Database Develop

Bell Users: Tethering Charge?

Just wanted an update. One user said he was charged for tethering however that has never happened with me before, but I haven't tether in awhile. I have never been charged before.
Is anyone regularly tethering, and have you done it lately?
Please let me know as I'm going on a trip soon and being able to tether would be helpful, thanks!.

it is a risk
I tethered many many times over the course of about a full year, so I was shocked to see my tethering charge when it appeared. I had already tethered after that, before getting my bill for the month. I was only charged for it once, in one specific session. Don't think I did anything different. So, even if someone tells you they have never been charged, keep in mind that until it happened to me after a year, I would have told you don't worry about it. Now I NEVER EVER risk tethering.
The risk of being charged may be very small, but the charge you incur could be huge!
You can buy a 500MB monthly data plan for $25. I was charged 100 times that much for 1/3 the data!!!!
mfpreach said:
Just wanted an update. One user said he was charged for tethering however that has never happened with me before, but I haven't tether in awhile. I have never been charged before.
Is anyone regularly tethering, and have you done it lately?
Please let me know as I'm going on a trip soon and being able to tether would be helpful, thanks!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks for the update.

When you have the Vogue connected and charging off a usb on a pc, it it automatically tethered when using Android?
I know that on WM, you actually specify that the phone will be used as a modem.
I downloaded some free apps on the Android market, so I hope I won't get dinged........

And what if you have unlimited data?

My package includes Unlimited mobile browsing. Does that change when I go from WM to Android?

guitar_pic said:
My package includes Unlimited mobile browsing. Does that change when I go from WM to Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope I have that unlimited mobile browsing from bell and it works fine with android no additional costs (not sure about tethering I did it awhile ago and it was ok but have not done it lately)

Whew! Thanks for the quick reply. I was downloading some apps from the android store for the past 2 days, and I was playing around with the google map voice nav. All of a sudden, it occurred to me that I might get charged for this!

does anyone still tether with there vogue?
is it still undetectable? i know i used to tether with NFSFANS ROM and had no real problems
is there anything with android that could even report tethering?
i remember NFSFAN had to remove stuff from WM so bell couldnt detect it
also if tethering still good is pdanet a decent choice to do it with?
thanks

dude4 said:
does anyone still tether with there vogue?
is it still undetectable? i know i used to tether with NFSFANS ROM and had no real problems
is there anything with android that could even report tethering?
i remember NFSFAN had to remove stuff from WM so bell couldnt detect it
also if tethering still good is pdanet a decent choice to do it with?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing about PDAnet(the software component that's part of NFSFAN ROM) was that it was designed to mimic browsing through the phone even if you were actually tethering. That's why the providers can't charge you for tethering since bill you for tethering if all the data incurred was through your phone's browser.
The problem here with Android ROMs is no one has come forward to claim there is a PDAnet equivalent software available. If there isn't one then you have to assume that the providers can catch you when you try to tether. Don't take the risk until there's an official way of hiding tethering activity.

You can use PDAnet for Android...it works fine.

I've been tethering using the stock wireless tether app that's in most Android ROMS. No charges... yet.

No problems
I use Pay as you Go for my vogue, with $10/month unlimited browsing.
This only applies to CDMA devices.
I have tethered a lot with no charges yet.
I use about 500 meg - 1 gig per month on my phone. (streaming radio)
So for $120/year I have unlimited use of my Vogue Android anywhere and can tether my laptop on the road.

dude4 said:
does anyone still tether with there vogue?
is it still undetectable? i know i used to tether with NFSFANS ROM and had no real problems
is there anything with android that could even report tethering?
i remember NFSFAN had to remove stuff from WM so bell couldnt detect it
also if tethering still good is pdanet a decent choice to do it with?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is pretty much why I am still using NFSFAN's rom. Tethering with the unlimited browser plan is key for me, and NFSFAN went through the trouble to encrypt the data. I was hoping after all these years, the same could be said about Android.
nbrennan said:
I use Pay as you Go for my vogue, with $10/month unlimited browsing.
This only applies to CDMA devices.
I have tethered a lot with no charges yet.
I use about 500 meg - 1 gig per month on my phone. (streaming radio)
So for $120/year I have unlimited use of my Vogue Android anywhere and can tether my laptop on the road.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you with Bell? Do you use any apps to encrypt the data?

