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

[the old grind]

Does anyone else shop online to find most sites showing "My Store" in another State? (Win 7 Ult, FF browser) I'm not in Philadelphia, Southern Ohio, Massachusetts, Georgia, or 100 miles away on the shores of Lake Michigan, but struggle to prove it electronically. I've set my browser to delete cookies when closing, but I leave my browser open between frequent MS-forced reboots ever since they "no longer support" my OS.

AT&T is masking my location by connecting me to the net through some subnet somewhere else every other day. My phone carrier does similar. Apple won't let me reset my password even if I'm online and on the phone with support where their cursor guides my clicks through a request to reset pw and entering my info. They know my number is legit, just can't relate my location by the nearest cel tower. Of course I expect that to be the one I can see from my roof, but at least one in my county. :laughing: The fun of clicking OK to "location access" is often to see how far the requesting site is from finding out where I really am.

Meanwhile, I'm getting >6Mbs download and ~2Mb upload with AT&T and my unmolested Mobley. No router, no external antenna, and I could easily triple both speeds by tapping into open nets in the nabe with their permission. (For that I can/did use CCrane Super USB antenna which gets 4/5 signals from 5 houses along the road up front and all at least 100 yds from mine.

What kinda sucks is having a retailer (TSC, Advance Auto, etc) set a cookie for my location but not pick it up next session w/o having deleted it by closing FF. I suppose I could do a lot with a burn phone if someone couldn't tell what region I call from. Apple sucks, and I want no apps or other signups for junk and spam, but principle is principle, and IMO the internet is a dubious source of 'better living through technology'.

 

[BigBlue1]

If you're using a computer and a web browser the web site you're going to tries to figure out your location based on the network information available to it. That means the IP address of your ISP. With AT&T apparently I get assigned IP addresses for my phone and Mobley plan from Chicago even though I'm physically located in MN. There doesn't seem to be anything you can do about it other than use their 'find a store' tool on the web site to search for one near your zip code.

Rob

 

[Xfaxman]

Yep, I am in central Oklahoma, but the IP address is the Dallas Texas area.

The speed is dependant on the orientation and location of the Mobley inside the house. I can move it an inch and get a big change in speed. This shows what I am talking about using fast.com:

This is the best recently:

The speed also varies some without moving the Mobley.

 

[jcummins]

I had never used fast.com...i used speed test.com. SO using my Verizon cellphone I got the results below. Not sure the reason, but vastly different results. Fast... Ain't right, speed test is.

 

[DKCDKC]

I was unaware of the ATT Mobley until I read about it here. It looks interesting, but I'm not sure it has the power I want, or can broadcast wifi around the house. I gather the device doesn't have any way to plug it into a more powerful wireless router. I currently use Verizon Prepaid Unlimited received on a Mofi 4500 using a Wilson Wideband directional antenna. I get 5 bars on the Mofi consistently but the Internet speeds vary from 1 to 60 mbps, depending on the time of day... I guess depending on the other phone traffic on the tower. Generally it averages 3 to 8, with much more late at night. I pay $60 a month with autopay discount. the Mofi feeds my main computer via Ethernet and uses another Ethernet cable to feed a Netflix Powerline Extender which carries the signal about 50 feet or so to an old Netgear Nighthawk router in the living room that feeds a laptop, a few tablets and two smart TVs. We really can't stream videos on the TVs until 8 or so at night - the later the better. Verizon carries the warning about slowing speeds if you exceed 22 GB, but I've never really noticed it and we use a lot more than 22 GB. I actually took the Mofi into a Verizon store and had them put the sim card in, so they know exactly what I have. I just hope that the 5G stuff or something will take some of the load off the rural interstate cell tower I use so my speeds will get better. It seems complicated, but it works for me and sure beats the old DSL I had that never topped 1.5 Mbps.

