Mofi and PagePlus question

[NoleRx]

I’ve had the Mofi with page plus unlimited account up and running for over a month. This morning it was working just fine then all of a sudden I wasn’t able to connect to internet. Sure enough the INT light was out on the router. I rebooted it and everything connected but now my internet is super slow. Was getting about 15 down now it’s about 0.1. I didn’t change any settings and my account on page plus was just reupped at the beginning of June and I haven’t used that much data so far this month. Any thoughts on what the issue may be? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Didneywhorl]

Hopefully BillA will chime in with some big brain knowledge, or someone else familiar.

Following your thread for carrier research. Wish I could help.

In the meantime, which version mofi4500 are you using? SIM4? SIM7?

[NoleRx]

I’m using the Sim 7 Mofi. It was just weird. PagePlus shows my data at 200gb but it’s never reset since I signed up in April. It seems to be a running total.

[NoleRx]

Well I chatted with PagePlus and had moved the Sim back to my phone while doing so. They said my data slowed down because it had been registered in an unsupported device. They sent some code to my phone (the same one I used to register the sim) with the page plus sim in it and now i put it back in mofi and works fine. Question is...how do they see the mofi versus a cell phone and is there a setting that hides the mofi for lack of a better word? I just changed the ttl to 117, before it was 65 I think.

The agent said that the data didn't reset at the beginning of the month because of the unsupported device (I of course didn't mention anything about mofi/played dumb). Any suggestions on how to fix this? Looks like I hit the 200GB wall because of no data reset.

[Didneywhorl]

The way around it cannot be discussed on this forum. You can search on how Verizon uses your imei to identify your device and possible ways around it.

[NoleRx]

Thanks for the info Didney. Guess I was just curious how they knew the sim had been in an "unauthorized device" vs iphone since the imei was already assigned when I got the sim or if the imei was assigned originally to an unauthorized device?

[Didneywhorl]

Hard to say.

[BillA]

Thanks for the info Didney. Guess I was just curious how they knew the sim had been in an "unauthorized device" vs iphone since the imei was already assigned when I got the sim or if the imei was assigned originally to an unauthorized device?

Besides the sim card, every mobile device has its own unique imei/meid/esn which is transmitted every time you're accessing the tower, therefore it's pretty easy for them to "see" the type of device you're using even when you change devices. There are illegal ways around it, but I wouldn't suggest it nor talk about it.

One legit way around the 200GB limit, is to pop the sim card into a Verizon phone, and call customer service to have them reset your data back to high speed.

Another way is an early renewal method, by making an extra payment as soon as you run over the limit, then call customer service to restart your monthly cycle immediately. You would lose the unused days left in your current cycle, but at least you would get another 30 days of high speed data right the way till of course you run over 200GB limit again.

After doing some research, turns out that the limitation has been put in place by Verizon, so all their resellers have the same limit for now. Booo!

[LoveMeSomeCALTE]

1. I know Tmobile has the TTL approach to detecting tethering - does PagePlus or Verizon do similar things?
2. Is the LTE data quality between PagePlus and Visible the same or one is a bit better than the other?

[BillA]

1. I know Tmobile has the TTL approach to detecting tethering - does PagePlus or Verizon do similar things?
2. Is the LTE data quality between PagePlus and Visible the same or one is a bit better than the other?

PPC doesn't seem to care about a specific TTL, tested it from 10 to 255 and they all worked fine (below 10 it times out). However I would still set it to 117 as it's the norm with Verizon to avoid any potential issues.
Differences between PPC and Visible:
Verizon based Visible $40/mo, 10Mbps speeds, 150+ms latency, deprioritized during congestion
Verizon based PagePlus $55/mo, 60Mbps speeds, 40ms latency, deprioritized during congestion

p.s. As of Aug. 1st 2020, PagePlus/Verizon and SimpleMobile/Tmobile seem to be blocking non-Sierra modems pretty aggressively. Currently there's a solution for Quectel and Simcom modems only, uniquely customized to each router using multiple parameters at the time of a new activation (not for existing lines). If anyone needs some help, click on the contact icon/bubble below my profile pic.

