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NOVATEL MIFI 2200
Here in the USA, Sprint
and Novatel have recently collaborated to release a
mini portable wifi router called the MiFi.
This article will talk about one of those MiFi
units, the MiFi 2200.
Here are the specs of
the product, and some images as well:
As you can see, the MiFi 2200 is very small, very
light, and is packed with Wifi 802.11g, a GPS, and
EV-Do rev. A/0 3G. It is a
very sophisticated little device!
On the edge, there is a microUSB port, an LED
showing WiFi, and a Power Button on top.
Inside is a Lithium Ion battery. Good thing it
is removable, allowing users to swap in freshly
charged ones in the event of long sessions without
USB power. The rear also has the essential
SSID / WPA Password sticker.
Just like any good router, the Mifi has a GUI
accessible by any browser. The default IP is
192.168.1.1 and the default password is 'admin'.
The image above is the welcome screen before logging
in.
If you click on the GPS Local Search, you are
greeted with this nice warning.
If you click OK, the GPS window expands as shown.
After logging in, the top part of the UI shows
several Menu items.
WiFi parameters are set here
Very good info!
VPN passthrough is much welcomed
Not bad port filtering settings...
We were hoping that users can actually change the
port numbers here...
In our real-world
testing spanning a couple months, and several
thousand square miles on the West Coast, were are
happy to report that the MiFi performed relatively
well, understanding that the internet connection is
mostly governed by Sprint and the number of users
currently using their IP network. On average,
our speedtest.net result is as follows:
Some thoughts and
observations:
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Never get ping times
below 100ms. Average is 160ms.
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Downloads average
about 1 Mb/s.
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Unit gets very hot
when in heavy use
-
Limited to ~5 WiFi
users only not too good in a large home
-
WiFi range dies
quickly beyond 25 feet
-
Worked very well on
a vehicle travelling at 75 mph in the middle of
the desert. No noticeable drops when
switching between cell towers.
-
Performance suffers
when unit is far from windows or in a heavily
metallized building
-
Battery lasts a
couple hours with one user with typical office
browsing and email usage.
Let's hope that 4G gives
us wireline-like performance. And Sprint is
the first in the US to have it. Great job,
Novatel!
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