Cradlepoint vs. wifi ranger

quote I have followed essentially the same path that Bill has. Had the original Wifi Ranger, tried the Sky and finally the GO. While the concept is fantastic and the CS folks at WFR are terrific to deal with, the product is just not ready for primetime, IMO. I found myself having to continually futz with the units to keep my connection in place. They would lock up, reboot on their own, lose connectivity requiruing a restart. At one point they would not work with iOS devices, certain modems, blah, blah, blah....

My wife would call me almost daily with problems in the RV while I was away at work. Rarely did a day go by where I didn't have to play with the WFR to keep connectivity going.

So, I too now have a Cradlepoint, but I chose the MBR1400 model. More expensive that Bill's MBR95, but offers load balancing which I use all the time because I have 2 Mifi units (one verizon and one AT&T). The MBR1400 does a terrific job of balancing usage between the two!

I have my WFR GO in a box in the closet and continue to monitor their progress. Maybe if they ever offer a firmware release that makes the product ready for every day use, I'll put it back in service and give it a go, but for now, I'm so much happier with the Cradlepoint!!!! end quote


I was under the impression that cradlepoint would not connect to MiFi units, in fact that's what they told me when I called them. Are they connecting wirelessly or are your MiFi's tethered? Which MiFi units are you using? Also are you able to use park internet with your cradlepoint?

paulcardoza wrote:
I have followed essentially the same path that Bill has. Had the original Wifi Ranger, tried the Sky and finally the GO. While the concept is fantastic and the CS folks at WFR are terrific to deal with, the product is just not ready for primetime, IMO. I found myself having to continually futz with the units to keep my connection in place. They would lock up, reboot on their own, lose connectivity requiruing a restart. At one point they would not work with iOS devices, certain modems, blah, blah, blah....

I bought my first WiFi Ranger router three years ago and I will agree with Paul that there were many nights when I went to sleep frustrated because I couldn't get it to work no matter what I tried. However, I will argue that those nights were fairly far in the past and that Paul's summary compresses three years of product development experiences without differentiating between the past and present.

Some WFR customers, like Bill and Paul, chose to "get off the train" during that process and I can't fault them for that. However, I know from my own personal experience that WFR products today are much different and far better than those that were marketed several years ago.

To avoid having this post deleted because the moderators consider it marketing, I will simply note that the control panel on my WiFi Ranger is currently showing that it has been operational for 18 days since its last reboot. It has been connected to my Verizon phone's hotspot for that entire period, except when the phone has needed to be rebooted. The Ranger was connected to the hotspot when I went to bed last night and it was connected and ready for use this morning. I can't ask a router to do any more than that.

I have followed essentially the same path that Bill has. Had the original Wifi Ranger, tried the Sky and finally the GO. While the concept is fantastic and the CS folks at WFR are terrific to deal with, the product is just not ready for primetime, IMO. I found myself having to continually futz with the units to keep my connection in place. They would lock up, reboot on their own, lose connectivity requiruing a restart. At one point they would not work with iOS devices, certain modems, blah, blah, blah....

My wife would call me almost daily with problems in the RV while I was away at work. Rarely did a day go by where I didn't have to play with the WFR to keep connectivity going.

So, I too now have a Cradlepoint, but I chose the MBR1400 model. More expensive that Bill's MBR95, but offers load balancing which I use all the time because I have 2 Mifi units (one verizon and one AT&T). The MBR1400 does a terrific job of balancing usage between the two!

I have my WFR GO in a box in the closet and continue to monitor their progress. Maybe if they ever offer a firmware release that makes the product ready for every day use, I'll put it back in service and give it a go, but for now, I'm so much happier with the Cradlepoint!!!!

Bill.Satellite wrote:
I wish I could answer this but the WiFi Ranger folks have issued an injunction preventing me from given any details. I was a beta tester for the company from their infancy but now that I have a Cradlepoint I don't know why other than they provided all of my equipment at no charge.

I was a beta tester for the company from their infancy but now that I have a Cradlepoint. I don't know why other than they provided all of my equipment at no charge.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
I used the WiFi Ranger (actually the original Ranger, Ranger and Boost, the Ranger Go and the Go and Mobile and most recently the Ranger X) for over 3 years as the product evolved. I believe it continues to evolve but I no longer use the Ranger products and recently purchased a Cradlepoint MBR95. I have not had a single issue with the Cradlepoint and setting up WiFi as WAN to save my the use of my cellular data is simple and the connection remains solid. I don't think the Cradlepoint as quite the range that the Ranger X does but I think it's better than the range of the Go router.
I believe that both operate better with a stand alone USB WiFi device vs. a MiFi type device but if you have a MiFi air card you most likely do not need either device as the MiFi is it's own full blown router.
If you have a MiFi air card you might look at a stand alone WiFi antenna for those times when good, free open WiFi services are available.

Is there a particular reason that you switched from WiFi Ranger to the cradlepoint? Ive considered using just my MiFi card but I need a router so that I can connect a VOIP phone.

I forgot to mention that there is a Pepwave air card router as well. I did not hear about it until after I bought my Cradlepoint but I have heard good things about it as well.
Lots of choices out there.

Bill.Satellite wrote:

I believe that both operate better with a stand alone USB WiFi device vs. a MiFi type device but if you have a MiFi air card you most likely do not need either device as the MiFi is it's own full blown router.

The drawback to using a MiFi as the only router in an RV is that if you are at a park that actually has decent wifi (and these really do exist) then each device in your RV has to be separately connected to the park's wifi. You may be surprised how many devices that includes.

We currently carry two laptops, an iPad, a tablet, a Roku, a printer and a DirecTV DVR all of which are require internet access. I find it a lot easier to use a single router with WiFi as WAN capability than to connect each of these devices one at a time every time we go to a new park. I find that we use park wifi more often since it's easy to change back to our phone's hotspot if the wifi slows down; all it takes is a single keystroke to transfer all the devices on our network from one internet source to another.

I use a WFR with my VZ air card.
Works very well. Also conn. to park WiFi and boost the signal.

Wayne,
Does the Asus do WiFi as WAN and if so, have you tried it?

I would suggest that you look at the new Asus line of routers. In a short time on the market, they have received some of the highest rankings by IT guru's. I purchased one for my home to replace a failed linksys router.

The Asus is faster, has more features, has 2 USB ports that accept 3G or 4G wireless cards or network hard drives. Being an "n", it will has greater throughput and more power than your standard linksys. It even has a feature where you can setup a guest network without giving out your master password.

They are about 3 times more than a linksys, but around the same price as a Cradlepoint or Ranger. Google them and look at their features.