• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

The "Tether Police" Are Coming

I wanted to bump/resurrect this thread because I had a quick question. Has anyone been using tethering/Mobile AP routinely over the last couple of months on a custom ROM? And if so, have they received any tethering charge add-ons? I ask because I am looking into the Xoom or G-Slate in the coming months, and wanted to see if I should go wifi only and use my phone data where necessary or if I'm best served getting a 3g model and buying a data package with the tablet.
 
I covered this topic a while back on the XDA forums. This is after discussing this with some friends that work for AT&T AND tether themselves.
No, at&t cannot tell the difference of packets being passed on their network.

No carrier has that capability. The amount of resources needed to monitor packets in a way that is effective, at an effective rate, is basically not cost effective at this point.

The tethering notices are completely based off of data usage. It's been determined that most carriers take notice of you if you exceed 5gb. So if you manage to use over 5gb of data without tethering, you could very well receive one of these texts.

With that said, they can see packet routes. So if your already being watched, and are tethering, and happen to be using it for say...pirating, it could lead to further action. I've only heard one case of this, but still worth noting.

Also, contract prevents at&t, or any carrier for that matter, from adding tethering to your bill. Their work around for that is that if you exceed a data limit, or a fair use limit, they can and will charge you for that.

I tether causally; causally being non-data heavy lurking. I've owned a blackberry bold 9000, an iphone 3g, and now my captivate...all were made tether capable. All were used for tethering. None had received a notice.

Hope this is helps!

tl;dr- no, at&t can't tell if you're tethering.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...

It's also been said that stock ROMs have a "phone-home" system.

As far as a "phone-home" system, the only notification of tethering that would be sent to at&t would be by their own tethering app on the phone. If you happen to flash another ROM, as you've stated that you've already done so, this app should no longer be on your phone and functioning, thus unable to "phone-home."

And even then, that app wont allow tethering until it receives notice from at&t that you've purchased the package needed to do so.

Simply put, just use an app such as "wireless tether" to do your tethering and you'll be completely fine.
smile.gif
Click to expand...

Again, AT&T suddenly changing the terms of your contract is impossible WITHOUT them notifying you and atleast informing you that if you move forward with tethering, you are accepting any possible charges tied to using that service. AT&T native tethering apps do require that you accept those terms.

Using a non AT&T app such as Wireless Tether WILL NOT notify AT&T of your tethering. And as someone said previously, these apps do not pass a mac address or any other info of that sort on to AT&T.

Just thought I'd contribute.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom