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Root Boost is threatening to terminate my account for tethering!!!!

MisterParadox

MisterParadox

Well-Known Member
I have just received a txt message from 266781 which said that I am violating data terms and conditions. It included a link http://msg4u.us/apde which cited the terms and conditions that I am violating. My question is, what can I do about this short of stopping tethering? I do not have extra money for Internet service providers so I have been using my phone. Would it help if I only used it late a night? Is there a way to "mask" my data usage as being simply used by my phone? How do they even "know" I am tethering to begin with? I understand that because of my prolonged usage of tethering that they are fairly certain that I am.....is there anything that I can I do (changing back to a Sprint PRL since I am currently using Boosts 61009)? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Well, from My own experiences and reading about other ones, there are only a few people who got this "Tether-msg"......

I do a lot of tethering, but I don't download lot's of things........ If you of course download movies and music, the data usage gets out of hand and they sure know you're tethering....

You also may wanna change your "User Agent String" on the browser you are using..... For IE8 or 9.x just search Google for "User Agent String Switcher" and once you see how to switch the string, use this one for the Prevail on Boost:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.6; en-us; SPH-M820-BST Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

Now you need to be aware, that you probably won't have all the web site features available anymore after switching since IE8 or 9 will act and display web sites like a Mobile Browser on your phone. But at least you should be able to browse, without Boost knowing. But if you download a lot, there is almost no way to prevent Boost from knowing !!!
 
vce2005 said:
Well, from My own experiences and reading about other ones, there are only a few people who got this "Tether-msg"......

I do a lot of tethering, but I don't download lot's of things........ If you of course download movies and music, the data usage gets out of hand and they sure know you're tethering....

You also may wanna change your "User Agent String" on the browser you are using..... For IE8 or 9.x just search Google for "User Agent String Switcher" and once you see how to switch the string, use this one for the Prevail on Boost:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.6; en-us; SPH-M820-BST Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

Now you need to be aware, that you probably won't have all the web site features available anymore after switching since IE8 or 9 will act and display web sites like a Mobile Browser on your phone. But at least you should be able to browse, without Boost knowing. But if you download a lot, there is almost no way to prevent Boost from knowing !!!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I will try doing that. Let me make sure I understand what you are suggesting....I should modify my browser(s) to surf the net via a mobile outfitted browser that will seem to show Boost that I am doing this via my Phone instead of tethering and browsing via another computer? Will that work with Opera or should I only do it for Internet Explorer?
 
I have no idea if this will work with Opera. You need to search if you can change the user agent string on Opera. I have a little program which does that for IE ( 32-bit version )..... It's called either "User Agent String Switcher or UAPick" ! Maybe there is something similar for Opera or other browsers..... I just use IE 32-bit as my "Tether Browser" and use IE 64-bit as my normal browser when I am on a home or WiFi connection.

And yes, if you change the User Agent String, boost ( or any other provider ) will think you browse from your phone ! But as I said, somne web page option you have without changing the string, you won't have after the change, just try it out and see how it works......... but that doesn't effect the amount of data if you download........
 
MisterParadox said:
Thanks. I will try doing that. Let me make sure I understand what you are suggesting....I should modify my browser(s) to surf the net via a mobile outfitted browser that will seem to show Boost that I am doing this via my Phone instead of tethering and browsing via another computer? Will that work with Opera or should I only do it for Internet Explorer?
Click to expand...

Something I've learned with tethering the last 6 months, using fox fire as your browser rather than ie and tethering through usb downs the data rates significantly

Sent From My HTC Evo 3D Using TapaTalk 2
 
One thing I've been wondering... Are those getting the tether violation warning visiting sites on the pc that they don't normally visit on the phone? Or sites that can't be accessed from the phone maybe?

I don't think it's the user agent because there are plenty of browsers that allow you to switch to 'desktop mode'.

I have used tether since it before infrastructure mode was made available, but i rarely visit sites that I'm don't frequently visit on my phone.

Another thing, that link also talks about 'excessive data use'. Is it possible that's what it's referring to? Does the text specifically state 'tether violation'?
 
Well, usually, I don't browse much on my phone at all..... maybe CNN for news, or Yahoo..... if I tether I go to all the sites I normally go with my desktop browser, however, I use my 32-bit IE, on which I changed the string....... I just don't download while I am tethering, that's all.....

PS : LV, if you say there are browser that let you switch to desktop mode, do you mean "mobile browsers for the phone " ? Well, when changing user agent string on your desktop browser, then the browser returns this string, which shows that you are browsing on your phone....... ( otherwise, the string returns a IE Desktop value, and than the provider knows for sure you are tethering )
 
vce2005 said:
PS : LV, if you say there are browser that let you switch to desktop mode, do you mean "mobile browsers for the phone " ? Well, when changing user agent string on your desktop browser, then the browser returns this string, which shows that you are browsing on your phone....... ( otherwise, the string returns a IE Desktop value, and than the provider knows for sure you are tethering )
Click to expand...

