Netgear Nighthawk M1 Mobile Router MR1100

Do not buy this product - scammers – I paid $600 for this and then after 90 days it completely reset itself I couldn't fix it and then Netgear said I had to pay $200 to get any support. THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM DO NOT BUT IT

useless as my last netgear device – VIRUS ALERT!! first I bought a netgear aircard, that required installation. as I run a Linux system, I had to download the patch from the netgear website. it didn't work, AND GAVE MY COMPUTER A VIRUS. so I got the nighthawk m1, as it requires no installation. it worked for one day, now it won't connect to data. I will never get another netgear… Read more

product. netgear is THE WORST company ever! absolutely disgusting. I ooked through various forums about my proble, and netgear doesn't seem to care. I suppore they make enough money from their bloated prices. netgear is a horrible company. DO NOT BUY THIS DEVICE!

Problem with installation plus sim locked – I had problem with installation, had to contact Netgear. Turned out faulty unit. After it was replaced it turned out the router was locked to AT&T and didn't allow to use on other providers. Unlock code was conveniently provided by Cellcorner. Overall good router Show details

Super Fast – The Nighthawk M1 is the fastest portable modem i have ever come accross, its only available from Telstra but provides reliable fast internet, i get 50gb speed. Easy to use and battery powered for on the go Show details

Not bad for a Pocket Wifi Style – Super easy to set up and get started with, hardly any drop outs and great connection speeds if you are reasonably close to the unit. I would most definitely suggest that you use this system in a small appartment not a house. I am with Telstra and the service is very good.  Show details

would not wish this upon my worst enemy – I purchased this device on a plan through telstra, being assured this was the best modem available and was quick and reliable. I actually wanted a different device but decided to trust telstra and go with their suggestion. The modem never worked well from the very beginning, having constant drop-outs and crashes all the time requiring a hard… Read more

reboot. on a good day you might get 30min of internet use out of it before it crashed. the whole unit completely died after about 3 months of use. Long story short, i am still paying for this device from telstra, and telstra will not offer and support. I am currently using a netgear LB2120 modem and it works great, and also half the price. before that i was just using a telstra usb wi-fi which cost me $30 and it never failed. Please stay away from this product.

What a waste! – This unit keeps crashing and I have to restart it multiple times a day. we are in the 20th century get it right Telstra! I would not recommend this product to anyone. Show details

Not very reliable or fast – Bought this as I thought it'd be better than hotspotting my phone. Instead it crashes on a daily basis and has to be manually restarted. WiFi goes down when the unit crashes. Show details

Burn this product – Signed into a 24 month contract. Battery issues from day 1. Only got about 2 months use out of it. Telstra would not acknowledge the issue, have since found out it was a common problem. STAY AWAY from this product unless you want to pay for absolutely nothing. Not happy Show details

Has been a nightmare-chews data in ridiculous amounts. Cannot get shaped plans and excess data charges are extortionate – Connectivity is Ok, data use rates are massive ( for data download of 1.5 MB..... 4-6 MB often disappear and on one occassion several GB. We paid a massive excess bill and received no warning we were nearing limit. Show details

Thieves – I was ripped off big time by Telstra in the past and vowed never to return. Fast forward 15 years and my Hubby, not from here convinced me to give them another go. Bought the nighthawk and had battery problems from day 1. It chews data in ridiculous amounts and as usual, there are insane excess data charges and a long lock in contract. Avoid, avoid, avoid! Show details

Inconvenient data gobbler – The Nighthawk chews up data. Our first night used 9Gb while we were sleeping and Telstra couldnt tell us where it went. Their solution is to only turn it on when you need it so it’s NOT an equivalent to a landline modem. About 1 hour of downloading emails and printing one document used 3 GB. That’s after turning off windows 10 updates iPhone… Read more

updates as suggested by Telstra. We used the Telstra online calculator to work out how much data we would need based on our usage with ADSL, and 50% goes overnight. We are handcuffed in a contract that renders internet useless to us. We just don’t use it because it’s Expensive, inconvenient, with no remedy offered by Telstra. Definitely one to be avoided.

Piece of cr*p – Forced to sign a 24 month contract with Telstra. Sales man at Telstra kept trying to up sell me on other products. Kept say was fine with my current Telco but he didn’t stop. Got product home and took a while to set up ( instructions have missing steps). Couldn’t get WiFi signal, despite router right next to laptop and living in town. Never… Read more

emailed my contract as promised. Trying to return product and cancel contract ( in cooling off period) but can not get onto Telstra

I wish i didn't buy this!! – I wish i didn't buy this!! It has to be on the charger all the time, it does not last a full day whithout being charged. It struggles with the wifi when conecting more devices, and the internet becomes slow till non. It has only one prehistoric button on it that works the device.. you have to use this button everytime you want to use the interner,… Read more

as sometimes it connects automatically and most of the time you have to manually connect. I had netgear device before and should have known better as they took that old model of the market. I also had battery issues with, but heaps better conection. Expensive square box this is!!

Rubbish – I have had problems with it from day one. At first it would connect to my devices but would not send through a feed. Now it's telling me That I have an unread message but when I go to the app there's no message there. It has serious software issues and was obviously released before the software was ready.  Show details

Nighthawk won't power up – Just out of the box October 2018. Started up from the box Ok. Left on overnight and the thing is just dead. It was left plugged in. As soon as I plug it in it tries to start up. I get a blue light flash, then orange light flash, then the screen tries to start and it shuts down. That’s it. Tried many times-removed and reinstated battery etc. Very poor Telstra promoted product. Certainly not for business users. Maybe for kids and others.  Show details

Wish I hadn’t bought – Had no end of issues with this device. I only bought as the one I wanted was out of stock, it was also cheaper, so now wish I had waited. Range is really poor compared to my previous simpler pre-paid device. Had the SIM changed and that seemed to help for a short time. Speed is there if you are connected by USB - I was getting 50Mb/s, but drops… Read more

to 1/20th of that if connected by Wi-Fi. Drops out so I have to reboot regularly. Now it will connect, but does not give me internet despite having plenty of allowance left.

Resorted to using my phone as a hotspot as get better connection. Going to try and exchange, though I have heard that can be hard to achieve with Telstra.

Good product and shop – Bought the portable nighthawk modem from mount Omaney, Brisbane shop. Very good service from both managers. The modem is very good due to technology. Also I got 30gb a month for 45 dollars which is extra gigabytes atm

Reboots, not stable – These are the facts. I can reproduce multiple reboots within 30 mins in certain locations in the Melbourne CBD. Some locations it is rock solid. Telstra don't know why. Reboots are not useful mid video call. I took it back. I would not recommend getting one of these devices if you need "good" internet.  Show details

Rubbish coverage – Absolute rubbish for the price. Near zero wifi unless your standing on it and needs to be restarted almost daily to maintain connectivity. My previous Telstra elcheapo dongle had twice the coverage! I even went to the expense of adding an external antenna with very little improvement! Backup service is also woeful.  Show details

Rubbish – I unfortunately am locked into an expensive 2 year contract with a Nighthawk M1 along with an IPhone X and 21 months to go..shared data..$70/month alone for the modem part of my 87gb Firstly the thing keeps shutting itself off..have to reboot..then on 3G at our SW Oz holiday house the speed is rubbish even though Telstra have a repeater on an… Read more

NBN tower about 500 metres away

Further at least twice the speed has been slower than dialup..call Telstra and go thru their stupid voice command “tell me what I can help you with” eventually someone in the Phillipines tells me I have run out of data on the modem..hello I have 30gb left..but Telstra sharing hasn’t happened

Took it to the Telstra shop where I bought it..told I could send it back for checking..but I got rid of NBN for this

They changed Sim but no different

Is there a consumer affairs Department I can go to to cancel contract

Rang Netgear ..go thru to USA ,.”we can get a tech to check..some call charges OK” $100 plus per hour

No way..so am I stuck with this hopeless expensive piece of rubbish for another 21 months

Very good product – OK so Im an IT guy and I use these for a few customers that need an emergency internet device or as failover. Works great as a hotspot have had 5-6 people at once with 4GX and working great. Even use with SIP phones and works good as long as you have full 4Gx coverage from Telstra. The USB port on it is good too because you can use the built in… Read more

battery as a power bank to charge an iPhone. Only downfall I have of the product is if you've left it on for more than 2 weeks it seems to freeze and have to power cycle it.

Dropping Out – My NightHawk is good until you go into another room, and then it mostly drops out. I changed to this from a smaller , older dongle that had a much better distance range than this NightHawk thing. Don't buy . I have gone back to my Old one but unfortunately I am still paying my Monthly fee.  Show details

Excessive data usage – The M1 is designed for two things; fast internet and making LOTS of money for Telstra through excess data charges. This thing chews data like it’s going out of style. How much? Let’s see- some some reason, downloading a file of around 3 Gb used up over twice that in data. It doesn’t make sense, but other users are having the same issue. It may… Read more

have to do with the minimum data blocks of 128mb. Avoid like the plague unless you have a very rich uncle or an oil well

Terrible, hangs in 3g areas, and no solution from telstra – This unit is troublesome, it may work well in 4g areas, but does poorly in 3g areas, the system hangs, loses connection, firmware updates cause more issues than they solve. They will not give me a spare unit to use until they solve the issue with the current device, in other words, what internet I can get, even that they want to take away. … Read more

They won't fix the positioning of the tower or update it, I have had this issue with Telstra on different devices and their service for over 10 years.

I called Telstra support, this was their exact quote: "Telstra won't spend money for a few hundred people" so what they saying to me is tough luck.

Telstra does not care.

Netgear Nighthawk M1 mobile internet unit – Telstra supplied mobile broadband unit called, 'Night Hawk model M1', a 4G, one of the fastest mobile broadband units around. This also chews up data, compared to the cheap dongles, suggest private individuals who cannot expense the monthly charges with their business use their mobile phone plan for internet connecting rather than buy this unit. … Read more

It is from US, advanced and records all (metered and unmetered) data. Other units I read from what others say, other units cannot charge the unmetered data used. This does. Watch out for faults, as if you leave the unit on, the software setting will automatically search for updates every 24 hours around mid-night and Telstra will charge you for that data used.

Recommend for value and ease, others looking for alternatives between using a home phone internet line to a mobile connection, consider a mobile phone plan with data. Easier and better value going with another unit and better providers than Telstra for large quantities of internet data.

Lots of bad reviews for the M1 – Seems that battery failure after two months is a fairly common complaint. This unit was provided by Telstra on a plan. It is an internet access solution due to lack of ADSL slots in the area and broadband connection pending. It costs $100 a month to maintain a service with adequate data allowance. Ours is basic use (e-mail, internet - very little… Read more

streaming and no movie downloads) and we seem to keep within the purchased allowance. Poor value compared to countries like The Netherlands where they pay ten euros a month for unlimited full family access.

Our Nighthawk comes with clipped wings apparently because it's going to need a range extender to service the other devices on the second level of the house.

Battery charge is depleted very quickly so it's necessary to keep monitoring the unit so internet access doesn't suddenly drop out. If using the unit all day, the option is to keep it connected to the wall socket through the approved charger supplied with the unit. This probably impacts on the battery life though.

The commonest complaint is that the unit suddenly shows no charge and will not accept a charge. This just happened to ours. Various user forums recommend removing the battery and the SIM card then reinserting them. I removed the battery only and put it back in and the unit started charging but indications are that this is usually the beginning of the end for the battery.

The performance of the unit itself, apart from range difficulties, is not comparable to wired access. It does have to be restarted if there is a break in it being accessed. This means going back to the computer's network settings and then waiting for the unit to bring up its network ID again to enable connection. Two or three minutes doesn't sound like much until you need urgent access to e-mail or internet.

It's better than nothing but that's a rationalisation that should not be necessary for telecommunication quality in an advanced nation.

One thing I did do when I gained access again - I got onto the Nighthawk web site and downloaded the M1 PDF manual. If I do lose internet connection due to unit problems I can still access the manual and trouble-shoot up to a point.

We need to be escalating Telstra complaints to the TIO when they don't comply with Australian Consumer Law to rectify product problems fairly. It's only downward pressure from a high volume of complaints that's going to get the franchised and contracted providers achieving a reasonable and fair Australian customer service standard.

This will be excellent when Telstra releases an unlimited 4G data plan – Works well, but unfortunately our local tower does not support 4Gx, so not much faster than I get from a tethered iPhone. It still has stable upload and download speeds, and is very useful when our landline broadband fails. I was able to use this device to feed data to my network by simply plugging it into the WAN port in my broadband modem. Our… Read more

D-Link broadband modem has automatic failover, so this is now our backup internet connection for our office. I'm wary that this device could eat a fortune in data, especially as it seems to use lots of data each day even when sitting idle. I will only sleep well when the Telstra data fees become much more reasonable.

Terrible - doesn't work in some areas – i hope i can save some of you some money we live out of town & purchased this as we do have mobile coverage here. It didn't work. Everytime the connection fluctuates you lose internet. I've been back to telstra - taken advice from one and all and cannot get it to work correctly. Telstra made me pay over a $1k to get out of contract. Don't… Read more

sign up until you are sure it will work well in your area - it is the most disappointing response we've ever had from Telstra. I can't believe they would not return item when it doesn't work properly. It constantly needs to be restarted & devices cant be connected unless close to unit. Very expensive to have something that doesn't do the job intended. Beware everyone - look for other options

Reliable coverage – The nighthawk is great value to buy outright or to pay on a 12-24 month plan. I use this as a back up if my main system goes off line. I find the modem helpful when going on a holiday where no internet is provided. The speed and overall startup times have some valid points and overall the product is a big improvement on similar modems.  Show details

Great for mobile internet access or ADSL replacement service – I purchased this unit on a plan with Telstra with it intended as a replacement for an unreliable ADSL connection at home. The first Nighthawk M1 was faulty out of the box, with the unit rebooting constantly to the point it was unusable. Fortunately this was replaced with a new unit by Telstra. After 3 months the second unit had been working… Read more

reliably. Access speeds are great and dependent on your mobile providers service in the area - with Telstra i am getting 25-30Mbps in a urban area. I am accessing the unit via the wifi feature which provides about 10-15 meter radius of access within our home (will vary depending on the shape of your house). The only issue with using this unit, is not actually with the unit, but due to being on a mobile network, the monthly data allowances are low and expensive, compared to hardwired ADSL solutions. Overall, a great unit for internet access, as long as you don't get a faulty unit, which there seems to be numerous reports of.

Looks good has some issues – The modem looks great. It does also work great if all devices are in close proximity. It does have a short range and needs to be restarted regularly as sometimes the WiFi network cant be found by new devices (a restart seems to fix this). If used regularly as i do at home you need to have it plugged in constantly as the battery drains quickly even… Read more

when not in use.

It does have great speed and apart from the above minor issues it does work well.