First impressions of the Pepwave Surf SOHO router as compared to a Cradlepoint MBR95 router - RV-Dreams Community Forum

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

First impressions of the Pepwave Surf SOHO router as compared to a Cradlepoint MBR95 router

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

I don't have a WiFiRanger to compare, it might be the best.

Trabuco · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good to know Bill, I've been happy with my Cradlepoint but always open to new technology. Based on your review I think I'll pass on the SOHO

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

The Pepwave does fail over nicely. The campground Wifi went slow and it switched to the Millenicom hotspot. The MBR95 doesn't always do so since the way it checks if an internet source is still good are kind of weak. I can tell when it switches to Millenicom, since it is much faster. But the campground Wifi, Centurylink via Tengo, is quite usable. I suspect WiFiRanger modems work really well with Tengo, since they are both from the same corporate parent.

I am also perceiving faster WiFi as WAN performance. I suspect this is because of the higher power of the SOHO external antennas.

It all boils down to what do you want in a router? Most of these capabilities were not in reasonably priced routers a few years back, fail over, bandwidth monitoring, WiFi as WAN, and only a few handled USB modems and tethering. We mostly got by fine. I am spoiled by the way the MBR95 handles internet connections and bandwidth monitoring. In many ways I can see that the Pepwave is a very good router and if I started with it, I would probably be happy.

I also have a Pepwave Surf Mini to pull in weaker WiFi signals, it is a WiFi adapter that ends in Ethernet. It has been sufficient when I needed to boost a WiFi signal to feed the MBR95. Without it, I would be less happy with the MBR95, since it does not pull in WiFis that well on its own. I look forward to doing a head to head with the Pepwave Surf SOHO's larger antennas and see if it does a better job. But, I need to be somewhere I will be boosting a weak signal and that will not be for a while, probably September.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Saturday 19th of July 2014 09:52:25 PM

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill,

I am not sure if I fully understand but it looks like you are able to grab a wi-fi signal with the Cradlepoint MBR95 router is that correct? I am looking to hook-up a router so I can connect my Midnite Solar Classic 150 charge controller to the net so I can monitor it both from my laptop and remotely on my Android phone. As with many fulltimers I do not have a hardwired internet connection and use either the campground's or my Verizon Mi-Fi to access the internet. Since the Classic is not wi-fi ready it needs to be plugged via Ethernet to a router in order to communicate.

I have been asking on both the Midnite forum and Buffalo's Forum have not got a solid answer. I did see a Buffalo AC1750 DD-WRT router and was not sure if this did the same thing.

-- Edited by bigboomer on Monday 18th of August 2014 01:17:18 PM

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you go into Advanced mode with the MBR95 you can use a wifi signal as an internet source, just like plugging in a DSL or cable modem into Ethernet or using a USB source. Download the full MBR95 manual from Cradlepoint's website for the details. You can also do this with the Pepwave Surf SOHO, which I am using, and the WiFiRanger. Once you get used to the quirks of each, it is easy to add and change wifi networks to these routers and switch between them.

I am reasonably happy with the SOHO, but had higher expectations of it in the bandwidth tracking area. It works well, but its bandwidth tracking and limits do not work that well for me with multiple WiFi sources. The SOHO does put out pretty graphs, which I find mostly useless.

Word is Cradlepoint is now going for paid support, Pepwave is paid support after one year. At least Cradlepoint lets you download the latest firmware without being on support, Pepwave does not.

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Bill. Sounds like a winner. I did correspond with Cradlepoint's tech support and they said that you the wi-fi or jetpack cannot have a password to communicate with the Cradlepoint. Do you if this is the case? What about the Pepwave, will it access a password protected wi-fi or jetpack?

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cradlepoint tech support either does not know their own product or were thinking you meant something else. The MBR95 handles wifis with WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption fine, which all use passwords or keys.

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

I think you are right Bill, I went thru the manual and it does say under the WAN area that it will take a password so it is a winner.

Thanks for your insight, it has change the game for me.

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill, I think you will find that the SOHO outperforms the 95 in wifi capture by a large margin.Assuming you have the external antennas on it. I see your point about the granularity of the reports. Assuming you need daily reports that would be an important consideration. But I think overall that the SOHO beats out the 95. My 95 does not perform near as well as the SOHO....

There are definitely pros and cons to both, though, as there are with the WifiRanger. Of all the routers I have - and I have a lot of them - I still use the Go2 the most.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jack: I haven't pulled the MBR95 out since I set up the SOHO. The SOHO has been working solidly.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Today I tried to hook the SOHO up to the campground wifi and it did not work. The wifi is open, but uses a username/password once you get on. The SOHO ended up with a "server error". I got out my old Pepwave Surf Mini and got online using a laptop, it was able to get online. The Mini is an external wifi adapter that uses Ethernet instead of USB to hook to the computer. I hooked the Mini up to the LAN port of the SOHO and got error lights. Then in dawned on me that unlike most modern routers, the SOHO does not allow non-crossover Ethernet cables. I dug around, found a crossover Ethernet cable and voila, I had internet via the Mini as a LAN.

Most people do not have crossover cables, but I do. To determine if you have a crossover cable, look at both ends and if the wire colors are in different order, it is a crossover cable, a standard Ethernet cable has the wires in the same order on both ends. For most people it is dangerous to have a crossover cable laying around, if they use it without realizing it is different it won't work in most cases.

The only problem is I now cannot get to the SOHO admin page, probably because the subnet mask got set to block it. Verizon and AT&T are much faster than the campground wifi, which is from Frontier, so I will be going back to my Millenicom service. But, I will be keeping the Mini and might set it up using another router so I can switch to it by changing which wifi I use. I have a couple normal routers, the kind you use in a house, and two Cradlepoint ones, an MBR1000 and an MBR95.

Edit: My old Netgear router didn't care that I was using a crossover cable with the Mini, even though the last time I used a normal Ethernet cable. It is working fine as a second wifi, repeating the campground wifi.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Friday 29th of August 2014 05:34:56 PM