In the sprawling ecosystem of consumer electronics, few objects are as simultaneously mundane and infuriating as the mobile broadband dongle. At first glance, the ZTE MF282 is unremarkable. It is a plastic rectangle, barely larger than a thumb drive, designed to convert a 4G LTE signal into a Wi-Fi hotspot for a laptop, a tablet, or a smart TV. It is the digital equivalent of a utility pipe—functional, invisible, and forgettable.