TP-Link TL-MR6400 300 Mbps 4G Mobile Wi-Fi Router, SIM Slot

I was skeptical in going down this route for my broadband but my hand was forced after I was left with no internet for a month by Openreach! Looking at the reviews and getting recommendations from friends I decided to take the plunge. I ordered the unit and a sim only card from Vodaphone. There was an initial setup problem with configuring the sim to work with a router but then everything is now great and extremely fast. I am getting 43MBs wireless and 60MB’s on the ethernet. I strongly recommend this box.

There’s not much to fault on this router to be honest. It has performed flawlessly (touch wood!) over the last 2 months and the connection is excellent.

Compared to the internet connection on my iPhone the download is a bit slower (33mbps vs 46mbps), but the upload is dramatically different – 36mbps vs 5.6mbps! This is on the same network (EE) and at the same location.

For me, I don’t really care about the download speed too much. 33mbps is more than adequate for my needs, but, as someone who uploads to YouTube and occasionally streams, the upload speed is paramount and compared to broadband at 1.2mbps(!) this is astounding.

Note, the upload/download speeds are via WiFi so they could be better due to being more reliable over Ethernet but I’ve not tried that.

Now, lastly is just like to say that the way you access all the features are via a TP Link app called Tether and that is absolutely fantastic. So easy to use and there are lots and lots of options available. You can even switch off the LEDs on the unit!

Oh, and incidentally it uses hardly any power at all. It’s not one of these units that gets gradually hotter and hotter over time.

All in all, an absolute gem of a device.

I bought a 20/month unlimited data Smarty SIM to go with this TP-Link AC1200 4G+ Cat6 Wireless router. I fitted the SIM, then fixed on the two rear bunny ears, and it worked! No configuration needed. It’s even faster then our naff TalkTalk/BT phone line internet, that regularly dropped out as well as being slow. Also with this new router, we can access the wifi over the whole of our house, where we couldn’t before.

With this router and the Smart SIM. the internet speeds for us are 20 to 35mbps. Uploads are very slow (1 to 5 mbps), but I think that’s a Smarty thing. Apparently EE with this router, in a high up position, gives incredibly high speeds. EE is not too good in my area though, and is much more expensive.

I highly recommend this router! We have now cancelled our landline based internet and just use this at home. It is very stable. We often watch Prime movies on a massive TV, or use Youtube. It’s no bother at all. If you want to have multiple hi def video devices though, you may want to use a faster solution. Maybe move it higher up in the house, use external antenna, try EE. etc. This will do us though until we can get fibre to premises.

The above review is after 10 weeks of setting it up.

Definitely an improvement in speed and stability over my old Homefi router that came from Three and was about 7 years old.
Unexpectedly it seems to have poorer penetration (or at best the same) through the walls in my house.

I was going to send the router back because it had clearly been used, came with no instructions, had dust on it and came with an unusual plug I hadn’t seen previously. Luckily I had a multi travel adapter and the two slanted flat prongs fitted securely. As the 4g router otherwise worked I kept it to reduce landfill.

The device comes well packaged and is simple to setup, pop the SIM card in and join the wifi using the default wep key, browsing to the device ip launches the admin page where you can choose network provider settings and create a new SSID and passphrase etc.

My one critique of this is the signal strength needed to get good download and upload speeds, i found the unit needed to be moved around to find the strongest signal, then i found it could get on average 50mbps download speed. Compare this to the same SIM in a phone it was approximately the same, however the phone was less bothered about where it was placed to gain the same connection speeds.

Had been using a mobile phone as wifi hotspot (on EE here) – was getting around 20Mbps, but its wifi wasn’t good enough to cover our premises. Got the TP-Link MR400 – and in same location as’phone had been, I was easily measuring 50Mbps (not that THAT sort of speed is actually necessary to us). And its WI-Fi output is good enough to cover the entire premises. Perfect replacement for what was a VERY poor BT “broadband” giving an almost unusable 1.8Mbps (and we’re only 300 yards from the fibre backbone, but about5Km over copper to the exchange! So, it’s goodbye forever, BT ! LOL [Oh P.S – although now un-necessary, I run and old wi-fi router (reconfigured to run without DHCP) as an extender – which I used with the BT hub ( which had a poor wi-fi output strngth ) – and it simply connects to the TP Link over Power Line Carrier with no issues at all. Cool. ]

Works great as our provider of internet / WiFi via a SIM card. Just plug and play. Have had up to 10 devices connected at the same time!
Tether App works well.
We are not high usage household so it makes more sense than the ridiculous internet providers costs. Have halved our costs ! TV, iPads, phones all working great.
We can also take it to other locations as long as they have mains power.

