In reply to a post by alunj:

Very odd ; I didn't think it could be a mast thing but who knows how the backhaul works !

Not normally backhaul where congestion happens. Normally on the radio interface. (You to mast). More people at home during lockdown increases the amount of 'connections' to the mast, as well as people using data.

I'm still keen for recommendations for "proper" mobile BB so I can run some webcams etc and Ideally loose the CGNAT.

I believe only Three sell mobile broadband without CGNAT. The other majors (EE, Vodafone, O2) do not unless you are a corporate and want to spent a LOT of money. The only alternative is to use a service such as that from AAISP whom sell their L2TP tunnel. You would set up hardware in your home to make the tunnel to AAISP whom would assign you both an IPv4 and IPv6 to your end point. It is similar in concept to a VPN but it is not encrypted, so if your mobile ISP was doing "deep packet inspection" they could in theory still see the payload.

EE/BT looks good but the cost is mad . I burn 60-100 G a month

Is there really no fixed line option?
You can get a SIM only from EE with 200GB of data (4G only) for £25/month on a 24 month contract:
https://shop.ee.co.uk/sim-only/pay-monthly-phones#

Remember EE is still inbound restricted, CGNAT on IPv4, and they block inbound on IPv6, if your device is recognised as compatible with v6, not all are assigned.

There is no restriction on putting a "phone" SIM into a data device anymore. Three tried this and Ofcom showed them the regulations. Three then stopped. I have had a Vodafone voice SIM in my iPad for 6 months.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 08-Nov-20 13:26:58)

I tried Smarty a few months ago. SSH sessions kept hanging, then I discovered that it was changing my IP address about every 30 seconds, then changing back 30 seconds later.

Made no difference what APN I set, it used the Smarty one.

I contacted Smarty support, who parroted that they "don't offer a fixed IP" and that they "reuse unused IP addresses". Pointing out that I was using the IP cut no ice. I never did find out whether this was a fault or whether it is meant to be like that.

I cancelled and (eventually) got my money back.

Switching to a Three sim made no difference, until I switched to a Three APN, which fixed the problem instantly.

It was using the same cell and channel for both. All that was different was the network backhaul.

Of course, with Three you get a routable, public IP.
With Smarty, it's a NATted private one.

Smarty is a very much worse service for only a little less money. A bad choice, in my view.

Edited by hoopla (Sun 08-Nov-20 14:54:48)

In reply to a post by hoopla:

All that was different was the network backhaul.

Backhaul is a term normally used to mean the connection from the mast to the core. This is the same for any "brand" using a Three radio signal. What happens at the core network depends on which SIM you are using. Smarty is probably sharing more users per IP than Three, to save money, and pass those savings on to the price.

That it is a very small saving makes most people wonder why they bothered. (Given Smarty is fully owned by Three, in the same way that GiffGaff is owned by Telefonica UK).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Smarty is probably sharing more users per IP than Three, to save money, and pass those savings on to the price.

That it is a very small saving makes most people wonder why they bothered. (Given Smarty is fully owned by Three, in the same way that GiffGaff is owned by Telefonica UK).

With Three, you get a public, routable IP. It's not shared at all, as far as I know. I don't understand how that could be shared.

I agree: GiffGaff is even worse than O2 in my experience.

In reply to a post by hoopla:

With Three, you get a public, routable IP. It's not shared at all, as far as I know. I don't understand how that could be shared.

With Three it depends which APN you use. One of them gives a public routable IPv4, intended for broadband, the other is behind CGNAT, intended for phone handsets.

Wireguard to a VPS somewhere might also work, it doesn't really care about the source IP of the incoming packet as long as the encryption is as expected.

Although it will send any response back to the same IP it received the last packet from so not sure how nicely that will play with the CGNAT cycling IP's

In reply to a post by dragon2611:

Wireguard to a VPS somewhere might also work, it doesn't really care about the source IP of the incoming packet as long as the encryption is as expected. Although it will send any response back to the same IP it received the last packet from so not sure how nicely that will play with the CGNAT cycling IP's

The only gotcha will be that many VPS outbound IPs are on block lists for services such as Netflix, iPlayer etc, due to the ease of "self build VPN". I used to run OpenVPN on a VPS