WiFi Tether? Alternatives?

[DeCourseyyy]

I know there was much hype over the fact that since this is stock android, Sprint would not be able to mess with the hardware and therefore we would have free WiFi tethering.

I have seen people argue both sides of the issue, and I was wondering if anyone knew for sure if tethering is free or not.

If not, what are some good Tethering apps. I have seen mixed reviews of Pdanet, seeing as it is a trial version.

Thoughts?

 

[ratsttam]

The tethering still relies on the server side authenticating the device. So Nexus or not, Sprint is still able to charge for it. Officially it is ~$30/mo for the Tethering service.

Unofficially, you can root and run programs like "wireless tether", or "Barnacle", as well as some wired tethers such as "pda.net".

AT&T has started to ADD the tethering package to users that were tethering but not paying for it, but it is still unclear exactly how they knew, or just guessing based on raw amounts of data being consumed.
Sprint has so far bucked the trends of capping, _enforcing_ paying for tethering, having apps hidden in the marketplace, etc. So that's a good thing for us for now, and makes the best value in cell phones, even better.

I can't see paying for tethering for the occasional few minutes that I need to get on my laptop to do something that I can't do from my phone, when I'm not near a wifi access area. That said, I am rooted and run wireless tether just for those moments, but I don't download a lot of stuff either, get on, get done, get off.

 

[|-KGB-|CaptHowdy]

my question is what tethering app's run infrastructure and not ad hoc?

 

[KSmithInNY]

I don't think its a mystery how att is finding out who is tethering, i believe they are just sniffing packets. If the source of the packet is something other than android, you're tethering. Any corporation with their own infrastructure can do this and they could filter the packets really easily to help them find people who tether.

Edit- also, there is no server side authentication currently with sprint. It occurs on the device and relies on the carrier profile sent from sprint to the phone. This is why if you add tethering to your plan they make you update your phone profile before it works. That might change because of the nexus though because to force profile verification for tethering sprint would need to edit framework. Jar and I dont think Google would edit their source code for that purpose. Only time will tell

 

[DeCourseyyy]

Thanks for all the help guys, gave me a lot to think about.