Tmobile blocking tether now. Anyone else?

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

[Q] HD7 WIFI Hotspot

This month is the 12th month after I started to use WP7 and it's almost 3 month after I upgraded to mango using RTM built. 7.10.7720.68. when can we have that WIFI tethering?

Please correct me if i'm wrong but actual windows 7.5 release phones have it but the Mango release for older phones does not.

Correct. WiFi tethering will only be available with the new hardware. Kind of a bummer, but otherwise I would say its perfect.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using XDA App

jelliottz said:
WiFi tethering will only be available with the new hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong.....

Wifi tethering will be available on 1st gen devices that have the chipset to support it.
The HD7 / HD7s does have this chipset, and HTC have already said that they will push out a firmware update in the next month or so that will enable it.
The only barrier unfortunately is your mobile operator, who will either block it entirely or will require you pay an extra subscription to unlock it.
Or of course in future you can visit your friendly local xda forum and bypass such restrictions ;-)

i hope this is soon, i just got this hd7 phone and updated to mango. kinda disappointing that every other phone i've used had this feature. who would of thought such a small thing was used so often....

Try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1233612

The Samsung technique to enable Wifi tethering will not work for the HTC HD7. I've been using the USBModeSwitch tool by ansar to tether by USB to my Windows 7 laptop. The instructions are a bit long winded, but it works quite well in the end. The only trouble is that every time you want to tether you must run the USBModeSwitch app, the device resets, you must disable the data connection, and only then can you connect on your laptop. You must remember to re-enable the data connection on the phone afterwards, and must reboot your phone again if you want to return to Zune mode. There is also a risk; if you uninstall the USBModeSwitch app whilst in tethering mode, you will NOT be able to sync with Zune or reinstall USBSwitchMode afterwards, even if you hard reset; you will have to pay for a special cable and a Gold Card to fix it! So you have to be careful.
Good news though! I read somewhere (Engadget I think) this morning that Microsoft have said that "a further firmware update will be made available to Gen1 devices at the end of this month that will enable more features" (paraphrasing). I take this to mean that HTC, Samsung etc will push out another firmware update to enable WiFi Hotspot and other minor features like visual voicemail (for those networks that support it). Looking forward to this.

Good news though! I read somewhere (Engadget I think) this morning that Microsoft have said that "a further firmware update will be made available to Gen1 devices at the end of this month that will enable more features" (paraphrasing). I take this to mean that HTC, Samsung etc will push out another firmware update to enable WiFi Hotspot and other minor features like visual voicemail (for those networks that support it). Looking forward to this.[/QUOTE]
Can't wait for it

Its, November! Still nothing.

Just put the HTC Europe ROM from here on with WIFI hotspot
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19049891#post19049891

No need for the European ROM anymore. Update is available today with internet sharing. Connect to Zune and you are on your way.

GreenHornet said:
No need for the European ROM anymore. Update is available today with internet sharing. Connect to Zune and you are on your way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can anyone confirm this... My dad wants this feature and I'd rather keep his phone as closest to stock as possible, he isn't really a big tech person.

sahil04 said:
Can anyone confirm this... My dad wants this feature and I'd rather keep his phone as closest to stock as possible, he isn't really a big tech person.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here it is -> proof.

sahil04 said:
Can anyone confirm this... My dad wants this feature and I'd rather keep his phone as closest to stock as possible, he isn't really a big tech person.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confirmed. Working on my HD7 Tmous

sh4d0w86 said:
here it is -> proof.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
roycio said:
Confirmed. Working on my HD7 Tmous
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replies. I just have one question left, is there a difference between the internet sharing in the official update and the internet sharing in the custom roms?
Like will the internet sharing in the official update prompt him to purchase a tethering plan compared to the custom rom not asking?
Thanks alot!

sahil04 said:
Thanks for the replies. I just have one question left, is there a difference between the internet sharing in the official update and the internet sharing in the custom roms?
Like will the internet sharing in the official update prompt him to purchase a tethering plan compared to the custom rom not asking?
Thanks alot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just worked without asking me anything.

