by daveesl77 » Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:12 am
Verizon or T-Mobile unlimited internet doesn't add any cost to the system, as long as you have a cell signal. If you have an Android 4.4 or earlier phone, then you can use the PDANet/FoxFi app ($10 forever cost) and turn the phone into it's own wifi hotspot. After version 4.4 of Android, you can no longer do this without rooting the phone. Activate the "Hide Tether" option and the carrier doesn't know what you are doing. Also, if you have the OLD ORIGINAL Verizon unlimited plan, you are allowed to tether, jump, or whatever your system with no hassles allowed by Federal law from Verizon. However...
If you have a newer/OS, since the Android system blocks out the App's wifi system, then use the Easytether app ($10 forever cost) and tether the phone to essentially any computer (or any --WRT enabled router with a USB port). You then have a tethered connection through the USB port. PDANet works also this way, but will not work on a Linux system, only Easytether works with essentially every CPU and operating system around.
Next step - turn on the "network sharing feature" of the computer. This works well with a Raspberry PI3 or laptop. Then you have the phone tethered to the Pi by USB, and in turn spit out the signal through the built-in wifi system of the computer. If you have a USB/WRT enabled router, you can do the same thing. The one caveat to this is that you cannot set up a VPN on the computer side, but you can on the phone side, so all traffic is routed through your VPN, if you want.
With a VPN, your carrier has no idea if you are watching netflix or downloading plans to the death star or chatting with the guys on your favorite romantic comedy movie. No matter what, you should always use a VPN.
My new personal favorite "date night/romantic comedy" is Atomic Blonde. Just a laugh out loud rollicking show of some fun folks partying in Berlin. Ok, it is actually a really gory, nothing but sex and violence action movie. I loved it!
Anyway, back to tech land, doing it this way, your carrier doesn't charge you more. Your service isn't tanked if watching movies. I often run a tethered system, as it is way faster than my Comcast cable system, when I'm downloading large files or when Comcast makes me mad and I drop them for a few months.
dave