Novatel Mifi 4620 on Straight Talk

[hunter.yeagley]

I have a refurb 4620LE that I tried to plop a straight talk unlimited sim (Verizon compatible) in to improve my home internet out in the sticks.

Initially I could not get it working and it would instantly disconnect. I eventually changed my APN to tracfone.vzwentp and forced 4G LTE and it kept the connection but when connected I still had no internet.

I flipped a VPN on my computer and boom internet works but at deathly speeds. I updated my computers TTL to 117 and was able to get internet without the VPN but deathly slow still. I'm sitting at 3.2 mbps download and 300 kbps upload with 3-4 bars.

Any recommendations to get this working smoothly?

[BillA]

Consider getting a real all-in-one mobile router/modem, otherwise you'll probably waste a bunch of time, and still be stuck with low speeds through the VPN (which is normal due to the encryption overhead + server). VPN's should be a last resort unless it's for privacy reasons, but then again most (99.9%) of sites nowadays are https encrypted anyway.

Here's all you need to get started.

Mobile data service
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=5790#p5790

Mobile router/modem
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=6272#p6272

Antennas
At first you can try your service with the "stubby" antennas which comes with the router, and if you'd like to improve your signal/speed, you may want to get a pair of high gain external antennas.
https://thewirelesshaven.com/product-category/antennas/