AT&T Ipad Plan and Equipment Used

[terryjett]

Working with a non-profit group that provides / installs complete setup for low income families. They most all are provided with a free at&t ipad plan.

My question for users:

If using the at&t ipad plan, what equipment combination are you using?

Have been trying to get the WE826-T2 / MC7354 working with no success, so wondering what others are using. Currently we set families up with combinations of surplus equipment (usb dongles, enclosed usb to mini pci-e, etc hooked to routers like netgear wnr3500v1) and wanting to move away from so many variations. Looking to use something like the WE826-T2.

You can of course share your setup no matter what plan / provider but mainly looking to at&t ipad users:) Pictures of your setup are certainly welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[gscheb]

Hello,
Have no experience using a AT&T tablet plan. With that said have had my parents house set up with https://netbuddy.co/ and https://traveldata.page/. Which are both data only AT&T plans. Which I think would be similar to the tablet plan.
Have used those with.
1. NetGear LB1120
2. Nighthawk M1
3. Mofi 4500
4. The custom build from this site WE826-T2 with MC7455 (basically same as Mofi)
My other advice is if you go to these two providers I listed and other AT&T data resellers they commonly sell devices. Could look at what they recommend. To keep cost down if you don't need long range you might be able to go with just hot spot devices. Can get those cheaper for sure.

[terryjett]

Thank you @gscheb for your reply / input. Will take a look at the links!

[swwifty]

I just use a Raspberry PI and a external USB enclosure with a MC7455.

Very simple and gives me full control over the OS, hardware, etc.

[terryjett]

Thanks @swwifty! Have looked at the PI and they look firm. Maybe sometime you could create a thread with good description of hardware, bet others would find it useful and informative (like your antenna comparison).

[swwifty]

Thanks @swwifty! Have looked at the PI and they look firm. Maybe sometime you could create a thread with good description of hardware, bet others would find it useful and informative (like your antenna comparison).

Yeah I could do that pretty soon, but its really easy.

All you need a raspberry pi 3, a case for it, power supply for it, then buy a external USB enclosure for a MC7455 (or whatever modem) from thewirelesshaven.com and a USB cable. Then just some antennas for the enclosure depending on your use case.

You'll also need a access point of some kind, or you can just use the wifi antenna built into the raspberry pi but it has very limited range.

[terryjett]

Yeah I could do that pretty soon, but its really easy...

As mush as I love to tinker with things, have no clue why never gotten a PI. Bought one last Christmas for great nephew so guess it time for me to get one.

Bet it even runs much cooler than other setups.

Thanks for reply!

[swwifty]

As mush as I love to tinker with things, have no clue why never gotten a PI. Bought one last Christmas for great nephew so guess it time for me to get one.

Bet it even runs much cooler than other setups.

Thanks for reply!

No problem, the PI 3 gets pretty hot so be sure to get some good heatsinks. You don't need a fan though.

The PIs are very flexible devices, so its handy to have a few around!

[gscheb]

I as well would like to see this pi setup. Know you say it is easy but don't think have a chance with out tutorial of some kind.

[swwifty]

I'll see if I can do a writeup soon. Don't hold me too it super busy right now, but I'll try.

[terryjett]

Any others using the AT&T iPad no contact plan with non-at&t hotspots?

[swwifty]

Any others using the AT&T iPad no contact plan with non-at&t hotspots?

That's what I was using, not sure if I made that clear or not earlier.

[terryjett]

That's what I was using, not sure if I made that clear or not earlier.

Wondering what card you are using and firmware version for AT&T plan?

Have you tried any other cards with success?

[swwifty]

Wondering what card you are using and firmware version for AT&T plan?

Have you tried any other cards with success?

I assume you're talking about sim cards, but I've used the h20 sim card for AT&T and the latest version of GoldenOrb should work just fine.

[terryjett]

I assume you're talking about sim cards

My bad, did not make that clear. Meant what model modem card(s) have you used with success on AT&T plan.

[swwifty]

I assume you're talking about sim cards

My bad, did not make that clear. Meant what model modem card(s) have you used with success on AT&T plan.

oh, then in that case I've used the MC7455 and EM7565 with AT&T no issues.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Just found this
Raspberry Pi 4G/LTE Cellular Modem Kit

https://sixfab.com/product/raspberry-pi ... -modem-kit
https://sixfab.com/product-category/ras ... i-shields/

[terryjett]

Just found this
Raspberry Pi 4G/LTE Cellular Modem Kit

I like that! Wish they had support for Sierra Wireless modems. Just won bid on small pallet of them

[poodad]

I'll warn you all that there's no production-ready "canned" router software for the RPi4. There is a daily snapshot of OpenWRT, and a couple of community builds.

If you want to build a RPi4 router, see my build thread in the Open Discussion section.