Mobile Hot Spot

[Houndoc]

Our internet options in our corner of Grantsville stink.

We had thought about looking into satellite based home options but after using mobile hot spots while traveling a few times over the last year or so got to thinking if that may be the solution-use it at home for our regular internet access and have the ability to travel with it as well (so would prefer something with option for using internationally.)

Any experience or recommendations?

 

[Kevin B.]

I hotspot with my phone, speeds are fine. If I were going to do that on the reg I'd probably get an unlimited plan though.

 

[Unimog]

I carried a hotspot for years from Verizon, then ATT. They worked satisfactorily, although never as fast or reliable as a decent cable or dsl connection. A lot of it would depend on the carrier and what kind of signal you get at your home. Nowadays, I just tether to the phone when I need a connection.

 

[Hickey]

I know with Verizon, even an Unlimited account is throttled down to 600 bps after you Hotspot 15 gigabytes. This includes all phones, tablets, and Hotspot devices. 15 gig is about 5.7 episodes of Stranger Things season 3. We tried it last week.

 

[J-mobzz]

I use t-mobile with pda net on an android phone. PDA net will mask the hotspot usage so it looks like normal phone data since hot spot data is very expensive or slow. I have it connected usb to a mini pc and the pc to the wan port on a router with a network bridge set to allow the phone to feed the router (whole house WiFi)
The added line is $20/month and I typically see 20-25 meg download speed in Grantsville.

Also because my kids and myself have phones with unlimited we don’t use WiFi for phones. It’s basically for me to work, Xbox live, or occasionally Netflix to a smart tv. If you have a bunch of mobile devices on it and or people in the house it won’t be fast enough

I use a pc similar to this.


Mini PC Intel Quad Core CPU 4GB DDR/64GB eMMC Mini Desktop Computer Windows 10 Pro HDMI and VGA Port 2.4/5.8G WiFi BT4.2 USB3.0 Wake on LAN PXE Boot Auto Power On https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QY8LDGX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_HxYsDbTJC4G6K

 

[Hickey]

I use t-mobile with pda net on an android phone. PDA net will mask the hotspot usage so it looks like normal phone data since hot spot data is very expensive or slow. I have it connected usb to a mini pc and the pc to the wan port on a router with a network bridge set to allow the phone to feed the router (whole house WiFi)
The added line is $20/month and I typically see 20-25 meg download speed in Grantsville.

Also because my kids and myself have phones with unlimited we don’t use WiFi for phones. It’s basically for me to work, Xbox live, or occasionally Netflix to a smart tv. If you have a bunch of mobile devices on it and or people in the house it won’t be fast enough

I use a pc similar to this.


Mini PC Intel Quad Core CPU 4GB DDR/64GB eMMC Mini Desktop Computer Windows 10 Pro HDMI and VGA Port 2.4/5.8G WiFi BT4.2 USB3.0 Wake on LAN PXE Boot Auto Power On https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QY8LDGX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_HxYsDbTJC4G6K

I'm very interested in this setup, but I understood about 60% of what you said. Because I'm old.

 

[Caleb]

I've looked at a bunch of these options for our cabin. We don't really want internet there for the sake of internet (in fact I won't let anyone else connect to it), but we need some kind of phone service so that we can call out in an emergency (we've already had to call 911 once so...). Verizon is hit or miss, all other carriers are a strong miss . I'm anxiously waiting for Starlink to go live, hoping it's price comparable with Hughesnet (or better) but really provides low latency high speed connections. Then we'll use the internet for wifi calling on our phones.

 

[J-mobzz]

I'm very interested in this setup, but I understood about 60% of what you said. Because I'm old.

Here is the link that can walk you through it.

How to share UNLIMITED 4G data plan with your home Wifi Router

We go step-by-step through 2 methods to share your unlimited data with your router and home wifi network. Works w/ Native/PdaNet/Easytether & all carriers

www.vpnuniversity.com

But the basic principle his phone carriers give you limited amount of hotspot data on your phone even if you have unlimited data for the phone or they throttle your hotspot data. PDA net can bypass this and make the phone carrier think it’s all phone data and hence you keep your unlimited data and it doesn’t get throttled till way higher limits. T-mobile is 50gig and I’ve honestly never seen it that’s just where they reserve the right to start throttling it.

