Huawei E5186S-22A test

Klasa routera E (skala „Mercedesa” A, B, C, E, S)

Rating scale 1-6 (6 - excellent)

Introduction

The 4G stationary router is useful in many situations, for example, when we do not want to permanently have a contract with the Internet provider, when we often move or when there is simply no good stationary internet provider in a given place.The router can also be useful as a backup when our constant connector has a failure.One of the most advanced proposals on the LTE router market is Huawei E5186, which combines many features and functions in one device.

The main pros and cons of the Huawei E5186 router

Benefits

Disadvantages

Set - 5

In addition to the router, the box has a power supply with a 150 cm long cable and an Ethernet cable.There is also a very shortened manual, explaining how to connect cables and log in to the administrative panel.

Construction - 4+

The Huawei router has a slim housing designed to stand up vertically, thanks to which it takes up little space and fits on a narrow windowsill of Kub shelf.On the front there are 5 illuminated symbols, signed at the bottom, which is much clearer than ordinary green lights - at first glance you can see which symbol for which it is responsible.Looking from the left, the symbols are:

On the right edge there is a Micro SIM card slot, slipped with click.It works without any problems with the card of this size, but Nano SIM cards in the adapter can sometimes be blocked.Below is the WiFi and WPS button, as well as a reset that requires the use of a narrow tool.

On the back of the device there are 4 LAN RJ-45 sockets, one of which allows you to connect a signal source from another device, e.g. a permanent connection.There are also two RJ-11 telephone sockets.Behind them is one USB socket that can be used to make available in the mass storage network or printer.In addition, there is also a power socket and a switch.

Above the sockets, under the flap, two nests for external 3G/LTE antennas are hidden, which, however, are not included in the set with a router, but give the opportunity to improve the reception of GSM signal when the need arises.Unfortunately, it is not possible to connect additional WiFi antennas.

The router has dimensions of 190 x 200 x 35 mm (the base is wider - 60 mm) and occurs in white or black. Plus it should be counted that it requires very little space and looks nice.Illuminated icons are a nice idea with the proviso that against the background of the window, on a sunny day, they will be poorly visible, especially white stripes symbolizing the GSM signal strength, and at night they can shine too much for the router, for example, in a bedroom.

Routers dedicated to the internet supplied by cable usually in addition to standard 4 LAN sockets, have fifth dedicated connecting the signal source.In the case of Huawei E5186, all 4 ports will only be available if the source of the Internet is a GSM signal, otherwise one socket will be occupied by a signal source and only three will remain.Sometimes higher router models have more than one USB socket, but this is a matter of individual needs.

Technical parameters - 5

The Huawei E5186 router supports connectivity from 2G up to LTE category 6, i.e. 300 MBPS download and 50 Mbps data sending.

The router's working frequencies are:

Locally with devices, the router is connected using the two -band WiFi 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC 2.4 and 5 GHz, where the device works simultaneously.The router supports up to 32 WiFi connections.Ethernet connection speed reaches 1 GBPS.

With the help of two RJ11 telephone sockets, you can use both VoIP technology and GSM connectivity. The USB connector provides printers or external disk content using the Samba protocol.

Administration screen Router 4+

To manage the router, enter the address 192.168.8.1 on the computer connected to the router.As you can see, it differs from the standard adopted for most routers on the market.Basic information is available without logging in: whether the router connects to the Internet using a mobile network or Ethernet, whether WLAN is enabled and how many users currently have and what amount of data it has been sent.To log in, use the standard login and password admin/admin.

In the tabs at the top of the screen you can switch between transfer statistics, sending and selecting SMS, software update, from a network or USB memory, settings and sharing.

In the SIM card settings, you can specify whether roaming should be active.

In addition to sharing with samba, the router also supports DLNA.

