Database Info

tethering......busted....

Recieved a text from my wireless carrier stating that my tethering would be cut off or I can pay an additional $30 or so per month. I think it came down to me downloading the OS for an iphone 3gs I've been playing with. Last month I ended up with around 10gb of data usage.
Tried tethering after the deadline date and was directed to a site, stating I need to call customer service. I also tried using data on my phone at this point and was directed to the same site. Call customer service and was told to access their data I would need to give them my phones serial number. go figure.... after the past two years of playing with various phones, nexus one, vibrant, hd2, iphone 4, iphone 3gs, nexus s.... they want to know what Im using .....
Solution????
a different android phone again, with tethering.
or
drop my sim card into my iphone 3gs for a few hours and switch back to the mytouch 4g

DUDE
T-m0 said that?...
ok one are you using hotspots...if so stop im sure thats how they are monitoring your data...
try one of these
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/
i personally use
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/list?can=2&q=Stable
try one of these it should help
otherwise call t-m0 and tell em #&***& 2^^ with a *!!!! !#*(& in your !(*&$*( so they$&!!!
and they understand fine

Seeing as how you are getting the same site from the phone browser and the computer browser, it seems they just assume, not know you are tethering. The hold should go off after your billing month is up. If not, well do they know you have a smart phone, or are you using it on a feature phone plan? If it is the later, then giving them a smart phone serial will probably make them change your plan to a smart phone plan.

I heard if you use the stock tethering app they charge you... what if you use the one that's built into CM 7? isn't that the same as using android-wifi-teather? I was always unclear about that

Well I have been using mytouch 4g and were using the original tether option and now I'm using cm7.never have had any problems.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

witeboy07 said:
Well I have been using mytouch 4g and were using the original tether option and now I'm using cm7.never have had any problems.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well for lite usage you won't have problem. But if you are using bandwidth excessively they will notice it and based on using DPI/SPI techniques they can determine which service and protocol is being used. They would never want people to use free bandwidth when they can get people to pay money for same exact thing. Talk about milking the cow for all its worth lol.

Before the mytouch I had a hd7 and before that the first 4g I had was the g2..download were massive and big..never got caught...I was always using the stock T-Mobile tether option..I guess cus I'm on an old unlimited android web plan...
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

Yes I did milk it, downloading the os for the iphone probably did it, will wait till cycle is over and do basic tethering again. Im going to my iphone and switch back to see if that works as well.

keepitfashion said:
T-m0 said that?...
ok one are you using hotspots...if so stop im sure thats how they are monitoring your data...
try one of these
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/
i personally use
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/list?can=2&q=Stable
try one of these it should help
otherwise call t-m0 and tell em #&***& 2^^ with a *!!!! !#*(& in your !(*&$*( so they$&!!!
and they understand fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried the other iphone and switch back , no luck . Im on cm7, and have been for awhile, tethered for over a year and now its being stopped. What are the links to and which one do I need for the mytouch? As for carrier its a local one , cbw,

Just got the text. Now down to edge less speeds
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

paczek said:
Just got the text. Now down to edge less speeds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edge has a speed? What? Oh yea, Slow . I can't do anything on edge other than check email
osugsxr said:
tried the other iphone and switch back , no luck . Im on cm7, and have been for awhile, tethered for over a year and now its being stopped. What are the links to and which one do I need for the mytouch? As for carrier its a local one , cbw,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded 2.07 and it seems to work. Temp-Rooted.

hkbladelawhk said:
Edge has a speed? What? Oh yea, Slow . I can't do anything on edge other than check email
I downloaded 2.07 and it seems to work. Temp-Rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I do use the tethering hotpsot often for internet at home. I downloaded the app you recommend, will test it out for awhile to see if itll make a difference and still allow me to tether.

I'm having conflicting information put my way about tethering. Is T-Mobile charging for using the WiFi Tether feature in froyo, or are they charging for the Wired Tether feature.
I can't even get a straight answer from store reps or customer service. It's like they don't even know themselves.
Trying to basically find out if I need to go back to using barnacle.
Update-June 1: If you have a Android data package Tethering is FREE.
XDA ICE GLACIER - THEMED / Never stock

RootUserDWR said:
I'm having conflicting information put my way about tethering. Is T-Mobile charging for using the WiFi Tether feature in froyo, or are they charging for the Wired Tether feature.
I can't even get a straight answer from store reps or customer service. It's like they don't even know themselves.
Trying to basically find out if I need to go back to using barnacle.
XDA ICE GLACIER - THEMED / Never stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not with tmobile, I have been using android phones for over a year plus, starting with the nexus one. I have always been tethering and kept my data around 5-6gbs per month. Last month I hit the 11 or 12gb mark, and within the first week of the new month I was already up to 3.5gbs. Mainly from downloading the Iphone OS, and other tools I needed.
Over the past year, I never once was charged for tethering nor was I warned about it. You shouldn't need to worry about tethering with tmobile, if you hit the 5gb of data they will cut your speeds. I download the tethering app from the first page of this post, and it seems to be working fine as of now.

