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Internet service options FOUND! 4G LTE using tablet SIM and router


avguytx

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We're maybe a month away from being able to move into our new house.  All this friggin' rain has slowed all outside work down and we are just now getting our driveway poured tomorrow (3/29) but ground work for septic has to be looked again late next week.  Ugh...

 

ISP's are pretty slim to none where we built although we're maybe 1/4 mile outside the city limit point.  Can't get cable internet, although the neighborhood was wired and some houses have it.  But, for them to get that down the road (1/10th of a mile) they have to re-trench a line through everyone's yard.  I'm sure they'd love me for that.  No DSL, no AT&T Uverse (what we have now in rent house), no nothing.  Definitely not going satellite internet as that is THE worst ever.

 

So, they are upgrading all the towers in town for AT&T Fixed Wireless which apparently works over LTE and can have some reasonable speeds versus DSL.  Does anyone here happen to use anything like that?  It looks like it caps data at 215gb or so which isn't too bad.  I mainly stream Spotify and son plays some online games (monitored by me...the network administrator) so I think we'd be ok with the data until something else ever rolls along.  You'd think they'd load this neighborhood up with houses ranging from $200k to $450k; they all would definitely like other options.  They ask me if I have pull in getting internet out there.  Uh..no.  No control over that working for the city.  We have a a 750mb Ritter fiber line coming in and fiber ran to all the city buildings so we're covered good.  If my house was only in decent line of sight of a city building, I'd stick a wireless bridge on one of them and another on my house and get it that way with my house having it's own separate VLAN to isolate.  haha.  

 

Anyone also have to use Fixed Wireless?  

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My setup is slightly different. I do have a ATT box that sits on the counter and has a simm card inside that provides the WIFI for our house talking directly to a nearby tower on LTE. I have an unlimited data plan that can slow data speeds after 22GB each month if ATT deems it necessary. That seems to rarely happen. We had DSL before and this seems faster/better overall. I dropped the landline/dsl service and picked up unlimited data on 3 smart phones + the little box. All are 22gb + 10GB can be tethering on phones before any threat of slow downs.  I pay $200 a month for that. I have seen 300gb go through all that in a month so it works. I was paying $250.00 per month for DSL/land line #/ mobile phones w 6gb limit.  

 

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I despise paying cell phone bills.  lol  We have 3 iPhones and 2 iWatches on our bill and it's about $270/mo at moment but next month will be $235 or so since one phone will be paid off.  Both watches are paid off but have a year left on 2 phones.  That's on an older 20gb/month plan that has rollover and can be used as hot spots.  My phone is supplied by the city since I'm on call 24/7.

 

This may be my only option for a while.  Thanks for the info....

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I have NO PHONES and pay JUST for Charter SPECTRUM Internet Service, over ONE WIRE! Off the pole!

And I use BasicTalk.com phone over the internet. And all my housemates have their own cell phones!

And I ran a hard wire Ethernet wire off the back of our house router down to my Hippie Pad just in case! In case we get any kind of Internet device down there requiring a hard wire connection. And I HAVE a WinXP device down there (Toughbook!) just NOT HOOKED UP, YET!

John Kuthe, Climate Anarchist ands Electronically Mad At The World! ;-)

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We still are using Comcast for internet only here where I live, but I intend to move to the full gigabit fiber that our power company has ($67.99 month with NO data caps, NO contracts and free service calls, NO installation fees).

 

They will also give you 10 Gigabyte for $299 a month. 😲

 

We use some hot spots at work (Verizon) that work reasonably well, but it's only because of where we have to have computers. I have a sister-in-law in the Philippines that uses a hot spot, but most of the service there is a crap shoot. Stepsons have fiber to the house, but the company used pathetic indoor pair and strung it to the house. It breaks all the time and needs repair.

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From 2007-2013 I lived in a farm house in Wisconsin where there was zero connected internet options outside of dial-up. No amount of money could buy me more. Thank goodness Cell phone internet technology was available, but at 12 miles away I was not receiving a stable in home internet connection. I also had problem of getting my PC connected to a solid connection.

 

Solution was....

-2.4Ghz Parabolic grid antenna mounted to a 2" galvanized steel pole on the roof pointed exactly at the cell phone tower(no line of site) using a compass and maps.

-80 Feet of LMR400 50ohm ultra low-loss coaxial cable (about 1" diameter)

-type N to FME adapter

-FME to cellular usb stick adapter (about the size of a pencil lead)

-Cellular usb stick

-Sim card

-Cradlepoint usb router

-Wifi router

$80 per month for 20GB internet only plan

 

Glad those days are over. Cost me $1000 for all that gear, and the technology would change so often, I was forced to replace parts of the setup at least 3 times over those years.

I still have it all boxed up. You are welcome to it.