 

[BigBlue1]

I had never used fast.com...i used speed test.com. SO using my Verizon cellphone I got the results below. Not sure the reason, but vastly different results. Fast... Ain't right, speed test is. View attachment 644214View attachment 644215

Fast.com is a speed test provided by Netflix. As such, the servers and content used to test resemble streaming video. Some cell phone providers limit video streaming speeds to conserve your data. For instance, AT&T has something called 'Stream Saver' which they enable by default on your phone line (or they used to). That caps your throughput to 5Mb/s on AT&T. Your phone provider may be doing something similar. If your provider offers a way to turn that streaming speed cap off (AT&T does) then you can try that and test again. Fast.com is pretty accurate overall, but it cannot help when your provider artificially limits things.

Rob

 

[BigBlue1]

I was unaware of the ATT Mobley until I read about it here. It looks interesting, but I'm not sure it has the power I want, or can broadcast wifi around the house. I gather the device doesn't have any way to plug it into a more powerful wireless router. I currently use Verizon Prepaid Unlimited received on a Mofi 4500 using a Wilson Wideband directional antenna. I get 5 bars on the Mofi consistently but the Internet speeds vary from 1 to 60 mbps, depending on the time of day... I guess depending on the other phone traffic on the tower. Generally it averages 3 to 8, with much more late at night. I pay $60 a month with autopay discount. the Mofi feeds my main computer via Ethernet and uses another Ethernet cable to feed a Netflix Powerline Extender which carries the signal about 50 feet or so to an old Netgear Nighthawk router in the living room that feeds a laptop, a few tablets and two smart TVs. We really can't stream videos on the TVs until 8 or so at night - the later the better. Verizon carries the warning about slowing speeds if you exceed 22 GB, but I've never really noticed it and we use a lot more than 22 GB. I actually took the Mofi into a Verizon store and had them put the sim card in, so they know exactly what I have. I just hope that the 5G stuff or something will take some of the load off the rural interstate cell tower I use so my speeds will get better. It seems complicated, but it works for me and sure beats the old DSL I had that never topped 1.5 Mbps.

It really doesn't matter at this point because the Mobley Connected Car plan hasn't been available to sign up for in a long time.

However, you can tether the Mobley to a router that accepts USB tethering. Many do that to get better wi-fi coverage.

Rob

 

[Xfaxman]

I just ran Speedtest and Fast on the Mobley:

And checked Stream Saver:

 

[TractorGuy]

Does anyone else shop online to find most sites showing "My Store" in another State? (Win 7 Ult, FF browser) I'm not in Philadelphia, Southern Ohio, Massachusetts, Georgia, or 100 miles away on the shores of Lake Michigan, but struggle to prove it electronically. I've set my browser to delete cookies when closing, but I leave my browser open between frequent MS-forced reboots ever since they "no longer support" my OS.

AT&T is masking my location by connecting me to the net through some subnet somewhere else every other day. My phone carrier does similar. Apple won't let me reset my password even if I'm online and on the phone with support where their cursor guides my clicks through a request to reset pw and entering my info. They know my number is legit, just can't relate my location by the nearest cel tower. Of course I expect that to be the one I can see from my roof, but at least one in my county. :laughing: The fun of clicking OK to "location access" is often to see how far the requesting site is from finding out where I really am.

Meanwhile, I'm getting >6Mbs download and ~2Mb upload with AT&T and my unmolested Mobley. No router, no external antenna, and I could easily triple both speeds by tapping into open nets in the nabe with their permission. (For that I can/did use CCrane Super USB antenna which gets 4/5 signals from 5 houses along the road up front and all at least 100 yds from mine.

What kinda sucks is having a retailer (TSC, Advance Auto, etc) set a cookie for my location but not pick it up next session w/o having deleted it by closing FF. I suppose I could do a lot with a burn phone if someone couldn't tell what region I call from. Apple sucks, and I want no apps or other signups for junk and spam, but principle is principle, and IMO the internet is a dubious source of 'better living through technology'.

The easiest way to deal with this is to create accounts for the sites you shop at. Set your browser to remember your logins. If you want to have it delete cookies you just have to log back in when you go to the site.

 

[kcflhrc]

Running a speed test wireless is going to give you skewed results. Turn the wireless off and then run a wired test for actual results.