RootUserDWR said:
I'm having conflicting information put my way about tethering. Is T-Mobile charging for using the WiFi Tether feature in froyo, or are they charging for the Wired Tether feature.
I can't even get a straight answer from store reps or customer service. It's like they don't even know themselves.
Trying to basically find out if I need to go back to using barnacle.
XDA ICE GLACIER - THEMED / Never stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. I've wondered this as well. I wonder at what point they charge us for tethering and how they prove it. Staying around that 5gb per month.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

I heard T-Mobile is going to charge for tethering..

I heard T-Mobile is going to charge for tethering..I heard this from T-Mobile rep does anyone know about this??
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

That. Makes sense if they're about to bought out by ATT
Sent from my GTablet-TnT-Lite using Tapatalk

Yes T-mobile charges for tethering, it's $15. If you only use it occasionaly then you will probably get by without a problem, but if you use it consistently you will get blocked / get a message to add tethering to your account.

atlp99 said:
Yes T-mobile charges for tethering, it's $15. If you only use it occasionaly then you will probably get by without a problem, but if you use it consistently you will get blocked / get a message to add tethering to your account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you get free tethering if you have the 2GB unlimited plan - both USB and wifi - confirmed with business customer care (and it counts for regular customers as well) - she was very stern though when she warned me that when I get throttled, I will be lucky to get dial up speeds.

The rep i spoke to she told me that its gonna just stop working out of blue. She keep asking me do i want her to add the feature and i told her I'll wait til i cant use it.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

How can they tell if I'm using my phone as a Wifi hotspot to tether my iPad?

Some people who tethered their mytouch 4g got warning text messages about tethering and having to add the plan and then it was disabled for them after that. I heard it happens when you use the stock tethering app as opposed to using the one in CM 7 or wifi-tether. I never really go over my 5gb limit so I have never even been throttled. I tether all the time with my mytouch 4g to my streak 7 and xoom. I have yet to get a message about it. I think as long as you're not going overboard with it you will stay under the radar and be safe. I have tethered for years on TMO with my blackberries and now my mytouch 4g. Does the G2X have a tethering app built in?

graffixnyc said:
Some people who tethered their mytouch 4g got warning text messages about tethering and having to add the plan and then it was disabled for them after that. I heard it happens when you use the stock tethering app as opposed to using the one in CM 7 or wifi-tether. I never really go over my 5gb limit so I have never even been throttled. I tether all the time with my mytouch 4g to my streak 7 and xoom. I have yet to get a message about it. I think as long as you're not going overboard with it you will stay under the radar and be safe. I have tethered for years on TMO with my blackberries and now my mytouch 4g. Does the G2X have a tethering app built in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has the stock android tether settings so yes.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

Even if they start charging - it will happen the same way it happened to all the android phones on ATT that actually do charge - XDA developers will find a way to give us tethering with 3rd party apps and whatnot, and its all going to work for free.
I love android, and the developers in XDA have a big part of why I love android

They can do what ever they want but they won't be able to stop me from using Easy Tether. Than can deactivate the built in Wireless tethering all they want. By the way, I have been using Easy Tether for over a year without one message from T-Mobile.

I have the 5gb limit and I never got a notice to add tethering to my account. I only use it when im in the car and I need to use my laptop. Tmobile keeps sending me a text saying I qualify for a upgrade of my plan. But I keep disregarding it because I heard they reduced it to 2gb with limitations.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

graffixnyc said:
Some people who tethered their mytouch 4g got warning text messages about tethering and having to add the plan and then it was disabled for them after that. I heard it happens when you use the stock tethering app as opposed to using the one in CM 7 or wifi-tether. I never really go over my 5gb limit so I have never even been throttled. I tether all the time with my mytouch 4g to my streak 7 and xoom. I have yet to get a message about it. I think as long as you're not going overboard with it you will stay under the radar and be safe. I have tethered for years on TMO with my blackberries and now my mytouch 4g. Does the G2X have a tethering app built in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I go over my limit every month. It sucks. Sometimes when im home I forget to switch to wifi. So I can only blame myself.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

One month I went up to 13GB of use (well, amazing having flash on your phone to watch tv shows that use up a lot of bandwidth, and back when the data cap was 10GB), and never got a notice, just got throttled down to EDGE speeds. Even in more recent months, going over 5GB just got me throttled, and that's about it.

