Cradlepoint CTR350: share EVDO on your home LAN

If you are looking for an easy way to share your EVDO/3G connection with other computers on your home LAN, this may be an option: The Cradlepoint CTR350 travel router. This unit is primarily intended to share an EVDO or ADSL connection wirelessly through its built-in WiFi, complete with secure WPA2 if needed.

WiFi and ethernet

It features an on-board ethernet port that can be used in various ways. You can connect your EVDO USB modem to the CTR350 and share that over the built-in WiFi with WiFi enabled devices. You can also share the EVDO connection with a LAN using the built-in ethernet port. Both can be used simultaneously.

It is also possible to connect an ADSL broadband modem to the built-in ethernet port and share that over the built-in WiFi.

You do not need an external router but since the CTR350 only has a single ethernet port, you can then only use a single wired connection to, say, a desktop, while other devices, such as handhelds, laptops, etc can then connect via WiFi. If you want to share the EVDO signal with several wired computers, you need an external switch or router.

The range of the CTR350's WiFi signal is comparable with other 802.11g routers, approximately 300ft maximum.

The CTR350 supports WPA2.

Easy configuration

Depending on your desired configuration, the CTR350 may not require much work. Out of the box, this unit has the address 192.168.0.1 so you can connect to this over WiFi or ethernet. There is an easy wizard that steps you through the most important options such as the config password, WiFi security, etc. (I can only hope that people are smart enough to use at least WPA2 nowadays.) Apart from the wizard, there are many options left to tweak.

Once done, you can connect your supported EVDO modem to the CTR350's USB port, and the ethernet jack to the WAN port on your home router. Your WAN port then gets the address issued by the CTR350's DHCP.

In my case, I already used the WiFi of my D-Link DI-624 router to connect to the home LAN. Connecting the CTR350 to the WAN port required no change whatsoever to the LAN. The only configuration changes I made to the CTR350 were the login password, and the WiFi security. I could have disabled WiFi but it is handy in case I want to review or change the configuration.

Here is my messy temporary setup:

How I use it: my Sierra Wireless 595U
EVDO USB modem (left) connected to
the CTR350, and connected to the
D-Link WAN port.

Check out the support page to check whether your modem is supported. The Cradlepoint CTR500 router accepts both Express Card and USB modems.

See:
Cradlepoint
CTR350 (Cradlepoint)

Edit February 21, 2009: updated links