MiFi delivers the ultimate in personal freedom. With the simple push of a button, wirelessly access the Internet from virtually anywhere with any WiFi-enabled device. MiFi supports multiple users, you can share your high-speed connection with friends, family members and co-workers. The world's first Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, MiFi is the fastest and easiest way to get online on the go—and it even fits in the palm of your hand. My Internet, my applications, my content, my way. MiFi 2372 intelligent mobile hotspot for HSPA networks with download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 5.76 Mbps. This unit is capable of sharing 3G Internet connection between 5 Wi-Fi enabled devices. Operates virtually anywhere in the world with multiple frequency band operation in HSPA, UMTS, EDGE, and GPRS providing high speed mobile Internet access.
G**N
Success! Internet for My Ireland Vacation
So I bought this device so I could have Internet for my smart phone on my Ireland vacation, of course my phone by itself was not compatible with mobile providers over there so this worked a slick way to get internet. It ended up working out great and was well worth the small investment.Of course it took a little work to make everything work out and there are some lessons for everyone here looking to use one of these in a foreign country.Lesson #1): Not all Amazon retailers give you exactly same thing. My first device I ordered was from a vendor called 'WeAbove' this device was: AT&T Branded, Locked (even after the generic firmware update, more on that later), had a battery that would not hold a charge for more then 15 seconds and came with an AT&T sim card (no service though). That got returned and I ordered another one from a vendor called 'OEM Run' this came AT&T branded, was unlocked, had a good battery (I suppose) and came with no sim card.Lesson #2): Flash your firmware with the generic version so you can use it off of AT&Ts network, this does not "unlock" your device but is a necessary step to get the device to work on a non-AT&T network. There is really good instructions on one of the popular reviews on how to accomplish this. Also checkout the comments section, there is allot of great supplemental info there as well.Lesson #3): Hope you got an unlocked device. To tell if you are locked or unlocked, you will need a desktop machine and the DC-Unlocker software. This is free to download and costs you nothing to query the device as to it's locked status. If you are locked you can unlock it with DC-Unlocker but it will cost you money to do so, I believe around 15 Euros.I managed to do all my flashing at home and I did not have to lug a laptop to Europe with me, it was smart phones using WiFi though my Mifi all trip!As far as obtaining service went I ended up stopping by a cell phone store in Dublin and picked up a pre-paid data SIM card. I used a service provider called Meteor, I want to say they are the 3rd largest carrier in Ireland. They good coverage most everywhere you would expect: Big cities, towns, most stretches of highway and a few other major roadways, I did allot of country side tours and I had some sort of coverage about 70% of the time. When I had coverage 90% of the time it was HSPA service which is the fastest radio for this device. They gave me two options for a prepaid sim: 1GB for 10 Euros or Unlimited data for a month for 20 Euros, no extra fees on either option. The nice thing about configuring this was Meteor and this device supported auto configuration, so I did not have to enter the APN and password. All that happened was the guy at the mobile phone store handed me the sim card, I put it in the devide, he typed on his keyboard for 5 minutes, on his instructions I rebooted the device and wah-la internet!The device itself:- The feedback on the front of the device as to it's connection status and battery level is a little lacking. It flashes the power button various colors and uses blink patterns to convey different meaning. It takes a little to learn all the colors and flash patterns but eventually you get it. Of course if you want to know the details of this stuff you can pull up the admin web page on a connected device and it will give you hard numbers.- Battery life is lacking, I got about 2.5 hours of use before it dies, you generally have to keep it off when you are not using and walking around somewhere. If you read other reviews you will hear about people complaining that you can not charge and use the Internet on the device at the same time. This is only true if it is hooked up to a desktop machine, I had no problems using internet with it plugged into a wall or car charger.- The thing definitely gets quite hot when it is on.- It also goes stupid every so often. Where it is not connected to service and the power button does not turn off the device. When that happens you pull the battery out and restart and if you have coverage it reconnects and goes back to working.Even though the device is a bit basic and it takes a bit of extra configuration to use this thing on non-AT&Ts network, it worked out well for a vacation to Europe and in the grand scheme of things it was cheap, for that I give it 4 stars.I would not recommend this device to anyone that wants to use this device on a daily basis for a couple years, I would upgrade to something a little nicer for that type of use.
J**L
How do you screw up a power button?
I bought one of these a few months ago. I had trouble getting it to turn on, but eventually it worked. Over the next three months whenever this thing would lock up (at least once a day) we would have to unplug it, wait a minute or so, and then spend a while trying to get it back on again. About two weeks ago it wouldn't turn on anymore. I returned it and promptly ordered another one.It arrived yesterday, and I had the same issue. It almost seems to turn on at random, and the button seems to accomplish nothing. It locked up after an hour. Same nonsense.Want a firmware update? They have produced many, but they are NOT available from Novatel. Or Amazon. You are stuck with the buggy firmware from January of 2010. This unit seems worse than the first, and after it locked up for the second time, I gave up and requested a return from Amazon. I bought a Virgin Wireless Mifi from Best Buy today and will not look back. The Mifi 2372 was a complete pile of garbage for me. Both of them.Joel
E**N
Replaces the one that broke
All of these hotspot boxes stink. But if you don't expect any reliability, you won't be disappointed. I got my first Novatel about 4 years ago at the AT&T store and got some good use out of it. Then it auto-bricked. I could not reflash it although it pretended to. So I bought this replacement and it is worse. The battery toasted itself somehow (power draw went very high with the battery in it, and was normal without the battery in it) It won't run without a battery in it but plugged in. So I took the battery form the old Novatel which itself was a replacement and it seems to work. For now... Other problems include random disconnects although that could be the AT&T network.I also have the Sprint hotspot box. When these devices are that bad it helps to have a backup. The Sprint box (Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro) is also bad in somewhat different ways. It likes to disconnect more often and hangs sometimes. The Novatel does better on the road (roaming, etc) than the Sierra Wireless.In short, buy this if you need to use a mobile hotspot but do not expect much out of it.
K**.
After a bit of work, it's a very useful product. And the price is outstanding!
I was hoping to receive the unbranded model pictured on the product page. I tried two vendors, but both of them shipped the AT&T branded version. It's not SIM locked, but the AT&T firmware still limits your ability to use it on other networks. Thanks to David Preudhomme's excellent review (2/21/2012) I was able to download a Windows device driver and the Novatel generic firmware. Now I'm confident I can use this with local prepaid SIMS in most of the world. (Although this is a "US" model, the 2100 MHz band should work for 3G data in most of Europe.) Here in the US, it's working great with the no-contract SIM from my iPad.I found that the Novatel firmware allows the wifi to continue to operate when the device is powered from an external battery or AC adapter through a normal USB cable. The AT&T firmware would shutdown the wifi in this case. However, when you connect it to a laptop with a normal USB cable, the Novatel firmware still shuts down the wifi. I was able to work around this with a micro USB "Y" cable. (One of the two computer plugs only connects to power.) StarTech.com USB2HAUBY1 1 Feet USB Y Cable for External Hard Drive - Dual USB A to Micro B
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