CRADLEPOINT Technology MBR1200B MBR1200B - Mobile BROADBAND Router

I have had this product for nearly a week, and I am very impressed. Having read reviews on numerous mobile broadband routers from several manufacturers, I noted many issues and hoped for the best when I ordered this. It was very easy to set up, and when I ran into a problem with something I did, the downloadable product manual had the solution (easy to implement). The MBR1200B product has performed flawlessly and it improved the reliability and performance of my set-up.Please note: I live in a rural area and am one of those without hardwired internet access at home. My choices for internet access are/were dial-up, satellite, or mobile broadband. I chose mobile broadband as the least bad of the options, and have been using it for over 5 years. My home has several Macintosh computers, and I have had an older one that I had dedicated as the 1) connector via a mobile broadband "modem" and 2) WiFi router.When I did a recent computer upgrade, I dedicated a newer Macintosh as the modem and WiFi router. The set-up generally performed adequately to satisfactorily, but there were challenges and disappointments. It was a little better than the old set-up, but not by much. In the few days since installing (again, very easy to do) the MBR1200B, The performance of my home WiFi network for internet access has been its best---in overall performance, ease of use, operating speed, and reliability.I highly recommend Cradlepoint's MBR1200B.

Pretty happy with this router. Deducting one star as it doesn't have external antenna connections. For a router that is positioned for mobile use, and for providing redundant connectivity for those people who really need to be online, I am surprised that the router doesn't have this. Instead, I have to use a second router for my external antennas when I want to strain to pick up a wireless signal that is anything but good. This router then feeds it into the cradlepoint as a WAN. I use this inside an Airstream and the metal isn't great for allowing signals inside. The Wifi-as-WAN feature would be awesome if I could use an external antenna.That being said, I don't think there is a better router out there for this type of functionality. There are a few things I would like to see work better in the user interface, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to stuff like this so I'd say that I have fewer complaints in this regard vs some other router.In particular, it would be nice if it were smarter about connecting to higher priority WAN sources. I unfortunately spend a lot of time manually choosing the source I want in the user interface. For example, if you scan for a wifi signal and then choose to import it... then why not auto connect to it in one step? Also, it doesn't seem to bring up a wifi signal in parallel to like a USB 4g modem to be able to switch over instantly should the current connection go down. So I think my process to connect to a wifi signal is ... I have to import it then disable my USB 4g connection to get it to start bringing up the wifi WAN. I don't see why it doesn't at least always bring up as many WAN sources as it can, or at least have a wifi WAN up and waiting if it can for a seamless switchover.[EDIT: I have figured out that I can bring up a few different connections in a pool with load balancing, so I am using that a bit more often. The downside is that if you are in an area where your connections are flaky, when one of them acts up you can spend some time manually trying to figure out which connection might be causing the trouble. It seems like Cradlepoint's failure check feature is a bit crude so it isn't always effective. But aside from this ability to have multiple WANs up in the load balancing pool, I don't see a way to have a connection online but out of the pool ready for instant failover. The system only starts its attempts to connect to the others when your existing connection fails.]But again, I'm quite happy with the product and these fussy comments are more to do with me being a demanding power user who wants things done just the way I'd like. It's a great endorsement for me to say that I don't hate anything about this unit. Some things could be slightly better but overall they did a great job designing this.

I bought this router a couple of years ago but never got around to setting it up until my existing "el cheapo" router failed. Now I have spent days, perhaps weeks trying to get it to work, and no success. By "getting it to work" I mean exactly that--it does not work at all, in that clients can connect to the MBR1200b, but there is never any connection to the internet. My MBR1200b is connected to a Time-Warner cable modem, which works fine if I connect a PC directly to the cable modem; however, their is no connectivity when connected to the MBR1200b. The "Connection Manager" returns a state of "Suspended" with error "DHCP found IP conflict". There is zero support available from Cradlepoint, and I cannot even download updated firmware, without buying a service contract. I have reset it to factory defaults several times; makes no difference. I have a Cradlepoint CTR 500 which has never given any problems, and it was easy to setup; not so with the MBR1200b. This product has wasted enough of my time and as of tonight it will be relegated to being a $200+ paperweight. Needless to say, I will never buy a Cradlepoint product again.

One of the better Mobile Hots pot routers on the market, fantastic for running auction computer stations. Keep the USB 4G dongle plugged in all the time and just power it up when you need Wi-Fi access for a few users. Just do your homework on what is compatible with your carrier.

Was a great match for my Verizon USB modem. Features and functionality of the router are dated, e.g only 10/100 not 1000 mb on the Ethernet ports, no 5Mhz wireless channels, and somewhat limited configuration options. Works well.