Customer Reviews

CradlePoint PHS300 Personal Hotspot - Wireless access point - 802.11b/g (Version 2.0/2.5.3)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I've done quite a bit of research before I purchased this item. I was well aware of its strength and shortcoming so when I managed to put it to work, nothing surprised me.

The unit is built in hard plastic, pretty sturdy, but I would be careful of not dropping it as a breathable pouch may not be a bad idea. The battery is made in Japan, whereas the unit itself is made in Taiwan. The initial setup is easy. If you're technically challenged, you can go with the default setup which should get you up and running in a few minutes. If you acclaim yourself as a techie, play around the setup menu and you can tap into a lot more features. By default, go to: http://192.168.0.1 from your browser after connecting to the device, it opens up a wealth of menus that you can customize to your own liking

During the setup, I would suggestion doing the followings:

1. Firmware upgrade, the process is easy, but you need to have a working wifi USB to grab the firmware.
2. WPA2 personal is a good security protocol to use, but it does slow down the connection a little bit, but not significant
3. I probably should have put this as item 1 but no big deal. Change the setup password for your protection.

If you screw up the configuration, no worries, just like most of the home routers, you can use a needle to poke a reset button, which is inside the unit, next to the battery compartment, and everything will be reset.

That's about it for the setup part, now let's talk about the design.

Good: relatively compact, light weight, and not too hot after hours of usage. It won't burn your hand or breast if you put it in your shirt pocket. The LED status lights give you good idea of the unit's operation state. Believe it or not, it's pretty useful. The charger is pretty small, takes about 3 hours to charge it full from empty, which is not too bad. Cradle Point claims it should last about three hours, and I found it to be reasonably true, if I only connect one device to it. If you connect more, it will shorten the battery life. The cost of the replacement (or spare) battery is less than $50, which is a bit pricey to me. But I will talk about usage tips later. Wireless broadcast range is quite good, but of course you can't compare it with your home wireless router. Yet, I have never had any trouble connecting with maximum signal with a size of my office, which is about 300 square feet. After all, this is mainly for travel companionship, and you shouldn't be too far away from the unit anyway.

Bad: The thing I hate the most, is the way that you have to plug in your USB device, which is on the side of the unit, right next to the charge port. When plugged in, it sticks out from the unit and it's easy to break in my opinion. If you put it in your jacket or shirt pocket, and if you're not carefully enough, you might bend the USB and destroy the USB port. If CradlePoint is reading this, maybe they should re-design the housing, to have some room side, fitting a wireless USB drive in there. This would protect the drive from accidental damage.

User experience: My goodness, I love this thing. I bought my iPad the first day it came out, and I received this unit the night before I got my iPad. Let me tell you, it makes the iPad so much more fun to use. I can use it anywhere I like. Since it fits any brand of wireless USB, I'm not at the mercy of AT&T's crappy data service. I'm using it with my Verizon 760 wireless modem, and it works like a champ! Since this unit can take on 16 continuous connection, I can use it along with my netbook, or my wife can use it with her iPod touch concurrently. No problem at all!

Tips: If you intend to use the unit for an extended period of time, and you can plug it to a wall jack for powering it up, I would take out the battery, so you won't have to charge the battery continuously. CradlePoint claims that the battery won't have any memory effect, which I seriously doubt, but taking out the battery from the unit takes less than 5 seconds, so why not?

Hope you like my review, and if you do, please rate. Thank you for reading.

Super simple to hook up. When I had put the battery in it had some power, i connected it to my Verizon Blackberry 8830 World Phone and in a few seconds it was working. You just need to enter the password (last 6 digits of the MAC address) to connect to the PHS-300. The MAC address was printed on the outside of the case and inside by the battery.


I am using this with my MacBook Pro and an iPod touch and they both hooked up in seconds. MUCH easier than messing with BootCamp or Paralles and Verizon Access Manager.

I also purchased the PHS300 with hopes it would work with Sprint 4G and WiMax, only to find I was shipped HW version 1.1. Because the HW version 2.0 or later is required for my 4G device to work I had to return it. I had no trouble returning it, but it was a disappointment having to.

Stores and sites only show they have PHS300 and have no easy way to ensure your they are selling you version 2 hardware. If Cradlepoint would have named the new hardware something else like PHS302 then retailers would know what they are selling and buyers knew what they were getting. Retailers will only confirm they have the PHS300 which is not enough info to make an informed purchase. All that being said, I am still excited about this device when I can find a good price on the version 2 hardware. At that point I will write another review.

This is a great device! I've purchased both the CTR350 and this device to create mobile hotspots using my Sprint U595 devices. It was dead simple to set up (literally charged it up, plugged my device into it and it worked). After playing around a little bit, I decided to use its web interface to set up security - and discovered a very nice, very complete router/firewall implementation. Cool!

For anyone wondering if T-Mobile UMA works over this thing - it does! I've tested both the CTR350 and the PHS300 and they both work nicely with my Blackberry 8820.

