Cheap $20 a month Stand Alone Unlimited Rural Internet through AT&T Wireless

[TractorGuy]

I went ahead and did the phone call to try and get the second month removed to no avail. The person I spoke with says they are charging a month ahead and the double charge will not be repeated.

To those who defended their requirement to give my SS number saying it was a post pay type account I say it is not when they convert it to prepaid on the first bill.

This is the print screen from the downloaded paper bill. It is the connected car plan but says the monthly charge is from Jul 26 thru Aug 25. Then it has another $20 under "Other charges and credits" charged from 6/26 - 7/25.

 

[TXHF]

I just went back... no matter what combination of the buttons I select, all list out of stock online. I even tried to check availability local within 100 miles. Zippo!

 

[kcflhrc]

Never been an ATT customer until I got the Mobley. My current bill shows for service from 6/11 thru 7/10. Bill is due 7/30. So Im not paying ahead like prepaid.

 

[zimy]

I just went back... no matter what combination of the buttons I select, all list out of stock online. I even tried to check availability local within 100 miles. Zippo!

AT&T seems to run out of stock on the mobley quite often, will just have to wait until they get back in stock unfortunately.

 

[aeblank]

The IP address of every WAN connection device (cable modem, hotspot like Mobley, DSL router, etc.) is by definition public. It has to be to allow communication with other things on the Internet. The only non-public IP addresses are those of client devices on your LAN behind your router (like a camera, PC, laptop, wifi phone, etc.). Those that start 192.x or 168.x or 10.x are local. So a Mobley has a 'public' IP address. However, what it does not have is a dedicated static IP address. That means that the Mobley's IP address is subject to change randomly. Could happen at reboot. Could happen at IP lease expiration time. Also coming into play is whether or not traffic is routeable to or through a device. Sometimes routing or firewalls block traffic. But that's another entire can of worms. And a camera on your local network behind your router usually does not have a public IP address. That means when you're out and about (off your network) and you want to connect to the camera with your phone app you cannot do so directly. Your camera will have to reach out to a remote server and so will your phone in order to make a bridge between the two.

Public IP - other things on the internet can see the address and try to talk to it
Static IP - always the same IP assigned to your device
DNS - association between a human-readable hostname and an IP addresss (TractorByNet.com | Compact tractor forums, news, reviews, information. = 208.117.3.12)
Dynamic DNS - allows devices with non-static IPs to be dynamically re-mapped (to a given DNS hostname) as the device's IP changes (somename.com = 144.20.111.20 today and 184.34.21.34 tomorrow)

Rob

I didn't even read your whole reply, but you are wrong. The Mobley, nor your phone, have a public IP address. We are all "behind a router".

 

[kcflhrc]

AT&T seems to run out of stock on the mobley quite often, will just have to wait until they get back in stock unfortunately.

I got mine at Best Buy

 

[TXHF]

Has anyone tried a rural install using a car battery hooked to a Battery Tender solar charger and a wifi camera with a DC converter for an off-the-grid surveillance? A lot of these cameras will work with motion detection and email you a still-photo when triggered then you can log in to see the video. I have a need for something like this coming right up.

 

[Xfaxman]

I chatted with an AT&T person regarding this Mobley plan. I was told that if I was an AT&T customer, I could add it to my existing data plan for $10 a month. I am not an AT&T customer so she told me I would have to buy their DataConnect plan @ $20/mo for 1GB, $30/mo for 3GB or $60/mo for unlimited. Did they catch on and change policies for new customers? Also, Best Buy no longer sells them according to their web site.

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I cannot find anywhere that states $20/mo unlimited. Last, I just tried to buy one on AT&T Wireless site and the option states they are "Out of stock on-line"

When was the last time one of you purchased one AND got unlimited for $20? Are you also an existing AT&T customer?

I got mine back in April, was not a AT&T Wireless customer, had to go to a store to activate it.

You have to keep asking for the Connected Car Plan $20/mo, don't accept anything else.

They go out of stock often. The order link is still active, the path is Home > Shop > Devices > ZTE > ZTE Mobley

ZTE Mobley - Car Wi-Fi Hotspot Device - AT&T

 

[TractorGuy]

So basically everybody has a different story on how they got their unit and how they are being charged. My account appears to be the connected car account and was a required option when I purchased it online direct from ATT. I was hoping someone with the exact same circumstances of buying online through ATT would chime in.

Being charged a month ahead is not a big deal if they don't pull something flaky every month. It's just a scenario I haven't seen anyone else say they had and it wasn't outlined anywhere in the purchase or terms that I have seen. I prefer to put stuff like this on auto pay but won't until I can trust they are reliable and trust worthy.

 

[BigBlue1]

I didn't even read your whole reply, but you are wrong. The Mobley, nor your phone, have a public IP address. We are all "behind a router".

Your confidence is cute, but you are incorrect.

The Mobley is a unified device that contains a router in addition to being an Internet access point. The WAN access point side has a public IP. Everything connected directly to the Internet HAS TO HAVE its own IP (I'm talking access points, not endpoint devices on a LAN). This Internet-side IP is a public IP because it can be used to communicate with other things on the Internet.

Go to a site like What Is My IP Address? IP Address Tools and More while using a phone or PC connected to the Internet through the Mobley. You will see a public IP listed. Mine is 107.77.83.xx. You can even go to ARIN or another whois site and look up who owns that IP to show that it is AT&T's IP that it has given to your Mobley. In this case it is AT&T:

You searched for: 107.77.83.xx

Network
Net Range 107.64.0.0 - 107.127.255.255
CIDR 107.64.0.0/10
Name ATT-MOBILITY-LLC
Handle NET-107-64-0-0-1
Parent NET107 (NET-107-0-0-0-0)
Net Type Direct Allocation
Origin AS
Organization AT&T Mobility LLC (ATTMO-3)
Registration Date 2011-02-04
Last Updated 2012-03-20

That is your public IP. It is the IP your Mobley communicates with. Anything connected to the Mobley sits behind the internal router in the Mobley and has a 192.x.x.x address. Those IPs are not publicly routeable. The public IP on your Mobley is the same type of thing as the WAN IP on a DSL router or a cable modem. It identifies your WAN connection device to the Internet and gives it an address.

Similarly with your phone: When it is connected to the cell network (wifi off) it has a public IP. Once you turn wifi on and connect to a wifi network your phone takes on a local IP and the Internet-connected device is the WAN device connected to your wifi router.

Nowhere am I saying that any other Internet-based device can just randomly make an ad-hoc connection into your public IP. Routing restrictions and firewalls prevent that. But when traffic is initiated from within your Mobley-supplied LAN it goes out and returns through this public IP and the NAT address the Mobley's router has assigned to your endpoint device (PC, phone, tablet, camera, etc.)

Rob