huawei b260a or huawei e585

Tazz T

I was looking into getting one of the new e585s on the 3 site and noticed they are now flogging the huawei b260a for the same price.

So, what are the benefits of each? I know you can plug a VOIP phone into the b260a (whether it worls with a midband product is a different matter), but what other advantages are there?

jor el

The E585 is a mobile router, the B260 is not. That's the major difference between them. If you need a mobile router, for use with mobile products like iPhone/iPad, etc, then you need something like the E585. If it's for home use, then you should consider real broadband and not a mobile system, but the B260 would be more suited than the E585.

VOIP can work on 3G, but it could be unreliable and laggy. I've used Blueface on my Vodafone mobile connection, and it was OK. Ping at the time was about 150ms, but if your ping is in the order of 300ms+, then you're going to notice the delay.

juansheet

Does the E585 work while it is being charged or do you have to plug it out from the mains in order for it to work?

jor el

It will work either way. The range on a mobile router will not usually be as good as a fixed mains router though.

evolutionqy7

is there any advantages of Huawei B260a over Huawei E585?

better aerial for picking up the signal?
better speed stability?
larger Wifi Range?

my contract is up in about 2 months and i was wondering to upgrade to 3 or switch to o2...

jay93

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

is there any advantages of Huawei B260a over Huawei E585?

better aerial for picking up the signal?
better speed stability?
larger Wifi Range?

my contract is up in about 2 months and i was wondering to upgrade to 3 or switch to o2...

well the aerials for picking up signal would be around the same speed would also be the same as no matter what modem you use you will usually get the same speeds..however wifi range on the B260a would be better than the E585

evolutionqy7

cause the one i got now doesn't transmit high enough signal range so i could go on the internet on my phone upstairs...i manage to get one bar but its unreliable

is this the same thing?

http://www.o2online.ie/shop/broadband/home/

jay93

the o2 router would have more wifi range than theo ther 2 devices as far as i know but alot of people over on the o2 forums have complained about the home router but the problems were fixed in a software update for the device

Tazz T

Think I'll go for the B260 then cos I'm using it for the house over three floors and need good wifi range. No other broadband options in my area other than the mad expensive Smart triple play.

Can tether or use a dongle if I'm out and about.

evolutionqy7

any one know is it easy to take out the sim card out of home router?

since i have 2 dongles and gonna have a mifi hanging around the house i figure if i get the home router i can just take the sim out and hop it in the mifi modem if i need it that bad

anyway gonna probably try it in december seeing as three is annoying me with their .7 speeds and terrible customer support

jor el

Tazz T wrote: »

Think I'll go for the B260 then cos I'm using it for the house over three floors and need good wifi range.

You won't find many routers that will work across 3 floors, so this could be a waste of money. You need cables for that job.

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

anyway gonna probably try it in december seeing as three is annoying me with their .7 speeds and terrible customer support

A new modem or router is unlikely help you with the speed issues. You may find that this is a waste of time and money.

evolutionqy7

yeah well i need a lan output for the desktop as there's something wrong with the wifi aerial (gives loads of difficulties connection and sustaining connection) so might be the good thing to do

Tazz T

Just an update on this. I'm very happy with the B260. It's working across all three floors, no problem and seems to have doubled the speed of my previous dongle. Very easy to set up. Might even give the phone a go on it.

jay93

Cool im suprised its working over all 3 floors wouldnt have tought it would of worked !!:):D

eabsop

Hi Tazz T, considering getting the B260 based on your recommendation. I live in a bungalow house. Do you think the range from the router will be good enough? Are you using external antenna with it?

Matt Bauer

It's really very, very simple. If you only wish to use it at home, get the B260. If you want to also be able to use it out and about, get the E585. End of story.

eugenelambe

Can any recommend an external aerial for the Huawei B 260. I am in an area of poorish coverage... 1.5 MBs download speed at best0. Would an external antenna help... What model??
Thanks

briN_s

I am looking in to getting the B260A. From what I see it has only one port to plug in a wired internet connection? I am hoping to add an NAS hard drive to the network, will this work with the router?

Thanks

siblers

eabsop wrote: »

Hi Tazz T, considering getting the B260 based on your recommendation. I live in a bungalow house. Do you think the range from the router will be good enough? Are you using external antenna with it?

