Is there a way to disable the GPRR/GPRS data transmission/usage while being able to maintain it? I tried searching but nothing comes close to it any solution that is applicable.
kaisertweak was the answer interestingly.
GPRR Charges In Your Phone Bill
You need to review your phone bills. ATT is ripping people off. If you have purchased a phone like a black jack, blackberry, any type of PDA that has internet access, it will charge you a ridiculous amount of money, even when you don't use the internet. The phone supposedly goes onto the internet by itself to find new updates and it charges for data transfer. Also, multi media messaging is considered data transfer therefore it uses the internet, so it as well charges, even though multi media messaging is covered under your plan. I'm considering a class sue against AT&T. If this has happened to you please join this discussion.
I've got the bogus bills too.
We need to resolve this. I have heard of people with multi thousand dollar bills!
This application might be able to answer all your questions...!! there is no harm in trying it
and also as a supplementary application
i share this pain how do i join your class action law suit
Related
Hello all,
First of all I am new here and to hacking phones. Plenty of experience hacking everything else though. lol
I am a real estate agent. Finally, the ATT HTC Tilt is a device that will meet my needs! I do not want to pay for the tethering plan. The basic 20MB/$30 per month data plan may or may not be enough for me so I need some advice. For $10 more, I may just get the $40 unlimited PDA deal which does not include tethering.
1st - All I will need the device for is emails and checking the MLS websites. I can get an idea of my email amount but what is an average web page?
2nd - I know I can tether without paying them for it and I plan on doing so. I am not going to download huge files. I would just like to connect my laptop, cruise the Multiple Listing Service website and be able to show clients the data on a nice big laptop screen. Do you think that would send ATT any red flags?
3rd - If I use some of the hacks/ROMs here to get rid of the ATT garbage (as I have read this is a smart thing to do) will it effect my ability to tether?
Occasionally I may have to download a a 5 or 10 MB PDF form. Normally, I would already have that on my laptop ahead of time though.
Thanks for your opinions and guidance. I know some of these questions have been addressed but I just wanted to confirm this for my situation since I will be leaving Verizon for ATT and buying a new phone and cannot afford to screw up. lol
By the way, this website rocks!!! A true treasure!
1. Average website is about 2KB to 100KB, depending on the number of images. Things like flash animations, videos, sound, or very large images will make pages much bigger.
2. Make sure your bandwidth usage is not huge, and it will not set off any red flags, there is no way for them to know you are tethering besides guessing based on your bandwidth usage. With the $40 PDA plan, the "limit" is already pretty high, so you don't have much to worry about.
3. Won't affect you ability to tether, as long as the ROM you chose still has the internet sharing software still on it. The stock HTC ROM does have it, but some of the "light" ROMs may not. Many people actually seem to like the stock AT&T ROM, after tweaking it. Consider these tweaks instead of reflashing, as reflashing will void your warantee.
Jozer99 said:
3. Won't affect you ability to tether, as long as the ROM you chose still has the internet sharing software still on it. The stock HTC ROM does have it, but some of the "light" ROMs may not. Many people actually seem to like the stock AT&T ROM, after tweaking it. Consider these tweaks instead of reflashing, as reflashing will void your warantee.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jozer is totally correct, DO NOT FLASH it, just tweak it. The AT&T ROM is fine after you stop the bloatware install. To do that, when you first get the device and boot it up you will have to go thru the normal OS prompts (time, screen alignemnt, password, etc) then you will see a dialog that says that it will customer the device in 3 seconds. Reboot the device before the 3 seconds are up and none ofthe bloatware will be installed.
Then, just tweak away will all the cool cabs here on this site (of course, I mean the cabs for the Kaiser).
WOW...good stuff and made crystal clear too. Thanks so much guys. I would like to just tweak as you both recommend since I have enough headaches and don't want to get radical in the first few months of a new plan any way.lol
Does anyone recommend dealing with ATT directly or can I find a better deal online without customer service headaches if help is needed down the road? I have never bought from online, I always went directly to the store.