 

Oh, December 2018 Spectrum internet installed 200MB service at my current home which had up to that point been maxed at 5MB DSL phone. The service upgrade to my home came as part of a Federal broadband internet expansion bill passed that cost everyone 100's of billions of tax dollars. Thanks everyone. And Spectrum internet thanks you too.

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1 hour ago, JohnKuthe said:

I have NO PHONES and pay JUST for Charter SPECTRUM Internet Service, over ONE WIRE! Off the pole!

And I use BasicTalk.com phone over the internet. And all my housemates have their own cell phones!

And I ran a hard wire Ethernet wire off the back of our house router down to my Hippie Pad just in case! In case we get any kind of Internet device down there requiring a hard wire connection. And I HAVE a WinXP device down there (Toughbook!) just NOT HOOKED UP, YET!

John Kuthe, Climate Anarchist ands Electronically Mad At The World! ;-)


Well, I connected my Panasonic CF030 Toughbook to an Ethernet cable I connected to the back of my Wifi Router and the CF-30 plays out it's own speakers, but I need to find the 1/16in Stereo output! To CUT OUT the built in speakers and pipe the sound out of it! But I CAN'T FIND IT On MY CF-30 Toughbook! So I'll take my Toughbook into my local Micro Center to their Knowledge Base Help Desk! Hopefully they can help me!

And SELL ME ONE if they need to!

John Kuthe...

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AT&T did tell me yesterday that they are upgrading all of the towers in town to where they can offer this Fixed Wireless that will have reasonably good download speeds.  Maybe somewhere between 30 and 50mb down and 5 up but most likely more.  I just speed tested my Verizon phone over LTE and get 92mb down and 25mb up which is quite good.  I could live with that out there but what gets me is the data cap and having to pay overage.  Time will tell.

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On 3/29/2019 at 8:03 AM, avguytx said:

but what gets me is the data cap and having to pay overage.

The big data eater around here is gaming. If none of that going on, you might can live with a lower cap. My kid plays some games that will drop an 80gb update every so often. That's brutal if paying overages.

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Yep.  My almost 12 year old does some gaming.  He'd just mentioned something about a 100gb game download and an 80gb update on something else.  I told him that was all about to come to a stop.  He didn't laugh.

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On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 2:40 PM, avguytx said:

But, for them to get that down the road (1/10th of a mile) they have to re-trench a line through everyone's yard

Atturds just ran fiber down our street. Used the utility easement and asked no one...…….

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10 minutes ago, Westcoastdrums said:

Haha good for you soldier! 


Somebody's gotta do it! Lord KNOWS the GOVERNMENTS WON'T!! So once again it is all up to ALL WE THE PEOPLE!

And SOME of WE THE PEOPLE KNOW BETTER TOO! So once again it's Our Political Revolution! With weapons of Truth and Love!

Who is foolish enough to fight against those?

John Kuthe, Climate Anarchist and the "DF" Hippies Were RIGHT! 

 

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2 minutes ago, JohnKuthe said:


Somebody's gotta do it! Lord KNOWS the GOVERNMENTS WON'T!! So once again it is all up to ALL WE THE PEOPLE!

And SOME of WE THE PEOPLE KNOW BETTER TOO! So once again it's Our Political Revolution! With weapons of Truth and Love!

Who is foolish enough to fight against those?

John Kuthe, Climate Anarchist and the "DF" Hippies Were RIGHT! 

 

My hero 

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This won't help but i think it is pertinent. I have a relatively new co worker from Korea. He says "i don't understand USA, in Korea we have free internet everywhere. Wanna watch your favorite TV show on your phone while you're grocery shopping, no problem."

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5 minutes ago, babadono said:

This won't help but i think it is pertinent. I have a relatively new co worker from Korea. He says "i don't understand USA, in Korea we have free internet everywhere. Wanna watch your favorite TV show on your phone while you're grocery shopping, no problem."

Story of my life.   Gotta pay to play, no matter what your into 

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On 3/28/2019 at 4:35 PM, avguytx said:

I despise paying cell phone bills.  lol  We have 3 iPhones and 2 iWatches on our bill and it's about $270/mo at moment but next month will be $235 or so since one phone will be paid off.  Both watches are paid off but have a year left on 2 phones.  That's on an older 20gb/month plan that has rollover and can be used as hot spots.  My phone is supplied by the city since I'm on call 24/7.

 

This may be my only option for a while.  Thanks for the info....

Check your wireless provider for new plans.  I had an old plan, changed it over to a new plan and am saving 60 bucks a month with unlimited data.  It is worth looking into.

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11 minutes ago, Westcoastdrums said:

Story of my life.   Gotta pay to play, no matter what your into 

I've been living in Shared Student Living since 1989-1990, when I went to Washington University St Louis' Computer Engineering school!

And I STILL DO! Just bought a house cash in Bel Nor MO, just across from UMSL! And fixed it up REALLY NICELY! Who ELSE provides Klipsch La Scalas for their laundry room! :-)

John Kuthe, Climate Anarchist, and SO MUCH MORE!

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