LM1200

So first I'm fully off grid out here, the nearest utility is a mile or more down the road and that's just power and a phone line. Everything I have comes through an larger/upgraded antenna whether it be TV, FM, LTE, ham radio. So I know an thing or too about how to get the most out of the signals in the air around you. Pros: Price Wall mountable(86mm hole spacing) Small Easy web interface Easy setup External ant ports if needed Cons: -Uses USB C as a power source. (Needs a wall adapter vice a normal 12volt source like most routers and my booster, ideally I would wire it directly to my campers 12 volt system which remains powered if ACpower to the camper is lost.) -Internal antenna doesn't do well in low signal environments. -you must connect directly to it via Ethernet to view the settings menu on a computer. Can't connect from PC>router>lm1200. Has to be PC>LM1200 It just happened that I was on a hill that can just about get decent service from band 13 LTE on a tower 5km away from me even know the cell tower antenna barely faces my direction. So I got a booster that can boost that band. All good. Great useable speed from my phones hotspot buuuttt I needed a wired connection, I wanted Ethernet for some equipment I have so enter the lm1200 Netgear cell booster. Very cheap at 110 dollars. Picked it up from an Amazon locker in town and walked right into Verizon store without even taking it out of the box. They scanned the IMEI number and confirmed that they could probably set up a SIM card even though he had no idea what I had in my hand and had never done it before. Probably 5 minutes later we were powering up the unit with a new SIM card and it was online 2 minutes later after initializing a connection. I ran home and powered it back up and bam, connected to cell tower(via my booster) and I ran a temp line directly to my PC and it worked perfect. Pings range from 40-100ms for me so you ain't gonna game on this bad boy but anything else not time sensitive will do fine. So in my video you see I run it into a normal wifi router, this allows me to have multiple ethernet ports for multiple things and it allows me to have both a 2.4 and 5.0 Wi-Fi band like a standard household would, which allows visitors without cell service to still connect to something. The same thing that you would do if you went to a friend's house and you didn't have cell phone service. So my first impression is that the internal antenna of the LM 1200 is fairly terrible because I can only get up to around 10 megabytes per second when testing(in my signal environment), I thought about getting a splitter and connecting the TS9 ports on the back of this directly to the same antenna that my cell phone booster uses, but I'm willing to try the $7 whip antennas you can buy for this that just plug right into the back and I'll update this and let you know how much speed I get just by adding those two little whip antennas. If those don't work, they sell a coax type f to ts-9 splitter that I can use to connect this lm1200 directly to my cell phone booster antenna you see in my video. So the data for the nerdy people: -I can get near full bars which means -70db signal on my pixel 6 when located at the same spot as this product and this product gets 70 db(viewed on the web portal) - With my cell booster OFF, I get about -115db on my phone and -115 on this device. -So the cheap Amazon booster works great when set up properly even with stock antennas. That translated to about 20-30 down and 5-10 up on my phone using the boosted LTE. -BUT when doing speed test on my computer when using this product I only get around 6 down and 2-5 up at the time of testing These speeds change with network/tower traffic of course but I think its interesting that the speeds can be so different from 2 devices that are using the same carrier and cell band and have about the same signal strength so I'm going to call my carrier and present this data as i suspect they are messing with my speeds. Other details, 70 bucks added on my bill for this extra "line" and 150gb of data...

My wife works from home 100% now. That means it's MY job to make sure she has100% uptime. Our cable is very reliable, but it does sometimes go out at the most inopportune times so I was looking for a backup to get us through a day or so if we lose wired connectivity. Enter the NETGEAR 4G LTE Broadband Modem (LM1200). Right out of the box it worked with a T-Mobile hotspot SIM that I picked up at my local store. There's no WiFi on the LM1200 which is great, because it's not what I was looking for. If you want an LTE WiFi hotspot, there are a ton of other choices out there for you. Think of the LM1200 more as a cable modem with some very rudimentary routing capabilities (which can be turned off.) We're using Ubiquiti equipment on our network at home so I needed something that would interface with that. The Unifi Dream Machine (UDM, non-pro version) doesn't offer failover capability so the LM1200 fits in perfectly by slipping in between our cable modem and the UDM router's single WAN port. When the cable goes down, the LM1200 kicks into action and seamlessly changes the connection from our cable modem to its built-in LTE modem. When the cable comes back up, it switches back. Exactly what a UDM owner wanting failover is looking for. Having said that, the LM1200 also works well with the Unifi Dream Router 7 (UDR7) that I recently installed. The UDR7 does include failover capability between its two WAN ports and takes care of the switching on its own. In this use case, you would turn off the failover function on the LM1200 and simply attach it as another modem on the UDR7's second WAN port. Of course you still have the option of letting the LM1200 do the failover for you as mentioned above and then switch that second WAN port on the UDR7 to be another LAN port. Your choice. My only gripe with the LM1200 is that it's LTE-only. Don't get me wrong, that's fine. I knew that going in so I'm not going to take away anything from its rating. But this is 2025 and it's about time for NETGEAR to have an upgraded version that has the same capabilities but using 5G. I'm pretty sure NETGEAR knows that which is why the LM1200 is being sold for a reasonably low price. I'm perfectly happy with the LM1200 while I wait for its successor.

