SpicyAnt

Thanks for checking!

SMS for 2fa is deprecated here because of insecurity and TOTP is generally preferable. Can you use that instead?

My first choice is a YubiKey, second choice is the Aegis Authenticator app, and the phone I only use for services that force me to. A few still do, unfortunately!

I understand about DIY and am interested to hear how this goes for you. I might like to try it myself.

If I manage to set up something that I think is interesting and functional enough, I will post about it 😄

If you can use those sims in mobile phones then I’d call them mobile plans. Can I ask what country you are in? Here in the US, mobile service costs a lot more. I have been getting SIP service from vitelity.net but twilio.com and voip.ms are better known here. I don’t know about jmp.chat.

The Netherlands. I just checked and it is €10 for 5GB/month or €8 for 5GB month if one pays for a year: https://www.lycamobile.nl/en/bundle/monthly-plan-xs/?m=12

But in the shops they have signs with deals and you can get often get codes for cheaper. They print out the codes for you and you can top-up by issuing a USSD code when needed. I buy a stack of codes, type them into my notes app, and use them when I need them. Since I commonly have WiFi available I sometimes go months without activating them.

In the home base I wouldn't need data, as it is interfacing through the raspberry pi. Most of my phone activity is getting codes for 2FA for some important services that force me to. Since I rarely make calls, I can top up €5 of credit when needed. I need to make sure to top up every 6 months so that the SIM does not get deactivated. That's why estimate ~€10 for every 6 months.

This works for me because I do not use the standard phone features (SMS and calling) often. If it were up to me, I would not have the phone functionality at all and simply keep the data. But sometimes I need a phone number. The purpose of this project is to keep the convenience of having a phone in the rare cases I need it without constantly having on me a device broadcasting unique identifiers. As for why go self-host route... I think the same can be said for many other self-hosting projects, it is nice to have more control. It is not really about the money. Saving money is part of the fun, and that is an easy way to "justify" what I'm doing... but the reality is that any savings argument probably gets thrown into the BS pile when we account for the time invested, failed attempts, and the extra stuff I buy for trial and error. Ultimately for me it's really not about money, it's about being mindful, learning, and having fun.

I haven’t had trouble using a hosted number for banking and it feels better to me than using a mobile number. The cheap mobile providers (MVNO’s) I use here are sketchy, mobile numbers change all the time, etc. I use a VoIP number as my permanent stable number and forward it to my mobile. So if I switch mobiles, I just change the forwarding. In theory you can port phone numbers between carriers but I’ve had significant hassle doing that. That’s just here though. It may be different where you are.

I have found VoIP numbers from Canada and the US, I am not sure if it is easy to get one from the Netherlands. I have experience being banned from sites immediately after registering with the VoIP number because of "suspicious activity".

Thanks, I will look into those.

Is there a reason you don’t want to just use a SIP service by the way? It would certainly be cheaper than that board plus a mobile plan.

At the moment I am using a SIP service - at least I think I am. Is JMP.chat a SIP service? It works to a degree for me but there are many drawbacks. I can't get a number from my country, many services recognize and block the phone number as a VoIP phone (for example, telegram), and I have to trust an additional intermediary to get my unencrypted SMS and 2FA codes. I do trust the service providers to a reasonably high degree, but I don't think it is wise to associate their numbers with sensitive accounts such as my bank account.

The VoIP idea is not the reason why I began playing with these boards in the first place, though. It is an idea that I thought of while playing with these modules. And I don't use mobile plans. I use sim cards that I can top up when needed, so the cost is about $5 every 6 months or so for the home base, and about ~$5 a month for the data I use for my mobile router. The reason why I want to control the device through the raspberry pi is that then I also have more fine-grained control over the top-up process and I "own" my phone number without an additional intermediary.

I agree, it looks like a nice board!

But... after ordering it I noticed that while the pictures in the website show the "SIM7600G-H" chip - which supports global GSM and LTE bands - the text description specifies that the chip included in the kit is the "SIM7600CE-T", which supports the Chinese bands. I am not sure I will get the correct version now 😅 But there are other "SIM7600G-H" modules and USB dongles available out there, and from what I have found this chip is a nice option for GSM/LTE projects.

Thanks a lot for digging! This is a very useful

Ooh, thank you! This looks exactly what I am looking for.

Eventually I was able to confirm this. Using software-defined radio I was able to see that the USSD codes send out a signal in the ~895 MHz range, which is allocated to the 2G GSM by my provider.

I purchased a batch of SIM800L chips off ali express and those work without problem for issuing the USSD codes. I can also see that they emit the same signal at 895 MHz.

I kept looking into it and I have found that the SIM7600 chips have 2G, 3G, and 4G. So I have ordered a dev kit that uses the SIM7600 chip and I am going to use it to build a little raspberry-VoIP station, and I can also use this station to issue the USSD codes when needed.

It would still be nice if I could issue the USSD codes directly from my MiFi, but I have not been able to find a comparable MiFi that runs 2G and LTE... So I still need to take the sim card out of the MiFi to top it up, but it is progressing.

One way is to use iptables to forward the connection from the wireless interface through the ethernet interface. But I am not sure whether this is better than using the NetworkManager or a more specialized solution. I have used iptables for configuring WireGuard VPNs, but not for this specific use case.

You are not alone. I spent two minutes trying to recognize a pattern made by the holes before scrolling down to the comments.

I pull the lever and invoke Zeno's paradox to ensure the trolley's position remains < 1 for eternity.

If only I could get my contacts to join me.... I have two (real-life) friends in XMPP and none in Matrix 😅 I count my blessings and am thankful to have a few contacts that use Signal. I make sure to compensate them for their service with memes borrowed from Lemmy.