Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
evdotech
Contributor - Level 1

Not only look into 3Gstore Cradlepoints router but look into their Peplink balance routers they are a gem in themselves, they are an awesome router

http://3gstore.com/product/2121_peplink-balance-30.html

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Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
gerrshel
Enthusiast - Level 2

Ordered the MBR95 router with an antenna and adapter cable.... http://3gstore.com/product/3047_3g4g-full-band-outdoor-omni-antenna.html  ...  ran thru the suggested antenna site survey found at the 3gstore. My improvement with the antenna may not be a bunch as it seems the signal has gotten better with the arrival of the LTE service, but I'll be able to place the 4510 in a location that should work out pretty well with the router.

  The balancing routers look like more than I need.

  Thinking I'll keep the 4510, it has been working well for quite a few days now... WildBlue only seems slower now than ever.  They just announced a new satellite going in service ... supposed to offer 12 Mbps service to east/west coasts, 5 Mbps for everyone else. Takes all new gear(dish/modem) and will cost more for less data volume. Plus install fee and new 2 year commitment. Go figure...

I'll post back how this all works out, thanks for all the advice.

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Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
gerrshel
Enthusiast - Level 2

The Cradlepoint MBR95 has been up and running now for about 3 days.  Working well, no big problems getting all my devices(wireless and cat cabled) connected. Took a bit of "fiddling around" at first, mostly just figuring out the user interface, security mode, etc.  Still don't have a real clear understanding about channel selection, seems everthing works well enough with it set on "auto" in channel management. There is a 122 page PDF manual where I'm guessing the answer is....

I don't think it has quite as powerful wireless broadcast range as the Cisco/Linksys WRT54G, which has 2 external antennas on it.    

Set up the omni antenna yesterday with 20' of cable on an outside wall towards where I think my signal comes from. The  MiFi 4510 reports a fairly steady -70Db signal, SINR changes from 11to maybe 14. Before the antenna would range a lot, lower/mid -70s to -100+.  Seems a bit quicker as far as web page loading, more consistant.  Couple of Speedtest.net tries had anywhere from 2.7mbps DL on wireless laptop connection to 6.7mbps DL on a cat cabled desktop. Uploads are always faster yet 6.2 to 9.2 mbps.  guessing that is as good as it will get.(Seems there are a hundred reasons why the speedtest would only be so accurate, lots of variables.)  Way better speeds than what I had, although costs a bit more in terms of data volume.

Also, if I connect wirelessly to the MiFi directly, the speed test shows better results.  So there does appear to be some loss with the WiFi to router connection. Hard to see the difference as far as average web page loading...  Might be better to have a USB modem connected directly.  I am going to keep the 4510,tho.

There is a post by JerryF here about a smartphone app to determine which cell tower you are connecting to, sorry I don't have the link handy to post here.  I don't use a smartphone, but looked handy for those with fringe reception issues thinking about antenna placement.

Also, $20 mailin rebate on MBR95 thru Jan.  3gstore was a real pleasure to deal with, I would certainly would steer folks their direction.

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Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

Im not sure which link was referring to but here is one that I use to lookup local cell towers:

http://www.cellreception.com/towers/

The FCC does not require every antenna/tower to be registered so it might not show all the possibilities.  In my hometown it appears to be accurate.

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Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
gerrshel
Enthusiast - Level 2

John, this was the original post ...https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/735676

Towards the end JerryF links to a new post(his) which tells about the smart phone app..

I did not find any local towers for my area looking at the "cellreception"  site

Side question: Copy/paste does not work for me to add a link to a post, I seem to have to use the "insert link" function.... is that your experience also?

Also, I was going to add some input to an "antenna" thread we had both posted to earlier, but I cannot find it since the new forum went into action...

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Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
John_Getzke
Champion - Level 1

The site I linked doesnt seem to find small towns very well.  Everytime I search for my hometown it zooms on the Twin Cities and I have to manually move the screen to find my area.  If you havent already try looking from your closest major city and manually panning/zooming over your home town to see if there are different results.

I've never had problems copy/pasting links on this forum.  I copy/paste URL's from IE8 into the forum and JIVE auto formats it into a clickable link for me.  I think copy/paste is just plain buggy on this new forum engine.  However I do have issues copy/pasting responses from other users in my own responses.  The site locks up for me to the point where I close the browser and reopen a new one.  I have been working around it by manually typing whatever I was going to quote. 

The old thread may have been lost in the transition.  Everything that was going to be migrated should have done so already. Links to the old forum are now working too so if you can dig up an old email notification you should be able to find it.  Otherwise you are at the mercy of the clunky keyword searching features of JIVE.

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Re: Possible to use a MiFi4510l as modem with Cradlepoint router?
lookinforanswer
Contributor - Level 2

Maybe this will help

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Make sure that both the Cradlepoint MBR95 and the Novatel 4510L are turned off and unplugged. Remove the battery from the Novatel 4510L so that it's completely off.

If the Novatel and the Cradlepoint are both turned on while you're setting them up, they won't work together when you're done.

DO ALL OF THESE STEPS IN ORDER. DON'T SKIP ANY STEPS.

CONFIGURING THE NOVATEL 4510L MOBILE HOTSPOT

  1. 1. Assemble the wall charger and then charge the battery on the Novatel hotspot according to the instructions that came with the device.

  1. 2. Plug in and turn on the hotspot.

  1. 3. Using the web page interface, configure the hotspot, name your SSID and then set your password on the Novatel, again according to the instructions.

  1. 4. Next, unplug and take the battery out of the Novatel 4510L so that it's completely off.

CONFIGURING THE CRADLEPOINT MBR95 ROUTER

  1. 1. Plug in and then turn on the Cradlepoint. Make sure that the Cradlepoint's Wi-Fi switch is turned on. This switch is on the back panel of the device, next to the Power switch.

  1. 2. Configure the Cradlepoint (Using the "Getting Started" tab in the web page interface). Name the SSID the same as the one that you used to set up the Novatel 4510L. Also, use the same password.

  1. 3. HERE'S THE TRICK: Set a new IP address for the Cradlepoint, so that the third group of numbers are NOT zero or "1." Set it to any number between 2 and 10.

GETTING THEM TO WORK TOGETHER

  1. 1. Put the battery back in the Novatel 4510L, plug it in and turn it on.

  1. 2. Turn on the Wi-Fi as WAN feature on the Cradlepoint.

See: "How to configure Wi-Fi as WAN on a Series 3 Cradlepoint router"

http://knowledgebase.cradlepoint.com/articles/Support/setup-WiFi-as-WAN-on-a-Series-3-CradlePoint?re...

and

Cradlepoint WiFi as WAN Setup: Tutorial 4 (from the 3G store)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMHrn07m1h4&feature=plcp

  1. 3. Also, be sure to set connection order (Wi-Fi first), unless you're also using a wired Ethernet connection. In the web page interface, the connection order is called "fallover priority." You can see how to do this in the tutorial video.

  1. 4. (Optional) On the Network Settings page, configure the Guest network.

Now you can connect your other wireless devices to the Cradlepoint. When you look at the IP address for these devices, they should have the same third group of numbers as the ones that you set when you configured the Cradlepoint. Using the example shown before, the IP address for a laptop connected to this network would be something like 192.168.9.111. The "9" in this IP address confirms that you're connected to the Cradlepoint.

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