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Off grid internet

For a year or two, I used AT&T 4g from my truck. It was $20/mo unlimited data.
Since it was with the 5th wheel, there was plenty of range when parked close by. Up to 8 devices could use the onboard wifi.

I installed a marine charger under the hood with a 120V marine plug to keep the truck battery up since the key had to be on for the vehicle computers to run. Lights switched off and locked the doors with the fob.

It worked well for traveling and even for a time stationary. The downside was when the wife took some online classes....When I was gone with the truck, so was the internet.

Deposit has been in on Starlink for 6 months. I'm told to expect early - mid 2022. Until then, unlimited phone plans used as hot spots works well enough.
Yeah but then you miss out on all the fun home automation stuff!
 
I'm in the uk and have a 5g router, looks like a normal home land-line router but takes a sim card. I pay £20or $27 for truly unlimited high speed Internet on a data only deal. I stream all my TV and movie watching thru it as well as surfing the net, regularly use over a few hundred gb a month with no issue or strangulation of the speed. I also have a battery operated mifi orhotspot device I can take anyplace with me, I just swap the sim card when needed.
Coverage isn't bad and get a decent signal most places I've been, only really struggle when in remote parts of the Scottish Highlands.
The router is 12v so I just cut the plug off it and hard wired it into my camper

I know it's of no use to most of you on this forum being USA based, I just can't belive how much you pay for mobile data. The prices that's been said in this thread are what we're paying 10 yrs ago. Things are normally a lot more expensive here,
 
T-mobile I just ditched Verizon for Tmobile. We use fones for mobile hotspot. We each have a line with 40 gig of hotspot for just over $100 with 2 new phones. One flip and one smart. We're saving about $60 over Verizon with better signal and more high speed data.

I WILL NOT miss Verizon.
 
I just can't belive how much you pay for mobile data.
because they can I guess

AT&T I pay just shy of $90/month with unlimited data. I’ve basically had the same service since 1994. No “contract” since 1996.

I get way less phone coverage than I did with the bag phone back then.
In 2016 I got an announcement that they’d upgraded things in my area for better service. Umm, except that a month earlier my phone had stopped getting service in many areas that formerly had good service. Like at home (been cellular only since 2004). The last five years or so the coverage has declined (formerly 3-4 bars where I live now, lucky I have 2 bars right now. Over the summer with leaves on the trees I often had nothing)
At the time of the announcement of improved service I was $64/month. But they changed policy for data and to connect my cheap laptop and for the same service otherwise it’s that $90…
 
bought an “open box” AmazBoost but never got to really try it as it had a different receiver antenna than the box description and pic (and didn’t fit the molded packaging) but most of all the two wires out of the wall wart were broken to bare copper
This order was not a salable item. It was clearly stuff thrown in a box. Open box at Amazon used to be a good way to save money but the last few times (like that) were totally not worth anything.
Amazon.com
It was $100
My signal is really weak. It goes between great to off. I think because I am so far away. There is a tower 5 miles away, but it has to go through a mountain full of metal. So I have it aimed at another tower which is ridiculously far away.

Thanks offGridDave!

I bought this unit because amazonian returns are easy. So I probably gifted $100 too much compared to similar appearance units for much less moula. I also bought the ~$400 weboost (Wilson) in case the cheaper didn’t work. I’d expect Wilson stuff to work. (AT&T on phone call suggested weboost)

But this ‘jacool’ sticker branded booster does work!
1-2 bars turned into 3-4, 20Mbps turned into 110-130Mbps.
I guess I’ll send the weboost back.

I walked up the 200-year-old unmaintained road and found a straight maple sapling about 35’ tall and cut it with my cordless sawzall. After trimming I have a 25’ pole with the yagi on it. Works quite well. I’m going to find another straight one a bit taller for a 30-35’ pole and permanently mount it. The pole should last 10 years or so it guess. I could drawknife it and paint to last longer I suppose.
 
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The cheapest unlimited I've found is Calyx (https://calyxinstitute.org/membership/internet).
$400 a year for 4g and $500 a year for 5g.
I've been driving around the country in a 5th wheel for 9 months now and it has performed well everywhere, but check if you have T-Mobile in your area.

My wife spends a lot of time on Zoom calls for work so our connection needs to be very reliable and low latency.
I also run a Peplink Max Transit Duo for ~unbreakable bonded connections, that can give you the best latency of your bonded connections. (https://www.peplink.com/products/max-transit-duo/)

Plans I use:
Calyx
AT&T prepaid $55 for 100gb
Visible $25 unlimited (need to set TTL in peplink so you do not get throttled to the 5mb limit on hotspots). This plan does not perform very well because you are very low priority, so in congested areas the latency and speed are effected dramatically.
 