Yea, i meant browsers on the phone that allow you to view sites 'normally' (not 'mobile view')
Dolphin immediately comes to mind

But i see what you're saying... (I just use Firefox, on the pc, as is... No warning yet. *knocks on wood*)
 
MisterParadox said:
Thanks. I will try doing that. Let me make sure I understand what you are suggesting....I should modify my browser(s) to surf the net via a mobile outfitted browser that will seem to show Boost that I am doing this via my Phone instead of tethering and browsing via another computer? Will that work with Opera or should I only do it for Internet Explorer?
Click to expand...

For Opera Desktop :


I searched around, but it seems like you can only select pre-defined User Agent Strings, not a custom one !!!
 
Lordvincent 90 said:
One thing I've been wondering... Are this getting the tether violation warning visiting sites on the pc that they don't normally visit on the phone? Or sites that can't be accessed from the phone maybe?

I don't think it's the user agent because there are plenty of browsers that allow you to switch to 'desktop mode'.

I have used tether since it before infrastructure mode was made available, but i rarely visit sites that I'm don't frequently visit on my phone.

Another thing, that link also talks about 'excessive data use'. Is it possible that's what it's referring to? Does the text specifically state 'tether violation'?
Click to expand...

The first line in the link I provided says this:

"Our web and data services do not allow you to use your phone as a modem for computers or other equipment as described in the Boost Mobile Terms and Conditions....."

Seems as if they KNOW what I am doing here referencing to "using your phone as a modem."
 
IM just gonna say. LIMIT YOUR DATA USAGE!
I do this too.
And i go one websites with lots of porn on mobile and on the PC. I go to lots of things that i don't do on my mobile and i play lots of data draining games on my PC. And i download porn all the time. I still not have gotten a The Call Of The Wild.
Limit your usage.
Don't complain Co evolve.
Just keep steady, if they find hesitation they can go ahead and cut it off.
Slowly start limiting less data.
And good luck.
 
Hmmm, I've used my phone to tether and downloaded some nice size files and such. (2gigs+) I have never received any warning though. Then again, I don't use excessive amount of data on a frequent basis either. Some months I may use 4 or 6 gigs where as other months I won't even break 2gigs. Most months I stay below 2 because I use cable when I'm at the house and only tether when the internet is down or I go where there is no wifi signal.

I also use Firefox as my desktop browser.

I have a feeling that the majority of the people getting these warnings are downloading massive amounts of data on a monthly basis.
 
I was without home internet for about the 1st 6months I had the prevail and I used tethering often on the pc and tablet. But when I would download movies and music, I found it best to download it with my phone, since tethering speed was slower than the phones speed. I never got the warning text from Boost, so you may want to try that.

Another thing that has been pointed out on these forums is be careful how much tethering you do with a Xbox or PS3, since Boost knows you cant use XBL or the PSN on your phone. Thats a sure fire way of getting caught.

I am curious if I will get the warning message from Boost now because I have been using the TuneIn app at work for 40hrs a week the past 2months. I should get an app to see my data usage, as Im sure that has to translate into a few gigs a month alone.
 
VoltronMaximus said:
I was without home internet for about the 1st 6months I had the prevail and I used tethering often on the pc and tablet. But when I would download movies and music, I found it best to download it with my phone, since tethering speed was slower than the phones speed. I never got the warning text from Boost, so you may want to try that.

Another thing that has been pointed out on these forums is be careful how much tethering you do with a Xbox or PS3, since Boost knows you cant use XBL or the PSN on your phone. Thats a sure fire way of getting caught.

I am curious if I will get the warning message from Boost now because I have been using the TuneIn app at work for 40hrs a week the past 2months. I should get an app to see my data usage, as Im sure that has to translate into a few gigs a month alone.
Click to expand...

I do not have a PS3 nor XBOX....I am PC gamer....but even when I was tethering, the connection wouldn't be enough for that so I didn't even attempt that.

My original post asked many questions....but I am mainly curious about the PRL question......does it matter if I were to switch BACK to a Sprint PRL (12123 etc) from a Boost PRL (61009)?
 
MisterParadox said:
I do not have a PS3 nor XBOX....I am PC gamer....but even when I was tethering, the connection wouldn't be enough for that so I didn't even attempt that.

My original post asked many questions....but I am mainly curious about the PRL question......does it matter if I were to switch BACK to a Sprint PRL (12123 etc) from a Boost PRL (61009)?
Click to expand...


It has never made a difference for me. I've tethered with both Sprint & Boost prl's. I actually ran a Sprint prl for months and months. Since they've done tower work in my area, I get great signal with the newest Boost prl now so that is what I use.
 
A friend that knows more WAY about network stuff than I do told me something like... the data packets contain encapsulated data identifying the originating device (ie. the one that is tethered)... maybe he said it is the MAC id. So, his thought was that unless the data in each packet was updated to remove the reference to the tethered device, that it would be rather simple for the carrier to identify.

Could be worth investigating that to see if I understood that correctly.
 
The trick is not to download alot of data when you're tethered. If you do download a good bit of data, don't do it on a regular basis.

If you're gonna tether, be smart when you do it. If you abuse it on a regular basis then you're gonna get caught eventually.
 
wetbiker7 said:
The trick is not to download alot of data when you're tethered. If you do download a good bit of data, don't do it on a regular basis.

If you're gonna tether, be smart when you do it. If you abuse it on a regular basis then you're gonna get caught eventually.
Click to expand...

Aka don't download too much porn on your PC!
Just use the damn phone!
 
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