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I recently changed from 1 gbps fiber to mobile hotspot due to a remote work setup, and … blew through 30GB on the iOS 14.5 and MacOS patch day.* After that, th

I recently changed from 1 gbps fiber to mobile hotspot due to a remote work setup, and … blew through 30GB on the iOS 14.5 and MacOS patch day.* After that, the flagship Unlimited 5G Verizon hotspot is limited to 600 kbps up or down. (Granted, 600 kbps would have been amazing in 1997 so it’s a good reminder of the mess we web devs have made of bandwidth.) Presumably they’re figuring people with limited bandwidth don’t use Echo/Alexa? Because it doesn’t seem like they figure that from the materials. * For anyone running a formerly wired household off a physical hotspot device, I suggest enabling (a) Mac Mini or Macbook to cache and reshare Apple updates to the household, or Windows Update Delivery Optimization, (b) turning off Windows, MacOS/iOS and Xbox updates and running the initial update downloads through a T-Mobile Magenta Max plan on family phones (each phone gets 50GB or 150GB per phone for $10 more), then use the cache or local Network Transfer to propogate to other devices. This keeps the physical hotspot dedicated to normal traffic, not slammed by unexpected OS, app, or game updates. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-caching-on-mac-mchl9388ba1b/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-cac... https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-content-caching-on-mac-mchl3b6c3720/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-content-cach... https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-update-delivery-optimization-and-privacy-bf86a244-8f26-a3c7-a137-a43bfbe688e8 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-update-d...

daniellarusso 6y ago
I have heard these stories. Worst one, buying 4 hotspots and setting them all to the same ssid and pw, and each week, you only use one of the 4, power off the other 3. 4x transfer increase!
- Terretta 6y ago
  Parent comment is not kidding: it may be both the worst and best option. Based on extended discussions with Verizon and T-Mobile management (office execs, not store reps or call reps), this appears to be the only reliable option available to a non-enterprise customer. Well known flat rate unlimited rural internet resellers of "red", "pink", and "blue" categorically stop working after "abuse" with a threshold set below normal usage that would keep a family online despite software updates (even w/o streaming!). As a large enough enterprise, I could buy a "data pool" for the firm to get zero rated no throttle for our device fleet. When you hear raves from colleagues about Verizon hotspots, they may be enjoying this -- I sure do for legit work use. But this isn't technically ethical for individuals, and the companies won't offer it to an LLC or S-Corp with just a few lines. So, with VZ, for example, by getting 4 hotspots configured the same and putting them on rotation, you end up spending about the same per month ($240/mo) as an enterprise hotspot, to get sufficient capacity for normal household software and game updates.

daniellarusso 6y ago

I have heard these stories. Worst one, buying 4 hotspots and setting them all to the same ssid and pw, and each week, you only use one of the 4, power off the other 3. 4x transfer increase!

Terretta 6y ago
Parent comment is not kidding: it may be both the worst and best option. Based on extended discussions with Verizon and T-Mobile management (office execs, not store reps or call reps), this appears to be the only reliable option available to a non-enterprise customer. Well known flat rate unlimited rural internet resellers of "red", "pink", and "blue" categorically stop working after "abuse" with a threshold set below normal usage that would keep a family online despite software updates (even w/o streaming!). As a large enough enterprise, I could buy a "data pool" for the firm to get zero rated no throttle for our device fleet. When you hear raves from colleagues about Verizon hotspots, they may be enjoying this -- I sure do for legit work use. But this isn't technically ethical for individuals, and the companies won't offer it to an LLC or S-Corp with just a few lines. So, with VZ, for example, by getting 4 hotspots configured the same and putting them on rotation, you end up spending about the same per month ($240/mo) as an enterprise hotspot, to get sufficient capacity for normal household software and game updates.