I have seen some good prices on the http://www.letstalk.com/product/browse.htm?pgId=100 website.
Just wondering what personal experiences people have had with tethering to their phone via Internet Connection Sharing (without a tethering plan).
What happens if Cingular finds out? Can they find out? Anyone gotten busted? Any do's and don'ts? I transfer a lot of data so I just am curious. I don't really wanna find out I have a 500,000$ bill or anything ;P
Well i don't have Cingular, but FIDO screwed me hard enuff... I bought a 30$ prepaid card, thethered Internet on my laptop, just a little, only to see... damn, just logged in to MSN and it disconnected giving me an error that I had no more money on my card!!! :O 30$ trashed over the window only by logging on MSN? man, I suggest you stop tethering just in case... wait 'till your bill comes, look if you are lucky, and if you are, then thether away
I seldom use my ICS but I do use SlingBox and Stream Center Radio and have never seen anything different on my AT&T bill, but I don't use any of these excessively but so far no issues. I agree with creiz, use it for a while, note the tima and date, then check one bill to see what it looks like.
Apologies if this is not the right place to ask but....
I am considering getting an HTC Diamond Touch and I am on O2. Their "unlimited" data plan has a fair usage policy of 200Mb per month. Is this enough? I intend using push email, my personal IMAP email (with regular polling) and some web browsing, perhaps the odd bit of YouTube etc etc.
Also, if I am connected to my WiFi router at home and browsing the web, I assume that O2 dont know anything about that and it does not form part of the 200Mb.
Thanks
The Jones said:
Apologies if this is not the right place to ask but....
I am considering getting an HTC Diamond Touch and I am on O2. Their "unlimited" data plan has a fair usage policy of 200Mb per month. Is this enough? I intend using push email, my personal IMAP email (with regular polling) and some web browsing, perhaps the odd bit of YouTube etc etc.
Also, if I am connected to my WiFi router at home and browsing the web, I assume that O2 dont know anything about that and it does not form part of the 200Mb.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Each person has different requirements, however in my opinion, its no where near enough.
Will O2 care if you go over though?...
For everything you mentioned, except YouTube, I think 200Mb/month would be enough. But of course, it depends on HOW much YouTube you are planning to 'use'.
I don't have any numbers on how much data I use though, since my operator (Tele2Comviq, Sweden) allows up to 5Gb before they limit the transfer speed to 30kb/s.
Thanks for the responses, but not sure if it clears things up for me! I do wonder what O2 will do if I start to go over, might be worth a try!
As for the WiFi access, is my assumption correct?
The Jones said:
Thanks for the responses, but not sure if it clears things up for me! I do wonder what O2 will do if I start to go over, might be worth a try!
As for the WiFi access, is my assumption correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct!
Thanks again. I think I will take the risk and try it. I will try and remember to post back here with my results (if O2 have not already cut me off)
If you go over the fair usage limit, they are liable to start charging you £7.50Mb
chriswren said:
If you go over the fair usage limit, they are liable to start charging you £7.50Mb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't go barmy ouch
I don't know specifically about O2, but pretty much everyone, unless you're paying an extra premium for a "more unlimited than unlimited" internet access, block or exclude in the T&Cs streaming media like youtube. Check the small print.
You will definitely need more than that - but speak to them first if you are re-negotiating your contract. I was with them and they gave me a free data bundle which was much more than 200mb when I threatened to go to T-Mobile but then I did anyway as I could do without the hassle.
I do know though that with any 'fair usage' you can not simply be charged straight away, you should be given warning that you are approaching your limit. Having just checked my O2 conditions (which could be out of date) they will contact you to discuss your plan and if you continue to go over they have the right to request you stop or they can charge you. I've yet to hear of any of my friends being charged and I know they go over.