In the case of a WLAN network for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz connectivity, you can decide separately whether a given frequency is to be enabled, what is the SSID of each network, which we will use protection methods and whether SSID is to be broadcast or not.Of course, you can manually choose the channel where the network is to operate, filter Mac addresses, determine the establishment of WPS connections secured with PIN.

From the router level, you can block specific domains to limit the household members or colleagues access to specific pages, e.g. to Facebook.

VoIP settings are limited to basic functions.When the VoIP connection is active, they are used by default to make voice connections instead of 2G/3G.

WiFi range and speed - 5

I estimate the stability of the router's very good.During the tests, when 4 twisted panels and nearly 10 devices were connected to the router, there was not a single break in the supply of communication, which would require manual intervention, in the form of a router restart, or another noticeable decrease in comfort. This is an absolute basis, but it happensthat some routers have problems with stability.

The router worked both in the city and in the countryside.Standing at the window in Warsaw, on the operator card Virgin Mobile reached a transfer of a maximum of 68 Mbps download and 22 Mbps sending, which is sufficient for convenient use of the Internet.Of course, the speed hesitated with each subsequent sample, but it did not fall below 40 Mbps download and 18 Mbps sending.

Huawei E5186 also managed the UPC transfer easily - 250 Mbps Download and 20 Mbps Upload.The results measured on the desktop computer on the cable did not differ from those offered by the modem and the router in one offered by UPC - Technicolor TC7200.U.Therefore, switching all communication to Huawei E5186 did not carry any restrictions, but it gave benefits when it comes to WiFi.

The router supplied by UPC can operate at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, but not in both.This is a big problem because older devices do not support WiFi 5 GHz, so they could not connect to the network at all.On the other hand, the 2.4 GHz network does not allow you to fully use the link.

The Huawei E5186 router is two -lane and both networks operate independently, which allows you to reconcile newer and older devices, and the profit for newer devices is very large.On WiFi 5 GHz, the results are almost identical to the maximum bandwidth of the link after an Ethernet gigabit cable - 233 Mbps download and 19 Mbps sending.For comparison, on the 2.4 GHz network, the maximum results are less than twenty pair of MBPs to download data, i.e. over ten times less.The speed of sending is much less limited due to the limitations of the UPC network to 20 Mbps, but the results are also weaker than 5 GHz.In addition, within the home network, you can use the WiFi network to send files between devices directly and then the speeds can also exceed 230 Mbps and the difference compared to 2.4 GHz will even be twenty times.

There is one more reason to use a 5 GHz network when possible - still few people use it and disturbing the signals of neighbors is much smaller.

The WiFi range in Huawei is similar to technology, as both devices do not have external WiFi antennas.The range is enough to cover a large apartment.It is still good for one or two walls.Behind the three walls, one of which is a construction wall of one and a half meters thick, the range is weakening and is already on the border.If we want to cover a very large apartment, over 100 square meters, you will need a signal strengthening.

We lacked the possibility of establishing a separate WiFi network for guests.

The router also did not cause problems outside the city when the GSM signal was much weaker.It acted stable and offered comparable or better results than smartphones in the same place.Of course, the use of external antennas, which is most possible, would allow you to achieve results leaving smartophones far behind.However, I did not have access to external antennas to check how much they would improve the results.

Summary

The Huawei E5186 router is a proposal for demanding, but not necessarily for advanced.For demanding people, because it supports the latest technologies, such as LTE category 6, two -band WiFi AC, up to 32 users and gigabit LAN.This reflects its price, which in the free market oscillates around a thousand zlotys, although it can also be purchased in installments from operators.To fully use the capabilities of the Huawei router, you need to have several devices using WiFi 5 GHz and LAN 1000 Mbps or at least have plans to build such a network.The router is also very easy to use.To start working, just put the SIM card and connect it to the electrical outlet.The most advanced users can find some deficiencies in advanced settings, hence the distinction between demanding and advanced people.Huawei E5186 takes up little space and looks nice.

Who is the huawei e5186 router for

For whom not the huawei e5186 router

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