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NetGear 4G LTE Modem (LB2120-100AUS) $142.61 (43% off) Delivered @ Amazon AU

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NetGear 4G LTE Modem (LB2120-100AUS) $142.61 (43% off) Delivered @ Amazon AUAffiliate
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iJebus on 13/08/2021 - 11:51 amazon.com.au (358 clicks)
Last edited 13/08/2021 - 12:04 by 1 other user
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I am considering moving rural-ish and have been looking at hardware that might be able to help out if a satellite connection goes belly-up for a period of time.

Camelcamelcamel says it's near the lowest price of $135 seen back in June 2019.

Some copypasta:

  • 4G LTE/3G ready modem that can be installed in a matter of minutes - unlocked and ready to go with any provider
  • Fast 4G LTE speeds up to 150 Mbps for downloads and 50 Mbps for uploads with 4G to 3G fallback support; LTE Category 4 (up to 150 Mbps): B1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40
  • Features 2 x ethernet ports - one for WAN and one for LAN connectivity
  • Perfect for households in rural areas, outdoors, locations where wirelines are not readily available, or as a backup connection at a small office
  • In a portable, lightweight and compact design, this simple to use modem can be taken anywhere for on the go connectivity
Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.
Computing Mobile Broadband Modem Modem Router NetGear

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closed Comments

  • 10101010101 on 13/08/2021 - 11:54
    +17

    Please don't buy this. It's CAT4 rated which is probably about 10+yrs old. Will be slow as crap and I don't think it supports carrier aggregation.

    Best to buy one of the Huawei CPE modem routers that are standard issue for Optus customers if you're on a budget. If you can splurge then one of the Netgear Nighthawk modems would be better e.g. M1, M2, M5

    • bdl on 13/08/2021 - 11:59
      +5

      They're fine, I'm using three at different remote sites and they can maintain 100mbit down. Don't need 1 billion gigabits/microsecond for a backup/failover connection.

      OP - check ebay, people get rid of them fairly regularly

      • Tacooo on 13/08/2021 - 12:05
        +2

        Yeah no idea what the guy is on about. Stats show average 4G speed in Australia is <50Mbps anyway. My company have deployed dozens of these to plenty of sites across Vic and they run entire companies perfectly fine off them.

        Negs aren't for use because you don't like facts people.

        • dasher86 on 13/08/2021 - 13:28

          for the price though you can get something like this.

          https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/183753248618 which is a cat 11

          • Tacooo on 13/08/2021 - 14:04
            +2

            @dasher86: That's not the same at all though. That's nothing more than a glorified WiFi hotspot with no LAN out or WAN passthrough.

            • dasher86 on 13/08/2021 - 14:17
              +2

              @Tacooo: true.
              for the money i'd still go a second hand Huawei b525 or Huawei B818. or even older and pull out my old e5186.

          • joeiwu on 13/08/2021 - 16:08
            +1

            @dasher86: I think thats a totally different use-case. People consider this Netgear unit because it has dual Ethernet with failover abilities albeit no wifi. Yes, it is a CAT4, not saying its not old tech, but definitely not logical to compare the 2.

        • thedriver on 13/08/2021 - 15:18
          +1

          @Tacoo
          How well do they work when connected to a primary gateway, on the gateway's secondary WAN port?
          E.g. Can they function as a bridge for the router to the mobile network?

          • Tacooo on 13/08/2021 - 15:20
            +2

            @thedriver: They work perfectly as a bridge. That's exactly the use case in 90% of the scenarios I've used them at work. Clients either run Unifi, Sophos or Cisco gear and we use this as a failover WAN.

            • bdl on 14/08/2021 - 08:18

              @Tacooo: I second this, this is exactly my use case (i run pfsense in front of them)

              Despite being Netgear, they have been rock solid.

    • Timetraveler on 13/08/2021 - 12:00
      +4

      Thanks for the information/advice mate.

    • geek001 on 13/08/2021 - 13:04

      I am using a Huawei modem from Optus on Vodafone. Just be aware that the bands are not the same, so the Optus Huawei modem cannot do CA on Vodafone. If I use my old 4 year old Samsung phone to usb tethering, I can get average 150mbps on Vodafone, but on the Huawei modem, I can only get around 70mbps. Still better than wired NBN though, I can only get around 22mbps.

      • futaris on 13/08/2021 - 13:13

        Try huaCtrl

        • geek001 on 13/08/2021 - 13:37

          I have the huawei e5186 modem. I tried doing something similar using the e5186 toolbox, but I think the CA band combinations required a special huawei code. I couldn't find the code combo for CA bands for Vodafone, which was either B1+B3 or B3+B5, I can't remember. I gave up after a while, chalking down to the bands not being supported.

