I don't know if this will help, but I recently started to take advantage of the cellular data plan that I'd been buying from T-Mobile for well over a year. The local monopoly cable company, Time Warner, was terrible. Like all monopolies, a bad product and worse customer service. I'd call for their semi-weekly outage (I'm in town, not some rural area) and I'd get the run around. After 60 such outages, yes, I know to turn my computer off and then back on again! Once, a young woman told me, "Sorry, I don't know much about computer stuff." To which I replied, "Is that why you're answering the technical support line for a high speed internet service provider?" After the cable company monopoly, I tried the internet service from the local telephone company monopoly. Better is a relative term. Not as bad as Time Warner, I'd rate them a lighter shade of awful. The last straw was back in June when they told me that the cheap DSL modems they supply that are only good for a year or less are no longer included in the high priced service and they were going to charge me $7 more per month on my "guaranteed never to increase in price" locked-in-for-life plan.
Fortunately, I got in early on the T-Mobile data plan that's truly unlimited on the mobile devices. The 4G LTE mobile data is way faster than Time Warner, way WAY faster than DSL from Windstream, and FAR more reliable than either. If a cell tower is hit by lightening or has any other problem, the next closest cell tower takes over seamlessly. There are apparently no single point failure modes and so far they've been 100% reliable. Since the switch, I have used my large screen phone for videos, but I actually prefer that. My wife and I have unlimited data to the phones and 7GB a month on each of the phones for tethering to our computers for email, web browsing, occasional YouTubage, etc. In addition, I bought a mobile hotspot for around $50 and I think I'm paying $10 a month for 5GB of mobile data on the hot spot. If all you need is occasional high speed data (fast, but not very often), then a mobile hot spot may be your best solution. Tethering on the phones shuts down and needs to be restarted, but I leave the hot spot connected via WiFi to my Linux notebook PC all the time, and it's also connected to a WiFi adapter to put my big laser printer on the hot spot's WiFi network. Caveats: T-Mobile apparently no longer offers the unlimited data plan for phones. That's a great deal. The hot spot data plans are much more expensive on a per GB basis, but not a deal breaker if you need occasional high bandwidth internet service. If your machine is buried deep in a metal building, or you're running a machine shop in a pole barn 20 miles from the nearest cell tower, you may not get cellular data. Pros: Cell phone companies may be a bit weaselly but they are competing for your business so you aren't dealing with the customer hostile jerks at the cable company or the phone company. 4G LTE data is fast and reliable. Cellular data tethering is awesome. I love having the internet in my pocket. I no longer need to run ethernet cable to my LinuxCNC machines in the shop. I carry a WiFi USB dongle in my pocket (they finally make a good one that's Linux plug-n-play), and I use my cell phone to connect the CNC machine to the internet only when I need to download an update... or watch YouTube videos while machining. :-) I don't know if any of that helps with your problem, but I hope so. I do know that I've been very happy to be free of Time Warner and Windstream. I'd tell you what I really think of them, but this is a family friendly email list. I now have faster and more reliable service, no hassles, and I'm saving about $50 per month. On 10/17/2015 04:20 PM, Dave Cole wrote: > I need a fast connection as we want to be able to do remote video and > also do debugging of the PLC control remotely via the comm link with the > help of a remote video camera. > > One problem that I am having is that Sprint wants to control what device > I use. They literally offer one device at a time and the last one was > a 4G router that only supports VPN Passthrough even though they were > "sure" that it would support a site to site VPN connection. > I don't want to have two remote routers or boxes in the cabinet. Cost is > not a problem. The Netgear 6100D I have used is $200 and that is > considered very cheap. $600 would not be out of line if it can do what > we want and has a fairly wide temperature range. This device will be in > a box mounted outside. > > I can't use OpenVPN because there is no PC or server at the remote site. > > A GSM solution with AT&T would be ideal if they have sufficient coverage > since swapping out the 4G router would only require swapping the SIM > card instead of going through the ridiculous device activation routine > that Sprint and Verizon requires. > > I think that AT&T will be my next call. I've pretty much run out of > patience with Sprint. > > Thanks, > > Dave > > On 10/16/2015 11:50 PM, Tom Easterday wrote: >> You didn't say what kind of throughput you need nor what your budget is but >> one option is something like a Cisco RV320 on each end with 4G modems >> attached. You can see a review of the router here: >> >> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-reviews/32317-cisco-rv320-dual-gigabit-wan-vpn-router-reviewed?limitstart=0 >> >> There is also a you tube video on configuring the modem: >> http://youtu.be/RXerRGEZFEI >> >> I recommended the RV180 for a friend's business that needed sts vpn (over >> public internet, not over cellular) and it worked well for him and he said >> it was easy for them to set up and use. >> >> There are of course other more diy setups using cell phones with tethering >> and using OpenVPN or such on your own processors. But you have to be >> careful as carriers may try to limit or block always on use of tethering and >> data plans may not fit your requirements. Or you get some cellular wifi >> hotspots and use them with OpenVPN. >> See: >> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/other/security/security-howto/30353-how-to-set-up-a-site-to-site-vpn-with-openvpn >> >>> On Oct 16, 2015, at 3:08 PM, Dave Cole <linuxcncro...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> Key points - need help with a data cell phone connection to remote >>> equipment via a VPN. >>> >>> Guys, >>> >>> I'm working with some remotely located equipment and I need to establish >>> a comm link to it. >>> >>> We have decided to go with a cell phone data connection. We want to be >>> able to remotely access this equipment via a "site to site" VPN. >>> This is different than a client/server VPN connection that people >>> oftentimes use to connect back to corporate headquarters for email, file >>> sharing etc. >>> >>> The remote equipment is ethernet based but it is not a generic PC, it's >>> a PLC. So I need the remote cell phone modem/router to do all of the >>> work of encrypting the data, establishing the VPN tunnel, etc. It needs >>> to be a VPN Router with a 4G modem built in that supports a "site to >>> site connection" and not just be a Router with VPN passthrough. >>> >>> Sprint sells a Netgear 6100D 4G router that is suppose to do this. I >>> bought it and then Sprint told me that they will not support remote >>> access on this device! >>> >>> Does anyone have any experience in doing this? I've been talking to >>> "experts" at Sprint and they want me to use a Sprint approved 4G >>> cell/router that only supports VPN pass through after I have told them >>> over and over that I need to do a site to site VPN with their 4G router >>> acting as a VPN endpoint. >>> >>> Sadly, they don't understand the requirements. >>> >>> Ironically, TP Link sells a "wired" VPN router for about $60 that does >>> what I need, so I could "stack" routers to do what I need, but I really >>> don't want to have two routers in the remote control box. >>> >>> There are some really brilliant people on this list so I am hoping that >>> someone can give me some advice/direction etc. >>> >>> Thank You! >>> >>> Dave >>> >>> --- >>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. >>> https://www.avast.com/antivirus >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Emc-developers mailing list >>> emc-develop...@lists.sourceforge.net >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> _______________________________________________ >> Emc-developers mailing list >> emc-develop...@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
