Backup internet

[IReallyLikePizza2]

You guys got redundant internet? I figured I have redundant power, so I may as well get redundant internet. T-Mobile 5G Home internet, $50 a month, no limits, no contract

I have AT&T Fiber 1G/1G which is great, but if a tree falls on it, then I'm done

I spent a good amount of time testing where in the house is best





Eventually I found on my desk is best




Luckily I have a zillion ethernet jacks that go back to my server closet, so there was no problem getting the connection back there






The Pink patch cable is the port where the T-Mobile comes through to the server rack






Speeds are great! But its CGNAT, so no port forwarding





I have it setup in PFSENSE so if my AT&T goes down, it switches instantly to the T-Mobile connection, and then back again when AT&T comes back up

So far I've never had an AT&T outage, fingers crossed I never do!

 

[TonyR]

You guys got redundant internet? I figured I have redundant power, so I may as well get redundant internet. T-Mobile 5G Home internet, $50 a month, no limits, no contract

I have it setup in PFSENSE so if my AT&T goes down, it switches instantly to the T-Mobile connection, and then back again when AT&T comes back up

So far I've never had an AT&T outage, fingers crossed I never do!

Just consider it as a $50 per month insurance policy...you may not need it unless you get rid of it !

 

[bp2008]

Nice setup. I have a backup connection via wireless bridge to my brother's property where he has a different ISP. It does not come close to the speed you get on T-Mobile though.

Starlink will eventually be great for backup internet since it will not rely on any local infrastructure beyond your own dish and power. Probably will not have the best price though.

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

I'd love Starlink, but the $500 equipment fee and $100 monthly fee just seemed too much, plus the dish uses something like 100w of power constantly. At the US average electric cost, that's another $8

 

[bp2008]

T-mobile probably provides IPv6 so you could use that for incoming connections. Something to look into I guess if you ever find yourself using the backup connection for much.

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Sadly they provide you with no usable ipv6 range, and it looks like inbound ipv6 is blocked. But I do plan on testing out doing a site-to-site VPN to a VPS, and then getting in that way

 

[DanDenver]

Seems like your setup brings you much closer to being apocalyptic proof!

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

The only thing I'm missing now is having a LOT of drinkable water stored, and have a LOT of shelf stable food stored. I'll work on those next

I've also have some of these on the way, so me and my wife can "Text" during an emergency when everything down.



It will be cool to be able to walk around the area and report back what I see

 

[bp2008]

Sadly they provide you with no usable ipv6 range, and it looks like inbound ipv6 is blocked. But I do plan on testing out doing a site-to-site VPN to a VPS, and then getting in that way

That sucks. It should be against the law to sell "internet" service while not allowing incoming connections. I mean, I understand why they don't allow it. If they did, then some 0.001% of customers would use it to host a high-traffic server and it might cost the multi-billion dollar company a few bucks.

 

[weigle2]

Alas, T-Mobile High Speed Internet is not available in the South Suburbs of Chicago.

 

[biggen]

I do something similar but use a Peplink Balance 20X router which supports up to three different WAN's. My primary WAN is Comcast cable internet. I then have a Tello SIM card loaded in the B20X router. So if Comcast goes down, the B20X automatically flips over to my Tello account and internet continues. When Comcast comes back up, it flips back over to Comcast.

 

[pete_c]

I do similar here with an unlocked LTE modem and a no contract

T-Mobile SIM card at $25 / month and using PFSense for failover from XFinity. South suburbs of Chicago.

The Amazon purchased modem was $99 and it includes an RJ-11 for a telephone. Modem is a Wireless router switch (5 ports).

Works fine except that I cannot change the dial tone to US specifications and it does not work on 5G and band 70. Getting around 30 Mbs up and down on it.

 

[TonyR]

......have a LOT of shelf stable food stored.

Hey, now.....you can't count frozen pizza!

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Hey Frozen Pizza isn't a bad idea. They are thin and you could easily stack a ton of them in a deep freeze...

 

[Ssayer]

So, can you connect to BI without issues on T-Mobile, or did you do a VPN workaround, or??

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

@Ssayer

If you have any questions about it, let me know and I'll be glad to hop onto it and check out whatever you need

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

So, can you connect to BI without issues on T-Mobile, or did you do a VPN workaround, or??

There is NO inbound on the T-Mobile connection, and I haven't yet got a permanent solution in place

Your best bet would be renting a cheap VPS and then maybe using ZeroTeir, or just a site-to-site VPN, and then accessing the VPS. Since I have full inbound on my main AT&T Connection there isn't much point for me, but in your case since you have DSL, its probably worth looking into

 

[Ssayer]

Ah ok, that's what I thought. I'm not going to dump the DSL right away anyway, so I can always leave the BI box on DSL until such time as I get something sorted out.

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

If I were you, I'd grab a firewall that supports 2 WAN connections like I'm doing, then you don't have to pick and choose

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Zerotier works great for cgnat. I'm about 8 months into it with no problems. I had similar upload speeds as you when I had at&t. It was night and day when I switched to real upload speeds.