My solution for internet. (For the technically inclined).

[tetranz]

To add a note to this which also applies to other setups where phones or tablets are tethered semi-permanently via USB.

As someone pointed out to me today, it has the problem of overcharging the battery, eventually causing it to "bubble" which pretty much destroys it and maybe even explode

I'm looking into that. Putting my electronic hobbyist hat on, I though it might be possible to switch off the power on the USB so the battery could cycle properly but apparently the data doesn't work without the power on. That kind of makes sense. The power voltage is what tells the phone including the data circuitry that the USB is plugged in.

I think if the power was current limited rather than completely switch off there is probably a point at which the battery is not charging but the data still works. I haven't really searched for it yet but it sounds like a device that someone might be producing. More research required.

[OLYLEN]

Seems like a lot of trouble. Ran 2 computers with blue tooth at the same time from hot spot. Was depending on 4G speed. Now 5G. appears to be a lot of trouble for ????

[PbdBlue]

Originally Posted by tetranz

To add a note to this which also applies to other setups where phones or tablets are tethered semi-permanently via USB.

As someone pointed out to me today, it has the problem of overcharging the battery, eventually causing it to "bubble" which pretty much destroys it and maybe even explode

I'm looking into that. Putting my electronic hobbyist hat on, I though it might be possible to switch off the power on the USB so the battery could cycle properly but apparently the data doesn't work without the power on. That kind of makes sense. The power voltage is what tells the phone including the data circuitry that the USB is plugged in.

I think if the power was current limited rather than completely switch off there is probably a point at which the battery is not charging but the data still works. I haven't really searched for it yet but it sounds like a device that someone might be producing. More research required.

I run the ZTE A7 on usb power. After it fully charges it goes into battery protect mode and maintains the charge level at around 65%.

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by OLYLEN

Seems like a lot of trouble. Ran 2 computers with blue tooth at the same time from hot spot. Was depending on 4G speed. Now 5G. appears to be a lot of trouble for ????

Yeah but don't most plans have rather limited hotspot data compared to often "unlimited" device data? EasyTether makes it all device data. Rightly or wrongly, it kind of turns other plans into a "Visible".

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by PbdBlue

I run the ZTE A7 on usb power. After it fully charges it goes into battery protect mode and maintains the charge level at around 65%.

I did some more reading about it and it seems like any decent phone should do something like that. That said, if the number on the screen means anything, the cheap Samsung Galaxy I'm using stays at "Fully charged". I disconnect it at night and use it as a bedside radio so it's probably okay. I noticed after some long Zoom meetings this morning it was down to 60%. I guess the power from the Pi only barely keeps up when the phone is working hard.

A friend of mine says he destroyed two phones like that. I don't know what sort of phones they were.

[boyland]

Originally Posted by tetranz

Visible is very much a mixed bag. I won't repeat it but here's my experience from a few weeks ago. https://www.irv2.com/forums/f53/visi...ml#post5503842

Based upon reading your experience i think you should says visible and verizon at the location you tested both worked poorly because of prioritization.

To point out visible as the cause seemed like over generalization as well as a single location.

I have used visible and verizon side by side for some time. I posted in the $40 thread my experience with transferring service which was a train wreck but as far as using as stand alone service the only time i have seen difference is if 4g was not available post paid had extremely slow internet but did have phone and text while visible had no service.

I will say this in nearly all cases the verison post has had faster peak service while visible has had acceptable service generally always faster than the published 5m speed cap. generally in the 8-12 range.

I used a tether service like this one in the past only to eventually have the service cut by the carriers. PDAnet was one we used for years then they cut it i see now it is back... But anyways i think the easytether pda options are great until they are not.

[mike625]

Originally Posted by tetranz

I just wrote a blog post about my possible solution for internet connectivity in the RV.

https://databurst.medium.com/running...4-3804a2bc9447

It's conceptually similar to the $40 (or $25) per month thread on this forum using Visible but more flexible in terms of what plans it can use and it really is a bit of a geeky project.

Thanks for the write up - I have a couple of PI running doing different things

Just adding info on a PI case that I really like because it move all the connections to the back side -

Argon ONE Case with 4GB Raspberry Pi 4
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082DY9D74/ref=dp_prsubs_2

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by boyland

Based upon reading your experience i think you should says visible and verizon at the location you tested both worked poorly because of prioritization.

To point out visible as the cause seemed like over generalization as well as a single location.

I think we generally agree there. I'm just saying it's a mixed bag. The performance you get on Visible might vary greatly by time and place probably more than other plans.

Originally Posted by boyland

I used a tether service like this one in the past only to eventually have the service cut by the carriers. PDAnet was one we used for years then they cut it i see now it is back... But anyways i think the easytether pda options are great until they are not.

Yeah, we'll see how it goes. I think the VPN gives it a better chance of surviving. Unless the EasyTether app has some sort of detectable fingerprint then I don't think they can tell. I'm not sure it's breaking TOS anyway although I'm sure they wouldn't be thrilled about it. They can't see browser user-agent strings or what DNS servers I'm using or any of the other usual tell tail signs. Of course an unreasonable amount of traffic will no doubt raise a flag eventually.

The whole "what you can get away with" question seems to be a bit of a random hit and miss affair. There are people on the likes of ltehacks.com with phone SIMs in routers, doing nothing particularly special, who regularly do a 1 TB per month while others on the same plan report getting cut off at a few hundred GB.

There seems to be lots of people running Visible SIMs in routers and it's working well for them. It's anyone's guess how long that will last but maybe Visible / Verizon really don't care.

[boyland]

Just for the record i have the following services
Verizon post paid for phones

Verizon prepaid hot spot unlimited plan when they offered it we got the plan

ATT mobley plan that was offered long ago
Visible plan

ATT ipad plan that has not been cancelled but i likely will cancel in the near term as i read if you go over 200 mb in a week they cancel. I have not even had the service on for a while.

Fiber at the S&B

The reason i have visible is i have cameras at my lake house that i use this plan for check internet service to support my security system otherwise i would not probably have this plan at this point because of my other services if i did not have this need.

My daughter uses the mobley plan as her sole internet service she travels as well.

we use the verizon plan as our traveling plan along with the ATT ipad plan if needed but we have not needed in any recent travels. Used to bring the visible plan but stopped when i put at the lake for cameras fall of this year.

I guess my point if i had to trim to 1 plan i would probably keep the prepay verizon but if that had not been available i would use the visible plan along with using my post paid phone as a backup with the pdnet/easytether option.

but i like the options all of them

[boyland]

i will be curios to see the easytether results the gli routers. I have not tried this yet but would make a decent additional option.

I am not going to have time do much experimentation over the next couple of months if no one has tried by late January i will try messing with it.