Since day one of releasing Zain’s E-GO 21.6 Mb/s, I was worried about sharing the high speed internet with other computers, and from that day I began to search for a router that is compatible with the 21.6 e-go but the result was a big ZERO, because non of the big brands started to develop a router that can handle that kind of speed, yet. Until I found the Dovado 3GN router which is the only router in the market that supports Zain’s E-GO.
I’m going to review it and the review will include:
- Shape
- What’s inside the box
- Installation
- Speed
- Compatibility
- Price
- Drawbacks
- Conclusion
Shape
Its a tiny router in comparison with other routers in the market which gives it a plus, it measures 30 x 157 x 127 mm and weights 280 grams, also it got 4 LAN ports, but don’t get excited coz the drawbacks will come later.
What’s inside the box
- The Router
- Manual
- Charger
- 4-pieces of rubbers
Installation & Compatibility
Its sort of easy installation at first but not so easy when you get to the part where you need to update the firmware to get it compatible with zain’s ego, coz you will face a lot of errors. You should know and note that the updating process is ONLY achievable with Windows OS, and it was so hard getting a windows laptop in a home that got 10+ Macs laptops and CPUs 🙂
Speed
This is awesome you will get almost the same speed that you used to get it with the USB.
Price
It will cost you around KD45 with shipping to your mail box. They do ship to Kuwait (4 days), but that’ll cost you an extra KD30.
Drawback
Now here it comes, the one and only drawback for this router is the stability. Its really annoying that you will have to reboot it every 30 mins. Yes every 30 mins! I used it for 5 days then I got pissed off, and got back to Zain’s Adapter. I know it won’t give me my real speed but.. really stability comes first in my list of priorities.
Conclusion
Until I can make it work without that one drawback, I wouldn’t recommend it.
what’s the average speed ?
Alnassar, its about 500 – 600 Kb/s
I’ve been using the dovado at my house now for about 5 months with the regular viva 7.2 mbps connection and it’s great! I play online games on my ps3 with it (but I do have to cut off any other connections to play, not the dovado’s fault, just 7.2) and it connects without any problems to anything. Have connected my blackberry, two laptops and will be trying an iMac in a couple of weeks. Download speeds for torrents haven’t been affected, which is great, and the internal OS of the router is actually one of the best I’ve ever used.
Wrote my post before I saw your review. I haven’t had any issues with it resetting every 30 mins. If anything, I’ve only had to reset it when VIVA has been using Qualitynet instead of Fasttelco because Fasttelco is always so much faster. When I originally set mine up I got the firmware update for my USB modem directly from Huawei and just a couple of weeks back dovado released a firmware update for the router. I suggest trying both of those and seeing if you have connection problems still.
I think the problem with the compatibility with the USB modem itself.
Check out Draytek.co.uk you might something compatible there!
Marzouq, Thanks but they dont have anything that supports 21.6 the maximum is 7.2
You obviously haven’t read what’s written on Dovado’s website regarding the Connection Tracker: http://www.dovado.com/umr_hspa.html
Also, the firmware should be updated for the Huawei modem due to that it is limited in speed in the older firmwares. This limitation impacts all Linux implementations (Dovado runs on Linux).
Which firmware are you running on both the USB modem and the router?
Dovado posts a link to the USB modem firmware on their site: http://www.dovado.com/umrmodems.html
[…] Read the full review… […]
Which one do you recommend, the Dovado 4GR or 3GN for the use with Viva Internet Broadband 21.1 Mbps?