Huawei e5186 modem user guide and specs

[Kar3n]

I've recently purchased the 200GB per month plan, which comes with the Huawei E5186 modem, and I'm pretty underwhelmed with its performance.

Can anyone link to the (Optus) user guide for this device? The Optus website has user guides for all modems except for this one it seems.

And can anyone tell me if it is normal for the device to completely stop working when it switches over to the 3G network? And then stay connected to the 3G network until you restart the device?

Not exactly the experience I was expecting living in the innercity with 3 Optus towers in a 2 km radius from my home.

[Logged-Off]

The Optus Home WIreless Broadband service is 4g Only -3g is not supported (this is at the plan level not device).

The speed is capped 12/1 or 5/1 depending if you get Optus 2300Mhz or not.  You do not get full 4g speeds at all on this plan.

Quick Start guide is found here:

https://www.optus.com.au/dafiles/OCA/RightNowImages/optus_hwb_huawei_e5186.pdf

[Kar3n]

Thanks for the link - it's the user guide that came in the box.

And I understand about the capped speeds and only being available on the 4G network.

What I don't understand is why the device isn't automatically locked to the 4G network then? I know there is a thread on another forum explaining how this can be done - but it seems strange that Optus doesn't give its users this option. It's already a completely locked down modem with limited functionality and all it would do is work with its limitations.

And if it can't connect to the 4G network, why doesn't it try to reconnect by itself? Is that a setting that can be changed?

[Logged-Off]

As this device is also offered with non 4g locked plans the software on the router is set to auto.

You can log into the devices webpage and set the network mode to 4g only instead of automatic - this should stop the red light of death.

Is information on how to lock to the 2300Mhz band (or any other 4g band) online - but its not a process supported by Optus (I used this process on mine).

The device likes sitting in a window with a clear view to the outside (its like a cat that sleeps all day in the sun I guess).