I've had the Mobley and ATT $20 plan for a couple years now. It works well, but I can get well over 2X speeds from my phone so I figured I'd get a different device that can do carrier aggregation. The Unite Explore (Netgear AC815S) seems like a popular replacement. I got mine and got it set up but the speeds are horrible compared to the Mobley. Instead of 18-25Mb/s I am getting under 6 and it seems very laggy. What could be going wrong? I'm using it in the same location and position as the Mobley for testing.

The Explore is a much more capable device than the Mobley in terms of modem specifications - so in theory should give you equal or better results on an average. In some of our comparative testing of 6 different models of AT&T devices - the Explore often got 3-4x the speeds of the Mobley. 

But many things an impact the actual speeds. Such as the Explore can connect to different frequency bands than the Mobley, and those bands at your current location may not be performing as well. 

You also may need to spend some time in the settings of the Explore and make sure you have them set up properly (ie. LTE not 4G, etc.)

We do have a full guide to the Explore at:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/gear/att-unite-explore/

Also remember, the Explore gives you the option to use external antennas - which can help with signal enhancing. 

 - Cherie

Thanks for the info. That is the understanding I had before ordering the Explore, which is why I was so surprised at the awful performance. I'll have to go back through the settings, because I don't recall seeing the LTE stuff. Thanks for the link to the guide.

I swapped the SIM back over to the Explore to test again tonight. This time it acted differently. I checked the broadband status and it showed better signal and was definitely connected to LTE (LTE-4 or something?). Now the Explore is getting roughly 2x what the Mobley was getting just before swapping. That's more like it.

Boy, that locked SIM/PUK thing was a pain initially (yesterday). Glad I was still able to get the code.

This Explore is really inconsistent. Speeds have been all over the place today and many connections keep getting disrupted (like a web page loading partially and then stopping). I'll give it one more chance with an external antenna but if it doesn't stay consistent I'm returning it. I'd much rather have a consistent network connection of 15Mb/s than a randomly failing connection of 30Mb/s.

It's certainly possible that you've received a faulty Explore. My Explore's speeds are typically stable within the usual norms of network activity.

I returned the Explore. Was too inconsistent to be useful to me. For as low-tech as the Mobley is (and even having some problems over time) it is far more reliable than this Explore.

I may look at the Netgear LB1120/2120 or Nighthawk M1 instead.

I use the Nighthawk M1100, the 2.4 MH is the first result and 5G is second, I normally get faster speeds off 5G.

Edited November 17 by TLRam1

I purchased a Nighthawk M1 (MR1100). It is working far better for me than the Explore was working. Very consistent so far. And I'm getting speeds up to the same as my Pixel 3 cell phone gets, so that's 2-3 times better than the Mobley. Happy so far...

  On 11/27/2019 at 5:51 AM, BigBlue said:

I purchased a Nighthawk M1 (MR1100). It is working far better for me than the Explore was working. Very consistent so far. And I'm getting speeds up to the same as my Pixel 3 cell phone gets, so that's 2-3 times better than the Mobley. Happy so far...

Thanks for the update and you have something finally working for you.

I forgot to mention, I do run mine through a router for greater distance and those speeds above are with it ran through the router. 

  On 11/27/2019 at 2:20 PM, TLRam1 said:

Thanks for the update and you have something finally working for you.

I forgot to mention, I do run mine through a router for greater distance and those speeds above are with it ran through the router. 

Yes, I'm running mine through an external router too. I have it set up in bridge mode to make that work because it didn't seem like the ethernet port on the M1 was live in normal mode.

Do you know if you can still connect an external USB hard drive and share it through the M1 with it in bridge mode?

I don't know what bridge mode is. I followed directions from what I found on the internet to set mine up like this.

Netgear Nighthawk MR1100

Login to Admin panel

http://192.168.1.1

Go to Settings > Setup . Mobile Router Setup

1.       Turn ON Passthrough

2.       Turn OFF DHCP

3.       DISABLE Ethernet Standby

4.       Once you have configured those settings, plug the ehternet cable from your router into the Nighthawk MR1100 and then reboot the MR1100.

> Reverse to make the mobile hotspot WiFi again.

Are you unable to connect the harddrive through the router and accomplish what you want? No sir I don't know.

Passthrough == Bridge mode.

I haven't had any success with a USB drive on the Nighthawk. I can do it on my Asus router but it requires SMBv1 protocol, which is outdated and insecure so I'd rather not.