Rural Internet options. Unlimitedville?

This is what I have. I've had it for seven months now and it works like a charm. I use the Netgear nighthawk hotspot router hardwired into the Google Mesh setup. We never use anything less than 300GB per month.

Streams HD stuff with no issues/no buffering. It works so well that I've been talking about it at work and five of my co-workers have also switched over to it and they are all extremely pleased with it also. It's $29.99 per month (no taxes).

Another big plus is that when we are travelling, we take it with us so everyone can stream movies, etc. You'll need to buy an AT&T nighthawk router and also buy a new/never used micro sim card. You can get both of those on eBay.

Here's a screen shot of the D/L and U/L speeds:

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Since it's using the ATT network and I have ATT on my phone, if I do a speed test on my phone at the home's location, will that be a good measure of what to expect with this connection?

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Yes.

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Who are you paying bill to? ATT?

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Yes. After you pay ($30) to that guy on that eBay auction link that I referenced above, he transfers the service into your name and you have have an unlimited data plan with AT&T that is tied to the SIM card and hotspot router that you purchased. You'll have the $29.99 monthly data fee charge taken out of whatever payment method you setup through the AT&T data page. You can use a debit/credit card or checking account.

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If you set this up through ATT, I assume they charge more?

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Yes, they will open your butt hole up as wide as the top of a 55 gallon drum. As I stated above, pay the guy the $30 on the eBay auction to transfer the service over to your name. Then, after the transfer, you'll continue to pay $29.99 per month. You'll have your own data account, in your name. See pic below; after I login into my AT&T data account, that's what I see:

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How much are the routers and Google mesh devices?

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Look on eBay or Amazon. I paid $115 for my Nighthawk hotspot router, $240 for my 3 pack of Google Mesh routers, and the SIM card for around $3 on eBay.

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Do the connection work okay from main house to the basement?

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If you position the mesh routers properly, I guess? I don't know about your house configuration.

Also, for clarification purposes....what I did was go into my settings of my nighthawk router and configure it as a passthrough router. Meaning, all you really need it to do is to grab the cell phone tower data signal and you hardwire (via an ethernet cable) the nighthawk router to one of your Google Mesh routers. Here's a screenshot of the setting in the nighthawk router you'll need to change:



I hope I'm not making this sound overly difficult, because in reality, it isn't. Once you have all of this turned on and you start messing with it, it'll all make sense.

I still haven't figured out how you end up with ATT for $29/ month, yet if you went through ATT, it would cost a lot more.

Thanks for sharing/explaining this set-up. Gonna do this for my folks. They don't have a better option than 3 Mbps down DSL.

Do you have to have an AT&T phone to use this internet option? Or could you have a phone from another carrier? And how does the Nighthawk/Google mesh router setup work? How many Google mesh routers would I need for a two story, 3500 sqft house? Where did you find a link to buy the Nighthawk router for only $115? Thanks.

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Do you have to have an AT&T phone to use this internet option?

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No.

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Or could you have a phone from another carrier?

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Doesn't matter who your cell phone provider is. This is a stand alone data plan.

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And how does the Nighthawk/Google mesh router setup work?

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See above. I went over that. Set the Nighthawk as a pass through, or you can let it broadcast, as it normally would. I chose pass through because I didn't want two extra wifi names out there when I'm scanning for networks because that bugs me.

Just plug an ethernet cable from the Nighthawk into your Mesh primary wifi point is all you need to do. You really just need the Nighthawk to catch the signal from the cell tower and your Google Mesh system is what you'll be connecting to in your house.

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How many Google mesh routers would I need for a two story, 3500 sqft house?

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Hard to say? Layout of your house and line of sight in between the mesh routers have a lot to do with how many you'll need. For instance, our house is 2200 sq ft, with a bonus room upstairs and a shop that isn't too far from the house. Three mesh routers easily covered my house, but I had to get a fourth one to get a strong enough signal in my shop. I'd start with three, and buy more, if needed. The Google Mesh setup is ridiculously easy to do.

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Where did you find a link to buy the Nighthawk router for only $115?

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Just searched on eBay.

I think that’s the same model I have. Just make sure you get one that’s forward compatible with the 1 Gig speeds coming. Or, at the very least, LTE compatible.

Thanks for sharing! Just got my Nighthawk and set it up with the eBay guy - download speed is twice as fast right now and a lot less than half the monthly internet bill!

In between me and another guy at work, I bet we've given that guy at least 20 referrals. Glad it's working out for y'all

As long as this plan is still offered/grandfathered in, I'll always have this. Will never pay the inflated rates of traditional internet. Can't beat the price and performance.

Looks like on ebay there are VZ sims for sale but the plan cost looks to be higher - $60/month.

Just search "unlimited verizon hot spot" on ebay for listings.