The issue is pda net doesn’t work like a traditional hotspot. You can connect to computer via Direct WiFi but the computer has to have the pda net software. So the only way to use it with devices like fire stick or Apple TV is to USB into a computer and then use the computer as a Wi-Fi hotspot and that’s easy to do or hook it up to a router if you need more powerful Wi-Fi to cover house

 

[Gravy]

We used pdanet for years on a old school unlimited verizon plan that was grandfathered it's $200 a month but I'll NEVER let it go.
We streamed all our movies and even ran a business on it until last year when we found some amazing tiny local ISP that's dirt cheap.
It's still awesome to have an old unlimited everything plan and whenever they roll out 5g it's going to be even better.

 

[Tonkaman]

I'm very interested in this setup, but I understood about 60% of what you said. Because I'm old.

Ha ha me too

 

[Hickey]

Here is the link that can walk you through it.

How to share UNLIMITED 4G data plan with your home Wifi Router

We go step-by-step through 2 methods to share your unlimited data with your router and home wifi network. Works w/ Native/PdaNet/Easytether & all carriers

www.vpnuniversity.com

But the basic principle his phone carriers give you limited amount of hotspot data on your phone even if you have unlimited data for the phone or they throttle your hotspot data. PDA net can bypass this and make the phone carrier think it’s all phone data and hence you keep your unlimited data and it doesn’t get throttled till way higher limits. T-mobile is 50gig and I’ve honestly never seen it that’s just where they reserve the right to start throttling it.

The issue is pda net doesn’t work like a traditional hotspot. You can connect to computer via Direct WiFi but the computer has to have the pda net software. So the only way to use it with devices like fire stick or Apple TV is to USB into a computer and then use the computer as a Wi-Fi hotspot and that’s easy to do or hook it up to a router if you need more powerful Wi-Fi to cover house

Bless you my child. Now, about my VCR...

 

[sawtooth4x4]

I have Verizon and ATT.

Verizon basically sucks. The hot spot on my phone is slow as hell. Even though it says its LTE when I try to use it.

ATT doesn't slow down my hotspot. And it seems like I have much better coverage with ATT. I only use Verizon for my other business because of the international calling plan. Other than that, it's not worth the money.

 

[Corban_White]

I've looked at a bunch of these options for our cabin. We don't really want internet there for the sake of internet (in fact I won't let anyone else connect to it), but we need some kind of phone service so that we can call out in an emergency (we've already had to call 911 once so...). Verizon is hit or miss, all other carriers are a strong miss . I'm anxiously waiting for Starlink to go live, hoping it's price comparable with Hughesnet (or better) but really provides low latency high speed connections. Then we'll use the internet for wifi calling on our phones.

Would a prepaid sat phone on the shelf work for this?

 

[Caleb]

Would a prepaid sat phone on the shelf work for this?

Likely yes for the sole purpose of emergency calls and limited communication with others coming up (we have to let them in through the gate at the bottom of the mountain when they don’t come up with us) so I may go that route. If I had limited connectivity, I could also monitor things like my battery system, install flood sensors, etc. Not requirements, just more nice to haves. A sat phone would likely work (I don’t know how they do with tree cover, we’re pretty covered at our cabin.)

 

[gijohn40]

caleb have you looked into a repeater? if you have spotty cell service maybe all you need is to have a repeater with an antenna that is directional pointing towards the closest cell tower. Wilson electronics has a few options that might work great for you. you have an antenna that is placed in the house that runs to the repeater then from there another antenna outside that points to the cell tower. The outside antenna could be placed higher up in a tree or something to get further reach out to the tower.

 

[Caleb]

caleb have you looked into a repeater? if you have spotty cell service maybe all you need is to have a repeater with an antenna that is directional pointing towards the closest cell tower. Wilson electronics has a few options that might work great for you. you have an antenna that is placed in the house that runs to the repeater then from there another antenna outside that points to the cell tower. The outside antenna could be placed higher up in a tree or something to get further reach out to the tower.

Yes, that’s actually my #1 preference. What I would love to do is put up an antenna mast that can get it up above most of the trees. I also would love to get my ham license and double the mast as an antenna mount for it.

 

[J-mobzz]

So just wanted to update this since I’ve been paying closer attention. During the day when I work and usually use internet I average 15-25mef download from t-mobile afternoon night time when everyone is home/off work that drops considerably. Last night trying to watch Netflix with my boys at 8:30pm we could only get 3 meg and had to deal with suffering video quality and it stopping a couple times to buffer.

This option still works for me since it’s cheap and fills my work needs but really not that bandwidth available to handle high traffic times in Grantsville on T-Mobile