I finally pulled the trigger disconnecting Comcast and giving T-Mobile home internet a try. Comcast has been getting on my nerves for years with their overpriced service and the dance we must do by calling in to try and keep the price from rising too much year over year. They also put data caps and I was sick of getting those warnings that I had almost reached my data limit and would have to pay more. I was paying $65 for home internet using my own modem with 800 Mbs down.
So one evening I pressed the button to try T-Mobile’s Home Internet. on the overall it worked very well except for one big downfall: I couldn’t connect to my self-hosted blogs. First, the positive points. The speeds were great, there is no data cap and the signal rock solid. But not being able to connect this very blog really irked me. The culprit was something called CG-Nat which is where T-Mobile “shares” an IP address amongst subscribers. This means there is literally no way to connect a self-hosted website without a workaround that would cost more. Furthermore, those IPs will change which can be solved by DDNS but then we’re talking about connecting the relay to DDNS which adds a lot of complication as well as cost.
There is another thing I did try that I should mention here. T-Mobile does not offer “bridge mode” which means turning off Wifi and simply acting as a “bridge” to my Google Mesh which I need for solid home wifi coverage. Watching the YouTube channel NaterTater I learned of a hack which I successfully employed to turn off the wifi. However, I later learned that did not solve the problem of CG-Nat which is the root issue.
I love my T-Mobile service and I really wanted it to work. In fact, I had pretty much given up on keeping my blogs public when I got a call from Comcast. As I had already disconnected they wanted me back. The deal was $35 a month ($10 lower than Comcast), unlimited data so long as I used their router and no contract. So, I signed up with Comcast again and my blogs have re-appeared! I am satisfied but am not looking forward to when I’ll have to do the dance again when they try to raise my prices after two years.
Those three days of trying to get T-Mobile to connect to my blogs did teach me a lot so I’m glad I did it. It also got me the great deal from Comcast so again, I’m satisfied. Such is life here in the USA. Everyday there is some other company trying to squeeze us all out of more money and we all must remain vigilant, especially in trying economic times and with inflation running rampant. I used to enjoy the game but the world just becomes more complex and I’m starting to feel like an old dog who has trouble keeping up.