Mobile Hotspot

If you are running a Rom will ATT know ,and change your data settings, if you use the mobile hotspot? I thought I read they can't and you can do it on your unlimited plan without them know or changing, but I just wanted to if that's true.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

Kent Melton said:
If you are running a Rom will ATT know ,and change your data settings, if you use the mobile hotspot? I thought I read they can't and you can do it on your unlimited plan without them know or changing, but I just wanted to if that's true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They have ways of knowing. For example, a couple of months ago some jailbroken iPhone users started getting letters and text messages from AT&T stating they need to either stop tethering or be forced to get a tethering plan. I haven't heard of the same thing happening with Android users though. Earlier this month Google bowed to pressure from the phone companies and started removing tethering apps from the Market.

Att is most likely checking the natted IP bounce since using hotspots requires extra hop. Have to use proxy to avoid trace.

I was USB tether my phone to my work laptop for internet and have been doing so for many months and never once has ATT said anything. Then again thats USBtether, not wifi
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB using Tapatalk

xKrisx said:
I was USB tether my phone to my work laptop for internet and have been doing so for many months and never once has ATT said anything. Then again thats USBtether, not wifi
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue arises when someone is using tens or hundreds of GB per month, that kind of gives it away. If you only occasionally tether (wifi or hotspot) for basic websurfing, I doubt you're going to raise any red flags.

I know there were a few moments when I really needed internet on my laptop and decided to tether because I could... even thigh I was scared to do it, I did it anyways and I have yet to get any charges... so yeah just keep your usage while tethering low...
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App

ST3ALTHPSYCH0 said:
The issue arises when someone is using tens or hundreds of GB per month, that kind of gives it away. If you only occasionally tether (wifi or hotspot) for basic websurfing, I doubt you're going to raise any red flags.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^this
i've consistently gone over 5gigs since i've had my unlimited data plan (nothing outrageous usually under 10gigs) and i wifi tether all the time. i read in another thread this exact thing... they can't really tell unless you all of a sudden jump your usage... for that reason i make sure i stay above the old 5 gig limit.

Have you been caught tethering?

I havent yet, I've been using Tether For Root Users. I tether my friends, my laptop sometimes, and I even tethered my PS3 to play Battlefield, with surprisingly no lag.
No messages/letters from AT&T and I've hit the 2.5 gig mark in 28 days and went over 5 gigs just once
What about you guys?

Rogers let's u tether from stock Haha but 5gb isn't bad I usually hit around 9-10 with no tethering

Not yet. I just started using it a lot more than before though. I'm just on the 2 GB plan so if I start going over regularly then I'll probably upgrade to the 5 GB and not worry about it.
By the way, I'm using the stock hotspot app with the mod that comes with Clean ROM LE.
Sent from my HTC One X

I thought I read somewhere that using the stock tethering app without an AT&T tethering plan is not a good idea - because they can see what you're doing. Folks previously suggested to use a third party tether app, like WiFi Tethering or Barnacle, or something similar. Am I remembering something wrong, or have folks heard that as well?

neocryte said:
I thought I read somewhere that using the stock tethering app without an AT&T tethering plan is not a good idea - because they can see what you're doing. Folks previously suggested to use a third party tether app, like WiFi Tethering or Barnacle, or something similar. Am I remembering something wrong, or have folks heard that as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could be wrong, but I don't think one option is any more stealth than the other.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

I feel sorry for you Americans and your carriers. Branded phones and limitations like this. Move to Sweden and tether all you want
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

ive never been caught. I used 3g for watching lots of youtube videos and stuff like that. 2 or 3GB quite easily but no problem. (Just don't tell my network )

powerwagon said:
I could be wrong, but I don't think one option is any more stealth than the other.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could be right, I just thought they had some way of seeing whether you're using the stock app.

sjrp said:
I feel sorry for you Americans and your carriers. Branded phones and limitations like this. Move to Sweden and tether all you want
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no reason to feel sorry for our carriers.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Idk how it works for android but I know a couple of friends that were grandfathered into unlimited plans with their iPhones that got caught..
But if your on a tiered plan what could they do? Bump you up to 5gb? It's not like you'd be forced to hop on that plan..