I don't think T-mobile actually charges for tethering or for internet sharing. I know that in October of last year they were going to start charging $15, but I don't think they went through with it. If you go to set up a plan, you can select Wi-Fi and tethering as an option for an additional $10, but the description is as follows:
"Stay connected -- get Wi-Fi access on your laptop, phone, and select cameras and gaming devices at places you already go, including Starbucks, Borders Books and Music stores, airports such as DFW, LAX and SFO, Barnes & Noble bookstores and many more."
So this looks to me like signing up for non-mobile hotspots, not for internet sharing.
I connected mine as well without it asking for anything. Same thing on my android that I owned before this.

Confirmed!
Yeeey finaly we got the WIFI internet sharing.
I'm finaly satisfied with this phone.

FInal peice of the puzzle
This is finally the phone I always wanted with the Wifi hotspot feature just made available.
Only took a year

Aloha, new here, Any WI-FI calling advances made yet on unlocked Lumnia 1520?

Aloha,
I believe this is my first post, been on here off and on for a couple years looking around and learning things.
I picked up and unlocked the Nokia Lumnia 1520 a few weeks ago. I love the phone.
I am on T Mobile but the problem is it doesnt have WIFI calling activated and it doesnt have the choice in the settings to activate or deactivate it.
I know it has something to do with AT&T internal programming.
Has there been any advances on how we can go in and turn this feature back on?
Mahalo for your time. \m/

WiFi Calling requires a driver be installed. Only T-Mobile uses that driver; no other service needs it (if they implement WiFi calling they will need to add it, but their version probably won't be compatible with TMo anyhow). Therefore, phones that aren't running TMo-specific firmware don't include the driver. Installing a driver is currently beyond the capabilities of anything we can do on the Lumia (5 letters...) 1520. It may be possible to install it on interop-unlocked phones, but we don't have any such hack for the 1520 yet.
On a related note, if anybody with official TMo firmware wants to use my Webserver app and go find the relevant service, then export its registry key and post it here, that would be great... Ideally, please also extract and post the driver binary.

Getting USB Tethering to work without a plan? A few ideas and questions

I've been playing around with VRidge a lot lately, and it's really cool - being able to play VR games on my computer and stream them to my phone is nice. I'm using the 5ghz wifi streaming method for now and it works great, but... My phone heats up a lot after 10-15 minutes. Through some testing of various non-streaming GearVR games and apps, I can say with some certainty that it's the fact I'm streaming over wifi that's causing my phone to heat up.
So knowing that, I've been trying to get tethering to work. Of course the first thing I did was just try to turn it on in my settings - but Verizon wants another $30/month for the honor, which is just absurd since I'm already paying that for 2 whole gb of bandwidth a month. So with that out the window, I've tried a few other options:
Cyanogenmod Tether
PdaNet+
A method I found here involving Network Signal Refresher
Pulling my sim card (Won't even let me try without a sim card in)
Rooting methods... Obviously can't do any of these because as far as I know, the Verizon Note 5 has yet to be rooted. (Please correct me if I'm wrong)
Needless to say, none of these worked... For RiftCat at least. I've submitted a feature request to utilize a tether app instead of the native tether, but some brief googling makes me think this may not be possible (The developer of a competing project mentioned something along those lines last year).
So, I have a few ideas that I wanted XDA's opinions on:
A "test sim card" - I can pick a few up for a few dollars. Will this allow me to enable usb tethering, or will it check to see if the SIM card is valid / has 5g first?
A usb-to-ethernet cable, plugged into an ethernet card on my computer and hopefully finding a way to make my phone think it's just a wifi connection. Is this even possible? I had the idea an hour ago and haven't had much time to research it.
Drilling holes into my GearVR phone cover, attaching a fan to it, and hoping it can cool my phone's CPU down.
New idea: Get a sim card from a "pay for what you use" service like Ting and turn off mobile data when I use USB tethering... Can this iteration of the Note 5 do that?
...?
On a related note, is there a more active place I can post this to? I picked this forum because it's specific to my device, but I feel like it's an issue a lot of people have.