I like to work anywhere. With the PHS 300 I just whip it out of my pocket and my office wireless is up. Everything works. No cables. I have it on in my briefcase, SUV, fifth wheel, Hawaii, wherever. It fits in your laptop case pocket, briefcase, pants pocket, purse. I just whip it out and insert my verizon usb 727 modem. I'm in my own hotspot. I can share it with my friends for free. We can all go online and power shop, etc. find the right products real fast with separate laptops. It's faster than the modem direct. Also, I don't have to bring up that annoying Verizon access manager prograam to connect. I don't have to have the verizon access manager program monitoring my websites and logging everything I do, like it does. I find I much prefer to use the Verizon modem through the PHS300 router, even if I'm simply using one lap top. It's done. I don't have to think about what laptop I might want to use later. If I'm in the middle of downloading, or have a screen up that I want to show someone or take home, I know my PHS 300 router will be just fine staying up while I drive and I can resume where I left off when I arrive at my destination. I can also turn off the router's wireless with its switch. I called support once. They were great. American. Patient with me. My first one got hot. They took it right back and sent me another one, right away, with software updated for US and Europe, and a sincere apology. I will buy their next product, also, so I can leave them in different vehicles.

My Cradlepoint PHS300 has led to peace and tranquility at home (well, almost.) I can't get DSL or cable based or radio broadband at my home. My USB aircard and 3G were the alternative to dial-up. The next problem was everybody wanted to fight over who got access to the aircard. It was darn near the end of the world if my college daughter living at home locked the air card in her room after wee hour sessions. The PHS300 is functioning wonderfully to share that one 3G connection. It is used everyday, most hours of the day, works all throughout the house, upstairs and downstairs. We have had no problem and I recommend it to everybody. I chose the battery over the alternate ethernet access as I figured with snow and ice season coming my daughter can do college work even if the power is out. I can't wait to take it on vacation at Christmas.

Bought a PHS300 and that worked with my old U727 3G Sprint USB stick and it worked like a charm. Then I upgraded to a Franklin U301 4G USB stick which wouldn't work with my old 1.0 version of the hardware Slightly miffed but technology marches on so I bought a brand new one from Electronica Direct here on Amazon.

The 2.0 hardware has been out for a while so I came here not expecting them to send me the older 1.x version which is what they did. If you buy this beware that you might be getting older hardware that _won't_ work with 4G cards at all. You'll have to send it back. Thankfully Amazon is amazingly cool and groovy about this and send me a return label within a matter of minutes.

It's not the end of the world but having to faff about sending this back and getting a new, more expensive one directly from Cradlepoint is tedious.

Note that if you do own the older hardware Cradlepoint will give you a [...] credit towards a new one. You can get that by asking them for a rebate form either though email or the live chat on their Web site. Also note you have to physically send them the old hardware back. Better than nothing.

If Cradlepoint had called the 2.0 version of the hardware the PHS301 or something to differentiate it you wouldn't be reading this! Not very cool really.

tl;dr: Beware of being shipped older 1.x hardware as it won't work with newest 4G USB sticks.

Very useful little product. I connect with my Apple iPod Touch and Apple MacBook without fiddling with anything.

Very easy to setup and use. The CradlePoint customer support is excellent. Fast response and American. The documentation for using the unit is good too.

I use it with my Verizon Wireless Broadband account and my UTStarcom UM175VW ( Verizon ) USB broadband modem. It does work with many other USB broadband modems and phones. See the list they have on the CradlePoint Website

Creates a WiFi access point anywhere your mobile broadband works.

I also bought the car power adapter and travel case. I can create a WiFi access point in the car, RV, or boat. Works really nice !

My only wish is that they make it better looking to complement my Apple products. It is just a plain, rectangular, black box. Way too drab and boring for how cool a device it is. Come on guys, let's see some style.

Highly recommended for its usefulness, ease of setup and design.

This is awesome!!! I can now share my Verizon USB727 broadband modem with all of my computers.

Works perfect, easy to set up, very portable.

I use it for a mobile hotspot. My wife keeps it in her purse. When She or I need to look something up while out and about, we just turn it on, then use our iPod Touch to broswe the web.

Comes in so handy when price comparing, etc.

I plan on buying the larger Cradlepoint MBR-1000 to keep in my cabin. Then I can just plug the USB modem into it, and have a much larger hotspot for those great weekends in the woods.

i ordered the cradlepoint phs300 and received a phs300cw instead. the vendor is adorama. as far as i can tell, the only difference between these models is the clearwire branding. it works with my activated verizon prepaid usb modem with no extra configuration.

i had to do a factory reset after upgrading the firmware. to do this, remove the battery, switch the unit on with it unplugged, poke a paperclip into the microscopic hole across from the battery connectors, and then plug it in without releasing the tiny reset button until the lights blink twice.

it's possible to use this to create a local network that isn't connected to the internet. you have to disable dns forwarding to get this to work. if you don't do this, ipod touch users will get an error page saying no usb modem is connected and never get past the login page. it's not what most people will use this for, so i'm not taking off any stars for this being a little counterintuitive. i'm just happy it is possible.

this device is very configurable. i took off one star because there is no way to remove all the clearwire branding from the configuration pages. i also don't know if the clearwire version works with a sprint 4g modem. the generic version has alternate firmware for both options, but when i tried installing the generic cradlepoint firmware on this device, it wouldn't let me.

it's also not clearly documented on the order page that this device only allows 8 devices to be connected simultaneously. i'm not sure if this is just a limitation of the clearwire version or if this is true for all versions.

there are several vendors selling this through amazon, i'm not sure how to know which version you will get. i'd recommend contacting the vendor before placing an order. i'm guessing the lower prices from some vendors might be for clearwire or sprint versions of this device.

one more very nice feature: this device comes preconfigured with a unique access point name and password, making it reasonably secure out of the box. the accesspoint name is "clear spot" + last three digits of the mac address, and the password is the last six digits of the mac address. so it's not completely secure, but it's better than "linksys/admin" or "root/alpine".