I have the B260, router is upstairs in my room, I'm in the kitchen downstairs and getting a very good signal. Took it to my friends house (bungalow) the router was in the other end of the house and it had to go through 3 walls and the signal wasn't the best, moved the router into their kitchen where the laptops and ps3 were and the signal went up dramatically.

starburst87

hi all, can someone please help me, got the B260a yeaterday and it's flying it thats until i go to connect through wi-fi on the ps3, it will sign me in but only for bout 2 mins.....it cant be too far away coz the pc is in the same room as it, would it have anything to do with settings? also nothing installed when i plugged in the modem for the first time it just connected me directly to the internet, is there any site that i can download the software? cheers

Matt Bauer

starburst87 wrote: »

hi all, can someone please help me, got the B260a yeaterday and it's flying it thats until i go to connect through wi-fi on the ps3, it will sign me in but only for bout 2 mins.....it cant be too far away coz the pc is in the same room as it, would it have anything to do with settings? also nothing installed when i plugged in the modem for the first time it just connected me directly to the internet, is there any site that i can download the software? cheers

As far as I am aware, there is no software/firmware update available for the Huawei B260a just yet, and it will probably be at least a few months to a year before a software download becomes available.

sean1141

sorry for the hijack op... i am planning on getting one of these wireless yokes from three... i all ready have a pay monthly connection with them and i am on the NBS so i have the booster boxes all ready.. will these work with them?? i cant see any reason why not but i know very little about these things...
can i just sit one of them in my window and use my laptop via wi-fi? and the same with my playstation?? do i need cables running from it to the laptop like i do now??
sorry for all the stupid questions!!

Sponge Bob

whaddaya mean "all" the boosters, you should only have one at a time and if so which model.

sean1141

ah there is a black yoke that goes in the window then there is a smaller black box that ya plug in the rooom your using the internet..celfi-rscu1 is the model number on that..
why should i only have one? could i not have a second one and boost coverage in a different part of the house?

Sponge Bob

is it the Nextivity unit ?? ....

sean1141

yup thats it

Sponge Bob

Ah!

sean1141

is that a good ah! or a bad ah lol

sean1141

sean1141 wrote: »

is that a good ah! or a bad ah lol

Id say usually bad - i replaced my repeater with that little b260a and i havent looked back since - no real disconnects and its easy to configure for an open nat settings for gaming plus you can share your wifi signal while you cant share a repeater signal (closed repeated so you would need a second dongle)

Ive noticed that the range can be a bit iffy at times - my intregrated wifi card has no issues at all but my PCI card on the pc doesnt pick it up as strongly as the intregrated one...

William Powell

warlikedave wrote: »

...... - my intregrated wifi card has no issues at all but my PCI card on the pc doesnt pick it up as strongly as the intregrated one...

I've noticed that the integrated WiFi in many laptops get a better signal than a PC card, PCMCI or USB dongle with a std antenna, I think its something to do with the integrated antenna in the laptop being better.

ootbitb

has anyone tried the b260a with windows7 since it isn't mentioned in the blurb.

William Powell

ootbitb wrote: »

has anyone tried the b260a with windows7 since it isn't mentioned in the blurb.

Why would there be a problem with any "router" and Windows 7?

If you are connecting via an Ethernet Cable or Wirelessly you don't need to load any specific drivers for the device so its no different from connecting to any other router.

sean1141

mine works perfect with windows 7

sean1141

sean1141 wrote: »

mine works perfect with windows 7

Same here. Also works perfectly with android, iOS, xbox and ps3. Its a solid router with a decent antenna. In my opinion.

ootbitb

the blurb for the router on the 3 page mentioned XP and vista but not windows7 so I wanted to ensure it was suitable. maybe they should update the page.

thanks for the reassurances:)

SurferDude41

I just got a Huawei B260a router on 3. I reckon it runs about twice the speed of a mobile type stick. The only issue I have with it is, I am unable to access the management page. The supplied instructions says, to access the management page I must open a browser and type http://192.168.1.1
I tried this without success.
Any ideas on how to get into the management page?
Wouldn't want the whole street piggy-backing off my wifi.

William Powell

SurferDude41 wrote: »

I just got a Huawei B260a router on 3. I reckon it runs about twice the speed of a mobile type stick. The only issue I have with it is, I am unable to access the management page. The supplied instructions says, to access the management page I must open a browser and type http://192.168.1.1
I tried this without success.
Any ideas on how to get into the management page?
Wouldn't want the whole street piggy-backing off my wifi.

