I’ve had no Wi-Fi since Feb. 2023 or so and while it’s been a pain at times, I still haven’t caved into returning to the evil monopoly that is Spectrum, so far, and probably won’t for as long as I can’t land a remote job. ArrowDL, while not perfect, has been pretty good at download management for the most part.
There was a time some years ago where I didn’t have wifi for several months. It was sometimes a hassle, sometimes oddly enjoyable and peaceful. Now it’s no longer an option for me, but I do sometimes just turn off the router and put devices into airplane mode on the weekends. But it’s not the same if you can so easily undo it.
Rationing? In today’s day and age? I have unlimited mobile data with Visible for $25/mo. It even has unlimited (slow, 5 Mbps) tethering.
If you use a cheap VPN (I use Mullvad), your video bitrate doesn’t get throttled. But the tethered device also needs to be signed in on the VPN because WiFi tethering on the phone doesn’t use the phone’s VPN, at least on Android.
If you use Android, and you’re clever, you can USB tether to a properly-configured Raspberry Pi using EasyTether, and have that give WiFi to all your devices at full speed. I have a 4k Apple TV, and I get 4k video on my $25/mo plan.
Looks like they have a new $35 plan that doubles the WiFi tethering speed (to a whopping 10 Mbps) and allows 1080p video without needing a VPN. That sorta seems like a sweet spot for price vs. hassle.
Nice strategies. I used to use EasyTether when it had a free plan. For some time I more recently used TetherFi as it’s free and open-source. I generally prefer FOSS nowadays even if it presents a greater hassle.
I’m all for FOSS. Thanks for letting me know about TetherFi. However, what do you mean about an EasyTether “plan”? Do they no longer charge a flat $10 for the app?
Oops, maybe I’m thinking of something else or mis-remembered; my bad!
I don’t do that and that seems pretty extreme to me - since most mobile hotspots are going to throttle you after a certain limit (even if they purportedly offer unlimited data). However, I understand the desire.
TV Shows and Movies
If you pay for streaming services, you might want to consider “sailing the high seas” (torrenting). Cancelling streaming services, pirating content, and then using the savings to pay for Spectrum might provide a better overall experience. If it’s not cost effective to do that, you should still consider torrenting at a public coffee shop or something to that effect (with a VPN). You can use Jellyfin to host your torrented content.
Gaming
A cheap Raspberry Pi and some peripheral controllers can be used to host a lot of fun retro games which you can play locally at home. I’m assuming modern games are too slow to download over a hotspot.
Pictures
You can host Immich locally and backup photos and videos on your phone over your local intranet. It was super easy for me to setup.
I no longer torrent because I don’t want to catch malware or get activity warnings, and I want to try to do things legally. That is where the library, Hoopla Digital, Libby, and Kanopy come in. I’ve also moved quite a bit to FOSS. The most illegal I’ll typically go is /c/FullMoviesOnYouTube haha. Even then, I try to not do that much and just use NewPipe to download content.
I’m assuming modern games are too slow to download over a hotspot.
It depends on your throttle speed; typically >1 GB would be painful, but actually playing online is surprisingly doable for efficient games. I even played Hazelight Studios’ Split Fiction with a friend through a phone hotspot with no problem even in the throttled speed!
Immich may be new to me, or I forgot about it… Thanks for sharing.
I’ve tried the threatening to leave phone calls but it does nothing. I’ve considered doing cellular.
I need my IP for my public sites and gaming. Everything else idc.
Yeah, you have to be ready to actually leave and not just bluff. I can tell you straight-up that once I actually left for a month, they started to send multiple come-back letters slashing my price to almost half. The fact that they could have simply been charging me less the entire time with no problem was what pissed me off enough to try to keep going without Wi-Fi and now it’s been over 2 years and counting. I’ve visited a lot of interesting libraries as a direct result!
What games are so specific as to require the same IP? If you can try lasting just a month, they will absolutely offer you discount deal to return.
