TIPS Cellular.everything

[wardmundy]

We have three unusual sites that I can't wait to test. Will report back soon.

 

[atsak]

I just had a look for someone else and hotspot is limited to 5mbps (so that's a catch of sorts compared to the AT&T plan which is not speed limited, though they limit streaming to 480p).

 

[jaminmc]

I just had a look for someone else and hotspot is limited to 5mbps (so that's a catch of sorts compared to the AT&T plan which is not speed limited, though they limit streaming to 480p).

If you change the TTL on your tethered devices to 65 instead of 64, you can get past the 5mbps limit.

 

[wardmundy]

If you change the TTL on your tethered devices to 65 instead of 64, you can get past the 5mbps limit.

Confirmed. Here's how on a Mac: https://superuser.com/questions/1335028/how-do-you-change-the-ttl-in-macos-high-sierra

 

[krzykat]

If you change the TTL on your tethered devices to 65 instead of 64, you can get past the 5mbps limit.

How does this work? Why does it get you past the 5 Mbps limit?

 

[wardmundy]

How does this work? Why does it get you past the 5 Mbps limit?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/8p69ez/_/e094u6m

 

[jaminmc]

How does this work? Why does it get you past the 5 Mbps limit?

TLDR;
Your phone has a TTL of 64. Your tethered device has a TTL of 64. Minus 1 hop of your phone.

Visible sees the tethered device with the TTL of 63 instead of 64, and throttles it to 5mbps.

 

[atsak]

TLDR;
Your phone has a TTL of 64. Your tethered device has a TTL of 64. Minus 1 hop of your phone.

Visible sees the tethered device with the TTL of 63 instead of 64, and throttles it to 5mbps.

LOL that's so amateur.

 

[billsimon]

Opinion retracted

 

[wardmundy]

What's amateur is defrauding the wireless company because you're so clever about changing the TTL.

Says the guy that spent years profiting off reselling Google Voice service for Asterisk despite Google's T&C. This is a far cry from stealing cable service by climbing a pole that you don't own. For openers, you are paying for the service. So, if Comcast inadvertently enables TV channels I'm not paying for and I tune to one of those channels, am I defrauding Comcast??

Seriously, let's all choose our words carefully. Anyone with a cellphone or computer has an absolute right to set their TTL in any way they see fit on a device that they own. There are plenty of ways for Verizon to decipher tethering other than examining a user's TTL settings. The TTL information posted here is all over the Internet. It's not like Verizon is unaware of this. If they choose to continue throttling using a methodology that is completely under the customer's lawful control, then they have only themselves to blame.

 

[atsak]

What's amateur is defrauding the wireless company because you're so clever about changing the TTL.

Oh, I don't agree there in any way. As a practical matter I find the wireless industry relatively unscrupulous and in particular restrictions on hotspots duplicitous in that they sell X number of gigabytes (or unlimited) but then fine print the "except it's not" part. Either they can afford to provide the service at that price, or they can't, and they should charge more or offer less service for the same price. Selling an unlimited package because you know that devices aren't really able to pull down that kind of bandwidth is, in my opinion, misleading. Without going too political in specific ways, it's ironic to me how tied Americans are to "unlimited" packages which are IMO de facto socialized wireless packages whereby everyone shares a pool of available bandwidth and pays the same price (for unlimited), but some use a lot more than others, given the apparent general aversion to even a whiff of socialism by so many.

I digress; if they're too dumb (which they are not, but they are lazy at times) to put in proper DPI methods to limit this or other ways to manage this I'm not aware of, then so be it. I would feel somewhat differently if their business was up front about the rules, but they have not historically behaved in this way. This is particularly true in Canada by the way - you should see the absolute shenanigans they get up to here.

 

[dhoppy]

I do the TTL trick with Verizon's knowledge, to the extent that Verizon employees showed me how to do it. That clearly supersedes the user agreement.

 

[dhoppy]

Are you being serious or are you just mocking me? If Verizon instructed you in this way then you are quite justfied in doing it.

I'm serious, I also don't see how a low-level employee approving it supersedes the user agreement, but in either situation, it doesn't bother me.

 

[w1ve]

Visible has been offering service for quite a while now; it predates any real 5G roll-out (and certainly most 5G handset roll-outs). Is the 5G handset/area requirement new?

I've also read that Visible is at or near the top of VZW's "de-prioritize me first" list. Any observations about that?

There is no 5G requirement.

I use between 10 and 15 GB a month on Visible; I live in rural NH, where their might not be enough traffic to throttle, but I never see throttling. I can watch YouTube TV at 1080p without issues.

Of course, YMMV, and nothing is guaranteed. I've yet to find a better deal, and do glad I'm done with Verizon Wireless.

 

[wardmundy]

Thanks to @w1ve, we now have critical mass on the Visible Party Plan so everybody gets $25/month unlimited service. You can read all about it here...

Verizon 5G Service for $25/month with Unlimited Everything

 

[kenn10]

Thanks to @w1ve, we now have critical mass on the Visible Party Plan so everybody gets $25/month unlimited service. You can read all about it here...

I'll be joining as soon as my sim card arrives. I already pay $25/month on Verizon Prepaid but this Visible plan will let me have unlimited data. Now if they'll just get up to speed so I can use eSIM in my unlocked Pixel 4a5g...

 

[w1ve]

I'll be joining as soon as my sim card arrives. I already pay $25/month on Verizon Prepaid but this Visible plan will let me have unlimited data. Now if they'll just get up to speed so I can use eSIM in my unlocked Pixel 4a5g...

Yeah, they have been promising eSim for a while.... we shall see.

 

[wardmundy]

Yeah, they have been promising eSim for a while.... we shall see.

Visible | It's Phone Service. In An App.

www.visible.com

 

[dghundt]

I'd like to play!
Can you PM me an invite please.
David

 

[dghundt]

I tried checking the IMEIs on my two Galaxy S9+ with Visible's compatibility tool and it says not compatible.
I confirmed with Verizon that both are unlocked. One is a Verizon phone, the other Sprint running on Verizon.
Apparently you have to deactivate the phone before the Visible tool will say its compatible? (that's what verizon said at least).
Anyone else with experience using the Visible compatibility checker?