New Peplink gear

[wkearney99]

I've bought a Peplink MBR Pro 5G for the boat and am delighted to report it's worked quite well, right out of the box.

Not the cheapest solution, but over the years I've learned "buy once, cry once".

For now I've got it using the 'paddle' style antennas that come with it. It supports using external antennas. Understanding that you need separate antennas for cellular and wifi. My limited initial testing around the Chesapeake has gotten excellent signal and throughput using just the paddles. It's not even installed up where it'd probably get better signals. Right now it's just sitting on a flat area ahead of the lower helm station.

It has one 5G-capable cellular radio and can accept 2 phone SIM cards. It's able to switch between the SIMs. There's a variety of options on how it'll switch but right now I've got it set to use a T-Mobile SIM for up to 100GB of bandwidth per month and then switch over to a Verizon SIM. With some added testing I'll decide if I want to keep the T-Mobile plan (which was cheaper/faster than the VZW plan was when I got it).

I already had a reliably working WiFi setup onboard using Ubiquiti access points, so I've kept that. The MBR can do this but I've learned to break things one step at a time, and will revisit on-board Wifi through it once I get the MBR installed in the flybridge. WiFi signal penetration on the boat was rather iffy with most gear before I went with the Ubiquiti devices.

I have the MBR configured to use on-shore WiFi as a WAN source, in addition to cellular. This to allow using marina WiFi when available instead of using cellular for everything. I have not delved too deeply into what it takes to toggle WAN wifi/cellular but there are a number of setup options to handle it automatically.

I have Peplink's FusionHub software running on a virtual machine back at the home office. This lets me have a virtual private network running between the boat/office. Which is handy for getting access to everything regardless of location. It was surprisingly painless to get it set up. Granted, I have decades of networking experience, so it's probably a little more difficult than most might want to tackle. But it was a lot less trouble than I expected (and having done multi-site IPsec VPNs... I know how troublesome this sort of thing can be).

There are ways to configure it to force certain kinds of traffic over certain links but I haven't wandered into that territory yet. For things like two-way video conferencing it's usually 'better' to use as direct a connection as possible, not through various VPN tunnels or encryption. It wouldn't make sense to have a zoom session on a laptop run out through an encrypted VPN back to the home office. Nor would it make sense to have the wife's work laptop have it's traffic double-encrypted by their VPN client and then again by the Peplink. I'd likely have them set up to use the MBR's active WAN and not use any VPN at all.

Do I "need" this? No, of course not. But I wanted reliable connectivity that didn't require me to put on my network admin hat every time someone onboard wants to watch a movie via streaming services. I've 'made it work' with a hodge-podge of other solutions in the past. But this has made it a LOT less trouble. Money well spent, thus far.

 

[FWT]

Thanks for this. I've been pondering that exact model. Perfect timing

 

[mvweebles]

I have the same setup and went with a Peplink 42G antenna that combines 5g and wifi into one relatively low antenna. Guessing it's better than the included antennae but not as good as the much larger (and significantly more expensive) upright antenna.

Peter

 

[Helmsman]

I have the same setup. We have the flat panel Starlink, and use the pro 5G instead of the Starlink router. We also use marina WiFi when available, and the home wifi when at home port. I like having everything on board on the Peplink lan, and being able to use alternative sources for the wan without dealing with changing the Victron, Vesper, CP’s, etc. we also have the 42 G set up under the flybridge helm station in a cabinet and it works well there.I don’t have a cellular connection set up, but a friend has the same setup sans the Starlink, and uses a T Mobile business sim for $50 a month on the Chesapeake and it works very well for him.

 

[wkearney99]

I have the same setup. We have the flat panel Starlink, and use the pro 5G instead of the Starlink router. We also use marina WiFi when available, and the home wifi when at home port. I like having everything on board on the Peplink lan, and being able to use alternative sources for the wan without dealing with changing the Victron, Vesper, CP’s, etc. we also have the 42 G set up under the flybridge helm station in a cabinet and it works well there.I don’t have a cellular connection set up, but a friend has the same setup sans the Starlink, and uses a T Mobile business sim for $50 a month on the Chesapeake and it works very well for him.

Your point about not having to change any of the other WiFi devices is spot-on.

For those wondering, the main advantage of the Pro models is the faster throughput for VPN traffic. It'll support a faster stream than the less expensive models. Which may or may not matter to some.

If you don't need 5G they just reduced pricing on the non-5G Pro unit to $699. https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/peplink-lowers-price-of-max-br1-pro-cat-20-by-150-to-699/ Same router, with a LTE/4G capable radio. 5G requires pretty close towers and good antennas for full speed, so those in areas unlikely to have good 5G may save a few bucks going with it.

 

[rslifkin]

In my mind, the few bucks you save on a non-5G unit isn't worth it at this point. Having the newer radio with potentially better band support, support for newer standards, etc. generally means you'll get a longer life before you have a need to upgrade the hardware.

 

[wkearney99]

In my mind, the few bucks you save on a non-5G unit isn't worth it at this point. Having the newer radio with potentially better band support, support for newer standards, etc. generally means you'll get a longer life before you have a need to upgrade the hardware.

Agreed. There is the question of the next generation of cellular radio hardware. But there's always a 'next generation' of something coming down the road. I would have bought this unit last year but the supply chain issues and their effects on pricing made me willing to hold off. It dropped from $1499 to $999 (back to where it was) so I went for it.

In theory most of these units could be 'upgraded' since the cellular radio is usually mounted on a mini-pcie card and could be swapped out. But doing so would require the software on the unit likewise be upgraded to handle the change, and most vendors aren't typically interested on doing that. They'd rather selling a whole new unit instead of the less profitable radio-only upgrade. Not an unreasonable position, as calculating the costs of supporting field upgrades involves more than just the price of the radio itself.

 

[Duffy 35]

Nice Setup and thanks for the info. I am looking at the same approach. How has the Peplink Customer support been? Or maybe you have not needed to use it? Last question did you look at the Cradelpoint R1900? Looks nice too although there maybe a recurring softare license needed there?

 

[wkearney99]

Nice Setup and thanks for the info. I am looking at the same approach. How has the Peplink Customer support been? Or maybe you have not needed to use it? Last question did you look at the Cradelpoint R1900? Looks nice too although there maybe a recurring softare license needed there?

I haven't asked customer service much but the few times I have they've been prompt with replies. The device comes with licenses for fancier features but I have not needed to use the features those would provide. I am running their VPN hub back at the home office and have a VPN link from it to the boat. Their remote web interface has been great to use.

I did not consider the R1900 as it was even more expensive, that and all I'll say is experience with their support in the past was less than stellar.