Hey everyone, I live in a dorm like apartment where my Internet plan is part of my contract. I have a monthly data limit which just isn’t enough for me. Buying additional data is stupid expensive. I found out though that your used data is only calculated once you disconnect from the internet completely. So my idea is to get a small device that is constantly connected. I could use an Amazon echo / Google home, but I’m not comfortable with the idea of having one. Could I just hook up something like a raspberry pie to the Internet and how would I go about ensuring that it has a constant connection? Thanks for your time and sorry for the long post.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    3 months ago

    That’s gonna be quite the bill when the device does eventually disconnect…

    I’d expect it to bill you for the extra data retroactively. (otherwise people would just save all the heavy downloads for the end of the month) I’d also expect it to calculate usage regularly as well as upon disconnect, so this plan wouldn’t really work.

    If this is really what you want to try though: take a rpi, open a Screen for a persistent terminal, run ‘ping google.com’ and disconnect from that screen (leaving it to endlessly ping google, at least until it’s restarted).

    • JayObey711@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      I’m guessing I don’t need a new fancy rpi and I can use an older model?

      Oh I should have added that the base data is part of my rent. I don’t get charged anything until I manually book more data. The way I found out about the loophole is because someone else has been accidentally using it for years now. So I think I’m pretty save.

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Na, pretty much anything that’ll run linux will do.

        Seriously, expect a bill and/or permanently cutoff service when it is discovered.

        • JayObey711@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          Alright thanks, I’ll just see this as an experiment. I expect the bills to come in any day. It’s worth it either way.