TIPS Cellular.everything

[krzykat]

That may work. Though, I am not familiar how to make it start moving traffic to the WAN2 if the connection fails on primary connection.

That part, I'm quite familiar with, I do it all the time with AT&T + Comcast ... was just thinking that would be nice if one of the carriers was Visible

 

[dicko]

Anecdotal post . . . .

I use Mikrotik's, A couple of years ago I got a Visible service and ended up 'usb tethering'

Mikrotik and LTE via Android

Use an old Android device for 4G / LTE Internet on a Mikrotik router.

blog.ligos.net

via a throw away $50 chinese Android phone, no hot spot they know about, no 'alien' hardware they could blacklist, It worked . . . .

Then it just stopped working . . . .

After fighting with Visible for a few months/phones/routers and still not working . . .

I switched to MintMobile, Same method, it's just still working . . . .

My guess is they monitor usage for 'acceptable use' and most users won't be 'traffic-ing ' all day and night to all sorts of connections, thus you become unwelcome . . .


JM2CWAE

 

[KNERD]

Anecdotal post . . . .

I use Mikrotik's, A couple of years ago I got a Visible service and ended up 'usb tethering'

Mikrotik and LTE via Android

Use an old Android device for 4G / LTE Internet on a Mikrotik router.

blog.ligos.net

via a throw away $50 chinese Android phone, no hot spot they know about, no 'alien' hardware they could blacklist, It worked . . . .

Then it just stopped working . . . .

After fighting with Visible for a few months/phones/routers and still not working . . .

I switched to MintMobile, Same method, it's just still working . . . .

My guess is they monitor usage for 'acceptable use' and most users won't be 'traffic-ing ' all day and night to all sorts of connections, thus you become unwelcome . . .


JM2CWAE

So, tethering stopped working all together?
There are some apps which get around the tethering. One does it via Bluetooth. I am sure something like OpenWRT, or DD-WRT could use a Bluetooth adapter since they are Linux based.

 

[dicko]

Yep, via USB or WiFi (never worked on WiFi anyway).

BT has low bandwidth, on a good day 1Mbs and that won't work very well for a VOIP server , but Linux has USB network drivers in the kernel. Does your OpenWRT/DD-WRT hardware have a USB port?

 

[dicko]

As a pragmatist, I would point out that as Visible is an MVNO totally owned and controlled by Verizon and Verizon offer a "Home/Business ISP" over 4G/5G at a higher price, you guys might be in a "David v Goliath" fight, because in the real world Goliath always wins and knows WayTF more than we do when it comes to networking ;-)

 

[KNERD]

I had the T-Mobile unlimited plan for a while when I was going a lot of traveling. I used an app which gave me tethering through Bluetooth, and it was a lot faster than 1Mbs according to the speed tests I did.

On my own router device, it does have OpenWRT with a single USB 3.0 port. I guess I could try USB tethering.

I looked up that Verizon cell internet service, and yeah it is not cheap. Doing speed test on the location I have for it indicates it is not worth it. I am only getting 8Mbs up and down with Visible in the area.

 

[dicko]

Indeed, Visible is not IMHO a usable solution

 

[KNERD]

That part, I'm quite familiar with, I do it all the time with AT&T + Comcast ... was just thinking that would be nice if one of the carriers was Visible

Maybe time for a tutorial...

 

[dicko]

Living in SoCal boonies, for $100/month I look forward to my Starlink reservation , currently "Please wait till later this year . . . "

My son, currently in the UK living in a London Apartment with a patio, gets > 100MBs up and down > 99.+% of the time.

 

[wardmundy]

MORAL: Visible = Cheap Cell Service, nothing more. But, for a lot of folks, that's HUGE especially with unlimited data.

 

[dicko]

With the caveat that in general you can only use that unlimited data on your Cell phone or just one 'hotspot' client at a reduced data rate and even then only with an approved Verizon recognized Phone.

$45/per month kinda sorta unlimited WAS a good deal a while ago

$30/Month Unlimited Data Plan | Mint Mobile

Introducing the newest Mint Mobile plan! Unlimited talk, text, and data for $30/month. You read that right. Say goodbye to overpriced wireless, and hello to big savings.

www.mintmobile.com

but if you have the bucks and the time to wait you will likely get 10x the bandwidth even if you live in Alaska or Mc Murdo Station

Starlink

www.starlink.com

 

[kenn10]

On Android devices, check out FoxFi and PDANet apps. They get around the "no tethering" issue via wifi or USB. I used it when Verizon did not allow you to have tethering without additional charges or forbid it altogether. I've had it for years and it still works.

 

[dicko]

Jeez, are they still a 'thing'?
Do the work on Visible?

 

[kenn10]

Jeez, are they still a 'thing'?
Do the work on Visible?

Haven't tried them since I can already use wifi hotspot. They do fake out the carrier into thinking the phone is using the data.

 

[dicko]

So , that works for you on Visible?

 

[krzykat]

So, tethering stopped working all together?
There are some apps which get around the tethering. One does it via Bluetooth. I am sure something like OpenWRT, or DD-WRT could use a Bluetooth adapter since they are Linux based.

If I understand what @dicko is saying, the issue he encountered had nothing to do with method of communication, be it tethering, hotspot, etc ... but more that they analyzed how much bandwidth he was using and THAT is the reason they blacklisted him. But MintMobile doesn't do these checks?

@dicko, how much bandwidth have you pushed through in a month or a weeks time? Are you using it for failover only, or to run a remote site?

 

[kenn10]

Since Mint Mobile is using T-Mobile, if the service is good with them in the intended area, you'll find that T-Mobile is much more open and device friendly than AT&T or Verizon. If you can put a SIM card in a device which has the correct cellular bands, they'll pretty much accept it. I love T-Mobile, but can't get it where I live now.

 

[w1ve]

I'm not sure what "it" is, but I have pulled multi-gigabytes through my phone's shared Hotspot via Visible. Setting up a Failover scenario with dual-WAN is a procedural thing based on the router manufacturer, but has little to do with who is providing the bandwidth.

 

[w1ve]

As far as devices, I've got a Pixel 4XL (approved) and a Samsung Note 8 (not approved) on Visible. I bought the super-cheap ZTE phone for the SIM card, placed the SIM in my Samsung, set the APNs, and boom -- it ll works.

 

[dicko]

My post was 'anecdotal', I too had a pixel 3, (e-sim for google FI, sim for Visible) and got visible's ZTE cheapo, they both worked as hot spots depending on which had the SIM card. . . until they didn't (neither of them)

Probably 150GB per month for a while, they both continued to work individually on the handset for what that's worth, but fighting with Visible proved futile.

Mint slows after 35G per month, and I can live with that. couple of movies a night and full access to my cloud infrastructure even after that soft limit. Wife is happy ;-)

Running a VOIP server over either services makes no sense to me given DO, Vultr et al will do that all day and all night for $60 a year.

If Visible works for you, great, I learned not to rely on them.

JM2CWAE