I'm in the uk and have a 5g router, looks like a normal home land-line router but takes a sim card. I pay £20or $27 for truly unlimited high speed Internet on a data only deal. I stream all my TV and movie watching thru it as well as surfing the net, regularly use over a few hundred gb a month with no issue or strangulation of the speed. I also have a battery operated mifi orhotspot device I can take anyplace with me, I just swap the sim card when needed.
Coverage isn't bad and get a decent signal most places I've been, only really struggle when in remote parts of the Scottish Highlands.
The router is 12v so I just cut the plug off it and hard wired it into my camper

I know it's of no use to most of you on this forum being USA based, I just can't belive how much you pay for mobile data. The prices that's been said in this thread are what we're paying 10 yrs ago. Things are normally a lot more expensive here,
That is one positive you folks in Europe have over us here in the USA, faster/much less expensive internet. I live in outskirts of a 1 stoplight town on dirt road. We have DSL with **one choice** of speed. We pay over $103 a month for 6gig speed and a landline phone. Our cellphone reception is spotty, so landline is needed. We own our router outright or bill would be higher. Other options are much more expensive unless you bundle with pay TV. We don't need anything more than over the air TV anyway.
 
Just
Hmm... DSL usually tops out at 100 Mbps (on a good day).
Just did a speed test. 6.4mbps down and point 6 up. My mistake, it is not gig. We get unlimited data, but there is a boat load of buffering on streaming. Sorry for my mistake. I was trying to point out how expensive my internet is with only one speed option. I realize now speed and data are not the same.
 
To add to the starlink discussion, it drops video calls all the time as it switches satellites, and audio calls get spotty temporarily. Its great to be on a beach and have internet, but it doesn't cut it if you need to work remotely with video meetings.
 
What kind of equipment is needed to connect a laptop to the internet via satellite or cell phone tower? What are approximately the energy requirements?
Check your local WISP's.
(Wireless Internet Service Provider)
They are usually cheaper than anything but cable.
I'd start there first, then data plans and hotspots.
 
We had Dish for TV and Hughsnet for several years but now our local cell phone provider (Viaero) added internet and a small ant box aimed at a tower 5 miles away works wonderfully. We get unlimited for $80 a month for the 25 meg package that test 31 most of the time

It's not 5G, the installer said it used an old (retired) army band
 
Check your local WISP's.
(Wireless Internet Service Provider)
They are usually cheaper than anything but cable.
I'd start there first, then data plans and hotspots.
This is solid advice. Even if you have to put in a small tower to get line of sight to theirs. I had a WISP for about 7 years that was unreal. 20mbps down and 7 up and latency to google was < 20ms. Almost perfect reliability until the storms got really bad.
 
it used an old (retired) army band
Brass an’ bagpipes?!

carolinabigfoot said:
What kind of equipment is needed to connect a laptop to the internet via satellite or cell phone tower? What are approximately the energy requirements?

Well AT&T’s unlimited plan to me is $85/month after fees and taxes. To add a cellular modem/router with 40GB per month is $135, or unlimited is $155/month. I can use phone hotspot to connect my laptop to internet when I desire to already. The cellular hotspot router (netgear) from AT&T is $12/month. I can buy one for $320
This is not a wise expenditure even though I can afford it.

I use a cell booster to get 2-4 bars depending on the day- 4 bars right now. One time purchase, no monthly fees.

You /can/ buy a device that uses your phone’s hotspot to feed a wifi router but I’m not sure what to recommend. Most have to be provider enabled and I’m not finding the guerrilla aka ‘dark’ ghost or vpn routers on Amazon right now.

Lovely it would be to see a link to one. AT&T has made plenty of money on me. The $85/month was a surprise because they convinced me to switch to another plan “to save money” but I was $65/month then. They charged me another $10/month for ‘device access’ which pissed me off, too. They didn’t refund me but they stopped charging me for it after complaining.

The ‘enabled’ units (take a $IM card) are $800, with cheapos at $300 and nice routers to $1200.

There is a thread going currently about “convenience taxes” and “stupid taxes” and the wireless internet’s charges in USA are definitely foolish expenses.
 
Well AT&T’s unlimited plan to me is $85/month after fees and taxes. To add a cellular modem/router with 40GB per month is $135, or unlimited is $155/month. I can use phone hotspot to connect my laptop to internet when I desire to already. The cellular hotspot router (netgear) from AT&T is $12/month. I can buy one for $320
This is not a wise expenditure even though I can afford it.
Hey, I don't know if maybe you missed it earlier in this thread,
but I'm on unlimited AT&T plan and it costs me 23$ a month including taxes and fees. (I purchased my own modem for ~150$)
If you want to save some money and since you clearly have AT&T service available, I would highly recommend it.
 
I'm on unlimited AT&T plan and it costs me 23$ a month including taxes and fees.
I called them today. That’s how I got the price structure. What is your plan called?

My phone is $85/month unlimited. “elite” I think is the plan. It’s too much money but every cell provider in the US is gouging. What are you gonna do?
 
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