CTR-350 Review

The first thing that jumps out at you when you take this router out of the box is how tiny this thing is! About 1/6 the size of the KR1 or LinkSys routers!

Set-up is about as simple as any plug and play device, maybe simpler. The graphic set-up program is quick, easy, and simple to follow. We were able to connect to a U720 and a U595 in well under 2 minutes. We used both a Dell and an HP laptop, and both recognized and configured to the router with either card easily. Machines with Vista take a minute to find the wireless network settings, but once connected set-up is smooth as well.

Connecting to a tethered Blackberry 8830 took a little longer, but likely only because our test team was not very familiar with the Blackberry.

The indicator lights on the CTR-350 are bright, simple, and informative. Power, WLAN (WiFi), WAN (Ethernet), and USB. The WAN indicates when an active ethernet cable is plugged into the RJ45 jack. The USB indicator lights when a working USB device is connected. Very useful for diagnosing a non-working USB modem.

Once connected, we ran a few speedtests and got slightly faster throughput through the CTR-350 than we had when connected directly to the laptop. Just to make sure we reconnected to the laptop multiple times and throughput dropped, go figger! We are not talking night and day difference here, but consistently about 10%. Perhaps that "WiPipe" technology is more than just hype afterall.

We have tested the CTR-350 with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon versions of USB modems with equal ease.

One really comforting thing about the CTR-350 (and indeed all Cradlepoint's) is that it is somewhat secured from the moment you power up, even in default mode it requires a six character hexidecimal password. Most other USB routers we have tested start up wide open with no security.

We were very surprised to find the range of the CTR350 to be comparable to the KR1 or LinkSys routers we have tested, despite the lack of an external antenna! The bad news we suppose is that there is no way to extend or add an external antenna in those special applications where it may be necessary.

Our overall impression of this device is very positive.

The quality seems very high given the volume of these units we have sold, and the lack of failures (knock on wood).

The fact that it fits easily in your shirt pocket, and well within most folks budget makes it that much more endearing.

KMH

* As of February 29, 2008 ALL CTR-350's are shipped with the most recent firmware installed at no charge!