I used a downloaded CAB to enable Internet Connection Sharing on my Tilt.
I selected "MEdiaNet", turned off USB Connections in ActiveSync, and it's working as a modem. Congrats right?
Well, I'm worried that if I use it I'm going to get a monster bill from ATT.
I already use the browser on the phone all the time. Sometimes for hours at a time when I'm on the road, so I already have an unlimited PDA data package. I'm pretty sure there's some rule where I have to add laptop connect, but I'm wondering if anyone else has done this without having laptop connect and what the result was, billing wise.
I don't want to pay $60 just to use my PC to logon to non-mobile/flash sites, but it sure would be handy.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Yeah others have done this and we have talked about it in previous threads.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?searchid=24147543
yea this has been discused many times.
My good friend works direct for ATT corporate, att doesnt care how you use the data as long as you dont go over 5gigs in a month, once you hit the 5 gig limit you are put on a watch list to see if you do it again, if you do it again then they send you a letter saying hey your using to much data, if you do it again after the letter they make you upgrade or discontinue your service. they have no way to check if you are tethered.
I'm running chromatic and as of 3 this morning tmobile is blocking my tether. Has this happened to anyone else yet? They want to upsell me to add tethering for 15 more a month and it still has the 5gb cap (Total BS) The built in wired tether and pdanet both aren't working, don't know about wifi tether yet but I'm assuming its blocked too. I found some posts by some g2 users this has happened to. Any one else? I'm glad im paying $30 for "unlimited" data. Aholes.
Thanks!
Sent from my Chromatic Dream using XDA App
Wireless tether aka wifi tether for rooted phones from code.google.com should still work. I've seen other reports of such blocks with market programs.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
They popped me last night. G1 rooted running wifi tether for root users and pdanet. This sucks REALLY bad.
im using tether now to be on xda and facebook. im in new mexico and the only message ive gotten from tmoblie was there were slowing my download speeds for hitting my cap with unlimited data plan lol.
I have a rooted G1, and I usually use wifi-tether or Barnacle. Tried PDANet as well.
I've received 8 text-messages from Tmobile regarding my tethering being blocked. Odd thing was, I was streaming pandora-radio on the phone during a long car drive (~5 hours) while these things beeped away at me. I had tethered earlier for a few minutes to check my gmail.
Later when I tried to tether to check my email, any http requests direct me to an upsell message. However, Remote-desktop still works, FTP still works, and most everything except plain webpages work. Tmobile is asking $15/mo for 200MB of data, with $0.10/MB overage charges ontop of your 10GB "unlimited" plan.
I'm unsure of how they detect tethering. It seems to be based off of bandwidth usage, as there's no way for them to discern whether this is phone traffic or laptop traffic. The other thing that could be a possible giveaway is the number of connections that are open. I'd imagine the laptop has a few things open for windows update, msn messenger and who knows what, whereas the phone has Browser and Lattitude.
Regardless, this is balls.
user agent string
If they are blocking web browser traffic, but not other TCP/IP services like FTP or remote desktop, there's a chance they are fingerprinting non-phone web requests by looking at the user agent string. An interesting test would be whether or not you're able to still make HTTPS-only requests with the web browser on your desktop or laptop. It would take some evil hackery for them to be able to retrieve the user agent string from an HTTPS request.
See 14.43 of the HTTP 1.1 spec for a description of the user agent string.
Got around it by setting up an openvpn on cyanogen 6.1.0. Even if im not using tethering, im still gonna use openvpn for my data traffic, as they are probably using deep packet inspection, which means we no longer have any privacy on tmobiles network.
Im thinking about changing the default port to 443 so as far as they are concerned, im just browsing ssl sites on my phone (port 443 is the default ssl port for web browsing and openvpn uses ssl for encryption).
If you use this method, just be sure to reset you dns to to googles (8.8.8.8) otherwise they can still tell whether or not your tethering based on my experience.
