Peplink MAX BR1 Mini LTE (CAT-4) | Home Businesses and Outdoor Activities 4G LTE Router | Reliable Hotspot | Redundant SIM Slot | Embedded LTE Modem | MAX-BR1-MINI-LTE-E-T-PRM

I was hesitant to purchase at first because I saw a few negative reviews. After purchasing and setting up, I was very pleased. I highly recommend immediately updating the firmware after opening the box. Also, the software gives you the option to set the particular LTE channel you want to use (see cellmapper.net for reference). I had a few problems until I updated the firmware.The device is very reliable, and the cloud software it easy to work with. It gives you plenty of options for managing multiple clients/devices, locations, etc. Reporting and alerts is great, too. The speed of the device is not as fast as I expected, however, I noticed it varies greatly depending on the tower strength/location. If you have not chosen a cell data provider, look first at cellmapper.net for AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, to see which tower is closest to the area you will be placing the device.At one location, T-Mobile was the fastest for that location, however, for another location, Verizon was the best. T-Mobile offers connectivity on business accounts as low as $25/mo. If you need a static IP address OR you need to set up port forwarding, you MUST request that connectivity with the carrier. For T-Mobile, to port forward you must request a static IP which is an additional $5/mo.I was able to get 10 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up for most locations using T-Mobile. It is not as fast as I expected, however, I set up a camera to stream live and there were no issues whatsoever. I tweaked the camera bitrate for the best result.When testing with Verizon, I was able to get 20 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up. As mentioned, the speed depends on the carrier and the location. Check cell towers in the area for the device. The devices I installed were NOT in a major city, so given this fact I think the speed was satisfactory.The software is very advanced and allows set up and configuration of NAT, VPN, wifi, failover networking, alerts, and much more. Overall I am extremely satisfied with everything. I wish the speed could be a little faster, however, the reliability and functionality is the most important. I have found with other modems that they will freeze or stop working, whereas this works day and night 24/7.

Update: Even though I was initially impressed with the robust feature this unit offered, including upgrading the software for an extra $100. Unit ended up being junk. Support is absolutely useless and response times go on for days. This unit may look and offer similar features as a Cradle Point it is no Cradle Point. It's only a good value if it actually works like it's supposed to. It's that simple. Avoid this company you've been warned.I wanted to try another option for getting internet while Rv'ing around the country. I've been using a Winegard product for 2 years now. It was just slow and unreliable. I ordered this product from 5G and they had it shipped and delivered the next day. Unpackaging went well and product was relatively easy to setup and configure. Now don't get me wrong I'm a former IT manger that deployed similar devices to our fleet. I had a real problem getting it to connect to cellular provider. Sent a help ticket directly to Peplink. They instantly redirected me to 5G for support. It didn’t sit well with me but 5G and more specifically Roger stepped up and worked with me to get the issues resolved. I give 5G a solid 5 stars for excellent customer service and fantastic shipping times. Well done I will definitely recommend this company in the future.After my experience with Peplink Tech support they really listened and understood my frustration. Hopefully going forward they do a better job and take ownership.What I like about the product compared to a Cradlepoint IBR 900 and the Winegard Connect T. Both of which I have years experience using.Pros1) Cost of this device verse the Cradlepoint is significantly less.2) Small footprint (almost identical to Cradlepoint and much smaller than Winegard)3) Excellent cellular throughput. ( Winegard is horrible and unreliable.) Cons1) Support needs to make some changes2) It's currently shipped with WIFI for WAP disabled and locked. (Feature cost an extra $100) This was a huge problem during setup since I couldn't get the cell service to connect at the time. Had this feature been available it would have made troubleshooting much easier.3) Website is not all that user friendly and finding what I was looking for proved taxing.Overall I've been running and testing this product for a few days now. Impressed by the performance as it's a significant improvement over the Winegard. By adding the $100 license add-on it gives you a couple features that can be helpful but not a requirement. Hope this helps and I will try and make it back with some updates. Today I'm testing out what advantage the external antennae will have. Hard to test where we are now given excellent cell signal already. I will revisit my opinion of their tech support and raise the grade as I see improvement.

Great LTE router. I was able to reach 90mbps down and 20mbps upload. We use at our river lot which has almost zero data service but with two Bolton 28dbi 10 mile antennas connected to this device we are able to get up 30mbps down and 6mbps upload.The diversity just stabilizes the connection for us. Does not seem to help with increasing the speed but it does stabilize the speed. With just one antenna connected my download and upload speed test vary widely. Sometimes it only gets 1mbps down and .90mbps up. But with the second antenna connected it stays consistently over 20mbps down and over 4mbps up.I have other Peplink devices with easier MAC address filters. This one requires you to create rule for each MAC address you want to allow on the network and then I had to create another rule denying all other MAC addresses.

So the pepwave line is awesome , nothing bad to say but on this model make sure you read the fine print. It requires a 100 dollar software licence to use the WiFi repeater functions ... So no WLAN with dropping the extra cash....

Easy to configure. It basically autoconfgures itself. These are hard to find given the current chip crisis. Used it with AT&T who is not the best service provider.