Infrastructure engineer here (I work with large-scale computer networks and servers) so I apologize in advance that some of the terminology used may be beyond layman's terms. Firstly, I should state that my "Wifi signal" rating in this review was reflective of the LTE wireless connectivity for this device. It has no other wireless connectivity. I am using the LTE modem with an external dual-interface antenna, and the signal is still terrible when compared to the USB LTE modem this replaced, from the same location, using the same antenna. Secondly, I will state that I am not utilizing or depending on the "LTE fail-over" functionality of this device at all, it is only being used to supply a second internet connection to a second WAN on my firewall which is handling the fail-over itself. I am writing this review after having spoken with Netgear support at length regarding the concerns I will describe below. Needless to say, their first "answer" for my concerns was that "this is a home product, not a business product." To explain why I purchased this product, it was meant to replace my existing, soon to be retired Sprint EVDO Netgear LTE modem that was already connected through USB to my firewall to provide LTE fail-over in case of loss of connection through my primary internet. Yes, with Sprint having been purchased by T-Mobile, it was decided they would retire the Sprint EVDO network in favor of the GSM network. As such, my novel solution (since there appear to be no LTE USB modems for my current carrier) was to purchase the LM1200 and attach it to a data-only SIM on my wireless account. A simple enough solution in theory, or so I thought. But that was before I received, updated, and configured my LM1200. Given that the LM1200 is designed to be placed in front of your router/firewall, I would have expected the LM1200 to have the ability to configure the web GUI to use HTTPS rather than the HTTP that it operates in (you cannot). I also would have expected the ability to disable web GUI access from the LTE and WAN interfaces, you know, to prevent people from logging into the LTE modem management interface from the public internet. I think the chat transcript from my Netgear support sums this up the best: Bradley F: May I ask what is the purpose of enabling https only? Me: To prevent my configurations and credentials from being passed to or from the device in clear/plain text? Bradley F: I see, for home modem they are only with Http and for prevention, you must keep your credentials as secret as possible Bradley F: We do not have business equivalent for a LTE modem Me: Really. What is the solution then for a business who needs an LTE modem to place on a secondary WAN interface of a firewall for fail-over? Bradley F: We only have BR200/BR500 and Orbi Pro NOTE: These are firewalls, and do not list LTE connectivity as options. Me: If I tried to install this product in that way for a business, I would get fired if they understood how insecure it is! Bradley F: but those are already routers Me: Yes, and I need specifically an LTE modem to augment the business-class firewall I already have. Bradley F: Unfortunately we don't have business LTE modems Me: Wow... Bradley F: Sorry about that Let me explain it to you another way. You can login to the LM1200 device using its public IP address assigned to the WAN or LTE interfaces. Because the LM1200 uses HTTP instead of HTTPS, data sent to or from the LM1200 is not encrypted. When you login to the LM1200 from anywhere, the interface is presented entirely in HTTP, meaning your config and password are sent in plain text (clear text), and could potentially be "sniffed" by anyone who is also on the same . I don't think you will be able to see my image names when this review is posted, but there will be only a few. Look for the one that is a list of public IP addresses. That image shows a network scan of the /24 subnet to which my public IP address belonged. Ideally, you should not be able to scan for and find the addresses of other devices on your ISP's network, but in my case, you could. This also means others on the same network can scan/monitor you and possibly capture your credentials when you enter them. "Screen Shot 11-03-21 at 04.47 PM.PNG" I feel, given their choice to make the user interface HTTP, that users should be able to disable or enable the ability to login from any interfaces to prevent such snooping. It is bad enough that Netgear has already saved invaders the trouble of guessing a username (there is none, only a password). As an edge device, the LM1200 should have been released with security in mind, regardless of being a "home" product. I myself have not encountered a network device that offered only HTTP for its configuration