Im seriously considering switching to sprint as i would actually be willing to pay for their tethering, i get 4g in my area and i have a lot of respect for sprint for not capping their 4g.
Maybe if tmobile offered more bandwidth or other features for their 15 bucks a month I would actually be willing to pay for it, but i AM NOT paying for data that I allready paid for. Data is data to them, my cap isnt changing, why should i pay more to pipe my data to my computer.
Correct me if I'm wrong but tethering for $15 essentially removes the 5gb throttled cap. Its the same as Sprint and their $10 fee. The 200mb plan is just a lower tier.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
JustinTArthur said:
An interesting test would be whether or not you're able to still make HTTPS-only requests with the web browser on your desktop or laptop. It would take some evil hackery for them to be able to retrieve the user agent string from an HTTPS request.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Https to mail.google.com works just fine!
funkeee said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but tethering for $15 essentially removes the 5gb throttled cap. Its the same as Sprint and their $10 fee. The 200mb plan is just a lower tier.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
last time I was working the tmobile call-center for T3DS (spring 2010), the cap was 10GB. Although, that was nearly a year ago now. Samson had a lil' checkbox for "throttled" that was enabled at 10GB. perhaps a year and a half ago, maybe two now, they had disabled tethering previousy system-wide. Although back then I had a Motorola Krzr with no data, so I really had no clue what was affected.
The $15 thing is to enable tethering. two days ago it was offering me something around 40-50 dollars for "unlimited" (atop the $30 i pay for unlimited data), and $15 for 200MB (atop of the $30 i play for unlimited data). Of course, you must have a data-plan already in place. Looking at it again today, the page is different. It presents me with a mini terms of service, a button to add this package to my plan to enable tethering. No mention or word of cost.
And, visiting my.tmobile.com like it suggests... there's nothing on the official Tmobile website that I can find for the tethering package.
So, being the typical t-mo customer that I am, I called up the 1-800 number to whine and complain. I mostly want these annoying text-messages to stop. The rep said he could add on the tethering package for me, but I declined. He also offered to hand this over to his buisness group to see if these messages are being sent out in error.
TLDR: If I have to pay $85/mo minimum for smartphone with tethering abilities, i'd rather just give Verizon a call.
starnostar said:
Got around it by setting up an openvpn on cyanogen 6.1.0. Even if im not using tethering, im still gonna use openvpn for my data traffic, as they are probably using deep packet inspection, which means we no longer have any privacy on tmobiles network.
Im thinking about changing the default port to 443 so as far as they are concerned, im just browsing ssl sites on my phone (port 443 is the default ssl port for web browsing and openvpn uses ssl for encryption).
If you use this method, just be sure to reset you dns to to googles (8.8.8.8) otherwise they can still tell whether or not your tethering based on my experience.
Im seriously considering switching to sprint as i would actually be willing to pay for their tethering, i get 4g in my area and i have a lot of respect for sprint for not capping their 4g.
Maybe if tmobile offered more bandwidth or other features for their 15 bucks a month I would actually be willing to pay for it, but i AM NOT paying for data that I allready paid for. Data is data to them, my cap isnt changing, why should i pay more to pipe my data to my computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never successfully set up openvpn before, could you assist with this? Or is there a guide you recommend for beginners?
work around
was cut off last night.
tried the "user agent switcher" plugin for firefox to see if they are blocking browsers rather than the tethering itself.
With limited testing, i found several agents that work. iphone 3.0 to name one... Now to figure a way to keep the web looking nice using these agents.
