D-Link DWR-978 5G AC2600 Wi-Fi Router, Super Fast 5G Download Up to 1.6 Gbps, AC2600 Wi-Fi, MU-MIMO, 4 x Gigabit Port, Gigabit Internet Port, Removable External Antennas, Unlocked for All Networks

I had used 3G dongles to get internet access and found them quite good and reliable, getting download speeds of between 2 Mbps and 3 Mbps, quite good enough for general internet use although not so good for downloads or streaming services. So, as an experiment, I decided to see how much better 4G might be using the same Smarty SIM but with a Wifi router which could be shared between several devices rather than only be plugged into one at a time. I knew that D-Link manufactured affordable quality hardware and, after reading dozens of reviews online, decided that the D-Link DWR-921/B offered all I needed insofar as a suitable router went.When the device arrived I had it up and running in ten minutes flat, despite the fact that the instruction manual was very sparse, immediately ran an online broadband speed test and found that my download speed had increased ten fold in one fell swoop to over 30 Mbps! As you can see for yourself if you look at the picture associated with this review.IMPORTANT: When you set up your router run through its Wizard to change the devices SSID (so that potential hackers receiving its signal won't know who manufactured it), set the device's wifi key (a password used to connect to the router wirelessly) to something really strong and uncrackable, set a simpler password the web-based interface used to manage the router (so that nobody connected to the router will be able to change any of its settings) and the encryption used by the D-Link to maximum, i.e., WPA2-PSK(AES), so nobody will be able to hack the router or intercept any of your data.Having enjoyed D-Link speed for a good few days now I can't imagine going back to anything slower and have to say that buying this device was one of my best decisions of 2020. Easy to set up, sturdy, reliable, tried and tested if you are looking for a reasonably priced router that can connect to a 4G network and grant internet access using only a SIM look no further. You are very unlikely to be disappointed if you pick the D-Link DWR-921/B.

I live in a semi-rural area just outside of London with no FTTP available to me. I have a top-tier Vodafone 5G mobile internet subscription. The local 5G mast is approx 1 mile away and I have line-of-sight to it from my house. I also have an external 5G antenna pointing directly at the mast, connected to the router's MIMO inputs with some pretty tough cables. Everything should be set up perfectly for a stable and fast mobile internet.I've used D-Link products quite extensively in the past (mainly network switched) and had no problems, so although this router looks 'dated' I trusted the brand. It was fairly cheap compared other routers at the time and I thought I could balance reliability and price with the D-Link.What a mistake. I've owned it for 2 months and had nothing but trouble.Like other reviews here, I'm seeing drop-outs, weak 4-and-5G signal (even with my external antenna!), no 5G signal at all when using the router's own 5G antennas, frequent freezes, etc.The feature set is appalling for any modern router:* No static DHCP reservation* No support for security standards above WPA2 (even my iPhone keeps warning me that the network's security is weak)* No client list page, just a small pane on the router's admin panel homepage* No option to install a VPN* In-built 'speedtest' feature doesn't work - it always says "failed". The feature has been removed from recent documentation updates but it's still in the router's menu* No firmware updates available (apart from a minor patch version a long time ago)* The router body is huge, top-heavy, and cannot be wall-mounted* The 4 ethernet ports are in the most awful position, and the stand doesn't have cut-outs for the cable. So you have to decide between passing the cable under the stand and un-balancing the entire router until it falls on its face, or bending your cable into an unnatural 90-degree shape so you can still keep the router upright* System log doesn’t log anything useful at all, and it appears to get wiped when the router is rebootedAs for specific problems with mine:* The 5G light doesn't light up on the front hardware panel, even though the admin page tells me I have a signal* It drops the connection so frequently, I've had to set it to reboot early every morning* It often freezes while my wife and I are both on conference calls* One weekend it had such awful performance I went into the admin panel to try debugging, and I saw a whole load of garbled data pre-filled in the WAN connection parameters form* The admin panel stops responding from time-to-time* Even with my external antenna pointing at a mast close-by, the strongest 5G signal I can get is "3 bars" at -105dbm* Sometimes it doesn't recover from its daily scheduled reboot and it sits with its lights off like an expensive white plastic brick until I hard-reboot it by pulling the plug.It 'bricked' itself again this morning and I've had enough, which is why I've come back to leave this review. I'm now outside of the Amazon return window so I don't even know if I'll be able to get my money back. I'm so desperate for a reliable router that I've ordered a TP-Link to arrive today. The D-Link will probably sit gathering dust in my garage for several years as a monument to a costly mistake, until enough time has passed that I don't feel shame and anxiety any more (and that my wife has forgotten about how much money I spent on it), and I can take it to the dump.