Why do people still believe the only way to tether is by rooting?

[Cretz]

Ive seen several comments lately of people saying how they are rooted and can tether, implying that you need to be rooted to tether. If your smartphone is 2.2 froyo android comes with it built in. As far as being charged by your carrier, for Tmobile you will only be prompted to add a $15/mo tethering/hotspot plan after 5GB of data, and there are ways around this (change your browser user account). Google has even stated they put nothing in the code to allow carriers to directly control tethering, and they have to outright remove the feature...in which case yea, you'd have to root to run a tethering app.

 

[ls377]

The problem is, most of them do outright remove it, or figure out how to route it through the carrier. They would have to add a tethering plan to use it without rooting, and most people don't want to pay an extra $15-20 to use the data they already paid for.

 

[Debian Dog]

Because you are going to want to root anyway? Bloat, adware, etc...

 

[Cretz]

The problem is, most of them do outright remove it, or figure out how to route it through the carrier. They would have to add a tethering plan to use it without rooting, and most people don't want to pay an extra $15-20 to use the data they already paid for.

Which carriers in the US do that??

 

[Cretz]

Because you are going to want to root anyway? Bloat, adware, etc...

I have a G2 (no bloat/adware) and am rooted, but I still use the default tether. So your reason to use a 3rd party tethering app is just because?

 

[srkmagnus]

Which carriers in the US do that??

You mean charging the extra $15-$20 for a tethering plan? The big four do; Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Why pay an extra fee if you are already getting data, in most cases unlimited, included with the services provided by the contract?

 

[Cretz]

You mean charging the extra $15-$20 for a tethering plan? The big four do; Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Why pay an extra fee if you are already getting data, in most cases unlimited, included with the services provided by the contract?

I have Tmobile, tether, and dno't pay an extra $15. Tmobile does charge but you can avoid being charged pretty easil it seems.

 

[srkmagnus]

I have a G2 (no bloat/adware) and am rooted, but I still use the default tether. So your reason to use a 3rd party tethering app is just because?

Which ROM are you using? It's not available for all phones, and if it is, usually will not connect if the services are not enabled by the carrier. Rooting and custom ROMs can bypass all that.

 

[Cretz]

Which ROM are you using? It's not available for all phones, and if it is, usually will not connect if the services are not enabled by the carrier. Rooting and custom ROMs can bypass all that.

Oh, I'm on CM6.1.1. I didn't consider Cyanogen replacing the default tether/hotspot feature to bypass any tmobile tampering (if any exists).

 

[ls377]

I have a G2 (no bloat/adware) and am rooted, but I still use the default tether. So your reason to use a 3rd party tethering app is just because?

There's bloatware on there. Anything that's not essential to the operation of the phone is bloatware.

You mean charging the extra $15-$20 for a tethering plan? The big four do; Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Why pay an extra fee if you are already getting data, in most cases unlimited, included with the services provided by the contract?

Or on AT&T, where you're paying for a fixed amount of data. If I pay for 2GB, it shouldn't matter how I use it.

I have Tmobile, tether, and dno't pay an extra $15. Tmobile does charge but you can avoid being charged pretty easil it seems.

How are you avoiding it? I know Verizon and Sprint have their own service (I think the take out tethering and re-add it with their blocks) and AT&T takes it out altogether.

 

[ls377]

Oh, I'm on CM6.1.1. I didn't consider Cyanogen replacing the default tether/hotspot feature to bypass any tmobile tampering (if any exists).

Yeah, CM replaces everything. If you went back to stock, you would have to pay for tethering.

 

[srkmagnus]

I though you were using a ROM Yeah, I'm pretty sure you are bypassing the fee by using CM. A quick look around the web indicates that people were getting WiFi for free for a while then were prompted a monthly fee/add-on requirement to enable the feature for the G2 when T-Mobile pushed an update to enable the hotspot feature.

I think tethering can still be done for free, without rooting, by using PDANet and a wired connection to the tethered device.

 

[Cretz]

There's bloatware on there. Anything that's not essential to the operation of the phone is bloatware..

By your definition, Market, Maps, Phone, etc. are bloatware since they are not essential to the operation of the phone.

 

[ls377]

By your definition, Market, Maps, Phone, etc. are bloatware since they are not essential to the operation of the phone.

I meant to say except the Google apps (some of them are still bloat-ish, since you can get most of them in the market). Although you can't convince me that the PHONE app isn't essential to the operation of the PHONE.

 

[Debian Dog]

I have a G2 (no bloat/adware) and am rooted, but I still use the default tether. So your reason to use a 3rd party tethering app is just because?

Well I root, now, because I can ROM but it all started because of bloat on the phone. On a Droid X there is:

• Amazon Mp3
• City ID
• Skype
• MyVerizon
• CarDock
• Kindle
• Blockbuster
• NFS (you can actually delete this without root or anything just a regular app)
• Verizon Visual Voicemail (if you remove this it WILL disable the Voicemail button on your dialer)
• HelpCenter
• 3G Mobile Hotspot (mynet.apk)
• News
• News and Weather
• Weather
• Android Live Wallpapers
• eMail and Gmail (if you use another mail program like K9)
• Social Networking (If you do not use the internal Facebook, etc found in accounts)
• VZ Navigator
• Print to Retail

I actually use PDAnet to tether which does not require root

 

[Cretz]

I meant to say except the Google apps (some of them are still bloat-ish, since you can get most of them in the market). Although you can't convince me that the PHONE app isn't essential to the operation of the PHONE.

The android OS would still function and be operational if it were removed. Look at tablets.

 

[ls377]

The android OS would still function and be operational if it were removed. Look at tablets.

The OS might function, but you can't use it for its primary function, which IMO is essential.

 

[Cretz]

The OS might function, but you can't use it for its primary function, which IMO opinion is essential.

You said opinion twice.

 

[ls377]

You said opinion twice.

My bad.

 

[greydarrah]

Sounds like the OP doesn't want to root...that's cool, don't do it. Others like the deeper level of control over the device they paid for, so they root...that's cool too.

We call this, get ready for it, here it comes...choice.

Do whatever you want to your phone and don't waste other's time trying to convince them it's what they should do as well.