I just received my first text warning and was cut off immediately....the 5gig throttle was already a huge kick to my nuts...now they want me to pay to tether and still be under the same cap?! I hit 5gigs WITHOUT tether...I really don't know how tmo expects to keep any smartphone customers like this...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
The solution to this is very easy;
EVERYBODY needs to call up tmobile and tell them that you were NOT tethering, but changed the USER AGENT ON YOUR PHONE in order to make websites actually work since douchebag websites read that the user agent is for MOBILE and send you to their crippled mobile websites.
dhkr123 said:
The solution to this is very easy;
EVERYBODY needs to call up tmobile and tell them that you were NOT tethering, but changed the USER AGENT ON YOUR PHONE in order to make websites actually work since douchebag websites read that the user agent is for MOBILE and send you to their crippled mobile websites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... You can call them all you like. Previously working for a tmobile call-center, I can assure you little will be done. If I received the call, I would be opening up samson and checking your usage history. The billing system logs just about every bit of data transfered, although I cant remember if it lists URL's anymore. I would suggest telling them that you were tethering, decline on the upsell offer of the tethering package because you feel your "unlimited data" package actually means unlimited, then you can also tell them that it is interfering with the phones operation by itself even when you arnt tethering, and request some sort of further troubleshooting/ticket creation.
If you say you arnt tethering, but DID tether, we could usually see judging by how many connections were initiated over a period of time... There's only so much an android phone can do at once. Regardless, as a data/tech rep, the next step would be filing a network trouble-ticket and putting in your information for an "engineer" to review over. Theres little (if not nothing) for the follow-up/callback process. At this point I would be telling you an engineer/tech would review over it, and try to end the call by up-selling you a newer phone.
TLDR: Unless things have changed in the past year, You will only talk to customer-care rep's, and have no chance of getting your concerns to those who have any power over these decisions. However if you do call in, please be polite and patient with the rep. I've called in and informed them that these are being erroneously generated, and they've taken the time to make a ticket for me. (they were, I got 8 of the damned things while listening to pandora on my phone)
hauppage said:
Well... You can call them all you like. Previously working for a tmobile call-center, I can assure you little will be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for a single call, but if EVERYBODY called and complained about it, it WOULD be dealt with.
If I received the call, I would be opening up samson and checking your usage history. The billing system logs just about every bit of data transfered, although I cant remember if it lists URL's anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go ahead and check the usage history. A smartphone is capable of generating EXACTLY the same data use as a tethered computer.
I would suggest telling them that you were tethering, decline on the upsell offer of the tethering package because you feel your "unlimited data" package actually means unlimited, then you can also tell them that it is interfering with the phones operation by itself even when you arnt tethering, and request some sort of further troubleshooting/ticket creation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that is EXACTLY what you do NOT want to do, because as soon as you do that, all discussion is over.
If you say you arnt tethering, but DID tether, we could usually see judging by how many connections were initiated over a period of time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might have been the case in years gone by, but no longer.
There's only so much an android phone can do at once.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh? The limiting factor here is the NETWORK, not the hardware. It is TRIVIAL to open up dozens of connections for lots of different services on lots of different servers. Just because it is beyond YOU does not mean that **I** can't do it.
Regardless, as a data/tech rep, the next step would be filing a network trouble-ticket and putting in your information for an "engineer" to review over. Theres little (if not nothing) for the follow-up/callback process. At this point I would be telling you an engineer/tech would review over it, and try to end the call by up-selling you a newer phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And once that request has been filed, you don't think that statistics will be run on the nature of the various requests? 200 thousand complaints about this nonsense knocking out normal phone data traffic, you don't think that would be noticed?
TLDR: Unless things have changed in the past year, You will only talk to customer-care rep's, and have no chance of getting your concerns to those who have any power over these decisions. However if you do call in, please be polite and patient with the rep. I've called in and informed them that these are being erroneously generated, and they've taken the time to make a ticket for me. (they were, I got 8 of the damned things while listening to pandora on my phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I've said, numbers talk. I certainly don't advocate calling up and threatening anyone, but if the numbers are overwhelming, then corrective actions MUST be taken.
Please look at my post regarding T-mobile tethering
[/COLOR]I'm pretty sure I know what T-Mobile did.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26649587#post26649587