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New Internet Setup


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On 4/17/2022 at 8:06 AM, Corkman said:

Is it true that you can get unlimited data and not get throttled back even though you’re data plan does not  provide unlimited data?

You may be able to at the moment, and I'm certainly no authority, but in my experience, carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) typically find these "holes" in their system.  They make their money selling data, and if this allows people to bypass their "meters", they'll catch it sooner or later.

Of course that assumes there is no watershed event in the near future that causes cellular carriers to have to shift strategies.  Remember when you used to pay for cell phone use (or long-distance calls) by the minute? What changed that? Maybe Starlink will be what forces that change.  Time will tell...

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Follow up to my earlier comment.  If you read the mice type (fine print) in the T-Mobile plan, it’s a 50GB plan. If you go above 50GB in a month, they have the right to throttle your stats speeds, but they don’t cap it. 
 

I purchased a MoFi 5500 (5G version) and have been playing with it on a T-Mobile plan this weekend. My speeds, even with a relatively weak signal (2 bars) have been pretty impressive 45+ Mbps down, 15-+ up. that’s just with the paddle antennas that come with it. Stay tuned for updates, as I *will* go over the 50GB threshold this month, and will report back. 

As for the questions about the individual in the video, he no longer uses a MoFi. He has purchased a Insty Connnect device (http://instyconnect.com). I looked at that device and it’s north of $1,100 delivered with bells and whistles. It is a very neat concept in that the modem is housed in the antenna array, and it uses a USB cable to connect the router to the modem/antenna, which in theory has much lower losses.  
 

For my use, I felt the MoFi 5500 and the Proxicast antenna were a better fit. Your mileage may vary…

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  • 2 weeks later...

Follow-up… A few weeks and 88Gb later. Speeds are still fantastic, still with only 2 bars service (my phone only has one bar) with only the standard paddle antennas. Proxicast antenna not hooked up yet…

No throttling or slowdowns so far.  I have about a week left in the billing cycle…. We’ll see what happens if I exceed 100 GB…

 

 

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On 4/17/2022 at 7:55 AM, eddie4ne said:

We have been using the Mofi 4500 for about 2 years. Since we “pipe in sunshine” at home we installed large yogi antennas to get internet and after many trials…and errors, we currently have a Cricket data plan with 100G per month ($55). It is serving our purpose. While we travelled we almost ALWAYS had better signal then here at home. A few times we had to use the Omni directional antenna that we mounted on a telescoping flag pole to increase our signal but mostly we just the paddles that come with the Mofi router.

Sharon

Hi Ed,

 What Omni directional antenna did you use? Would you recommend it?

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On 5/9/2022 at 7:55 AM, Corkman said:

Hi Scotty,

   What settings are you using?

The only modem settings I changed from the default are:

APN fast.t-mobile.com

TTL 65

iPV4 only 

Is that what you were asking?

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On 5/10/2022 at 9:02 AM, Scotty Hutto said:

The only modem settings I changed from the default are:

APN fast.t-mobile.com

TTL 65

iPV4 only 

Is that what you were asking?

 

On 5/8/2022 at 9:18 PM, Scotty Hutto said:

Follow-up… A few weeks and 88Gb later. Speeds are still fantastic, still with only 2 bars service (my phone only has one bar) with only the standard paddle antennas. Proxicast antenna not hooked up yet…

No throttling or slowdowns so far.  I have about a week left in the billing cycle…. We’ll see what happens if I exceed 100 GB…

 

 

Hi Scotty,

What happened when you exceeded 100 GB?

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On 5/12/2022 at 3:59 PM, Corkman said:

Hi Scotty,

What happened when you exceeded 100 GB?

Funny thing happened on the way to 100GB…. I was traveling for work this week, and when I got back to the coach my data useage had dropped from 88GB to 58GB???  Go figure  

I’ve only got a few days left in my billing cycle… not sure I can get to 100GB by then. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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I purchased the MOFI 4500. I am using my ORBIC sim card as Verizon freaked out when I tried to add another hot spot type of device. I then set the TTL to Lunix-2 65, set the APN to verizon, and set the VPN to IPV4 and sure don't see any improvement over my Verizon ORBIC hot spot speed.

Am I missing something?

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15 minutes ago, Corkman said:

Am I missing something?

Nothing that I can see…. Have you emailed MoFi support?  I’ve emailed them a couple of times and they were very responsive and helpful. 

I know my speed increase was pretty dramatic with the MoFi 5500 (I average between 30-40 Mbps) but I’m running on LTE (no 5G in Hiawassee, GA), so the 4500 should have similar performance. 

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59 minutes ago, Corkman said:

Do you live in Hiawassee? I am in Franklin, NC

No, we’re in the motorhome at Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds for the next week (we’ve been here almost a month).  Then we move over to Gibson Cove in Hayesville, NC for a couple of weeks. 

We love it up here and spend a lot of our time in Hayesville or Hiawassee. 

We should meet up for coffee sometime. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally completed my new internet setup, and I’m currently testing it in the toughest place we’ve stayed.

I installed the MoFi 5500-5GXeLTE-EM9191 on the panel behind the TV. This keeps it out of the way, plus I already had 12v power there. I added a filter/voltage regulator to protect the unit. This also allowed me to run the 7 (!) antenna cables from the roof, through the front cap. (No small feat - I spent a good deal of time with my endoscope finding a route for the cables!) I also added a fuse block to distribute the 12v power.

