Router For 860

We use a Sierra 860 Cingular Aircard while traveling in our motorhome. Is there a router that will work with the 860 so that we can both be online at the same time. Thanks

Sierra 860....

Yes there is a router that will work with the Sierra AC860 HSDPA card. There are two routers I would suggest, the MB6000 or the MB6800.

The MB6000 is shaped like a pyramid, it only has one LAN port (This means you can only have one device connected through a cable at a time, numerous devices through wireless. The MB6000 does not have an external antenna either.

The MB6800 has 4 ports to allow you to connect up to 4 devices through cable and numerous devices through wireless. This has an external antenna incase you would like to get a high gain antenna at some point.

If you are concerned about price then you should go wtih the MB6000.

Here is a link to a comparson chart of the two of them: http://www.rfwel.com/shop/comparison...rt_direction=0

3g phoebus topglobal mb6000 with more than 1 LAn output

Just to add on to plaistedg's post even if the MB6000 just has one output LAN port you can use multiple devices connected to it through network cable (CAT5/6) by adding a simple & cheap 10/100 switch to the output. We have a $39 D-Link 5 port switch here: http://www.rfwel.com/shop/catalog/To...ter-p-679.html
Just connect one port to the output of the MB6000 and you can connect up to 4 other devices to the remaining 4 ports. Of course you can also use wireless to connect multiple devices.

Mb6800

OK, so I'm all set to order the MB6800. What should I expect in the way of set up? Aircard in the MB6800 and it connects when turned on? Then, each computer searches for the wireless network like we have here at home?
Also, while we're at it, which high gain antenna will work best with the MB6800? Thanks, folks

Exactly! In fact these routers are exactly similar to the wireless network you have at home the only difference is that instead of connecting it to your cable or dsl modem you connect using your aircard 860. So if you want to add security you will do it the same way you do your home network.

On the high gain antenna need to clarify one thing. You can get 2 types of high gain antennas.


1) A WiFi high gain antenna (to increase the range of your WiFi network - frankly you will most likely NOT need this since standard WiFi with the factory 2dBi antenna will give you roughly 100m (330ft) barring any wierd interference of RF shielding). In any case you can get those from here if so inclinded: http://www.rfwel.com/shop/catalog/Wi...-p-1-c-77.html. If interested in this and not sure what amount of gain or directionality you should get (i.e omnidirection vs directional) just post a question and we'll respond. Remember too much gain is not necessarily prudent: Not only might it be illegal (outside FCC limits) it migh do more harm than good due to a phenomenon called multipath interference and fading.

2) Cellular high gain antenna (this is probably what you meant and likely what you need). This would connect directly to your Sierra 860 aircard. To figure out what you need some questions:

i) Do you want a solution for inside a building or for a vehicle.
ii) How much gain do you need. To figure out this question need to figure out how "bad" your signal strength is. For example if you are getting just one bar on the phones RSSI (Received signal strength indicator) then a relatively low gain say 5dBi or so should be fine. If you are not getting any coverage unless you go to a different area maybe outside your house or another room, then larger gain say about 13dBi would be ok. If you don't have any coverage until you travel 10's of meters to several kilometers then a plain old high gain antenna will probably NOT work. In this case you would need a cellular amplifier/repeater such as available here in addition to the antennas: http://www.rfwel.com/shop/catalog/Ce...0-p-1-c-6.html. If you told us your actual received signal strength in -dBm units then we can tell you exactly how much gain you need to meet the Sierra 860's receiver sensitivity. You can find this info in "Cingular Communication Manager --> Menu --> Network Info --> GSM --> Network --> Signal Strength dBm" well at least thats where it is for version 5.2.29.0

And now for the simple answer our most popular "high-gain antenna for the Sierra 860 aircard is this http://www.rfwel.com/shop/catalog/Du...tenna-p-7.html which goes with this antenna adapter http://www.rfwel.com/shop/catalog/Wi...les-p-629.html which gives you up to 6dBi of gain at 1900MHz. You can use this in your vehicle or in the building.

Actually for now we would recommend the MB6000 unless you have a specific need for the MB6800. We had a report of a possible speed issues with the MB6800 and the Sierra 860 aircard on Atnt/Cingular UMTS/HSdPA network. We need to check this out and will update this post if we figure out if there's a real issue. In any case the MB6000 will save you $100 and might work just as fine unless you have specific requirements driving you to the MB6800.