Don't have one so can't be 100% sure but standard proceedure would be to open up a cmd prompt and type IPCONFIG then see what the default gateway IP address is then if its different from the one above use that instead. You don't always need the http:// part and I only type in the actual IP address. Your default gateway address is the address of the Router you are connecting to, in this case your B260a.

SurferDude41

Now sorted:)
I just disabled my firewall for a few minutes, this enabled me to access the Huawei B260a management page.
When I activated the firewall again, I can still access the router:)

jamesbil

B260 seems good for me so far, has frozen a few times, but not a big prob, however it struggles to send a signal from front-room to the kitchen, and sometimes cant even pick it up from the same room!

Anyone recommend an antenna/aerial for it?

ZurgLotso

Hi

Has anyone used the B260 with an ipad?
Im thinking of moving to Three from 02, and thought this might be better than any other wifi solutions from Three or 02.

I use mine at home and out and about, does it need a plug or has it batteries?

thanks.

-=al=-

It would have no isses with an ipad and probably works on 95% of things, its just a normal wifi signal

It's just like a normal router except it recieves its signal from the 3g network then broadcasts the signal via wifi and it uses a standard adapter to power it, no batteries

If it's connecting via wifi it's not the best onces theres a wall or 2 involved =/ and mine hasn't froze yet, it's plugged in and turned on almost 24/7 i plug it out once in a while though!
coudnl't get much of a signal from a bottom window but from a top window seems to be ok, i ended up puttin mine on the roof.

ingen

i am getting this speed now constantly on three with the b260A huawei router.



i have wifi turned off on the router, and just have it doing the DHCP, the ethernet port is plugged into the WAN port of my apple time capsule and its working great.

-=al=-

that's rather decent especially if its a bit consistant like that and lcoated in a house ^^

i have 5 bars of signal from the router recieving a signal and the most ive gotten was 3mb or so.. it averages for me about 2mb down/1.5mb up pretty concsistant with that

Matt Bauer

Given the severe limitations and shortage of wireless spectrum (the frequencies 3 can use), I am surprised mobile "broadband" is as fast as it is. Or perhaps it just feels like that because broadband in Ireland is so slow. Seems like the people I know in Germany are getting 50 megabits, 100 megabits or even 200 megabits for €20 a month with unlimited data transfer! :eek:

-=al=-

i think we're just used to the sh*tness of the system and how ridiculous it is!

iPhone.

Hi guys, thinking of getting rid of my eir-con line which I only use for broadband (the occasional call) - i have checked the three site and it says on the coverage test page that I can avail of three broadband in my area.

I am considering getting the Huawei B260a - does anyone know if this can be used to replace my exising eir-con netopia supplied modem/router which I currently run connected through an apple airport extreme router for wireless/lan connections throughout the house -

I know the Huawei B260a transmits wifi itself - but does it have the ability to connect via ethernet to my airport extreme which also feeds two airport expresses to extend my coverage - if anyone has/is using it in a similar manner it would be appreciated if you could let me know the pros/cons of going this route.

Thanks guys.

William Powell

Search around there is a post somewhere that says it will do just what you want, BUT before you do anything borrow a 3 SIM and dongle from someone and check you have coverage in your area. 3 say there is excellent coverage in my area - they are wrong.

iPhone.

Thanks William.

Amse20

Hi I recently got the Huawei E585 modem. However we are having a few problems. When someone is using wifi on the xbox no one can use the wifi on a laptop at the same time. However when the xbox is not being used, the connection is grand with more then one laptop. Any ideas whats wrong? Should I change to the Huawei B260a Router??

William Powell

Amse20 wrote: »

Hi I recently got the Huawei E585 modem. However we are having a few problems. When someone is using wifi on the xbox no one can use the wifi on a laptop at the same time. However when the xbox is not being used, the connection is grand with more then one laptop. Any ideas whats wrong? Should I change to the Huawei B260a Router??

afaik with the default settings that should work OK BUT it might be that the xbox is using all the available bandwidth when connected leaving nothing for the laptop?

-=al=-

pretty weird, that shouldn't make a difference if its an xbox or iphone, im not familiar with the 585 but somewhere in settings should be a good place to start or check the xbox network settings,