things. When finding a service provider (a reseller), you should never pay more than $75 per month for service. If you are, you are being ripped off. Some charge even less than that, but I have seen some charge over $200 per month. If you need help finding a good provider, feel free to comment on this review. Also, not all work at home jobs work with this internet. Again, if you have questions about that, just comment. Additionally, this will, by default, set up a Double NAT connection. This may limit remote desktop and some streaming (gaming) capabilities. However, there is a way to somewhat bypass this with something called DMZ which is a setting on the web admin page of this device. A quick internet search will tell you how to do that. Most users will not have to change any settings to use this basically right out of the box. Mine came with an AT&T SIM card and I was able to use it for service with my reseller. This device broadcasts both 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz wifi. If you use both, you need to name each one with a different name for best results. If your device can't connect to or see one or the other, check the specs of that device. Not all computers and wifi capable devices are capable of operating on 5 ghz networks. If your device is a little older or was a budget item amd can't stay connected to the 2.4 ghz networks, it's not the fault of the router (which is obvious if you have other devices that can connect with no issue). Just buy a capable usb wifi dongle. They start as low as $5 here on Amazon. Update 9/14/2019 Even though I was careful to not let the battery get too stressed, it is failing. I mean, I'm not exactly surprised, and it's super easy to find a low priced OEM replacement. It gives the temp error even when cool sometimes, but it goes away after a few minutes or whenever I remove the battery. Not really an issue; it still holds full charge, and as long as I turn the device off to charge it, it charges to full capacity with no issue and holds that charge all day when I'm away from the house (or if the power goes out for 14 hours after a storm). I love using the USB port to keep my phone charged; it just charges from the battery. That's quite helpful when on the go. Other than that, this device is still working like a champ. Devices like this usually last only about a year under heavy use, but this one seems to be holding up quite well with daily use being left on nearly 24/7. If I didn't mention it before, remember; this device is a mobile communication device. For best results, reboot it once a day, or, at the very least, once per week. It takes all of about 2 minutes and you can use the power button to reboot it or click on "Reboot" in the Netgear Mobile app.