docj

Everything in life is relative. The cheap regulator I'm using provided a lot more flow than the POS one that was built into my Beaver. So replacing it seemed like a huge step forward! 😀 Eventually, I'll probably replace it with a really good one from Watts. But until then, the flow rate is a lot better than what I'd been accustomed to!!

There's been some discussion in this and other threads as to whether the Verizon unlimited prepaid plan is actually limited to 720p streaming resolution as the small print in the online terms and conditions state (actually, as shown in the attached screenshot the t's & c's actually state "up to 780p" whatever that is!) Last night we streamed a show on Acorn that was recorded in 2017 which appears to have been shot in an HDTV format. The Verizon stream was good and my WiFiRanger showed consistent peaks in excess of 10Mbps during the streaming. The data usage was almost exactly the 1.2GB/hr that would be calculated for 720p video. (See this article for more detail on that topic: Bit rate vs resolution ) This doesn't by any means prove that my streaming was limited to 720p but it is strong supporting evidence. I'm not complaining; the video had a very acceptable quality IMHO. FWIW it's also worth noting that the online Verizon account for this prepaid no long says "No Data Usage". It now states "you have unlimited data remaining!"

FWIW I may have experienced my first deprioritization on the prepaid plan. This afternoon during a severe rainstorm I noticed that my internet response seemed slow. I checked the download speed and found that it was ~2Mbps rather than the 5-10Mbps that I had been experiencing. I did several tests and the results were consistent. Of course, rain fade could have contributed to the speed reduction but one explanation was that everyone was home using the internet because of the rain! This evening, with the rain having let up the speeds are back to normal. I can't prove this was deprioritization but that's what it seemed like.

I've been using this one for a year now and it works well: pressure regulator It looks similar to the Watts regulators but is a bit smaller and a lot less expensive.

I've also been using fast.com to check download speeds and my results are totally consistent with yours, typically in the 5-10Mbps range. We've streamed several hours of video using it, but we tend to watch older European shows and the image quality is often <1080p to begin so those aren't good ones to make judgments about! 😄

Derek: With all due respect, your first link is for a prepaid plan that has no hotspot provision. It was, indeed, the current state of prepaid plans until 11/6/18. Your second link is for the "normal" postpaid Verizon plans that have a "hard cap" on their hotspot usage at either 15GB or 20GB (depending on the plan). I have one of those plans on our phones and that's what I used to have on my Jetpack. The hard cap on Verizon is <600kbps which brings you down to 3G speed. The buzz over the past couple of weeks has to do with the fact that there is now a new prepaid plan, with a plan number of 28366, that is only for Jetpacks and which doesn't have a hard cap. When I called to get it I had to argue with a CSR who told me that there was no such plan, but, after he looked at his own resources, he eventually apologized and said that I had taught him something. The plan does have a 780p streaming resolution limit, but, for the TV screen sizes we have, that's acceptable. I think that all Verizon prepaid plans have a lower network prioritization than do its postpaid plans, so one might experience deprioritization slowdowns, but so far that hasn't been an issue. Furthermore, at present I have another 100GB/mo of unthrottled AT&T data which I will probably retain as a backup and for locations where AT&T is better than VZW. Joel

From what I can see of the fine print on my account, it does say that streaming is limited to 780p. That doesn't bother me; it's a lot better than the 480p that many plans limit streaming resolution to.

It's not necessary to change SIMs to transfer an existing Jetpack from a prepaid plan to the new post-paid one. All it takes is a CSR with a sufficient knowledge base. I'm currently using the same SIM and phone number on my Jetpack as I did when it was post-paid.

I signed up for one of these today. It took >1 hour on chat and eventually on the phone to transfer my 7730l from my postpaid account to a new prepaid account. It can be done, but I ended up working with a total of 5 people before getting it done properly. Be prepared to have to argue about the plan's specs; the person who eventually got me up and running told me at the outset that there was no such plan. That's even with citing the plan #28366. Be persistent but patient. The CSR who challenged me eventually thanked me for teaching him something he didn't know. My speeds using Fast.com are in 4-8Mbps range. The CSR did warn me that there was always the risk of network deprioritization, but I told him that was a risk I was prepared to take.

I'm planning on doing this also. But I am concerned that Verizon says that if use their phones for more than 60 days they may cut you off. Do you know what would happen if we spent an entire summer in Canada?

It's in Key Largo not Key West.

