Share 3's mobile broadband effortlessly

Supplier: 3 UK
Web: www.three.co.uk
Maker: Huawei
Price: £69.99
Compatibility: 3 & Huawei dongles only

IF THE CHOICE is between messing around for hours with software or buying a product that does the trick straight out of the box, then plenty of people are going to want this wireless router from 3 UK.

Essentially the Huawei D100 provides those already in possession of a mobile broadband dongle from 3 with the ability to share their internet connection. Given that the dongle itself will eventually be capable of 7.2 Mbit/s (as the 3 network improves), this isn't as daft as it might seem.

Many consumers, for example, quite happily share a 2 Mbit/s fixed broadband link over Wi-fi. With the D100, you're currently sharing up to 3.6 Mbit/s. More than one computer or wireless device can share the connection, too.

Installation couldn't be more straightforward. Plug the D100 into a suitable USB port in your desktop or laptop PC or Mac and then plug your mobile broadband dongle into the D100.

There's only one drawback. The D100 only works with mobile broadband dongles made by Huawei. If your dongle turns out to be the ZTE MF622, then take the D100 right back because it won't work.

The D100 requires a separate power supply and bizarrely Huawei appear to have got hold of an old batch of Nokia phone chargers because it is identical.

There's very little set-up necessary. You might want to change the device's SSID (Wi-fi ID) from the default name, though. There's two ways you can do this.

The simplest way is to hook up a cable from your computer's Ethernet port or hub to the D100's own Ethernet port. Alternatively, you can make a connection via Wi-fi. The default SSID and WEP password are written on the back.

Once connected, type in the D100's default URL and you should see the software configuration panel. Use the simple password and you can start configuring the D100.

The D100 is actually the VCR of the mobile broadband world. It oozes neat features which Joe Punter is never ever going to use but will make Network Nazis cream their pants.

There's stuff here to allow you can set up a DMZ in order to create your own security enabled local area network. Plus you can muck about with the firewall to prevent everybody from spending all day on Facebook. There's even a WDS bridge facility so you can link all your wireless networks up together.

Actually one of the simplest features is the most useful. At a glance you can see icons that indicate whether there's a network signal and if you have an HSDPA (high speed) 3G connection or not.

About the only gripe the INQ had with the D100 wasn't really its fault. A really obvious use for this router is to enable other Wi-fi enabled handsets to take advantage of the high speed connexion.

Try that with a Nokia, for example, and you'll find yourself typing in the full WEP password every time. The INQ wonders if it would be possible to configure the D100 to remember handset signatures?

There's one small downside to using the D100 and that is an inability to use the built-in SMS/text capability of your 3 dongle. 99 per cent of dongle owners don't use that facility, so who cares? µ

The Good
Get going in minutes
The Bad
Needs separate power supply
The Ugly
Only works with 3 network and Huawei dongles

Bartender's verdict

8 out of 10