That's exactly what they do. Of course you can change it back but then you're flagged and will get caught constantly.

sjrp said:
I feel sorry for you Americans and your carriers. Branded phones and limitations like this. Move to Sweden and tether all you want
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have your bikini team waiting to greet me, I'm all in (my wife probably not so much ).
As for tethering, I only do it in case of emergency, so no problem so far. I'm on a grandfathered unlimited plan, but I barely go over 3GB a month.
Sent from my HTC One X

At&t offered me a 5gb plan with free tether. Should i switch to that rather then having the 3gb plan with no tether? My thought is i have wifi, and im on it constantly. But when i take trips back home, having tether would come in handy. I have the free root tether.....but i dont wanna risk getting caught. Thoughts??
Sent from my HTC One X using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

50 a month is a lot of money to have access to something you won't use that often. I say use the tethering app for free until you get caught.

I tethered for the first time today for a few hours, probably 400-500 mb. We'll see if I get the dreaded text.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I have tethered shamelessly for years, first on my jailbroken iPhones and now on my One X. I've never gotten caught.
I don't claim to be an expert, but from what I've heard, tethering is tethering. Devs will tell you their apps can hide it somehow, but this is hard to accept given that no one is quite sure how AT&T catches people. I myself have tethered using both hacked native capability and third party apps and didn't see a difference.
It seems to be related to bandwidth, but I've heard of people getting nabbed after tethering just once.
I suspect it's a mix of your data patterns and what you're doing. Once you get on their radar screens its very easy to get caught based on your traffic.
When I tether, I pay close attention to how much data I'm using, and I try to avoid doing anything that would be a dead giveaway, like updating my computer software. I also avoid streaming anything or moving large files; this means disabling autosync functions in things like Dropbox.
I'm a fairly heavy data user, but I always stay below my soft cap (5GB unlimited).
So far this approach has worked for me.

zounduser said:
At&t offered me a 5gb plan with free tether. Should i switch to that rather then having the 3gb plan with no tether? My thought is i have wifi, and im on it constantly. But when i take trips back home, having tether would come in handy. I have the free root tether.....but i dont wanna risk getting caught. Thoughts??
Sent from my HTC One X using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got that too it offered me 40 bucks for 5GB with tether. Same price without it. So why not. I just use the USB tether when my Internet goes down. Happens often with time warner Cable:-(
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda premium

no tethering charges here in Canada, at least not Telus anymore. I do like to tether though, I have a PC in my car and when I'm on road trips its nice for the passenger to surf the net. I did almost get caught back in the day though.
I got a call from Telus saying that the system dropped my unlimited data and to call them. so I called and they said there was some error and they would drop the charges that incurred. that was on their old CDMA network at $8/mb

As long as you have >1GB data with Rogers, tethering is free here in Canada. tbaytel offers free tethering on any data plan.
Feel sorry for you 'muricans

I average about 20 gb a month for about 5 years now. Not all tethering though. Alot is actually downloading roms from phone browser. Haven't gotten a single warning about it. But for the last 7 months I've been throttled after I hit 5 gb.
Sent from my HTC One™ X, an WCX Illuminati 4G LTE smartphone

Do NOT update to ICS yet

I was at a VZW center yesterday, and one of the reps (to who his credit, didn't sound like a complete idiot like a lot of the employees there.)
Anyway, he told me that if you have the $30 unlimited tethering promo that was optional for a short time when the Tbolt came out...once you update to ICS you will lose it.
I don't know if what the rep said was true or not, but just felt I should give anyone who might be in this situation a heads up.
Sorry, if this has already been mentioned, by the way...I just wanted to get it out there quickly.

That salesman's knowledge seems questionable
Fail on reading comprehension on my part...I read that as unlimited data not unlimited tethering. I thought they lost a court case recently where they couldn't charge for tethering anymore? (Found a link, can't post it, yay new user, but if you google "verizon court case tethering" you should find several articles about it) At any rate I imagine as long as you keep root they can't really stop you from tethering.

nuggetfn22004 said:
Fail on reading comprehension on my part...I read that as unlimited data not unlimited tethering. I thought they lost a court case recently where they couldn't charge for tethering anymore? (Found a link, can't post it, yay new user, but if you google "verizon court case tethering" you should find several articles about it) At any rate I imagine as long as you keep root they can't really stop you from tethering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah with root, I don't think they can do anything about you tethering. I personally have used my rooted tethering for some really data-intensive power sessions--like 10-15GB a week while I was away (VZW was much faster than the local wifi at my hotel where I was doing after-hours work). Never heard a peep from Verizon about it.

