Noob question: Wifi tethering for rooted users is completely free on sprint? can you get caught?

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

I asked a question about wifi thethering in another thread but decided i might as well make a thread myself on the subject because i have a few questions. im a rooted user running the latest stable cm10 and noticed today that there is a wifi tether part in the settings.

i was told by a user on youtube that if you have an unlimited data plan on sprint, then there is no way the carrier will know that you are using wifi tethering. is this true?

so it is impossible for sprint to know when you create a wi-fi hotspot, usb tether, or bluetooth tethering? or can they only not detect usb tethering or bluetooth?

if wifi tethering is indeed free for rooted users, i cant wait till i get my nexus 7, it will be a great help to be able to do this

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

I used about 10mbs earlier to check amazon website just to see how fast the Internet would be on my laptop

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[TCD]

Generally Sprint has not penalized rooted users at this point. If you get really carried away with it, they may bill you for tethering or terminate your contract at Sprint's discretion. can they tell? Sure they can if they want to. All they have to do is look for traffic being generated by non-Android devices or browsers.

That said I have used as much 50GB of tethered WiMax data in a month, though I average about 2-3GB tethered most often; and to date have not been billed for tethering. Now I'm just waiting to see how soon Seattle actually starts getting LTE since tethering 3G is just wrong, though I have in a few outlying areas over the past several years.

Phones I have tethered would be:
Moto Razr V3 via USB on Cingular/AT&T
Samsung Ace (Windows Mobile 6.1) via USB on Sprint
Samsung Epic 4G via WiFi/Bluetooth/USB on Sprint

Next will be my current phone, Galaxy SIII; which will be rooted and rommed this weekend.

 

[anon(94115)]

I had a small stretch on the road where I had to tether. I used 16gb or so in a week. Nothing ever came up about it. This is on verizon. From trolling the rez forums, many people do and do not hear a peep, many swear that there is no way to tell.

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

Thanks for the responses guys, I don't plan on tethering alot but I really find the ability to tether to be something that I would use in situations in which i don't have wifi for my pc

And this also allows me to purchase the regular 32gb version of the Nexus 7 instead of the 3g version, since I can just tether whenever I want

I rarely use my service at all when in out, I normally have it off, unless in checking pulse, android Central or anything, I don't even touch the 300mb marker, the most I think I've ever had was 176 or something because I usually use my phone alot only when there is wifi available

3g is awfully slow at times, especially when loading images so I rarely even bother lol


Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(94115)]

Thanks for the responses guys, I don't plan on tethering alot but I really find the ability to tether to be something that I would use in situations in which i don't have wifi for my pc

And this also allows me to purchase the regular 32gb version of the Nexus 7 instead of the 3g version, since I can just tether whenever I want

I rarely use my service at all when in out, I normally have it off, unless in checking pulse, android Central or anything, I don't even touch the 300mb marker, the most I think I've ever had was 176 or something because I usually use my phone alot only when there is wifi available

3g is awfully slow at times, especially when loading images so I rarely even bother lol


Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

That is exactly why I have it, just in case. Outside the one time I absolutely needed it (if I couldn't have tethered I would have bought a hot spot, that is how bad I needed it) I may have used it 4 other times for less than 6 mb

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

 

[gilbequick]

If you think they can't tell that you're tethering you're fooling yourself. Unless somehow it's concealed, everything that connects through to your phone is identified. Get on your computer and Wi-Fi tether through your phone and do an ip check. When I do that it shows my computer, not my phone.

Even so, I use Wi-Fi tethering fairly often. I let my daughter connect her iPod so she can watch cartoons while on a road trip or talk with family through facetime. Or I'll use it to connect my laptop to the net sometimes while we're away somewhere. I've never been flagged or anything by sprint. I'm not worried about it.

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

If you think they can't tell that you're tethering you're fooling yourself. Unless somehow it's concealed, everything that connects through to your phone is identified. Get on your computer and Wi-Fi tether through your phone and do an ip check. When I do that it shows my computer, not my phone.

Even so, I use Wi-Fi tethering fairly often. I let my daughter connect her iPod so she can watch cartoons while on a road trip or talk with family through facetime. Or I'll use it to connect my laptop to the net sometimes while we're away somewhere. I've never been flagged or anything by sprint. I'm not worried about it.

Thanks for the reply!

So it seems like everyone says use it, but don't go overboard, because you may get caught but more than likely they don't care, but they are aware



Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(94115)]

If you think they can't tell that you're tethering you're fooling yourself. Unless somehow it's concealed, everything that connects through to your phone is identified. Get on your computer and Wi-Fi tether through your phone and do an ip check. When I do that it shows my computer, not my phone.