2604BBF1-3A9D-4EA0-A014-435B0269AFC0.thumb.jpeg.83b8ebcecca56b05b26945decb644a8b.jpeg
 

After trying several locations and not being pleased with the performance, I ditched the original Proxicast antenna and returned it to Amazon.  I purchased a Parsec Husky Pro 7, 7-in-1 antenna in its place. (4x4 MIMO 5G/LTE antennas, 2x2 MIMO WiFi antennas, and 1x GPS antenna). I installed it on the roof just behind the front cap (see note above about cables 🙄)

608B4874-F81C-446F-869F-D4130FF27A63.thumb.jpeg.1f010ea6f426795caa3b2f2566bd55c7.jpeg

I am running this on a T-mobile data-only plan at $50/mo. I attempted to use Cricket at first, but they didn’t allow my new router because they said it was 3G, and they don’t support 3G any more…. I tried to explain, but they said once they’ve deemed I have an incompatible device, they’re no longer allowed to speak to me. Hasta la vista, Cricket!

I’ve been testing the device this afternoon, and so far a very pleased. Here is my most recent SpeedTest results - on LTE (no T-Mobile 5G in Hayesville, NC!)
 

C7E06ACF-AB34-4B21-A197-18148398BB1D.jpeg.a72ca82edf1784887ddb7fcdc8c4d060.jpeg

The upload speed is nothing to write home about, but to put that in perspective, the best I’ve *ever* been able to get at this campground is about 4 Mbps down.  Just enough to watch TV if you hold your mouth right and the wind doesn’t blow. Here is a test with my old system done this afternoon:

9A64C0C8-2137-4233-A0B4-6C32A39AF8E5.png.f11e1cbf95bd8c3cc9369e0857b847a0.png

So, in conclusion, I spent some $$, skinned my knuckles threading cables through the ceiling, but I’m really happy with my new internet setup.
 

Many thanks to the good people at the Mobile Internet Resource Center https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ for advice, and Mobile Must Have  https://mobilemusthave.com/ for helping me determine the best antenna for my needs and providing YouTube videos showing installation. I got a good price, but the tech support and videos were worth any extra I might have paid. 

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We have Verizon with 2 phones + an Inseego MiFi 8800L aka "Verizon Jetpack" with 15GB monthly.  +$20 / mo so the price is right.  I was told if we exceeded the data allowance it would stay full speed if there was availability (not enough users to cap tower BW).  Plan says different, and is the reality . . . . which means watching TV will get into a show (ONE show) before we get the spinning wheel of death.  Not good.  If we run out of hotspot BW we'll start hotspotting with our phones for essential access (surfing but not TV).  I believe we could run our Roku through 100GB in a weekend, although I really don't know.  Anyway, the DW says everything costs too much so adding another $80 to the monthly plan is kind of a moot point. 

We don't travel enough to justify turning our plans upside down, but I am curious what some of the unlimited data plans cost. 

She stays home while I travel solo 2 - 3 times / month to a cow pasture in nowhere.  Dish programming, even with the movie pack, is dismal.  I *HATE* commercials so I'll record a show while watching something pre-recorded. 

So she's home and I'm on the road.  Starlink would have promise but only works in one location at a time? (and not enough coverage yet).  Verizon Home Internet doesn't work because our home location doesn't qualify (either tower too far away or not set up for home data plan).  T-Mobile is the same (home address doesn't qualify).  AT&T is out of the question (will never go back). 

A little research shows Verizon Home Internet (wireless) has a 300MB speed and unlimited data for $25 / mo with a qualifying Verizon mobile plan ($50 without).  Pretty good deal . . . . *IF* the tower supports it while on the move.

- bob

 

 

 

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18 hours ago, cbr046 said:

We have Verizon with 2 phones + an Inseego MiFi 8800L aka "Verizon Jetpack" with 15GB monthly.  +$20 / mo so the price is right.  I was told if we exceeded the data allowance it would stay full speed if there was availability (not enough users to cap tower BW).  Plan says different, and is the reality . . . . which means watching TV will get into a show (ONE show) before we get the spinning wheel of death.  Not good.  If we run out of hotspot BW we'll start hotspotting with our phones for essential access (surfing but not TV).  I believe we could run our Roku through 100GB in a weekend, although I really don't know.  Anyway, the DW says everything costs too much so adding another $80 to the monthly plan is kind of a moot point. 

We don't travel enough to justify turning our plans upside down, but I am curious what some of the unlimited data plans cost. 

She stays home while I travel solo 2 - 3 times / month to a cow pasture in nowhere.  Dish programming, even with the movie pack, is dismal.  I *HATE* commercials so I'll record a show while watching something pre-recorded. 

So she's home and I'm on the road.  Starlink would have promise but only works in one location at a time? (and not enough coverage yet).  Verizon Home Internet doesn't work because our home location doesn't qualify (either tower too far away or not set up for home data plan).  T-Mobile is the same (home address doesn't qualify).  AT&T is out of the question (will never go back). 

A little research shows Verizon Home Internet (wireless) has a 300MB speed and unlimited data for $25 / mo with a qualifying Verizon mobile plan ($50 without).  Pretty good deal . . . . *IF* the tower supports it while on the move.

- bob

 

 

 

Thanks Bob, I need to look into that Verizon plan.
My home internet is T-Mobile through FMCA, but it costs around $50, and the speed since the switch from Sprint went from ~30mb to 8MB. 😡

My Verizon phones run 50-70mb from the same location.

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