[riversruns]

I’m running into a similar issue.

I just installed a Mofi4500 sim7 with page plus cellular $55 unlimited month-to-month for a client. Everything was working well when I was there. 3 days, uninterrupted service. 25+ Mbps down and around 15 up avg. We did a livestream concert, etc, all was great...Got a message from the client this morning that the speed was down to basically nothing, and sure enough, when I called Page Plus, the SIM card had been booted off their network. However, the data usage for the plan shows 4.75Gigs, well below their terms of service for review at 60gigs and the 200gig cap alike. I should mention, it’s dead spot on 4.75gigs used and has not moved at all for over 24 hrs. Similar as mentioned above.

Customer service rep said he would “Put the card back on the network”, however, my client is still unable to connect to the network, after rebooting router as well. I assume the SIM has to be replaced in a Verizon phone to get back up and running before going back to the MoFi?

Also, I know the current TTL setting on his router is set to 65, however, would this really solve my issue (ie setting it to 117?). NoleRx any updates on what setting your TTL to 117 has done for stability and staying connected?

Unfortunately I am not in the area to go over, pop out the SIM, put it in a Verizon phone, make sure it’s up and running, and then back into the MOFI. Again, in regards to all the very helpful posts above, I’m not sure this would even matter, as it seems they’ve got the MoFi zeroed in (IMEI) and are blocking it from the network? In which case it would seem like I’m out of luck?

Though I thought this was what TTL was used for, to show packets of info as streaming data. Am I off-base? Any thoughts for a workaround? Must I get a different plan, hotspot plan? Set the router to auto-reboot every morning so it’s not a constant connection that gets tracked and “black-listed”, change TTL? Really appreciate any input, as it seems not many have are this issue and this is the most (very) similar one I can find. As of the moment this is all new territory for me.

Very strange-working great, until it didn’t. I suspect Page Plus, their ToS and the plan, but am no expert.

Thanks,
David

[riversruns]

To follow up on the above-I made progress last night and found that PPC had activated a different SIM than what was in the router. So that is back on track to be on the network and operational.

I am still very curious about the TTL settings though, and how those are working out for people? From what I research and understand, it seems that there is no absolute way to hide the router or disguise its true purpose if someone (corporations are people) comes looking.

MoFi support said “Generic TTL is set to 64, keep it at that and it should work %90 of the time.” though I’m almost certain my came factory default at Linux 2-65. BillA has mentioned he tried every setting from 10-above and that seemed to work fine, though recommended 117. Im not as savvy as the majority of users here, but I can’t I buy into that one setting REALLY fooling any service providers that would want to investigate. All in all

One thing I can say for CERTAIN, the 200Gig cap on Verizon network (incl 3rd parties such as PagePlus Cellular) is very real, and strictly enforced. My Client’s (missplaced) plan hit 200 and it went down like a ton of bricks.

David

[BillA]

To follow up on the above-I made progress last night and found that PPC had activated a different SIM than what was in the router. So that is back on track to be on the network and operational.

I am still very curious about the TTL settings though, and how those are working out for people? From what I research and understand, it seems that there is no absolute way to hide the router or disguise its true purpose if someone (corporations are people) comes looking.

MoFi support said “Generic TTL is set to 64, keep it at that and it should work %90 of the time.” though I’m almost certain my came factory default at Linux 2-65. BillA has mentioned he tried every setting from 10-above and that seemed to work fine, though recommended 117. Im not as savvy as the majority of users here, but I can’t I buy into that one setting REALLY fooling any service providers that would want to investigate. All in all

One thing I can say for CERTAIN, the 200Gig cap on Verizon network (incl 3rd parties such as PagePlus Cellular) is very real, and strictly enforced. My Client’s (missplaced) plan hit 200 and it went down like a ton of bricks.

David

To get around the 200gigs/month high speed data limit, you can call PagePlus customer service to make an extra monthly payment and request and early refill. Basically it restarts your monthly cycle to get your 200gigs of high speed data back immediately (at the expense of losing the remaining days of your current month). However, sometimes they refuse to refill the line if they find out that you're using the sim in a router, in which case I might be able to help through my dealer account.