Nexus 4 Wi-Fi Hotspot

[soma4society]

With the world moving to mobile though, and with faster and faster mobile processors, this distinction is getting fuzzier as people can't use data *that* much faster with a laptop than a smartphone. I can sort of understand on an unlimited data plan, but on a limited plan it's annoying -- shouldn't I be able to churn through my 2GB of high-speed access however I wish?

I'm with you in sentiment, and you may be onto something in recognizing the ever-increasing shift to mobile-only data and the affect that it may have on carrier behavior. Perhaps tethering practices will diminish in the years to come, making it less of an issue altogether. On the other hand, the carriers will usually try to monetize anything they can in the pursuit of additional revenue streams. Just look at texting as an example: they're still monetizing the heck out of that (at price points even more ludicrous than tethering), and laughing all the way to the bank in the process.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[soma4society]

thanks. yeah, that's more important now a days since I hardly ever take my laptop out if the house with me.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

There seems to be two primary ways of tracking it. Either by checking the user-agent when people visit browsers (i.e. mobile browser vs. it becoming non-mobile once its tethered), and verifying the outgoing TTL setting, which has a numerical value that changes by a factor of one when data is being routed through a secondary device. When the carrier sees that increased TTL number, they know you're tethering. If this is their method of tracking, just changing the user-agent won't cut it, and messing with TTL settings takes more fiddling around from what I understand. On a jailbroken iPad you have to have root access to mess with the TTL values... and when the device is rebooted, it defaults back to a setting that would make it possible for a carrier to track--so you have to reset it every time the machine is shut off. Not sure about that kind of access on a Nexus 7, or how it works, but I assume it's just as doable on that device with some effort.

 

[zkSharks]

thanks. yeah, that's more important now a days since I hardly ever take my laptop out if the house with me.

The answer is yes, but to a diminished capacity. Tethering a device running a desktop environment will raise more flags than would tethering a device running another installation of Android.

 

[qreepii]

I've been tethering my 7 through my 4 fairly regularly on tmo. However I've not been using a ton of data. Just like anything with a telco keeping a small footprint in what you're up to will keep you out of the cross hairs. Some side of their detection is automated. So I would expect they only perk their ears up when you hit a particular limit or metric that sets off thier attention to you.

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[Jeremy8000]

After staying in good operating condition for far long than I might have liked, my G2x finally took a (honestly unintentional) fall on my driveway and shattered the gorilla glass - while leaving the underlying LCD still operational -- allowing me the excuse to look for a new phone. I'm leaning very strongly towards the Nexus 4 (I liked the near-vanilla experience of the G2x, and LOVE the purity of the N7), but have a question about the Wi-Fi Hotspot feature.

On my G2x, the hotspot automatically turns off after a user-configurable period of 'idle' activity which can be set at a maximum of 15 minutes. Unfortunately, some 'light' but active usage I'll run on my tablet or laptop will be construed by the phone as 'idle' and cause it to disconnect. If the N4 has a similar timeout set, can it be disabled (without rooting/unlocking)? Also, how bad of a battery hog is the N4 when used as a hotspot?

Thanks in advance!

 

[skiptomylou]

Well holy crap, after blocking HTTPS across my tethering connection, T-Mobile just blocked embedded youtube videos -- from my phone, not from a tethered device. Don't get on their anti-tethering radar, they'll start hounding you. Jerks. (Not jerks exactly -- they just need to figure out how to block tethering accurately if they're choosing that stingy path.)

 

[skiptomylou]

totally agree; made no sense to me either but it's what they're doing. google.com is https, so I can't even do a google search from a tethered device. I decided they don't want to block me completely, they just want to annoy the crap out of me.

oh, hahahaha -- I think this may not have been tmobile, but that I was using the free version of PDA-net which apparently blocks https traffic. aaaah.

 

[aecl755]

Can't we just use encrypted everything from the connected device, or does the website have to support it? If so, maybe that's why they're blocking https?