interface since the early 2000s. Here we are in 2021 with Netgear's latest offering for an LTE modem, and it appears to have been designed with less security in mind than a Chinese government-issued web chat client. Is it that Netgear doesn't think home users are subject to hackers, script kiddies, and identitiy theft? I assure you, they are, and Netgear should have better security on this from the start. I would also point out that there are some concerning entries in the config file if saved from the LM1200. There is only one account on the device so far as I was able to discern from the web interface. However, even though I changed that one password on my device, there existed still the following line stored in the unencrypted config. Take that as you will: "webd.ownerPassword=1234" As such, until Netgear adds the ability to enable an HTTPS user interface (as they have on mose of their other home/business firewalls and routers) and the ability to limit or disable login access to the LM1200, I cannot in good conscience advise any home or business user to purchase or use this LTE modem as it now exists. Even if a user also intend to place the modem behind another firewall, it would only protect you from would-be hackers for your Ethernet WAN interface (and only while that WAN interface is active). There is no way to protect yourself on the LTE modem public interface!. My device details are listed below, and I will revise this review should Netgear correct these security concerns. Firmware Version: EC25AFFDR07A09M4G App Version: NTG9X07C_20.06.09.00 Web App Version: LM1200-HDATA_03.03.103.201 Hardware Version: 1.0 2021-11-15 Addendum, I had asked the question of the manufacturer, "Will Netgear allow users to prevent login from public ip interface? since the gui is only http, this is a security concern. looking for mfg answer." and received the reply back same day, "Remote access to the modem is off by default, so the admin Gui would not be accessible from the public IP address." I am not entirely sure how to respond to the manufacturer's reply, but I have some screenshots (see attached) from my own modem that would indicate remote management IS possible from the public IP on the LTE interface. I did nothing that I know of to enable this, and if there is an undocumented way to disable it, I would really like to know how.

On the fence 3-4 star review, but wiil give a 4. I have a dual wan router. For years I wanted to add a backup cell link as a second WAN connection. The thing that stopped me was the cost of the cellular modems, 150.00 + + and up, a lot of money to lay out to try something, plus a data plan. So I caught this unit marked down to 29.99. While it is 4G LTE.. that s good enough for me and besides 5G is a joke in many locations as Verizon has not upgraded as fast as they should. So I marched into a Verizon store, set up the plan, put the nano sim card in the unit and bingo cell connectivity. Back home , set the unit up in bridge mode and.....problems, unit would connect and disconnect over and over , unit is also dropping the cell signal over and over... So I spend a good 8 hours trouble shooting, and from what I gather all points to Verizon and the data plan..If the unit is in bridge mode and I configure my router with a made uo 192.168.5.xx and use the default ip address of the LM1200 as the gateway, works solid!! But I am not one to let things go, being an IT guy., I opened a tier 2 support ticket with Verizon. Verizon seems to lock down the number of devices that can connect to the device at one time... If the LM1200 is in router mode, it sees the connect as only "one" with the LM1200. Put it in bridge mode and the unit now connects to your router., at that point Verizon resets the cell connection because it thinks you have more then one device attached, which you would! I am continuing my ticket with Verizon, lucked out, got a very good IT tech from Verizon .... Long story short it works fantastic in router mode, but not so in bridge mode.

This device worked well for my use case. I wanted an Ethernet attached cellular Internet connection to use as a backup for when the primary network went down. Ended up using it as the primary Internet connection for several weeks without issue. The device can act as a router, providing NAT and basic services, or as a bridge to your existing setup. It does have functionality to detect wired broadband being down, via user defined ping health checks, and automatically switching between wired and cellular connectivity. Very basic, very simple device. No battery to worry about, no wifi to configure. Pop a sim in, connect the ethernet and you are good to go. Much more elegant solution than trying to use a typical hotspot.

