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

[buckeyefarmer]

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.

Same, and did chime in.

 

[jcummins]

Same, and did chime in.

So port forwarding has to be done in the Mobley, not the router attached to it?

 

[sodamo]

So let's see if I can add to the confusion.

I have AT&T account with 2 phones on a Wireless plan and 3 unlimited Car (Mobley) Data plans.
I do everything online. NFL from my last bill.

Bill appears around 1st of the Month, Autopay on the 19th.

Bill Header says it is for billing period of previous month, 06/01/17-06/30/17.

Plan (Wireless & Data )Charges are for current month : Jul 1 thru Jul 31

My equipment installment (1 phone) was 6/20.

Individual use by Number is detailed by June dates.

They tap my credit card on the 19th, so I guess that means I'm postpaid 1-19th and prepaid 20-31st?

Today, 28th, I can access my last bill, new bill not posted yet.

As I recall, adjustments for purchases/credits appear as the appropriate date of occurrence.

When I added my Mobleys, I had 2 entries - 1 post with actual dates, and 1 pre as above.

Hope this helps

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.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yes, mobley gets a public, non static IP. It can, and will change, therefore you need something like dyndns that tracks it for you if you want remote access in.

To access your home camera remotely, you need your public IP and port. Usually you need to port forward because your camera has different internal network ports than public.

 

[BigBlue1]

As far as the AT&T billing goes, in my experience they are changing things and it isn't clear what they are doing. I switched from a Family Share plan to Unlimited PLus in Feb or March and they ended up charging me essentially twice for the same period (this is all before the Mobley was added). Once just before I switched, for what appeared to be a post-paid cycle and then again in a couple weeks when I switched for what appeared to be two weeks of prorated use and another full month cycle. I called multiple times and escalated it repeatedly to try to figure it out. They kept claiming it was post-paid but the timing of the payments, overlap of the proration, cycle dates, etc. indicated it was pre-paid. As expensive as it was, I finally gave up because I just was getting nowhere and the only alternative I would have had would be to get pissed and leave them for another carrier, which I wasn't interested in doing. To ice the cake, when I worked with several reps gathering info before my switch to Unlimited Plus they all provided numbers and assured me my FAN discount would continue to be in effect (the whole thing that initially convinced me to switch was that my bill would actually go down moving to Unlimited Plus because more of the price is in the base plan than on the Family Share plan). Well, they lied about that and the discount does not apply to unlimited plans. So now I pay more. But I stay because the Mobley is a win for me in my rural situation. Still cheaper than my old ISP. So, AT&T you suck like nothing has sucked before. But I'm going to milk you dry with this $20 unlimited Mobley thing as long as I can. And then kick you to the curb.

Rob

 

[TractorGuy]

Same, and did chime in.

Sorry if I didn't see it but my question was has anyone else that purchased direct been billed for first and second month on the first bill? Looking back I don't find your response on that.

 

[davrow]

I prefer to put stuff like this on auto pay but won't until I can trust they are reliable and trust worthy.

Sorry, but based on that you will never go to autopay. AT&T is incompetent and does not care about individual customers. They are neither reliable (on the customer service/billing side) nor trustworthy. They happily lie to you to get you to pay them money or to get you off the phone.

 

[jcummins]

Sorry, but based on that you will never go to autopay. AT&T is incompetent and does not care about individual customers. They are neither reliable (on the customer service/billing side) nor trustworthy. They happily lie to you to get you to pay them money or to get you off the phone.

I 100% AGREE.

 

[aeblank]

Your confidence is cute, but you are incorrect.

Gosh, you make me blush. Condescension isn't needed.

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.

Unified device, sure.
Why does the WAN *have* to have a public IP? It can be given another private IP by the att network.
I do exactly this with my mobley and another router to add more devices/wired devices. I'm double NAT'ing. It's nobody's favorite thing to do, but it works most of the time anyway.

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:

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.

Sure, whatismyip. There in lies my proof.

Previous to the mobley, I had AT&T data-only SIM (so, same service, 3.5x more expensive). I then used a fancy "industrial" Bandrich router (from mispot, who went out of business). The whatismyip website did NOT match the WAN that my router gave me. What other conclusion is there than me *not* having a public IP? When I had ISDN, I had port forwarding and dynamic DNS working great. I'm not a novice. With att, I port forwarded and everything else, just like previous, and could not EVER connect from outside. I tried different ports, since AT&T (dsl, anyway) is rather gestapo-like in that regard, and still no dice.

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.)

I agree mostly, I just disagree that the mobley is where the public/private happens.

I will say that it's been a few years (long enough for my driver's licence on file with att to expire) since I messed with this. I WANT to be wrong. If you or anyone "out there" is successfully port forwarding / dyndns-ing with att, especially this plan, I'd certainly listen. Obviously one of us has to be wrong, and like I said, I'd prefer that it be me.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

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

Sorry if I didn't see it but my question was has anyone else that purchased direct been billed for first and second month on the first bill? Looking back I don't find your response on that.

Was billed partial first month, then the full following month on same bill. I was near end of month, si wasnt much more. My old isp, cell phone, sat tv all bill a month in advance, thats pretty standard.

Looked at first bill, was for 1 day, and the next month, but not due till middle of next month, so by time they get paid, you are half thru the month.
I had really bad autopay with xm, to the point i will never have their service again.