Even so, I use Wi-Fi tethering fairly often. I let my daughter connect her iPod so she can watch cartoons while on a road trip or talk with family through facetime. Or I'll use it to connect my laptop to the net sometimes while we're away somewhere. I've never been flagged or anything by sprint. I'm not worried about it.

That is all well and good what you say. The thing is the phone requests from the network, not the computer. If I am right, the local routing table on the phone then passes the data through to the computer.

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

That is all well and good what you say. The thing is the phone requests from the network, not the computer. If I am right, the local routing table on the phone then passes the data through to the computer.

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

I guess we need skunkape in here for a correct answer on this part

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[macmov]

I have always understood that Sprint could tell if you are tethering if they suspect it. The key word is don't make them suspect you! I have been tethering with sprint ever since they took away the free tethering several years ago. I have gone through at least 5 maybe more different phones with tethering and have never had an issue with Sprint suspecting my tethering. Reason being. I DO NOT ABUSE IT!
I use it to scan and send pdf files on the road and on occasion check news or something when I want a bigger screen. I am an over the road driver and do subscribe to the truckstop wifi, but sometimes I get caught in between truck stops and have to send something, so I always have my option of tethering. I do not youtube on tether or watch movies, or download large files, anything else. I know some guys have used it allot, but for me, WHY? It's really not fast enough to be comfortable with, it's simply another option out of necessity. It's your choice how you want to use ,but I have been using for a long time the way I have and plan to continue using it just like this for a long time.

 

[Skunkape60]

I guess we need skunkape in here for a correct answer on this part

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

Lol... I really don't know the correct answer to this. However I'm in the camp that says that they can't tell what is drawing the data.

Just like my old Wi-Fi connection. It was not encrypted and while I am sure my neighbors were getting free access I couldn't prove it.

When the cable company came out to replace a bad modem, I ask him to see if my neighbors were using my connection. I was told that he couldn't tell. As he explained it to me. The Wi-Fi isn't pulled from the the router by the computer. The router was pushing the signal to anything that wanted it.

However the amount of data that is being used may be a giveaway. As I'm pretty sure that the bandwidth taken to play xbox on line is a lot more than anything I would be doing with the phone.

 

[anon(94115)]

Lol... I really don't know the correct answer to this. However I'm in the camp that says that they can't tell what is drawing the data.

Just like my old Wi-Fi connection. It was not encrypted and while I am sure my neighbors were getting free access I couldn't prove it.

When the cable company came out to replace a bad modem, I ask him to see if my neighbors were using my connection. I was told that he couldn't tell. As he explained it to me. The Wi-Fi isn't pulled from the the router by the computer. The router was pushing the signal to anything that wanted it.

However the amount of data that is being used may be a giveaway. As I'm pretty sure that the bandwidth taken to play xbox on line is more is a lot more than anything I would be doing with the phone.

This is pretty much what I was getting at. Vzw does not have access to the routing table on the phone.

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

Lol... I really don't know the correct answer to this. However I'm in the camp that says that they can't tell what is drawing the data.

Just like my old Wi-Fi connection. It was not encrypted and while I am sure my neighbors were getting free access I couldn't prove it.

When the cable company came out to replace a bad modem, I ask him to see if my neighbors were using my connection. I was told that he couldn't tell. As he explained it to me. The Wi-Fi isn't pulled from the the router by the computer. The router was pushing the signal to anything that wanted it.

However the amount of data that is being used may be a giveaway. As I'm pretty sure that the bandwidth taken to play xbox on line is a lot more than anything I would be doing with the phone.

Lmao, actually I would love to see someone wifi tether their xbox to their phone and play call of duty on it all day, I wonder how much gigs that would run up

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(94115)]

I think someone around here was trying but couldn't get it to work for some reason

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

I think someone around here was trying but couldn't get it to work for some reason

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

Ahh man, I would love to see how much data it would run up in an hour if someone got it going

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[Skunkape60]

Ahh man, I would love to see how much data it would run up in an hour if someone got it going

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

My old neighbor used his 4g hot spot for his xbox all the time.

It was his only connection and he ran his entire house on it.

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

My old neighbor used his 4g hot spot for his xbox all the time.

It was his only connection and he ran his entire house on it.

Lmaooo, that's insane

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[vapore0n]

It is actually very easy to tell if someone else was using your wifi.

Check router logs or history of mac addresses. That should say who connected, when, etc. You could even set further detailed login and see what porn they were watching.

But maybe you really dont want to know.

Can Sprint know if you are tethering? My opinion is yes. Remember the old Carrier IQ stuff?
Ive used it, but have not abused it. Thats when you get in trouble.

 

[anon(94115)]

Carrier iq had nothing to do with tethering nor where the packets were going. Nothing at all

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis