But Graham, you don’t need the SIM “option” you just need the SIM 
All the supposed 4G service options are, IMO, a rip off.
Here’s my IP config…
" IPv4 is 32-Bit IP address whereas IPv6 is a 128-Bit IP address. IPv4 is a numeric addressing method whereas IPv6 is an alphanumeric addressing method. IPv4 binary bits are separated by a dot(.) whereas IPv6 binary bits are separated by a colon(:)."
I’ve also set up a profile with IPv6 but saw no noticeable difference.
What I mean by that is a sim only option - ie no router just the sim (if that will be less costly monthly) otherwise just keep the default router as a spare.
With your B535 -232 device, logging in with 192.168.8.1 (without a sim installed) does it log in cleanly? Why do you prefer the Tp-Link device to the Huawei one? Just out of interest…
I just don’t like the settings interface on the Huawei Graham though logging on is as straight forward as on th eTP-Link.
Plus, I think one of the few things Trump has got right (and probably for the wrong reasons) is Huawei are bad news. I didn’t like the fact that China has been ripping off Western Technology for decades as ever greedier Western tech companies used Chinese semi slave labour to build their products. Add to that the horrific Chinese political regime and the fact that no Chinese company could ever reuse to do their bidding I think the West should be very, very careful in dealing with them. There’s no way anybody could detect a back door in millions and missions of lines of code.
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So, an update on our problem 4G router.
In order to test things out, we opted for a free 1 month trial of the Orange 4G offering.
The difference between the two is essentially price (Bouygues being cheaper and unlimited - Orange a few euro more and 200 Go/month)
Having set up the Orange router (model B525s-23a) we found that it had no facility for setting fixed IP addresses within the management software. But then, having redirected the network to the new structure, all the devices with previously fixed IP’s worked without issue - the NAS, printer etc - so no issue there.
This gave me the confidence to reset the B518 Bouygues to factory default and then log in with the default IP address 192.168.1.1 as the network was still up and running.
The old router software certainly had changed. Now it doesn’t ask for a user name just a password and as the software now requires a psw of not less than 8 chars, the user is invited to enter a new psw. That done and into the management software, it is clear that the IP/MAC address association facility has been removed. So both Huawei routers are the same - perhaps just smarter.
The Orange router is an older model from 2016, the Bouygues a newer model by a couple of years.
So, where to go from here.
Given that the Bouygues offering is unlimited and cheaper, I think we will now return the Orange offering and stay where we were. At least we have looked at this scientifically and made a judged decision rather than just a knee-jerk reaction.
The only matter unresolved now is whether the sim (from either company) will work in an unrelated 4G router… Both say it won’t but the supplier of 4G routers mentioned above - LowcostMobile say they will… Question is whether to be bothered? I know @John_Scully has offered to send me an untied Huawei (not tied to any network provider), perhaps in furtherance of my education and for reference, maybe that’s a good idea to test out…
The offers still open Graham. It’ll be cheaper to post if one of power supplies you already have meets the spec on the photo I posted above.
Hi John.
If you want to dispose of it altogether, let me know and we can come to an arrangement 
Sorry for not getting back quicker Graham. I’ve sort of promised the box to a couple of elderly neighbours to reduce their bill from €40 to €20 a month. He’s ex France Telecom (when it was the P&T) so he get’s his landline “free” but has to pay €40 PM for his rotten >1M internet access. They’re not exactly flush and I’ve been trying to get them to change for about a year now but they’re a little slow on the technology uptake. Otherwise you could have the thing for free. I need to go to the post office next week so let me know it you’d like to borrow it, if you need the power supply and PM me your address
Nah, don’t worry John. It’s going to a good cause and the B528 is now behaving itself. I’ve resolved the issues around the NAS, printer and other devices requiring fixed IP addresses in Linux and on the devices themselves so the loss of the facility to set fixed addresses has diminished.
Your neighbour could be entitled to the Orange 4G «Flybox» offer from Orange but be aware that the Flybox sim will only work in the Orange badged (knobbled) Huawei router they provide and probably not your spare one…
But once again, thanks very much for the kind offer.
Oups… not the case 
I found the IP/MAC Association deep in the menu structure called «IP and MAC Address Binding List»
Still, that exercised my mind on how to resolve by other methods so some good learning value there
I have just had Bouygues phone me out of the blue (I am a mobile customer of theirs) to see if I wanted to try the 4G box for 26.99 euros per month for first year then 32.99 thereafter.
I may give it a try as we are a long way off getting fibre.
Go for it Mat. We’ve had ours for a year now (relatively) trouble free - apart from a hiccup mentioned earlier in this thread which we resolved ourselves.
Out of interest Graham, do you know if you can plug in an external aerial to the Bouygues supplied 4G router?
Yes Mat you can but you need to set the condition in the management software…
you also need one of these:
The arial leads plug in the back of the B528 box
Hi @graham & @John_Scully, I am following this discussion with interest, I think it was Graham that got me on to this Bouygues deal originally and we have been very happy with it. Because of fluctuation signal I bought the Antenne above and am really happy with it, a constant rock solid maximum signal.
Like Graham i am now considering the Free.fr package which is slightly cheaper and unlimited wheras my Bouygues is limited to 200Gb per month but I would really like to ditch my landline as it is expensive and we only ever call a couple of people. So am looking at getting a phone package and buying a 4G router especially as after January we may be here much less so could at least use the sim in our motorhome. We have the wrong kind of income for France so it is too expensive to become resident!
So I am trying to work out which 4G router to buy and am leaning towards the Solwise.co.uk offering which are not Huawei for the same reasons as above.
So any suggestions would be gratefully received. I am told that Vodafone UK have a good offering which is not data limited outside the UK because they have a European network but have not found it yet.
Steve
I’m not considering the Free offer now as I have resolved the issues around the Bouygues B528 router and it now works perfectly fine. Our deal with Bouygues is unlimited. We did experiment with the Orange offer too but that also was limited to 200/month so we abandoned that in favour of keeping the Bouygues deal.
@John_Scully speaks well of the TP-Link and the reviews are good as well…
Interesting comment… I’m sure the requirements are set out in other threads here but what specifically causes you to suggest that 
Thanks Graham, Just checked and I am not eligible for the Free.fr 4G offer but their unlimited phone deal for 10 euro pm looks interesting even after the first year for me.
As for French taxes it is the 17.5% social charges on all our income that is the killer.
Steve
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Hi @John_Scully I was getting strange things happening with my 4G router since the last firmware update, it keeps changing its IP, also the speed seems to have gone down quite a bit, so I have bought my own 4G router but when I inserted the Bouygues SIM it is locked with a PIN which I certainly don’t remember setting. When you changed to your own router did you have the same thing and did Bouygues give you the pin. My French is not fantastic especially on the phone, do you think their chat system would help. I can copy the APN settings from the Huawei if they don’t set automatically.
Thanks,
Steve
You will have received a letter with your CARTE SIM À CONSERVER from Bouygues on the back of which is the code PUK (in the form NN NN NN NN) which is the code I think you might need to unlock the sim in a new device (the same as it would be with a mobile phone SIM).
You will have detached the micro sim to insert in your router from the larger card attached to the letter (which I bet you threw away!)
front of the card with the PUK on the back
Pin on a Bouygues phone sim card is 0000 - this may or may not work for a router.
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