Internet Problem Solution? Part 4

A couple of months ago I started what turned out to be a series about my internet problems. I have Windstream, and they only offer 1.5Mbps top speed. Where I live. During a routine search for wireless internet I found a Sprint plan that offers 100GB of data for $60/month. Soon afterward, YouTube recommended a video that led me to Visible, a cell phone company owned by Verizon that offers unlimited, $25/month 4G LTE data with no throttling to 2G. There's no data cap. It's truly unlimited. The closest to a throttle is a 5Mbps cap for people who use their phones as mobile hotspots, which is why I want it. Even throttled, 5Mbps is 3.3 times faster than Windstream's top speed. Where I live. However, the throttle seems to be for people in cities where high network traffic is a problem. People outside a city, like me, are reporting not being throttled. After more than a month of usage, I'm not being throttled.

At first I used a combination of Windstream and Visible, switching back and forth because I didn't have a wifi router that could bridge my home network to the internet through Visible alone. I could connect with my PC but not my other devices. Visible allows one device to be connected to the phone at a time. I got a router. Everything runs through that now. I've been using Visible only for over a week now. It would have been longer, but Verizon did some network maintenance for a week, and I ended up using Windstream for over a week then. Plus, I knew I would have to reset my smart devices to the new network, and that's a big pain. I dragged my feet on that.

When I first set up my Visible phone as a hotspot, I had it in the window nearest my PC. A 1.59GB software update that normally takes three to four hours took 48 minutes. It was amazing, but the speed in that window was inconsistent. I was getting mostly in the 4Mbps to 6Mbps range with lower speeds and spikes to around 10 to 12. I took my phone to other windows but could only get the same number of bars. I started looking at signal boosters. As part of that, I had to download a couple of apps. One tells me which cell phone band I'm on, band 13. The other tells me signal strength. I tested the signal outside, looking for a spot where a booster might go. It was disappointing. On a whim I tested the windows nearest my PC. I discovered that if I moved the phone to different places in the windows the signal strength changed. I found this one spot in this one window where the signal went from OK to Good. The first speed test was 28.4Mbps. Wow!

Sadly, I don't get that speed during normal usage. What I do get varies by time of the evening. The later it is the faster it is. One night late I downloaded a software package and was getting a range of 18MBps to 22Mbps with spikes up to 24 and dips down to just under 16. Mostly, it was 18 to 22. Last night earlier in the evening, I had a software update that was downloading at around 9Mbps and below with instances of 11 or so. It was the same one that took 48 minutes in the original window but only took about 30 or less this time. I could get faster, more reliable speeds by getting a $100+ signal booster. I might do that after the next stimulus plan, especially if I replace my current cell phone with a Visible one. My current cell phone plan costs $15/month. Switching would cost an extra $10/month and give me unlimited data with no caps. A booster would give me a good signal to take advantage of that. I usually get a poor signal away from a window.

If I got a signal booster, I think I would be getting around 40Mbps. That assumes I only get three bars. I could get 5. People near towers report speeds of 37Mbps to 78Mbps. The booster would likely be in a spot that gets two bars. Boosters typically raise the signal strength by at least one bar. It depends on local conditions. There's a hill between me and the tower. I'm estimating at least one more bar. However, I'd have to buy a booster to know for sure. The booster antenna is far larger than a cell phone antenna.

So, going from 1.5Mbps Windstream to 10Mbps to 22MBps 4G LTE is totally doable. Pages load faster. I didn't realize how slowly pages were loading until now. Downloads are faster. I can count it in minutes instead of hours. The whole internet experience is better, and I actually save time not waiting on pages to load.

However, it's not perfect. DSL is always on. Cell data isn't. DSL speed is consistent. Cell data isn't. But. These are minor inconveniences compared to the benefits. Speed is way better. Visible costs $25/month. Windstream costs about $98/month. Something that happens when I first turn on the computer is that it'll connect to the internet and then lose connection. I reconnect manually, and it's fine after that. Sometimes it works right away without a reconnect. Sometimes the reconnect happens later in the evening. Sometimes I never have to reconnect. Once reconnected, it's very much like having DSL as far as begin always on. I don't have to wait to establish a cellular connection for every site. It's so seamless I forget it's a cellular network. And I don't know for sure the reconnect problem isn't the router. It's a small travel router that I'm using in bridge mode.

The only other real "problem" is that I run my network through a cell phone, and hotspot usage burns a lot of battery even with a 5,000Mah battery. I'm used to having my smart devices always on, but I'm thinking about turning the hotspot off when I'm sleeping in order to save battery life. I have to charge it every day to day and a half. I wouldn't care about the battery, but I have a Moto G7 Power with a non-removable one. To replace it, I'd have to buy a special kit. The process isn't rocket science, but that step where I'd have to microwave a bean bag thingy to place on the phone to loosen the glue inside kind of bothers me. I may end up doing that anyway just for the convenience.

One note about data usage. Visible is truly unlimited, but it's supposed to be cell phone data not home internet data, although they claim they don't care if phones are used as hotspots. Nevertheless, I'm being careful not to abuse the data privilege, especially since it's not throttled to 5Mbps like it's supposed to be. :) The phone I got from them is used for internet only. I still have my regular cell phone. What I'm thinking about doing is upgrading my phone to a Visible phone and using each phone as my internet connection two weeks out of the month. The reasoning behind that is that regardless of what Visible, which is owned by Verizon, says they're tracking high data users. The standard trigger for problem users is 60GB/month. My estimated monthly data usage falls between 40GB to 60GB. I use at least a GB a day or more, not counting software updates. If I split that between two phones, it would be really hard to hit that trigger. I could use up to 120GB and not worry about it.

This is probably the last blog in this series. Despite the battery quirk and the reconnect quirk, it's so wonderful to have a decent internet speed at home first time.

Have a great weekend.

UPDATE: July 31, 2020
The disconnection problem turned out to be an old, 2.4GHz USB network card I was using that I bought in 2015 but never actually needed until now. Since I've replaced it with a new, 5GHz capable USB card, I don't get disconnected soon after I turn the computer on any more. It connects automatically and stays connected just like DSL.I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the new USB network card and the travel router I'm using are both TP-Link products. They work well together.