Two Weeks with the Linksys WRT54G3G-ST Mobile Broadband Wireless Router

I was able to try out the new Linksys Mobile Broadband Wireless router over the holidays.

So what exactly is a “Mobile Broadband Wireless Router”???

Basically, it is exactly the same as your run of the mill WIFI routers except that in addition to allowing connectivity to the Internet using DSL like a regular Broadband Wireless Router, the “Mobile” version allows Internet connectivity through a 3G or HSDPA network. Basically, this works through an additional 3G or HSDPA PC Card slot built into the router, and software to manage connectivity to the 3G/HSDPA network. The connectivity can then be shared to the rest of the internal network, whether wired (ethernet) or wireless (WIFI 802.11b/g). This means that a WIFI network can be setup just about anywhere, in a house, middle of a shopping mall, or even the middle of a football field (with the aid of a very long power extension cord).

Setup

Setup was sort of a semi simple process. I am a sucker for punishment so I didnt bother setting up the router using the install CD that comes with the unit. I opted instead to go old school through the browser based management utility at 192.168.1.1. The management utility had all the usual Linksys features like port forwarding, access control, etc. However, it also had connectivity settings for a 3G network, such as APN, userid and password.

There is also a set of radio buttons to select connectivity mode, 3G/UMTS Preferred, 3G/HSDPA Only, or GPRS Only. Initially, I had the “Preferred” button selected, but later changed it to 3G/HSDPA Only when I finally placed it in an indoor location where the relatively weaker 3G signal was making the unit switch to a slower GPRS connection.

After setting up all the correct settings on the unit, I did have to reboot the unit a couple of times because the setting were done before I actually inserted an HSDPA PC Card. However, if the PC Card is inserted while the unit is powered down, then there should not be any issue. For the test, I used a Huawei E620 HSDPA PC Card. When inserted correctly, everything was working fine and the unit connected properly. It must be noted that like my experience with a wired DSL connection on a regular router, the best mode of connectivity for the router is to set it to always-on. This will avoid connectivity setup time and the possibility of connection failure when you start a new browsing session. Of course, this assumes that an unlimited plan is used.

Interestingly, the unit had a prominent red buttion in front that was some sort of a “press to connect” switch. I tried using a number of times and it didnt seem to trigger anything with the unit.

Usability

Once I got the router setup and running at my house, using the service was a pretty idiot-proof affair. I would just connect my laptop to the WIFI signal from the router, and surf away. Connectivity was very simple and everything just worked, similar in experience to a typical Linksys DSL router.

Speed was excellent when connected to the HSDPA network, which I was connected to pretty much the whole time. Using the service was no different from using a wired DSL connection. After a couple of sessions, I practically forgot that I was actually using a Mobile Data connection to connect to the Internet. I was getting anywhere from 300 to 700 kbps connection speed, which is a pretty good DSL replacement.

The only problem I had was setting up wireless security. WPA didnt work, WPA2 didnt work, even WEP didnt work. I thought it was because I was using a Mac but a colleague was using another test unit and was connecting on a PC and wasnt able to get the thing to run with security as well.

Best I could do to secure the connection was to change the SSID, disable SSID broadcast, and limit the number of DHCP clients to 3 instead of the standard 50. Of course I had to change the router password as well.

Well, running out of time to continue writing now, will continue later…

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