Whatever I write will be little!
Excellent 4G reception with Nano Sim, quite good WiFi coverage at 2.4GHz, but incredible coverage with crazy beamforming at 5GHz. Place it vertically on the wall at 1.80-1.90 with the top antennas (LTE) at 45 degrees and the side (WiFi) antennas extending right and left __\ /__ and you will remember me. Just make sure it has open space in front of it where it will be placed to spread the beam, i.e. do not close it in a storage room or a 2x2 room. It really kills, penetrates 2 and 3 walls comfortably. With the router in the living room on the 5th floor facing outwards, I have satisfactory reception (about 30dB) on the 3rd floor. It accepts mesh so maybe later I will also add a Cudy WR1300 (30€) with 4+1 Gigabit LAN/WAN Ports - Dual Band with 4xBeamforming WiFi antennas - WPA3 security - Captive Portal - OpenWrt ready and many more, to put it on the 5GHz as a Wireless AP/Mesh or WISP mode in a good spot on the 3rd floor to cover from the 2nd to the 5th floor, bypassing the 10/100 limitation of the LT500D ... if it ever downloads more than 100Mbps with 4G/LTE where I am. With less than 100€ total, I cover 3+ floors of 80-100 sq.m.
Very easy setup with a very friendly interface that does almost everything by itself. It has 4 LAN 10/100 ports and one is WAN/LAN optionally from the software. It has about 10 pre-installed VPN providers (WireGuard Client/Server, OpenVPN, IPSec among others) for those who want to "play" more privately... and there are on/off switches for internet and VPN for all connected devices, wired and wireless.
Attention: It is essential to disable the Sim Lock on a tablet or a mobile phone before inserting the card into the LT500D slot, otherwise you will suffer for no reason. Then, simply insert the card, enter the quick setup and it will find everything else by itself. If you have Cosmote and get confused like the friend above, or get lost in the settings of the 4G provider, with the Sim in the slot, enter: AT+CGDCONT= 1,"IP","internet","0.0.0.0",0,0 in the "AT Command" option, press Enter and in 5" you will be connected to Cosmote.
A very remarkable and useful feature is that it also accepts "wireless WAN" via WiFi called WISP (Wireless ISP), so depending on the type of internet connections you have available, it can operate in 3 modes WAN/WISP/4G where it automatically prioritizes the Internet input via cable from the WAN port (e.g. from a modem/router/extender), if the WAN connection is interrupted it automatically switches to WISP mode (wireless internet via WiFi from a second router, or from a known Hotspot e.g. a mobile phone or a free Hotspot) and if WAN and WISP connections are interrupted, or if there are no WAN and WISP connections, then it switches to using the 4G connection, if WAN or WISP connection is restored, it disconnects from the 4G. The whole process is done without the slightest interruption, described as "4G Backup" by Cudy and operates automatically when it finds other active internet connections besides 4G.
Tip: If you use a WISP connection, select only the 5GHz band on the Router/Repeater/AP you want to connect to (if it is Dual Band) completely ignore the 2.4GHz! This will give "Gigabit+" vitality to both WiFi bands that the LT500D will create and especially to the 5GHz!
You can get a taste of the LT500/D V2 interface and customization with Cudy's emulator here: https://support.cudy.com/emulator/LT500/cgi-bin/luci/ (Password=admin)
It has very good support at [email protected], so good that I made a mistake and installed a (EU) firmware from Cudy's website ... which was only for German ISPs and I lost the Greek ISPs for which there is no "ELL" firmware available online, so I couldn't connect anywhere with the Sim, I explained what happened to them and they sent me the next day with a response to the email the latest "ELL" version, newer than the one pre-installed on the router, so it turned out well for me.
It has two types of firmware, one visible for the hardware and one hidden for the ISPs which you can access through this link from the router's web interface (LuCI): http://cudy.net/cgi-bin/luci/admin/network/gcom/upgrade and it only applies to LT500 V2 and LT500D V2. The EC200AELLAR01A05M16.bin firmware comes pre-installed on these specific models in the Greek market today.
The upgrade they sent me is the EC200AELLAR01A06M16.bin and for anyone (after checking which version is pre-installed) who wants to update the LT500 V2 and LT500D V2 with the latest configuration of Greek providers, I have it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dz34YfpEM69MZDnADijtwcs14rck2BV6/view?usp=sharing
I chose this router because I always prefer to have detachable mobile antennas, in case I need to play with extensions and external antennas for signal enhancement, but when I saw during the day 40 to 60+Mbps 4G Down/Up between the apartment buildings with the LTE bands on automatic, I won't bother with gimmicks or jokes.
I also have the TP-Link MR400 V3.0 (4G-10/100-2.4GHz/5GHz-detachable LTE antennas) and the TP-Link MR600 V3.0 (4G+/Gigabit/mesh/detachable LTE antennas/cloud) in different spaces, with the MR600 in a very difficult spot with 2 external antennas of €5 each that improved the signal from 25% to 75%!
OK, the MR600 is top in the €100-150 category and cannot be compared, but the LT500D (4G-10/100-mesh-2.4GHz/5GHz-detachable LTE antennas/external WiFi antennas) is considerably cheaper and superior in connectivity compared to the MR400, with which it is directly comparable. Additionally, the LT500D has greater WiFi coverage at 5GHz than the MR400 and MR600, which have internal WiFi transmission antennas.
I admit I didn't expect it to be so good! I wrote a lot again, I hope I helped those who have it or are interested in getting it.