On 06/15/2017 03:13 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote: > On Thu, 15 Jun 2017 14:40:58 -0500 > Richard Owlett <[email protected]> dijo: > >> About a year ago my local ISP terminated dial-up service and was not >> marketing wideband to home users. I decided against any type of >> fixed >> point of service (i.e. telco, cable, or satellite). I looked for a >> "cell network modem" (proper term?). The closest thing I could find >>from a provider with a physically local presence was the Z915. Having >> only 1 machine I have no use for its WiFi capability. For connecting >> to the internet the hardware aspects are fine. My OS is Debian >> Stretch. > > I have a Note 3 phone, originally T-Mobile, now MetroPCS. MetroPCS has > always had a deal with T-Mobile to use their network, and now MetroPCS > is owned by T-Mobile. > > It used to be that you had to pay extra to use your phone (or modem) > as a hotspot, but about a year ago someone told me that there is no > longer an extra charge.
The Z915 is explicitly a Hotspot - It has *NO* voice capability. > I pay $30 a month for 5GB of data, and using my phone > as a hotspot is included. > > Recently I had a problem with my new Centurylink gigabit fiber > connection - no connection at all. Of course this occurred on a Friday > night, too late to get anyone by phone. Have you ever tried to > communicate with Centurylink when you have no net connection? > > Eventually I figured out how to turn my phone into a hotspot. > My laptop saw the hotspot, but could not connect to it. I was tearing > my hair out > when it dawned on me to try a physical connection. I charge my phone > with a USB cable from my laptop, so I just plugged it in. Voilà! I was > on the net. And it wasn't even terribly slow. I never did figure out > why my laptop couldn't connect to the hotspot by wifi. > > Once I had a connection I was able to get Centurylink to schedule a > service call, although the earliest they could do was Monday. Knowing > that I had only 5GB of high speed data I turned off everything that > might use a lot of data. Over the weekend I used the connection just > for e-mail and browsing the web. Once my fiber connection was restored > I turned off the hotspot and checked my data usage on the phone - I > had used only 400MB over the weekend. I typically use approximately 800-900 MB per *MONTH* ;/ > > The point I want to make is that I did it with just my now several > years old phone. So why do you need the Z915? Does it give you extra > benefits? Yes, I've a real computer with a real screen and keyboard. YMMV LOL And no one has convinced me that a smart(sic) phone is an adequate substitute for a telephone. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
