While EV-DO on CAT’s CDMA network is a great way to connect your PC or laptop to the Internet, it’s not as easy to share the connection between multiple computers on your home network.

When you sign up for ADSL, all the providers in Phuket will give you a free ADSL router. You can plug that into the network switch that connects your PCs via network cables, or into a wireless access point that works with the Wi-Fi in your laptops. Network switches and access points can be found cheaply in any computer store.

But that doesn’t work with the CCU-680 USB modem. It needs a USB port, and software drivers to make it work. The software part is the reason why you can’t just plug the CCU-680 into any broadband router with a USB port. While many routers for home networks have USB ports, these are usually only for sharing a printer, and sometimes for sharing a USB hard drive. Few routers support 3G wireless internet.

Two 3G wireless internet routers that receive good reviews, and that support the C-motech CCU-680 sold by CAT (typically listed as the Franklin CDU-680, which is the US version) are the Cradlepoint MBR1000 and the Kyocera KR2. Their features and prices are very similar.

I don’t know if either of these are (readily) available in Thailand. You certainly won’t find them in an average PC store. I didn’t want to waste a lot of time trying to find either router. I ordered the MBR1000 from cellguru’s eBay store. They ship to Thailand if you ask. Shipping takes about two weeks and costs $40.

Update Dec 2008: thailandcdma.com now sells the MBR1000 and various other 3G routers from Cradlepoint and Kyocera. Quite a bit more expensive than what I paid on eBay though, shipping included.

Setting up the router is easy. Simply follow the instructions on the step-by-step poster included in the box. To connect to CAT’s network, plug in the CCU-680 in one of the Cradlepoint’s USB ports. Surf to http://192.168.0.1 to log into the router. Click on Basic at the top, and then WAN at the left. In the “Cellular Modem PPP Authentication” section, set the username to evdo@catevdo.com, type in the password to catevdo twice, and click Save Settings at the top. You can then click on Status at the top, and then Modem Info at the left, to see if the connection can be established.

The MBR1000 is easily the best router I’ve ever owned. On the Internet side, it has a WAN ethernet port (e.g. for an ADSL modem) as well as two USB ports, and one ExpressCard slot, allowing for up to three 3G devices. You can plug in all four, but only one connection can be active at a time. The Cradlepoint supports automatic failover, but not load balancing. This means if you have both ADSL and EV-DO, you can plug both into the router. Click on Advanced at the top and then Failover at the left to select which connection you want to use. If the connection fails, the router automatically switches to the other one.

Incidentally, if you click Help and then Advanced, the help section describing the failover functionality does mention a “WAN Interface Load Balance” option, which does not exist in the actual failover settings. I don’t know if this means Cradlepoint is working on such a feature for a future firmware update, or if the feature was scrapped. Load balancing would mean that multiple Internet connections can be used at the same time.

On the local side, the router has the usual 4 LAN ethernet ports, and three Wi-Fi antennas supporting wireless B, G and N. There’s a complete range of port forwarding, filtering, routing and firewall options.

If you don’t want to buy a router, you should be able to use the Internet Connection Sharing feature that is built into Windows. That does require the computer into which you plugged the CCU-680 to be turned on whenever you want to use the internet on another computer. Though ICS is usually easy to set up via the Windows network setup wizard, I couldn’t get it to work with the CCU-680, even though I did have it working with a dial-up connection and a Sierra 881U just before that. Reader Matt F comments that he did get it to work with the CCU-650, the predecessor of the CCU-680.

Since I depend on the Internet for my business, the Cradlepoint is a very worthwhile investment. I don’t need to dedicate a computer to provide internet access, and the built-in wireless replaces an old wireless access point to boot. Though at around US$220 it’s not cheap, it’s a good investment if you can’t get ADSL, and you want internet throughout your office or house.