Broadband: Which providers have the best deals?

Tethering does work on Virgin, assuming the network itself didn’t collapse due to peak hours.

I get 30% discount ( bolt on )on my bill for being a long term customer

Just over £19 for 20GB ( un tethered) data unlimited text and minutes

It used to be the case that iOS tethering was not supported on MVNOs.

I don’t know if this has since changed?

Is that Android or iOS?

I’ve used tethering on iOS with giff gaff (MVNO that uses O2’s network) for years.

I’m going back some years. Perhaps there was also differences between who was providing the underlying infrastructure for each of the MVNOs?

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Tethering on iOS is allowed based on the “carrier profile” associated to the SIM - the carrier profile targets SIMs most likely by MCC/MNC and an optional ICCID mask (kinda like a regex).

If the MVNO doesn’t have their own carrier profile that narrows it down to their own SIMs (which involves a lot of bullshit under NDA, same story as with Apple Pay) it falls back to the host network’s profile (as that one will match based on MCC/MNC), and if the host network doesn’t allow tethering, or requires the phone to check in with the host carrier, then tethering on the MVNO will not work either.

The solution is to either get your own carrier profile (takes time, but eventually this is what Giffgaff did, and Virgin as well), or if the host network’s profile mandates check-in before allowing tethering, to make the host network return a positive response to check-ins from the MVNO’s SIMs.

The former option can take time, the latter requires actual engineering effort, something mobile networks are totally incapable of.

PS: yes that was on iOS; Virgin’s SIMs now have their own carrier profile and allow tethering just fine; I’d expect Android to behave the same.

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The tariff I was looking at (probably one of the cheapest) didn’t mention tethering in the big print. This made me suspicious, and buried in the T&Cs it said tethering wasn’t supported.

I remember a while back networks used to say tethering wasn’t supported but you could still do it.

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When I got my first contract, a couple of months after my 18th, I went with three. I stayed with them until it ended, when I switched to EE on a whim (mostly for the EAP-Sim LU WiFi and the visual voicemail). I had to deal with much less data, but it worked.

When the 8+ came out, I upgraded to it for a £73/mo package. I love it, it comes with 100GB of tetherable data, and they’re much better at maintaining speeds then Three (I couldn’t even use Three internet where I live).

I’ll either keep this plan and do the annual upgrade in September, or I’m looking at O2 in a year and a bit…

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Just out of curiosity, does the EAP-SIM WiFi also have the stupid Virgin media ad page every time you connect to a new station?

If the first site you visit is unsecured it does, but as it doesn’t require it, you won’t get it if you don’t visit an insecure site to begin with.

Liam

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/02/quick-update-virgin-media-hub-3-router-latency-fix.html

Received and installed my Superhub 3 today. Performing very well, getting 300 on Ethernet and 200 on Wifi. Removed the TPLink router from the equation which has tidied up that table a bit :joy:

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Hmm, they just signed me up with 20GB unlim text unlim mins for £20. So your long term value appears to be just under a quid?

That’s simple
I will just take this back to them and renegotiate

Thank you for the tip

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Let us know how it goes!

Once upon a time I would easily hit 250mb down on WiFi and now I’m struggling to get over 60mb :pensive:

The Superhub 3 has generally been alright for me though!

200mbps Virgin Media :smiley:

Get around 220mbps though :smirk: Even on WiFi! Credit to Google, their Google WiFi kit is top notch, I loved having pfSense setup once upon a time ago but Google WiFi is a very well-rounded solution… Even if it does lack buttons and dials for me to tweak :frowning:

Performance and reliability are spot on :smiley: One downside (besides lack of tinkering) is the app!! It requires internet, so if Google WiFi stops working I have no idea why until the internet comes back up… Yay. I’ve disabled the status lights too but I’d expect them to light up when something’s actually wrong though :joy: I guess not :stuck_out_tongue:

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Whats the options for setting up VPN back to your network, DDNS from your router and port fowarding? Do they exist, are they comprehensive or some very basic stuffs?

VPN I’ve got running as a docker container on a server, likewise my ddns updater. Google WiFi doesn’t natively handle ddns or VPN :confused:

An old Asus router I used to use handled both so it was slightly annoying moving away from flexible options from an Asus router and a pfsense rig.

Port forwarding is doable, couldn’t live without it :joy:

Subnet has options, though I’m not sure how limited they are… It’s in a 192.168.86.0 by default, not sure if I can open it up to a /20 haven’t tried yet

That’s about it for advanced features :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: