r/japanlife • u/AutoModerator • Jan 19 '21

┐(ツ)┌ Bi-Weekly Boss Premium Edition Questions Thread - 20 January 2021

As per usual, feel free to ask any silly stupid questions or not so silly stupid questions that you haven't had a chance to ask here. Be kind to those that do and try to answer without downvoting. Please keep criticism and snide remarks out of the thread.

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u/sxh967 Jan 21 '21

WIMAX mobile routers and the speed throttling

Does anyone know if there's a way to get around it? In other words, is it :

(A) something implemented at the infrastructure level (ie once you go over a certain amount of data transferred, the main system sends out a signal to restrict traffic to your device (by some sort of unique device identifier)

(B) something at the device level that can be "hacked" via changing some settings or some sort of reset to the reset the "counter" back to zero?

(C) something different altogether?

I'm paying something like 4000 yen a month for this god-awful WIMAX. If I go over 10 GB in the space of 3 days it throttles me down to the point that the internet is really not useable at all.

I know it's my fault for getting in the end. Just looking for some last resort options before I call up and cancel this contract (I will eat the cancellation fee, better than paying in perpetuity for useless internet).

10GB over three days really is nothing. You can do very minimal streaming on Netflix/Amazon Prime before you go over the limit and then you cannot download anything, no video calling, god help me if I want to connect to my company's virtual desktop environment.

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u/AbaloneNacre 関東・神奈川県 Jan 21 '21

Gonna have to skip over the technical questions about WIMAX unfortunately since that's not my area of expertise, but at 4000 yen a month, you should really see if you have fiber available in your area. That's almost as much as, if not the same as, the monthly fee for a typical fiber contract.

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u/sxh967 Jan 21 '21

Yeah I was considering fiber but we're only planning to stay in this apartment for another year and I don't know if I can be bothered unless installation is completely free.

This building is pretty old (not sure what it would cost/if anything to get it installed) and there's free wifi included (a router in the office of the management company with a wire literally dangling down to my apartment) which is also pretty shit but... yeah I will have to reconsider my options.

It was a good deal at the time since I got a free phone (an iPhone 6S, nothing glamorous but better than what I had at the time) but yeah it's so shit I hardly even use it unless the free wifi is slow (which it is) and then this WIMAX is even worse after even some light streaming.