Wireless router

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Tom

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Richard Sharp was kind enough to loan me his Cradlepoint CTR350 router into which I plugged my Verizon USB air card. Wow! online in a flash with no need to load the Verizon driver on my PC.

I understand that there's a newer version of this router, and maybe Alex will chime in and let me know what's the latest and greatest.
 
Tom said:
Richard Sharp was kind enough to loan me his Cradlepoint CTR350 router into which I plugged my Verizon USB air card. Wow! online in a flash with no need to load the Verizon driver on my PC.

I understand that there's a newer version of this router, and maybe Alex will chime in and let me know what's the latest and greatest.

Tom,

I thought I saw my router (CTR-4c7) in my list of available Wireless Network Connections. I'm glad it is working for you. Are you using the external antenna for the modem?

Richard
 
Richard,

I'm not using the external antenna.
 
Hi Ron,

Jerry told me there's a newer model than his.
 
Thanks Gary. I saw both those models on Alex' web site, but somehow missed the tabs for spec and compatible devices.
 
So far Don Miller, Bob Buchanan, Ardra, and I have been using my CTR350 simultaneously and it's doing fine.  For this rally, together, we have used 235 Mbytes of up/down loading.  Even Richard Sharp and Terry Brewer have logged on too just for fun.  It's a great little router!

JerryF
 
Just got my printer from Dell.  All in one, wireless.  Email special, got it for $70 and free shipping.  Problem is, my wireless router is back home!  Phone sales guy didn't mention that part, said I could go right to it.  I didn't think so, but he assured me.  I was right.  I can get by with cable till I get home, but I keep thinking how I almost brought it with me!
 
Richard,

That's great because it means that besides our other uses of the router the three of us, at times, might be streaming radio shows.  You streaming your favorite Rochester radio station, Don streamed a hockey game from Fairbanks station, and we streamed a Las Vegas country western station.  I love the CTR350 router and the Verizon air card.

JerryF
 
sorry i'm late jumping into the thread, had an old friend in town and was actually offline for a lot longer than normal.

aside from the CTR350, CTR500 and MBR1000 mentioned this far, there is one other worth mentioning.

The Cradlepoint PHS300 includes a rechargeable Li-On battery allowing for up to two hours of use without even being plugged into any ac or dc power.

One caveat: the PHS300 has no ethernet ports -- so all devices that want to access internet thru PHS300 have to do so via WiFi.

Also worth noting -- about the MBR1000 -- its the only one with more powerful WiFi N radio allowing for greatest range to and from the router... it also has four ethernet ports for computers, and a single ethernet "WAN" port in case any of you also use cable/dsl/satellite or WiFi range extender.
 
Just a thought: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/home-computer-router/ is an article on how to use your laptop as a router.  I have not tried this, but I know ad-hoc networks can be setup using most wifi cards / builtins.  I intend to try this sometime soon now that DW has her own laptop.  Warning: Apparently, you cannot set this up with any security settings, so be carefull.

Added: Here's a Microsoft link that explains using Vista to set this up.  It mentions using it as a shared internet connection.
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/293c504f-b944-4d5d-835c-f080129bd5dc1033.mspx

This article relates to XP and includes an illustration:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/adhoc.mspx

Doug
 
Good stuff! As Evdoalex mentioned, a range extender can help where you need to connect to the ethernetless router. 

You know, you could use the device I mentioned in this thread http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=20729.0 and placed in proximity (within 50 or 100 feet) of your cradlepoint router, this repeater/extender would auto connect to your cradle point and you could plug an ethernet cable into this little repeater and have access to your cradle point in addition to repeating your wifi signal in the direction the antenna is pointing in.  Point the repeater to a friend's RV way across the park so they can have wifi access to your Verizon card in the Cradlepoint (or whatever cell card router you are using).  If need be, you can WEP secure the repeater's connection too. You can turn off the autoap function and manually connect to the cell card router with it if you wish.  A picture is attached, and you can use it with the stock Linksys antennas if you don't need to beam the signal across the park or something.  A friend can use this thing to connect to your cell router from across the park too so he can use it's wifi or ethernet in his own rig.  Just thought I'd mention the options available because these routers like this Cradlepoint and the others mentioned are totally awesome but not everyone has one.  I spent 35 bucks shipped for the router, the firmware was free and the tripod was 17 bucks and the antenna was 35 bucks shipped. 

If the company ever supplies me with a cell card for my online manual access in my Cummins service shop truck, I'll look at this thread and get one of these cell card routers with my own money.  Thanks for the info.
Bob
 

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Jerry & Ned put me onto the CradlePoiunt 350 and it works great with the Sierra 881U/ATT combo that I already owned to network with Bev.
 
Thanks for the inputs. Looks like the CTR500 or MBR1000 will do what I need.
 
Tom said:
Richard Sharp was kind enough to loan me his Cradlepoint CTR350 router into which I plugged my Verizon USB air card. Wow! online in a flash with no need to load the Verizon driver on my PC.

I understand that there's a newer version of this router, and maybe Alex will chime in and let me know what's the latest and greatest.

I just upgraded to the latest version of Verizon Manager (6.7.8) and it now gets me online in flash. About 5 seconds to load the drive, connect and open my browser. I don't think the router is worth the effort.
 
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