Newbie looking for advice

[css9101]

I'm a complete newbie at this, but am intrigued by what I've been reading. Currently, we are with AT&T for cell phones (unlimited data) plus a hot spot, with 100gb of data, plus directtv (which we want to get rid of). If we drop directtv, we will need to look for an alternative, plus at&t will drop our data cap to 50gb. As we live rural, no cable, fiber optics, etc.

Our at&t reception in the house is fairly decent, depending on what room you are in. I've read about those of you using an ipad/tablet added to your at&t plan, but for us, the ipad would probably need to remain stationary so we have service.

I also have a mofi 4500 that a friend was no longer using, but know nothing about it. I was looking at ubifi, but am concerned that at&t will soon block/slow down anyone on their plan.

I'd love to hear suggestions/advice any of you have.

[baldwine]

I also have a mofi 4500 that a friend was no longer using, but know nothing about it. I was looking at ubifi, but am concerned that at&t will soon block/slow down anyone on their plan.

Depending on what mofi unit you have, you could have a real good starter. I found the Sim 7 to be seriously lacking (no carrier aggregation) but if you have a sim 4, you should be good. We have AT&T as well and what you need is a couple of things. It's probably best to have an Ipad with LTE capabilities. Don't buy it through AT&T, they will put an eSim on it and it's no good then. We added a new line to our account and attached to it a post-paid Tablet sim (Unlimited Elite) for $20 a month ($30 to activate). You can do a google search for the plan on their website, which is how I found it. You need the ipad to activate the plan (I haven't tried it any other way, so other's may have better advice). Once the plan is activated, you can move the sim over to the Mofi. You will need a sim card adapter if you don't have one.

You should be good to go after that. The Mofi is a good unit and if your signal is strong enough, you won't have an issue. I strongly suggest using a different WiFi setup and turning off the one in the router. I paired a simple Amplifi mesh router system to my current setup and it works beautifully. If you are looking for a great all-in-one, the Netgear Orbi LBR20 is a great LTE router/modem that is extremely easy to setup and forget, though it's mesh capabilities are terrible and it is quite expensive.

[Dr-BroadBand]

I would agree with Baldwine.

I would like to add a little caution about the Netgear Orbi LBR20, it looks awesome but lacks ability to change the TTL settings.

You need to change the TTL settings to trick the modem, so it looks like an iPad, on network.

I maybe wrong about the TTL, but I have yet to find it in the manual.

The MoFi is a good starting point and will let you test the hardest thing the sim/data plan.

See https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=21 ... Orbi+LBR20

[baldwine]

I would like to add a little caution about the Netgear Orbi LBR20, it looks awesome but lacks ability to change the TTL settings.

You need to change the TTL settings to trick the modem, so it looks like an iPad, on network.

I was concerned about the TTL as well with the LBR20 and I didn't have to do a thing. I have been using it for a month now and my account shows no tethering data, so its a win there.

I do have a second setup to help offset my household data usage with a RPi3B+ (Goldenorb 2020-03-01) and a USB M.2 enclosure with a EM7565 modem (Generic firmware). This setup does requires me to change my TTL to 64 in order to get full speed on it. It performs fairly well but not as fast as the LBR20. I use my simple Amplifi mesh routers for this setup and get great coverage.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Good to know thanks!

Can you do a ping to Google.com would like to know what TTL is being used.

[baldwine]

Here you go

Code: Select all

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=192ms TTL=115
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=115
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=238ms TTL=115
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=115

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 62ms, Maximum = 238ms, Average = 154ms

Code: Select all

Pinging www.google.com [142.250.73.196] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 142.250.73.196: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=113
Reply from 142.250.73.196: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=113
Reply from 142.250.73.196: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=113
Reply from 142.250.73.196: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=113

Ping statistics for 142.250.73.196:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 52ms, Maximum = 61ms, Average = 56ms

[css9101]

Thank you baldwin & Dr-Broadband! The mofi is a sim 4. I will look at getting the ipad & the adapter and start from there!

[css9101]

Do I need the sim card adapter for sure?

[css9101]

Thank you both for the help! I was able to get the mofi set up & running with a good signal strength. Next step...mesh router!