NETGEAR 4G LTE Broadband Modem (LM1200) – Use LTE as a Primary Internet Connection or Failover Solution for Always-On WiFi Certified with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon

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.

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.

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 possibleBradley F: We do not have business equivalent for a LTE modemMe: 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 routersMe: 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 modemsMe: Wow...Bradley F: Sorry about thatLet 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: EC25AFFDR07A09M4GApp Version: NTG9X07C_20.06.09.00Web App Version: LM1200-HDATA_03.03.103.201Hardware Version: 1.02021-11-15 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.