Mobile hotspot tethering

6 Oct 2018

Note: This information is provided as a reference and does not imply that Juniper Systems will provide full support for the use of any specific third-party device with a Juniper Systems product.

Tethering a Wifi mobile hotspot (or enabling tethering on your mobile phone for connecting) to the rugged handheld computer can allow connectivity to cellular networks that are not supported by the built-in cell modem, and/or consolidate the data service (as well as number of lines for which you must pay your service provider). But some make and model mobile hotspots work better than others, providing more stable Wifi connections to the rugged handheld and/or lower latency (higher throughput) connection to the cellular network.

Some patches for the Allegro 2 and Archer 2 that may help with connecting to a Mifi are at the following web page.

https://www.junipersys.com/support/article/13722

Specifically, the A2-Wifi-Regupdate.CAB patch was tested to provide compatibility with the Verizon Mifi Jetpack 7730L (based on SW Version 3.5 and Configuration Version B14.NVT.MIFI7730L.0).

Oct 2014

Some brief instructions are provided in the following document.

Connect-Allegro-2-to-MiFi-Jetpack-Hotspot.pdf

The following list contains some mobile hotspots that we have previously tested with our rugged handhelds, and how well each performed (best to worst).

 

Connectivity 5x5

Internet Access from Pocket IE

Internet Access from other apps

Mobile Speed Test

Verizon Jetpack Mifi 4620L 4G LTE

Yes

Yes

Yes

2.813 Mbps

Samsung S3 - Verizon

Yes

Yes

Yes

2.047 Mbps

AT&T Netgear Unite - F2B0 (black)

Yes

Yes

Yes

1.406 Mbps

AT&T Sierra Wireless Mifi

Yes

Yes

Yes

703 Kbps

AT&T Netgear Unite - 46D2 (white)

Yes

Yes

Yes

156 Kbps

Apple iPhone 5S - AT&T

Yes

Yes

Yes

136 Kbps

The Verizon MHS800L also seems to work. The Verizon Jetpack 6620L works after installing our latest patch as described below, but is not always the most reliable.

If you are having difficulties with dropped Wifi connections or high latency with the mobile hotspot (such as can not maintain GPS real-time carrier phase (RTCM) differential corrections), you may need to obtain an alternative mobile hotspot that provides better performance such as listed above. We also now offer a patch for OS release 1.6.1 and earlier which may provide improvements, which is available on our downloads web pages.