Dual WAN router - anyone familiar with Cradlepoint products?

[RMerlin]

A customer of mine wants a dual WAN router for his home office, specifically for failover purposes. His primary connection is DOCSIS, we don't know yet if the failover would be DSL (he needs to check if it's available in his area) or 4G.

In the past I've had good experiences with Cisco's RV line, so the RV340 is one that I'm considering. He was also interested in Cradlepoint products, which I'm not familiar at all with.

Any thoughts on Cradlepoint?

 

[coxhaus]

If you don't get any hits on this site post over on DSLreports site under networking. I bet you will get somebody that has used one before.

 

[Trip]

Cradlepoint is a primary player in the 4G/5G LTE WWAN space. Competitors includes Digi, Sierra and Peplink. Solid products. I've configured numerous models for dual-WAN and they've all performed to-spec.

 

[GARYK]

A customer of mine wants a dual WAN router for his home office, specifically for failover purposes. His primary connection is DOCSIS, we don't know yet if the failover would be DSL (he needs to check if it's available in his area) or 4G.

In the past I've had good experiences with Cisco's RV line, so the RV340 is one that I'm considering. He was also interested in Cradlepoint products, which I'm not familiar at all with.

Any thoughts on Cradlepoint?

Years ago I owned a cradlepoint hot spot for my traveling business days and I never had any issues with them. I would consider them a legit manufacturer.

 

[RMerlin]

Cradlepoint is a primary player in the 4G/5G LTE WWAN space. Competitors includes Digi, Sierra and Peplink. Solid products. I've configured numerous models for dual-WAN and they've all performed to-spec.

Any specific models I should check (considering we'll need either DOCSIS + DSL, or DOCSIS + built-in LTE for the failover)?

 

[Trip]

I would look at the AER1600 or 2200, or if 5G is of potential interest, one of the new E-series models, either the E300 or the E3000, which are 5G-capable and 5G-optimized, respectively.

 

[coxhaus]

Wow that is some pricey equipment.

 

[Trip]

All in the eye of the beholder. The AER1650 with Cat 4 North American LTE and 1 year of TAC is ~$700 at 5GStore. 3-years support is only about $250 more. Relatively speaking, that's peanuts for a functioning, profitable business, and a pretty solid deal, all things considered.

 

[coxhaus]

It sounds more like enterprise equipment than small business.

But I don't know what LTE for a Cisco RV340 costs either. I have been retired for too long.

 

[Trip]

Comparatively, Cisco small-biz WWAN is somewhat of an afterthought. Dongel-only, sparse compatibility. Look at Peplink's compatibility list for example. You get the picture pretty quickly. Also, no embedded/on-board LTE architecture, no rugged/M2M solutions. For something in that class from Cisco, you need to jump up to their enterprise ISR 900 and 1000 series.