Seeing a lot of reviews saying this didn't meet expectations and people returning the LM1200, such as not broadcasting Wi-Fi or not working with this and that carrier. I'm about half and half on that, I can see why some would be frustrated but I also feel like this is a product that before you sink money in to you need to do your homework first, and know exactly what you are wanting to do with it. My use case is utilizing the failover feature on my Tp-link ER605 handled by my Omada controller. The LM1200 does have built in failover but I'd rather have my gateway handle that, and my ISP has me set on a public static IP so I wouldn't be able to get an address through DHCP like many consumer Internet lines anyway. For this it works perfectly if my primary fiber WAN goes down - averaging around 25 - 30 seconds, I'm back up with Internet no problem. Once the ER605 is utilizing the LM1200, my LAN equipment (switch, access points) continue on like nothing happened. Phones, computers and servers just plug away. At first I had some issues with using a Verizon SIM pre-pay card in bridge mode, spent half a day trying to figure out why that wasn't working until finding documentation that Verizon does this intentionally with that mode, allowing one endpoint only and killing the connection any time another device is introduced. However on the LM1200, there is a router mode. Turning this on, turning off DHCP and telling my gateway to utilize the next WAN at so-and-so address when fiber dies, everything works as expected. Bridge mode can differ from other carriers, such at a T-Mobile card I tried worked just fine in bridge mode. Sadly, one objective I wanted to accomplish was utilizing Dynamic DNS to my purchased domain name, and having my VPN available from outside to connect in to my network if fiber went down. Indeed VPN works as expected on fiber, but in order to make bridge OR router mode work the LM1200 introduces Double NAT and even though there is a built in port forward, DMZ feature etc. it seems like connecting in is not possible. At least with my Verizon card that is the case. I've heard you can start a business, provide Verizon with a tax ID and pay $500 for a static WAN IP, but I think I'm good on that end. I also tested this with T-Mobile as well specifically in bridge mode, but still could not connect in. You can take a chance if you are a business and are willing to pay for a static IP, but at that point carriers likely have a sales rep that want to sell you their gear and will plug their ears before you can say the word "Netgear". I could go buy the best, most expensive LTE modem and still run in to this issue, so I'll stick with the LM1200. Plugging in a $20 antenna set and setting them near my window, I get full bars on Verizon. This device is 4G sure, but I'm still pulling speeds around 50 - 60 Mbps which is great considering this is a pre-pay SIM and I'm not on some crazy post-pay plan. I intentionally tested failing over during a work Zoom meeting, about a second of people talking sounding "glitchy" and the LTE kicked in just fine, conversation carried on as normal. I could see this being a God send for mobile / remote users. Grab a SIM with the best frequency in your area or cost per GB, get a proper antenna and go to town. In the city I have choices with carriers and Verizon happens to be my best one here, and this gives me peace of mind that in an emergency or my fiber line going out I can continue working from home as needed.

The important update: Yes, I have connected to Verizon 4G LTE service with this device. It works on Verizon, with a Verizon SIM card (nano size). A few quick notes, then the longer saga is below: 1) You will want the IMEI (device ID) from the box the router comes in (on a sticker with the serial number etc.). 2) Verizon would not let me use a SIM card that was already activated for another hotspot. I had to get a new SIM card from Verizon to make this work. 3) After ordering the SIM card from Verizon, I then had to contact Verizon to activate the SIM card. I needed the SIM card number (ID, or ICC ID) and the IMEI from the router. 4) Once the SIM card was properly activated, the router connected to Verizon 4G LTE with default settings, no username or password, no changes to APN or other settings. I did restart the LTE connection through the router interface; turning the router off and on again should work fine too (in order to make it retry a connection that had failed on its first try, before Verizon activated the card). 5) Until the SIM card worked, it was hard to connect to the router using the Nighthawk app or a wired connection if there was any SIM card in the router. You're better off connecting with no SIM card in the router until you have activated the SIM card you're going to use. My whole goal with this router is to have a router that automatically switches to a 4G LTE Internet connection as a backup when my main Internet connection fails. Other than that, it's just another router. The 4G LTE connection is what differentiates this router. And it works, and the setup is actually very simple. I would say 2/3 of the problem was on Verizon's side, not letting me use a Verizon SIM card I already had. I understand why Verizon does this. Easily 1/3 of the difficulty was that Netgear did not give simple instructions for how to connect to Verizon using a Verizon SIM card. Their device will do it, perfectly fine. If they had included a card with instructions, I would have saved literally hours of experimenting to figure out where the problem was. Once I set up the Verizon card right, the router just worked. More hints and tips can be found in the story below. First impression: In 5 places in the description, Amazon clearly said this was Verizon compatible, licensed with Verizon, Verizon tested, etc. But when I opened the box, a sticker on the shrink wrap clearly said this was not compatible with Verizon. (Another online store says it's not compatible with Verizon. Netgear's site says it is not compatible with Verizon, but they're working on it.) This is important for anyone considering the product. No