          70mbps is adequate, I don't think I felt any difference between the 70mbps and 150mbps. Our 500GB data allocation gets chewed up pretty quickly anyway with the higher bandwidth, because all the video streams on devices connected to the modem started to stream in full HD, because they could.

          • ESEMCE on 13/08/2021 - 13:49

            @geek001: E5186 you;'re correct will only do CA on Band 40 which is specific to Optus.
            It's a Hardware rather than Software limitation I believe.

  • SirNegsalot on 13/08/2021 - 12:03

    https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08Q3FYJ91/

    GL.iNet GL-X750 (Spitz) Version 2

    Would this be any better ? Says it’s cat 6 (which means nothing to me !) but it’s around your price range.

    • beaker on 13/08/2021 - 12:13

      I would go with this one as the antenna's are replaceable, which means you could point something at the tower from outside. I was looking at this option before we had the NBN connected last year as we don't have the best mobile reception in the house

      • iJebus on 13/08/2021 - 12:27

        You can plug external antennas into the Netgear. Oops I read that the wrong way around.

    • iJebus on 13/08/2021 - 12:25
      +1

      Thanks for the link; yeah I spent a little time looking at the GL.iNet devices but ideally I want to get something that does one thing only and does it well. I read in the comments somewhere that they don't do passthrough and I don't want another router, another wifi device etc in the mix. Yeah, can turn things off but still. /shrug

  • Timetraveler on 13/08/2021 - 12:04
    +5

    Lol I got a negative for thanking 🤷🏻‍♂️

    • XanderYuan on 13/08/2021 - 12:04
      +6

      voted you back to 0 lmao

      • Timetraveler on 13/08/2021 - 12:06
        +4

        Lol I’m now scared to “thank you”

        But thank you 🙏🏻

  • sicaboy on 13/08/2021 - 12:11
    +3

    Considering this is a CAT 4 device. I upgraded it to a CAT 19 Optus Huawei B818 and tripled the speed at no extra cost on the plan.

  • Targaryen on 13/08/2021 - 12:20
    +1

    Was also considering above last week but bought a Tenda 4G09 Cat6
    https://www.amazon.com.au/Tenda-4G09-Configuration-Connectiv…

  • mini2 on 13/08/2021 - 12:32

    Inflated RRP. IIRC this thing is usually around the $170 mark.

    • iJebus on 13/08/2021 - 12:40

      That's pretty spot on actually, the camel3x says the historical average price is $170.24.

  • Rimus on 13/08/2021 - 12:47

    Anyone could share their experience on a good not so expensive router to be used with Optus Huawei E3372? I tried TP Link TL-MR3020, which didn't recognised the E3372. Is their better GL.iNet ones? Tks in advance.

    • lwinstan on 13/08/2021 - 13:18

      I did EXACTLY the same thing earlier in the year. You probably have the Huawei e3372h-608 which isn't supported by the TP Link TL-MR3020. It only supports the Huawei e3372h-607.

      As such, I eventually ended up with the TP-link m7450 (CAT6), which has been great in my house with a strong LTE signal, not so great in my other house with a not so great LTE signal.

      I will be looking into these for the not so great LTE house:

      https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Unlocked-Huawei-B818-4G-Prime-Ro…
      https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/184096701011?_trkparms=aid%3D111…

      • futaris on 13/08/2021 - 13:22

        Get the B818.

        Check gumtree and facebook marketplace. Sometimes at cashies too.

        • zombie hunter on 13/08/2021 - 14:18

          B818 is one I live rural nsw and get 70mb/s on vodafail on their 500gb plan that was special

      • Rimus on 13/08/2021 - 21:18

        Tsk for feedback. I was looking at B818, but nothing less than $100 I found. Currently using an old Ac68 with E3372 but feel wasted resources. Need for a granny flat, no need for greater wifi coverage.

  • ryang on 13/08/2021 - 12:55

    Teltonika or GTFO. Remote management, complete pass through, ideal for business usage.

    • mini2 on 13/08/2021 - 14:36

      At twice the price and with functions that most people don't need?

  • ESEMCE on 13/08/2021 - 13:25
    +1

    Telstra Smart Modems are $30 on Gumtree.
    Whack in a SIM Card (if the existing one doesn't still work) and you'll get as fast or faster speeds.

    • Tacooo on 13/08/2021 - 14:05
      +2

      Just vomited in my mouth a little.

    • Laserface on 13/08/2021 - 14:39

      They are $30 because they are garbage.