That’s awesome! Especially that it has got you to visit libraries more.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I prefer my current ISP because for some reason they haven’t changed my IP in almost a year which makes my selfhosting run more smoothly for my public sites. I also need internet for gaming, being able to VPN into my network, and for P2P.
I could live with using my phone for gaming but idk what I would do for my websites, VPN access, and P2P traffic.
Oh, yeah, running multiple public sites could definitely present a challenge. This may not be doable, then…
I’m a year+ with no home Internet. I do not ration my mobile data though. I have unlimited phone data, and I use a hacky program to connect my mobile wifi to my computer.
I didn’t need to be online 24/7 so it works fine for me.
Is your data truly unlimited with no throttled tier? When I hit US Mobile’s tier, anything >720p becomes unusable on a practical level until the next month and I just deal with it. Of course, I’m also paying <$20/month.
I have T-Mobile. They throttle hotspot after a small amount, i think its 5gb. With the app I use it hides the hotspot from the carrier, and even Microsoft (which stops it from auto restarting updates). So to the carrier im just using my unlimited cell data alot.
It’s janky though and can cut out at any moment . Sometimes it’ll stay connected for an hour, sometimes i have to reconnect every few minutes. But it’s worth it, i can dl games and stream movies.
Haha, is it TetherFi? TetherFi can do this masking, but it doesn’t (or at least didn’t) allow connectivity with certain programs that use UDP, like Telegram Desktop, Unigram, and Signal Desktop, which was kind of a pain for me since Signal has no web interface.
My current hotspot-limit bypass method actually just involves an old Android phone that happens to somehow not get picked up by US Mobile’s hotspot-checking; I found this out purely by accident, which is why I went with an annual plan with them, haha. By the way, I used to use T-Mobile and it also cut out, but US Mobile is a supercarrier that has SIMs with all satellite networks; my connection is nearly flawless on Dark Star, which is their internal name for the AT&T network. Perhaps you might like to consider that in the future!
I use pda dot net. Daisy chaining phones sounds interesting
Oh yeah, I had tried PDA, too. I can’t remember why, but I think because it worked identically to TetherFi, I returned to TF probably because it’s open-source. (But with my old phone’s hotspot feature getting miscategorized as normal mobile data usage, I just treat a second phone as a hotspot, haha—and not as primary due to its inferior stats as an older, budget phone, ironically enough.)
Ironically this is my spectrum bill the past few months. They send a letter saying they are upgrading the speed at no charge. Then a few months later the bill goes up.
Nov 2024. $60
Dec 2024. $70
Jan 2025. $70
Feb 2025. $73
Mar 2025. $73
Apr 2o25. $93!!
Sounds like you were prorated for a plan change on the Apr amount.
Same. I call every year to threaten disconnection so they lower it back down. I can’t wait for goole fiber to be available in my area. Otherwise it’s AT&T.
DRAM - WiFi (feat. Erykah Badu)
I switched to a home-oriented 5G system from T-Mobile. The price was decent for my area ($50/month), and most importantly, Spectrum got nothing from me.
Before that, my wife and I would use our phone hotspots for internet (Visible has plans that have unlimited throttled hotspot). The speed was capped at 5Mbit/s, but it was enough for us (and was only $25/month/phone at the time).
I’ve since moved back to Canada and am using a reseller (Oxio), which has been great so far.
Dang, got my hopes up I could move from my provider for a good price, but alas it’s not available in my area yet.
Dang, 5MB throttled is insanely high! Hmm…
I’m sorry, what?
Are you confusing wifi with internet? Wifi is free. It costs nothing. Internet is a different story. You can have wifi without internet, and you can have internet without wifi. They are not the same thing.
I said “Wi-Fi at home,” specifically, for Internet access. That service is normally never free, unless you have an incredible agreement or contract of some sort. Why bother to be pedantic if you get the gist of what I mean? Also, you didn’t answer the question.
Because the question made no sense since wifi is free, and has nothing to do with internet. Education on the terms, when asking for help provides better answers.
Saying wifi does not work could mean, the wifi doesn’t work, or it could mean the Internet doesn’t work. Both are very different and have different forms of diagnostics.
Because the question made no sense since wifi is free, and has nothing to do with internet.
So you’re just dumb or playing dumb to make a stupid point?
Words have meaning, don’t change the meaning and expect to be understood properly. At the end of the day, it’s your problem when you’re given wrong advice and screw things up because you didn’t understand the proper terminology, and the stupidly fought people who tried to correct you so you.
Home wifi means home Internet you ass, and you know it. Touch fields of grass.
Trees for the forest.
I think it is colloquial at this point. No sense being pedantic.
No, it’s not, and yes being peda tix about terms is important. It’s education.
I have an internal wifi network for devices that don’t have internet access. I also have a wifi network that is connected to the Internet.
My wifi doesn’t work…figure out what the heck is wrong.
No, it’s not, and yes being peda tix about terms is important. It’s education.
Bro can’t spell in his own semantics argument.
Blame shit phones and trash auto correct.
aChuAlly they’re called smartphones, not shit phones
Go lay down.
I have an internal wifi network for devices that don’t have internet access.
What kinds of devices are these? Surely you must know that I’m talking about the general public’s phones, laptops, and desktops—not specialized use cases.
Laptops, desktops and servers, automation hardware. My comment was more educational, not a personal attack or anything. Just wanting the correct terms to be used. ISPs have done a great job uneducating people is all.
It’s like saying your electricity is out, when you mean lightbulb is broken. People would say call an electrician, when in reality you just need to address the bulb and not the entire houses electrical system.
Are you stupid? No one says thier electic is out when a bulb is out. They mean thier entire electric is out.
No. They are clearly understanding the difference.
Obviously they don’t.
We purposely didn’t add wifi to our home. It would be an expensive way to give up more of our privacy. It used to bug me, but now I’m used to not having it.
Wifi doesn’t cost anything monthly. It’s a 1 time cost for a device like an access point and it’s cheap. Are you confusing wifi with internet?
You just have to reply to everyone with this comment don’t you. What’re you hoping to achieve?
Education. Wifi is NOT internet and can lead to wrong or misleading answers and wastes people’s time.
Everyone except you two understands what is being said. No reason to correct unless you misunderstand their incorrect use of the term as misunderstanding what they pay for.
If someone says they eschew “wifi”, I assume they have internet, just no wireless in the home.
Have we gone so low-tech in our vocabulary that “wifi” now means “internet”?! Those are separate things, not a picky distinction.
Don’t even bother with the moron anymore. He’s trolling at this point.
Words have meaning. Don’t change the meaning and expect to be understood when asking for help.
Do you correct someone who says Vaseline but means petroleum jelly? Or Kleenex but means tissues? Or Google to mean an online search. The average person uses wifi to mean internet.This is how language works bozo. You should sign up for the Académie Française. They appreciate people with your sort of outlook.
This isn’t brands were referring too. Internet and wifi are subjectively different things.
It would be the same as saying ‘give me oil so I can moisturize my skin’ when you meant petroleum jelly, or Vaseline .
Or, ‘hand me a towel to blow me nose’ when you meant Kleenex or tissues.
(The towel one doesn’t really apply, but it’s just as stupid)
Can you imagine asking someone to help you with your house electricity when the bulb is burnt? Electricity goes through the light bulb…but they aren’t the same thing and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who would give you proper answers like…change the light bulb.
At the end of the day, wifi does not mean internet. And when you’re given wrong advice because you don’t understand that and choose to argue factually incorrect terminology, it’s your problem when things go wrong. Not the people who give you correct information for your poor word choices. Try learning instead of arguing.
I was speaking colloquially, and was unclear. By wifi, I mean “internet access”.