 

[KitN]

I've tethered over 4.6GBs of cellular data using WiFi hotspot this month. Hehe! Works like a charm and TMO hasn't blocked me or throttled me.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

[minnemike]

I've tethered over 4.6GBs of cellular data using WiFi hotspot this month. Hehe! Works like a charm and TMO hasn't blocked me or throttled me.

Sent from my Nexus 4

Details?

Laptop or tablet? Any user agent ID manipulations or stock?

 

[KitN]

Details?

Laptop or tablet? Any user agent ID manipulations or stock?

Mostly tablet (Nexus 7) but I have connected my laptop as well and browsed the Internets.

TMO hasn't throttled me or sent me any warnings or anything. I'm on the Monthly 4G $30 100/min/Unlimited Text/Unlimited Data plan.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

[minnemike]

Mostly tablet (Nexus 7) but I have connected my laptop as well and browsed the Internets.

TMO hasn't throttled me or sent me any warnings or anything. I'm on the Monthly 4G $30 100/min/Unlimited Text/Unlimited Data plan.

Sent from my Nexus 4

Yeah - I think you might be in the clear with the N7 indefinitely, but if you use the laptop a bit too much you might actually trigger something eventually - unless of course you go with the fake user agent ID plug in for firefox or similar strategy/theory.

 

[skiptomylou]

Got the N4, added as my TMobile phone, used the Wifi Hotspot, and was blocked within a couple days. The phone said I'd used something like 100MB but I think it was including other traffic so the total was probably less than that; it was just a few hours of regularly web surfing over two days. This is an unlocked N4 bought from Google, no special TMobile software on it. I would already have been on their radar so that probably sped things up.

 

[minnemike]

Just an update.... chrome also has a user agent string plug in called "User-Agent Switcher for Chrome" which allows you to change it for anything running chrome. So, for the N4 it looks something like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.2.1; Nexus 4 Build/JOP22F) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Mobile Safari/535.19

For a Nexus 7:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.1.1; Nexus 7 Build/JRO03D) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Safari/535.19

pc running IE8:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1)

So you get the idea. YOur carrier could be simply checking your string randomly searching with certain keywords that raise the flag. Best strategy would be to mimic your N4 string exactly.

You can find yours here:

Whats My User Agent?

It's kinda fun playing around with it. CHange your string and then see how some web pages treat your browser differently when they think you are a phone or any other device.

 

[kmcochran]

Noob question, but where is the WiFi Hotspot? Is there an app for it (I don't see one) or is it under WiFi settings, and if so, where? I'd like to try it with my tablet.

 

[gone down south]

Noob question, but where is the WiFi Hotspot? Is there an app for it (I don't see one) or is it under WiFi settings, and if so, where? I'd like to try it with my tablet.

On the N4 it's Settings - More - Tethering.



Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[deichenlaub]

Bottom line -- if you agree to a contract that excludes tethering, it's hard to argue with a company enforcing the provision. What we need is a little more competition to get more options.

 

[skiptomylou]

Bottom line -- if you agree to a contract that excludes tethering, it's hard to argue with a company enforcing the provision. What we need is a little more competition to get more options.

well.. yeah sort of, but it's like health insurance where you don't find this stuff out until you've signed the contract. they originally touted my phone as providing wifi but didn't say "..at an extra cost".

 

[Emma Traficante]

How do you set it up? I'm not tech savy but I have a LG Google Nexus 4 and I would love to use it as a hotspot for my laptop while I'm travelling. I have the cord too.

 

[gtt1]

How do you set it up? I'm not tech savy but I have a LG Google Nexus 4 and I would love to use it as a hotspot for my laptop while I'm travelling. I have the cord too.

It is fairly simple. Of course you need a data plan such as the T-Mo $30. 5gb Walmart deal. Go to settingstouch More.. just under Data Usage and then you will see "tethering and portable hotspot" click and then click on Setup Wifi hotspot. Set up your network and then be sure to check the Portable wifi Hotspot box.