This router is so good that I’ve cancelled my fixed line broadband.

This is a router that you can put a SIM card in, and create your own WiFi.

Whether you’re in a hotel, student accommodation, on holiday or your own home, then this is perfect.

I’m able to buy an unlimited SIM from smarty for 16 a month, and can watch the sports channels on now TV, Amazon prime, BBC iPlayer, itvx and other streaming sites.

I get 75% signal strength, as I don’t live in a big town. However this is perfect.

Within 5 months the savings from not buying fixed line broadband has paid for the router.

Highly recommended this router. Although do make sure you’re in a good mobile reception location.

Many have left technical/usability reviews of this item, and that’s excellent so I’ll not repeat what’s been said. I also try to look for reviewer’s experiences of the whole process before making the leap, being familiar only with equipment I’ve used for many years. I didn’t appreciate how good/economical the mobile data service has rapidly become. I’ll try to hopefully pass some useful info on, and add to others experiences.

I’ve been humming and hawing whether to get one of these routers for a few months now – the cost may have been a big gamble with no guarantees; however, the usual arrangement of putting up with a sluglike broadband service, poorly maintained lines/equipment, waiting days for engineers, slow speeds when the kids are on Netflix, Prime etc.. was wearing thin. Living rurally I’m lucky to get 4-5 Gbits.

The last of three engineers to visit in four weeks, attempting to resolve the same incoming line issue, suggested I look at coming off landline broadband. I noted (speaking to numerous engineers – therein lies a story! – from BT..Sorry ‘Open Reach’), that every time I floated the govt promise that everyone -100%- would have fibre (1 Gbit) by 2025 they collapsed on the floor laughing. I already suspected the cost of laying line for rural properties would be enormous, and therefore wasn’t too surprised. The promise is recently downsized to 85%. That’s clearly minus 15% rural areas. No shock there, and there’s still loads of time to reassess further!
There is the notion that some providers would love you to accept inflated promises thereby making you reluctant to jump ship because a fantastic service is really (honestly!) just coming over the horizon. Clearly that is not the case.

So quickly googling I looked at coverage and type – 4g, 5g etc – for my area. My son is on O2, wife on Vodafone, me on Tesco, and using those phones I checked data reception across my home. Result 15 – 30 mbits (4G). Great! Decent reception confirmed – tick.
Ordered the TP Link mobile router. Put in micro sim from my phone. ID (ssid) came up on my Fire so entered passkey (from rear of modem) and connected. Opened a browser and searched for ‘speed checkers’. Average from 6 checkers came in at 19 Mbits download and 17 upload. Previous fixed line gave me 5Mbits on a good day and less than 1Mbit upload.
I now have an unlimited data sim from O2 (comes as mini sim – no fuss, clicks in as normal). I already have homeplugs (6 x tp link PA211 from Amazon) and they work fine with this unit. No changes are needed. I also already have two wifi extenders – bog standard under 20 models circa 2018 (my house is over 20m by 7m x 2 floors). They happily link to the router just the same as with a home hub or other line router, and in practice they perform much better than with HH5. The home plugs ( + ‘wired’ connections) measure at 20-25 Mbits, wifi fluctuates from 20+ down to around 15Mbits. Coverage is now full; upstairs and downstairs.
Now I know some with 40+ mbits will laugh at those figures but, when 5 mbits was the best I was getting, three times that speed as a MINIMUM is a real result.

Like all routers I’ve ever had in the last two decades you can interface with it using a browser and entering http://192.168.1.1/, so set up is easy. This unit instantly recognised both my Sims. Set up is really just confirming info and “dotting the i’s” as wifi was up and running before reaching the set up, as without it access isn’t possible anyway if you’re not ‘wired’. The interface has monitioring and limitation facilities. My unit has detachable antennas.

The monthly cost of our old landline package was nearly twice that of a 33 pound/p/m unlimited sim so I’m already ahead, the unit will be paid for in a few months. You can keep your basic email or pay a few quid for a premium email with BT if your worried about losing, or the kerfuffle of changing, your email when terminating your broadband. I suspect other providers will be similar. The loss of a landline, and all the marketing/nuisance calls that came with it, caused very little pain. Mobile minutes are now very cheap.

In conclusion I’ve vastly improved my internet service, almost cut my costs in half and have no more concerns over the age, upkeep, condition or ‘committment’ of the previous equipment/provider. I’m loath to use the classic ‘I wish I’d done it ages ago’ but it applies. Mobile internet is a winner and the only real alternative for upgrading in poorly serviced areas so I really hope this unit continues to perform.

Simple and easy to set up – Go for it!