matter what the description says, think twice if you plan to use it on Verizon. Further notes: This uses a Nano SIM card, not the next size up. The old Netgear product that I'm hoping this will replace (also on Verizon, also not officially authorized, but it works fine) used a larger SIM card. I got a SIM card trimmer from Amazon and fixed that. Most SIM cards you buy new these days will come in multiple sizes, so less of an issue. I will update the review more as I determine real-world compatibility. UPDATE 1: The Quick Start guide inside the box, face up lying on top of the router itself, gives three steps to setup: 1) Download Nighthawk app (iOS or Android), 2) Install the app (which will ask you to sign up for a Netgear account), 3) Use the app to set up the router. Here's the hitch: When you run the app, and it connects to the router, it tells you that the app does not support this router model. End of setup. Nothing further is allowed. This is a Nighthawk router, branded as such on the box. Netgear's Web page that lists router models compatible with the Nighthawk app does not list this model (LAX20) as of April 18 2021. I suspect the app will be updated, and then things will work. But this is unfortunate with a new product. The router seems cleanly designed and appears to have a lot of thought put into it. But the marketers at Netgear should not have claimed it was compatible with Verizon if it wasn't, and they should not have included that card in the box if the app hadn't been updated yet to recognize this new router model. Moving along: On the Netgear site, you can download a User Manual for the router. This offers two or three other ways to link to the router and set it up, similar to the setup routine for every other router I have ever set up. So far, it looks like no big deal. UPDATE 2: Plugged in router to wired network, and connected to it using Ethernet rather than wi-fi. Still a problem: If you put in a SIM that doesn't work, the router gets hung up on that step of setup and won't let you go to the rest of setup. So I took out the SIM I had put in, and I was able to set up the router using the instructions from the manual I downloaded from Netgear's site. A couple of things were a little flaky or confused at first, but it sorted itself out. Router works fine, as a router (wired: I haven't experimented with wi-fi yet). The router will not connect to Verizon so far, but let's be fair: Verizon may be (probably is, according to Verizon) blocking the SIM from connecting when it's plugged into a new device. This is to protect Verizon customers. Verizon is able to check to make sure the SIM is authorized (it is, and it works in its original device), but it also can check whether the IMEI (the ID number) of the new router is the one that's authorized for this account (it's not). So I have ordered a new SIM card from Verizon and activated this IMEI as a new line. I will update this further when that arrives. But: Amazon says this router is Verizon compatible. The sticker on the shrink wrap says it's not. When I go to Verizon's site and give Verizon the IMEI (on the outside of the box), Verizon says that this device will work with Verizon, and it recognizes it as the correct model number of router. So Verizon so far agrees with the Amazon marketing, not the sticker on the shrink wrap. Possibly some settings will need to be adjusted too. Can't tell till the new SIM card gets here. UPDATE 3: New SIM card arrived. Popped it in. Restarted router. No joy. Phoned Netgear. Spoke to 3 separate operators in a 75-minute phone call. None of them really seemed to understand the issue. The one who was most savvy talked fast and didn't listen much. He at least understood how networks function. The others were reading scripts. In the end, after restarting, resetting, reconnecting, when Verizon still was not connected, he said, "So there are no issues remaining, right?" or words to that effect. I'll call Verizon in the morning to make sure the SIM card is correctly activated. UPDATE 4: (see notes above. Yes, Verizon activated the SIM card correctly, and the router started working.) Now that I have set it up, I'll update this review again and add some stars, depending on how it runs in regular use. There have been some serious issues with the way the product is presented, but if it runs, it runs. By connecting to Verizon 4G LTE, it has started doing what I bought it for and what it was advertised to do. For the record, I've had other Netgear products, and I've been happy with them. (I'm using one to post this review.) I have nothing against the company. (I also have nothing against Amazon. I hate to say how many thousands of dollars a year I spend on Amazon.) So I have no axe to grind here about Netgear as a company. I'm just trying to provide useful information for anyone considering this product, or anyone who has it and is trying to make it work.

I am not tech savvy. Here is my experience. We live rural and have few options for internet. FirstNet/ATT works well at our house. For 3 years we used a tablet as a hotspot for household internet. It was much faster than Hughes net and cheaper. However average download speeds were around 3-4 mbps, the signal quality was 90-110 dbs, and the connection was unreliable requiring moving the tablet or rebooting it daily. I tried a cheap router first but got scared off by the Chinese apps. Then tried this router. It did not work with my Sim card. I went to FirstNet and they said to call tech support for FirstNet. I stayed in the store and called them. They eventually created a new Sim card that was internet only and not whatever was in my tablet. The router worked. Being in the store worked well as they were on speaker with the staff there and could iron out technical issues beyond my skill. Its been about a month. Download speeds are 15-80 mbps. Signal strength is about -45 dbs. Reliability is much better and only requiring resetting about once a week. I have added wifi antennas. Not sure if they helped. This did not change my plan and I remain out of contract for the same price as before. Very pleased.