SIM-ple.
When you’re at home
and you need to connect to the internet, you normally just plug in
your wireless router to the house’s phone line, and draw the wonder
of the World Wide Web from your ISP. Well, you can… but there is
another way, and all you’ll need is the SIM card from your 4G
enabled smartphone. Connecting in a slightly different way, we review
the TP-Link Archer MR200 4G Router.
What? In a nutshell, you can use the WiFi router without a contract from a standard ISP. All you have to do is slide in your SIM card (or indeed a SIM card you buy separately specifically for this) and the TP-Link Archer MR200 4G Router uses that connection to project a strong WiFi signal. Basically this is true wireless WiFi. Wahey!
Seriously, this is so
easy to use as there is no sign in and set up required like with a
wired router. Just pop in the SIM card like you would into your
phone, switch on the MR200, and within seconds you can connect to the
new network. This makes it tremendously useful when you need a WiFi
network (one more powerful than your WiFi Hotspot phone can project,
at least) in a place where you have no standard internet connection.
As long as the signal from your mobile internet operator is strong
enough, this will work great.
In
terms of the technicals, the TP-Link Archer MR200 4G Router creates
simultaneous dual band WiFi networks capable of speeds of up to
300Mbps with 2.4GHz, and 433Mbps with 5GHz. In network coverage we
found that it couldn’t complete with our normal home WiFi router,
but we weren’t expecting it to project over a huge range to be
honest. The WiFi footprint might be smaller, but this is the kind of
thing that would be set up somewhere specifically for short-term
usage (especially if you don’t have an unlimited data contract!).
Thankfully the TP-Link
Archer MR200 4G Router can also be used like a conventional router
thanks to the LAN/WAN port on the back. This allows you to connect
with a good old fashioned wire, for cable, fiber and DSL goodness. So
although not the biggest footprint, and all of this depends on how
fast and how easily available your mobile data connection is, for
short-term, emergency internet whenever you have signal, this
performs extremely well.
£125
Visit
www.tp-link.com/en