IMO the closure of MyDakotaAddress has several of the earmarks of a bankruptcy. If that were the case, refunds to customers would not be allowed by the bankruptcy trustee until after a full analysis of the company's assets and liabilities. If there are assets to be distributed, those holding obligations against the company would be paid whatever percentage of those debts the trustee determines is feasible.

I've had both and I think the answer is what kind of RVing you like to you. Obviously, you stay at lots of places without hookups; we almost always have them. Our 50 gal black tank will last us at least a week, but we have hookups connected for the washer, taking showers and doing the dinner dishes. Friends of ours recently bought a Hymer MH with a cassette and we thought they were crazy. To each his own.

Jim: We're in the middle of a trip through the US "mountain west" and decided to invest in a cellular amp but we didn't want to shell out for the WeBoost OTR system. So for a lot less we bought the current version of the WeBoost Sleek. It's rated at ~32dBm of gain compared to 50dBm for the OTR. But I didn't expect that we were going to need it all that often. And yes, the modem has to sit on the Sleek's cradle but that's not an issue because all we're doing is amplify the signal for a MiFi so leaving it on the cradle is fine. As for how it performed our only serious test was at Diamond Lake OR where the RV park was in the fringe of the Verizon beam. The Sleek allowed us to get a marginal data connection but according to the work campers there we were lucky to get that. And it did enable us to maintain a voice call as long as we put the phone on the cradle and used speakerphone (or Bluetooth). (Fortunately, if we drove ~1/4 mile away to Diamond Lake we could get a great LTE signal while sitting at a picnic table; rough duty, but we were willing to do it!) One thing we did find was that putting our Verizon MiFi above the Sleek's cradle and our AT&T hotspot under it worked quite well. We also discovered that Verizon knocks the socks off AT&T in most of the mountain west region. Joel (AKA docj)

From FitSmallBusiness.com Not sure what your point is. What I was saying was that ~10 years ago the cost of the processing terminal itself was several hundred dollars upfront before any processing fees. Today's smart phone "swipe devices" are often provided for free.

A decade ago when credit card processing "machines" were expensive devices that were controlled through a limited number of processing vendors, deciding to accept credit cards was often a decision with significant economic impact. These days, with inexpensive devices, such as Square, that attach to cell phones almost every small business can access card processing services at a modest cost.

I never said I was blaming the PO, but they are the only ones who can fix it.

We did this for the first year or two we were full-timing. But we found we never needed it. We can get cash by using our debit cards at Walmarts, most grocery stores and even ATM's if we need to. Furthermore, these days it's rare to encounter a merchant who doesn't take credit or debit cards, and we don't use Passport America, so we don't need to worry about having cash for those parks.

Apparently, the Madison PO is forwarding mail for lots of people who have the same last names as those of us who have submitted mail forwarding requests even if we were careful to submit those requests as "individual" not family. This is happening to us also and Your Best Address told me that we aren't alone in having this problem. I plan on calling the Madison post office but I doubt I'll get much satisfaction.

Even though we were brought up with them, checks have far fewer protections against fraud than do credit cards. In today's world you can email or fax someone a copy of a check and it can be deposited instantly with a mobile device. Scary what could happen if you lost an entire checkbook. We use them primarily to facilitate automatic withdrawals for bill pay purposes. Very rarely do we ever write an actual check to anyone.

Ours was legit. I had incorrectly entered one of my license plate numbers on my Harris County toll authority account. Even though the system read the transponder correctly, it wouldn't bill my account because the plates didn't agree with what was on file. So I got a bill in the mail through South Dakota where the vehicle is registered. I never would have thought that this would have been the way the system worked.

Our PBS channel doesn't act as if it is coming off of a spot beam since we never lose it. Since it's in the same channel ~390 region as our DNS channels I have always assumed that it was coming off of the NYC "local channel beam" which can be viewed nationally for those who live in the NY area. Regardless of what DTV has in its DNS online explanation at the current time, I distinctly remember reading that our DNS included an SD PBS channel which is why we used to record and watch Downton Abbey on our HD PBS local channel in Corpus Christi when that series was being shown.

SD doesn't share vehicle information relating to automated speed violations and such automated devices are illegal in the State. We, also, had a TX toll sent to us by mail; one that hadn't properly been read by the TX-Tag system.

I took what I wrote directly from the DirecTV Guide on my TV and my Guide is set to only display channels I receive. You are free to believe what you wish.

PBS and CW are included with DNS (channels 389 and 394)