      • ESEMCE on 13/08/2021 - 14:47
        +1

        They're $30 cause Telstra post them out for free as a ploy to keep you on network during transition to NBN.

        Even before hacking (Technicolor variant only) to unlock them, they're perfectly acceptable modems, and an absolute bargain for a very capable 4G modem, especially if Telstra is your only choice of vendor anyway.

        • Laserface on 13/08/2021 - 15:00
          -1

          i never got more than 2 bars signal on mine while my phone always had 5 (both telstra) and the wireless range in a tiny 2bdr house couldnt get wifi down the hall.

          put my somewhat old R7000 on instead and had wifi half way down the street.

          • ESEMCE on 13/08/2021 - 15:46
            +1

            @Laserface: The indicated signal strength is irrelevant if you're still pulling 100mbps+ on 4G in your chosen location.

            And the WiFi signal strength on a Smart Modem is better than the complete lack of WiFi capability in the OP's modem which is after all what we're comparing to here.
            If you need better WiFi, you've got $110 leftover in the budget to spend before you break even with this "deal".
            You can easily grab a Ubiquiti AP for that sort of money which will blow most devices out of the water in WiFi range and performance.

            • Laserface on 13/08/2021 - 16:33
              -1

              @ESEMCE: the telstra technicolors offer it as a backup to your primary connection and from what i could tell it was speed capped anyway. I never needed it but there was zero incentive to keep the telstra router at all given the wifi was also rubbish.

              The netgear product is not speed capped, actually works and gets decent signal, and isnt a huge white ugly box that even gumtree orcs dont want.

              • ESEMCE on 13/08/2021 - 20:02
                +1

                @Laserface: The 4G backup SIM is indeed speed capped to 25/2, but that is a SIM restriction not a modem capability limitation, unlike the Cat 4 modem in the Netgear.
                Stick in a proper SIM and the Smart Modem itself is speed uncapped with Cat 6 Carrier Aggregation capability that will allow it to double the Netgear in 4G throughput.

                This Netgear device does not have WiFi at all, so the WiFi capacity of the Smart Modem is infinitely better out of the box or it's irrelevant to the discussion. You consider it relevant enough to list it as a negative, so therefore it's another massive win to the Smart Modem.

                Appearance, wow, you're really clutching at straws now!
                Bland white box versus bog standard black modem with green flashy lights…
                (I disagree that the Netgear is better looking at all, but even if you consider it so) Is it really $110 better looking especially given it's otherwise inferior?

  • mcnugged on 13/08/2021 - 14:21

    Would the speeds from these modems be faster than going through a phone?

    As in would the antennas on these be better able to pick up weak signals?

    • ryang on 13/08/2021 - 14:32

      Generally, no. A mobile has a better designed antenna.

      Some can take external antennas though, which gives you a heap of options.

      • Laserface on 13/08/2021 - 14:40

        we use these for remote offices. they have MIMO antenna inputs and you can connect them to the repeater devices that telstra use, if necessary.

  • opt on 13/08/2021 - 14:34
    +2

    While this is not a fast modem by today's standards due to only supporting CAT4 / no carrier aggregation etc.. I think lot of people are missing why OP is considering this modem. They are looking for a 4G failover modem for a regional area, this one has external broadband passthrough with automatic failover and external antenna support, not all 4/5G modems have those features.

    A quick google search for B818 brings up few 3rd party sites advertising 4G failover mode as a feature, but I suggest OP read up more and make sure before buying a B818 or any of the other suggested modems if the primary purpose is to have an automatic 4G backup. But if someone is just looking for a fast 4G modem then, steer clear. There are far better options out there as indicated.

    P.S: I've had this exact same modem a few years ago, from what I recall I got around 25~50Mbps. But since then I've used a B525 and now using a Nighthawk M5. Both a lot faster than the LB2120. M5 can hit speeds over 500Mbps on 5G.

    • CheapNGood on 13/08/2021 - 18:11

      I have a LB2120 which I bought a few years ago (2nd hand thank god), not sure if it is the same as the LB2120 LTE, but for the pass through and failover it has bugs in the firmware which apparently was ignored by Netgear. For me it would randomly cutover to mobile even though the house FTTP was fine, but then would not cutback to the main line until I restarted it. Not sure if the firmware is fixed as I gave up waiting for a firmware update and shelved the device. I did in the end use it as just a normal modem behind a load balancer which handled the failover and passthrough

  • arctan on 13/08/2021 - 18:53

    Anyone had experience on this 4G LTE modem? I think it has all the bands for Optus and Vodafone.

    https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/284045587867

    I am thinking to get Felix mobile (using Vodafone network) with this 4G modem as the price is affortable.

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