They're allowed to provide their own paid tethering service, they just aren't allowed to force you to use that or use nothing. In other words, they can't tell you not to use a free app for the same thing.
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda app-developers app

tm24fan8 said:
They're allowed to provide their own paid tethering service, they just aren't allowed to force you to use that or use nothing. In other words, they can't tell you not to use a free app for the same thing.
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe the actual compromise was that if you were on a tiered data plan, they weren't allowed to prevent you from tethering, and they can't prevent you from installing the app regardless, but they could prevent you from tethering if you are using one of the grandfathered "unlimited" plans?

They can't prevent you from using it nor can they even prove that you are using it. If they could I would have been charged thousands of dollars already since I've been using WiFi tether for about 4 years now.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I know awhile back I mentioned to a verizon rep that they couldn't prove if I was tethering and he went on a long defensive rant about how they monitor your usage and if it spikes they know you are tethering. It took a lot of self-restraint to keep from laughing in his face. I guess they figure most people won't do outside research and just listen to whatever they're spoon fed by verizon.

I have unlimited data so that is a crock of ****. They can tell if I use a lot of data and that is about it. They can't tell if it resulted from tethering. 95% of my data usage comes from using my phone to download roms.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

disconnecktie said:
I have unlimited data so that is a crock of ****. They can tell if I use a lot of data and that is about it. They can't tell if it resulted from tethering. 95% of my data usage comes from using my phone to download roms.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, they just try to use scare tactics on people who don't know any better. Since tethering goes through the phone, it shows the same on their network regardless of whether its the phone or 10 other devices connected to the phone doing the downloading.

If you use their hot spot and it isn't the hacked version I think they can tell. I'm not sure though and wouldn't take that risk.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

disconnecktie said:
They can't prevent you from using it nor can they even prove that you are using it. If they could I would have been charged thousands of dollars already since I've been using WiFi tether for about 4 years now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The big fun will come when you get the letter saying, "We understand you've used thousands of dollars worth of tethering but we see you've failed to declare this as taxable income.
We figure you owe $xxx,xxx.xx plus interest and penalties.
Love ya, the IRS!

xs11e said:
The big fun will come when you get the letter saying, "We understand you've used thousands of dollars worth of tethering but we see you've failed to declare this as taxable income.
We figure you owe $xxx,xxx.xx plus interest and penalties.
Love ya, the IRS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol last time I checked the verizon corporation wasn't apart of the irs. Just saying....
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

But you can bet the IRS keeps track of VZW AND VZW customers :crying:

xs11e said:
But you can bet the IRS keeps track of VZW AND VZW customers :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah maybe verizon but not me.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

Im a little confused, since im pretty new to the t-bolt since i bought it on ebay a few months ago. If i use a free tether app, will VZW NOT charge me for data? on my old moto x2 using a root tether app meant you still got charged for data, but not for the tethering service. Is this different on the TB?

ryan1407 said:
Im a little confused, since im pretty new to the t-bolt since i bought it on ebay a few months ago. If i use a free tether app, will VZW NOT charge me for data? on my old moto x2 using a root tether app meant you still got charged for data, but not for the tethering service. Is this different on the TB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're on a limited data plan, tethering uses your data. If you're on an unlimited plan you're supposed to pay a monthly fee to use tethering, however, there are apps that you can use to get around this.

Classic Verizon reps, think they're smarter than you... No I'm only here because I need a SIM card and corporate says you can't just give me a SIM card, you have to do it yourself.... Of course that's changed now, but boy that was a *****. I hate giving them my brand new phones, too, I've heard stories where they screw up the battery cover and such.
Woo rant!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

nuggetfn22004 said:
I guess they figure most people won't do outside research and just listen to whatever they're spoon fed by verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When paid by Verizon I assume one becomes a mouthpiece for Verizon, and it makes some logical sense for them to preach Verizon's sermons to all who aren't tech savvy.
That said, I did a doubletake on the OP, as I have the unlimited data and I sometimes tether while on the road (yay root). Tbh, I (ab)use an app called DropSync to do some crazy stuff with DropBox, and when I'm not on WiFi for a time it's common for me to rack up 10GB+ from just that. I really haven't got as much usage from my tethering. So if anyone from Verizon ever got after me for tethering, I'd just disable my WiFi and let them watch me push a ton thru my LTE, just to be spiteful. :victory:

Screw them tether away!!!!
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

why not??
why not??i just flash santod stock ics last month..no problema at all...